Privacy Policy

SimpleBookshelf doesn't have user accounts, doesn't collect analytics, and doesn't send your reading data anywhere we control. Your books, quotes, notes, and daily page logs live on your iPhone (and, if you turn on iCloud sync, in your own private iCloud account). That's it.

• On your device. Every book you add, every quote and note you save, and every reading entry you log is written to your iPhone's local database. We never see it.
• In your iCloud (optional). If you've turned on iCloud sync in the app's Settings, your data is also written to your private iCloud container — accessible only to you, on devices signed into the same Apple ID. Apple operates this storage; SimpleBookshelf never has access.
• Nowhere else. There are no SimpleBookshelf servers that hold your reading data. There is no account to create. We do not have a copy of your library.

• No analytics, telemetry, or crash reporting that identifies you.
• No advertising identifiers (IDFA).
• No tracking across other apps or websites.
• No email address, name, or other personal identifiers.
• No location data.

SimpleBookshelf uses one external service for one purpose:

• Open Library. When you search for a book or scan a barcode, the app sends the query (the text you typed, or the ISBN from the barcode) to openlibrary.org to get the title, author, cover image, and page count. Open Library, operated by the Internet Archive, has its own privacy policy. We send only what's needed to perform the search.

Cover images you see in the app are loaded directly from Open Library's image hosting. We don't host them.

The barcode scanner uses your iPhone's camera only while you have the scanner open. Images are processed on your device by Apple's Vision framework to read the barcode — the photos themselves are never stored, transmitted, or sent to us.

SimpleBookshelf is rated for general audiences and doesn't knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children. There is no sign-up, no profile, and nothing to harvest.

To delete everything: delete the app from your iPhone. To remove the iCloud copy as well, sign into iCloud.com → Settings → Manage Storage → SimpleBookshelf → Delete Documents and Data.

You can export your whole library as a CSV at any time from Settings → Data → Export book list. We believe your data is yours — if you decide to move to another tracker, you should be able to take it with you.

If we change anything here, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top. Material changes will be called out in-app.

Questions? Reach me through the contact page.