Privacy Policy

Effective September 24, 2026

The short version: your library lives on your device. If you choose to sign in and use Shelfd's social features, a copy of your book list is kept on our server so that the friends you pick can see it. Books you mark private are never shown to anyone but you. There are no analytics, no ads, and nothing is ever sold or shared with advertisers. If you never sign in, nothing about you leaves your phone, exactly as before.

Who we are

Shelfd is a book-tracking app for iOS, created and published by Zachary Selburg. This policy explains what information the app handles, where it goes, and the choices you have.

Two ways to use Shelfd

Shelfd works fully without an account. Everything below under "What stays on your device" applies to everyone. The sections after that apply only if you tap Sign in with Apple inside the app to turn on friends, activity, and book clubs. Signing in is optional, and you can delete your account at any time from inside the app.

What stays on your device

Whether or not you sign in, the following is stored on your device and is not sent to us:

Your display name, and any email address you typed during onboarding
Your birthday, if you share it (used only for fun in-app stats)
Your profile photo
Your reading logs, streaks, reading goals, achievements, custom shelves and lists, and preferences

You can still back up your library to a file, or to your own iCloud account. Those backups are yours and never pass through us.

If you sign in: what we store and why

When you sign in with Apple, we create an account for you on our server and store:

A sign-in identifier from Apple, so we can recognise you next time. Apple also offers to share your name and email; you may hide your email, in which case Apple gives us a private relay address instead. We do not send marketing email to either.
Your username, which is how friends find you.
Your book list: each book's title, author, cover, ISBN, reading status (want to read, reading, finished, and so on), rating, start and finish dates, and whether you marked it private.
Your friend connections: requests you send and accept, and people you block.
Reading activity such as "started", "finished", or "rated" a book, so friends can see it in their feed.
Book clubs you create or join, and the comments you post in them.
Whether your Shelfd Premium subscription is active, verified from the receipt Apple issues, so premium features work correctly. We never see payment details.
Reports you file about other people's content, and reports filed about yours.

We store this only to make the social features work. We do not use it for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not share it with anyone except the service providers named below who host it for us.

Private books

Every book has a private switch. A private book is still stored on our server so it stays in your own library, but it is never shown to friends, never appears in anyone's activity feed, and never counts toward "you both read this". This rule is enforced by the server itself, not just hidden in the app. There is also a switch to make your entire library private.

Who can see what

Nobody who is not signed in can see anything.
People who are not your friends can find you by exact username and send a friend request. That is all they can see.
Accepted friends can see your non-private books, your reading activity, and things you have in common.
Members of a book club can see each other's comments in that club.
Someone you block sees nothing of yours, cannot send you requests, and cannot see your comments.

Shelfd has no public profiles and no search engine indexing.

Where your data is kept

Our server is hosted by Supabase, Inc. in a data centre in the United States, and is protected by industry-standard encryption in transit and at rest. Book lookups are routed through a small caching service we run on Cloudflare, which stores only book data (titles, authors, covers), never anything about you. These providers process data on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

What the app sends over the internet

Looking up a book by title or barcode sends your search terms or the book's ISBN to our caching service and, when needed, on to public book-data services (Google Books and Open Library), and fetches cover images from their servers. These requests do not include your name, account, or any personal information. The services' own privacy policies govern how they handle requests made to them.

Purchases

Shelfd Premium is an optional subscription sold through Apple. Apple handles the entire transaction; we never see your card number, billing address, or payment details. If you have signed in, the app sends Apple's signed receipt to our server so the server can confirm your subscription is active. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time in your iPhone's Settings, under your Apple Account. Refunds are handled by Apple.

Community rules and moderation

You can report any comment or person from inside the app, and you can block anyone. We review reports and may remove content or suspend accounts that are abusive, harassing, or otherwise break the rules. If your account is suspended, your data is kept so you can still request its deletion.

The Shelfd website

This website (joinshelfd.com) is separate from the app. If you join a waitlist or mailing list here, the email address you enter is handled by our email provider, MailerLite, so we can write to you about launches and updates. That is the only personal information the website collects, it is used only to email you, and you can unsubscribe at any time from any message we send.

What we don't do

No analytics or usage tracking in the app
No advertising, and no ad networks
No selling, renting, or sharing of your data with anyone for their own use
No third-party tracking SDKs of any kind in the app
No public profiles, and no data visible to people you have not accepted as friends

Deleting your account and data

Inside the app, go to Profile and choose Delete my account. This permanently erases your server account: your book list, friendships, activity, club memberships, and every comment you posted. It takes effect immediately and cannot be undone. Your library on your phone is not affected; it stays yours. If you have never signed in, there is nothing on our server to delete, and removing the app removes everything.

You can also write to us to request a copy of your server data or its deletion, and we will act on it within 30 days.

How long we keep it

For as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, everything is erased at once. Reports may be kept for up to 90 days afterward, without your account attached, so that abuse can still be investigated.

Children

Shelfd is not directed at children under 13, and the social features require you to be 13 or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has created an account, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If Shelfd's data practices change, this policy will be updated before those changes take effect, with the new effective date shown at the top. Significant changes will also be announced inside the app.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Write to us at privacy@joinshelfd.com.

"Every reader leaves a trail." — You choose who sees yours.