shelfish Privacy Policy

The document was generated with claude4.0, a tool from Anthropic, but was reviewed by me, James Kelly, the creator of shelfish. This part was hand-written by me:

I deeply care about privacy and we will only collect names for payment and leaderboard purposes. The leaderboard is opt-in. You can opt-out at any time. We do not share your pictures, though may open that up for opt-in at some time if users request it. We do keep the pictures and associated labels for model training purposes. Please be careful about what you scan. If you unintentionally scan something you do not want to share, please email us and we will delete it. We do not share your email with anyone except for the leaderboard and payment processing. We do not share your detailed book data with anyone, though may open that up for opt-in at some time if users request it. We do not and will never collect data outside of the direct data shared by the user in the app.

This privacy policy describes how shelfish ("we," "our," or "us") collects, uses, and protects your information when you use our mobile application.

Information We Collect

Account Information

• Email Address: Required for account creation and authentication
• Password: Securely encrypted and stored through Firebase Authentication

Library Data

• Book Information: Titles, authors, and classifications you add to your library
• Book Cover Images: Photos you take or select for your books
• Shelf Organization: How you organize your book collection
• Scan History: Records of when you use the book scanning feature (for usage quota management)

Optional Data

• Leaderboard Participation: Your book count and email (only if you opt-in to the leaderboard feature)
• App Preferences: Theme choices and other personalization settings

How We Use Your Information

• Account Management: To create and maintain your account
• Sync Your Library: To store and sync your book collection across your devices
• Book Scanning: To process images using AI for book title recognition
• Usage Management: To track scanning quota and prevent abuse
• Book Data Enhancement: To automatically fetch additional book information from public APIs
• Optional Features: To provide leaderboard functionality if you choose to participate

Third-Party Services

shelfish uses the following third-party services to provide functionality:

Firebase (Google)

• Purpose: Authentication, data storage, and cloud synchronization
• Data Shared: Account information, library data, and app usage
• Privacy Policy: Google Privacy Policy

Firebase Vertex AI

• Purpose: AI-powered book title recognition from photos
• Data Shared: Images you scan (processed temporarily for text recognition)
• Note: Images are not stored permanently by this service

Open Library API

• Purpose: To automatically fetch book metadata and classifications
• Data Shared: Book titles and authors for lookup purposes
• Privacy Policy: Internet Archive Privacy Policy

Data Security

We take data security seriously:

• All data is encrypted in transit and at rest
• Authentication is handled securely through Firebase
• Access to your data is restricted to necessary app functions only
• We do not store or have access to your account passwords

Your Privacy Rights

Data Access and Control

• Access: You can view all your data within the app
• Edit: You can modify or delete any book information
• Export: Your library data is accessible through the app interface
• Account Deletion: Contact us to delete your account and all associated data

Leaderboard Opt-Out

You can opt out of leaderboard participation at any time through the app settings. This will immediately remove your data from public leaderboards.

Data Retention

• Active Accounts: Data is retained while your account is active
• Inactive Accounts: Accounts may be deleted after extended periods of inactivity
• Scan Images: Temporary processing images are automatically deleted after processing
• Cache Data: Temporary API response cache is automatically cleaned up periodically

Children's Privacy

shelfish is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify users of any material changes by updating the "Last Updated" date below and, when appropriate, through the app or via email.