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Your Data, In Plain English

No legal jargon. Just straight answers about your privacy.

📚 What We Collect

  • Your ratings: The books you rate 1-5 stars
  • Your email: So you can log in and get recommendations
  • Your preferences: Books you mark as "not interested" or "overhyped"
  • Usage data: What books you search for and click on (to make the app better)

✅ How We Use It

  • Match you with your tribe: We find readers who rate books like you do
  • Give you recommendations: Show you books your tribe loved
  • Send weekly picks: Email you new recommendations (only if you want)
  • Improve the app: Figure out what works and what doesn't

🔒 Who Can See Your Stuff

  • PublicYour individual book ratings: Visible to anyone who visits your profile page. There is currently no way to hide them.
  • PublicYour display name, avatar, and aggregate stats: Always shown on your profile page.
  • PrivateYour reading status (want to read, currently reading, finished, did not finish): Never shown to other users.
  • PrivateYour reading tribe: Your closest taste matches are anonymized even to you — no one, including you, can see the identities of the people in your tribe.
  • PublicCustom book lists: Public by default when created; you can switch a list to private.
  • PublicTop 10 lists: Always public. There is currently no way to make a Top 10 private.
  • Anyone with the linkTaste comparisons and picker rooms: Anyone with the link can view them — they are not restricted to the people who created or joined them.
  • PublicForum posts: Visible to everyone.

🚫 What We DON'T Do

  • We DON'T sell your data — Ever. To anyone.
  • We DON'T share your email — No spam, no marketers.
  • We DON'T take money for recommendations — All recommendations are based on your tribe's taste, not paid placements.
  • We DON'T track you across the web — We only see what you do on BookTribes.

🛠️ Services We Use

To run BookTribes, we use these trusted services (they all have strict privacy policies):

  • Vercel: Hosts the website
  • PostgreSQL: Stores your ratings securely
  • Upstash Redis: Makes the app faster (caching)
  • Resend: Sends you emails (weekly picks, password resets)
  • Google Books API: Where we get book info (titles, covers, descriptions)

💪 Your Rights

  • See your data: Go to your profile to see all your ratings
  • Download your data: Export your ratings, reading statuses, and lists as JSON anytime from your account settings
  • Delete your account: Remove your account and all your ratings yourself, at any time, from your account settings — or visit our Feedback & Support if you'd rather we do it for you
  • Stop emails: Click "unsubscribe" in any email
  • See what's public: Read the full privacy policy for exactly what other users can see about you

❓ Questions?

For questions, feature requests, or bug reports, visit our Feedback & Support.

For privacy-related concerns or data deletion requests:

privacy@booktribes.app

We'll respond within 48 hours.

Related: Terms of Service · Privacy Policy (Full Legal Version)