The short version
- We do not sell personal information.
- We do not run advertising or track you across other apps or sites.
- Your shelves, ratings, notes, and reading history are stored on your device by default.
- Book lookups go to the Collected API so the app can return current metadata.
- Security and abuse controls use a pseudonymous app-installation credential.
- Apple handles payment details; we retain only the subscription records needed to provide and restore Plus.
Information the iPhone app handles
Your library and notes
Books you save, reading status, ratings, favorites, notes, and other personal reading activity are kept in the app's local storage by default. No reader account is required. With iCloud Backup enabled for Collected, Apple can include the library and saved covers in your iPhone backup. You can transfer or restore that device backup when moving phones. This is not live library synchronization, and Collected cannot verify that your latest device backup succeeded.
Shared shelves
When you choose to share a shelf from the app, Collected saves the selected titles and authors, available public cover links, book descriptions and Reader Intel, plus the shelf heading and any name or introduction you enter. Anyone with the resulting link can view and forward it without an account. Star ratings are included when you choose to show them. Reviews are shared only if you turn on “Include my reviews.” Private notes and reading history are not included. The saved shelf is a snapshot; editing your library does not change it. New shelves can be edited or unpublished from Shared shelves on the device that created them. Unpublishing stops public access; the saved snapshot remains so you can publish it again. The app keeps a private editing key with your saved shelf. It is not part of the public link and is not synced through a Collected account. Older links do not have an editing key. For removal requests, contact us through the support page with the shelf link. Shared shelves are not listed in a public directory and ask search engines not to index them. Cover images load from Apple Books or Open Library. Short-lived, day-specific hashes of network addresses limit abusive uploads; raw addresses are not stored in shelf records. The simple web builder continues to store its title-and-author list in the link itself rather than uploading it.
Book requests
When the app searches, resolves, or refreshes a book, it sends the minimum useful lookup information to our API, such as an ISBN, title, author, or Collected work identifier. Those values are used to answer the request. The API usage meter is designed not to retain search terms, book identifiers, request bodies, IP addresses, or user-agent strings.
Recommendations
Before your first Ask request, the app asks for permission to share your request and selected reading context with Collected's API and OpenAI to generate recommendations. This includes your prompt, filters, selected book titles and ratings, aggregate reading signals, and identifiers, titles and authors from your library and inbox to avoid recommending books you already know. Sharing note and review excerpts is optional and off by default. If you enable it, Ask can include up to six excerpts of 200 characters each from notes, reviews, takeaways or reasons you stopped a book. A short entry can be included in full. Your typed request is always sent, so leave out anything you want to keep private. You can change these choices or turn off Ask sharing in Settings. Turning it off stops new requests; already-sent requests may finish and saved recommendations remain available. Dismissing the permission screen sends no recommendation request and uses no Ask allowance.
To finish a request even if you leave the app, Collected temporarily stores the request in a private job queue tied to your app installation. The input is cleared when the job completes or fails. Completed results are available for recovery for seven days and are cleared during subsequent job cleanup. A small request identifier is retained to prevent duplicate processing. Request bodies and results are not written to the separate API usage ledger or ordinary access logs. Your app retains the request and received results locally until you remove them. A bounded version of the request is forwarded to OpenAI with response storage disabled; unless a stricter retention arrangement applies, OpenAI may retain request and response content for up to 30 days, or longer if legally required, for abuse monitoring.
Imports, covers, and exports
Catalog search uses Collected's API. Public Goodreads imports contact Goodreads. Cover retrieval uses Apple Books and, when needed, Open Library; related metadata services may use LibraryThing. These lookups can send book identifiers or search terms to the relevant provider. Retrieved covers are stored locally for use in the app. Audible is not an active production cover source. If you deliberately export or share a backup, it can contain your library, notes, reviews, and permitted local images. Provider artwork may be represented by a source reference instead of embedded image bytes. The destination you choose controls that copy.
Metadata feedback
If you flag incorrect book information, we retain the work and field identifiers, issue type, your note or suggested correction, a catalog snapshot, and timestamps. Feedback is kept as an audit record rather than silently rewriting published data.
App integrity and usage
Apple App Attest provides a pseudonymous credential that helps us distinguish a legitimate installation from automated abuse. We retain the credential state, request counts, timestamps, result status, and coarse performance measurements needed to operate and protect the service. This information is not used for advertising or cross-app tracking.
Collected Plus subscriptions
When you buy or restore Collected Plus, the app sends Apple's signed transaction to the Collected API. We verify it and retain the product, transaction and original-transaction identifiers, signed, expiration, and revocation dates, App Store environment, the binding to your pseudonymous app installation, and monthly Ask usage. We use this information to unlock and restore Plus, enforce the plan allowance, process Apple subscription updates, resolve purchase problems, and prevent abuse. Apple handles your payment method; Collected does not receive your card, bank, Apple Account email, or billing address from StoreKit.
Website, developer, and support information
If you request API access, sign in to a developer account, create a key, or contact support, we receive the information you submit. That may include your email address, organization, product URL, use case, expected usage, support topic, message, and app version. Developer accounts also retain credential metadata, sessions, plan state, usage totals, security events, and the sign-in methods you connect. If you use Google or Apple sign-in, we receive the provider's stable account identifier and verified email, plus a name when the provider supplies one. Passwords are stored only as salted, one-way hashes. API secrets and one-time sign-in tokens are stored as protected digests rather than recoverable plaintext after they are issued.
Website analytics
If you allow website analytics, we use Google Analytics to see which public pages people visit and how they find Collected. Google receives basic browser and device information and uses cookies to distinguish visits. We exclude account and sign-in pages, support forms, shared-shelf links and contents, and URL query strings and fragments. We do not send your app library, notes, ratings, or email address to Analytics. Advertising personalization and Google signals are disabled.
Nothing is sent to Google Analytics until you allow it. You can choose No thanks or change your choice through Analytics settings in the website footer. Declining does not affect the website. Analytics cookies expire after one year unless renewed by a visit; declining removes them. Google retains event-level data for two months; aggregate reports may remain longer. See how Google uses this information.
How we use information
We use it only to:
- return book information and operate Collected;
- authenticate app installations and developer accounts;
- enforce quotas, prevent abuse, and investigate failures;
- answer support and access requests; and
- understand service reliability without building advertising profiles.
- understand visits to our public website when you allow analytics.
Service providers and disclosure
We use Apple and Cloudflare to distribute the app, authenticate accounts, protect network traffic, and host parts of the service; Cloudflare processes IP addresses and ordinary request metadata for delivery and security. Google may process a login when you choose Google sign-in, and website visits when you allow Analytics as described above. Resend delivers account verification, sign-in, and password-reset email. Optional features may also use OpenAI, Open Library, Apple Books, Goodreads, and LibraryThing as described above. Those providers process information under their own terms. We may also disclose information when required by law, to protect the service or its users, or as part of a business transfer. We do not sell it.
Retention and control
Local app information remains until you remove it or delete the app. Copies in exports or earlier iPhone backups are controlled separately by you and the destination or backup provider. Service credentials and operational records remain as long as reasonably needed to run, secure, and account for the service. Subscription transaction and entitlement records remain as long as reasonably needed to validate purchases, support restore, handle refunds or disputes, and prevent abuse. Metadata feedback is retained as an audit record. Access and support submissions remain while we evaluate or answer them and for a reasonable follow-up period. Saved recommendation jobs follow the completion and seven-day recovery policy described above. Recommendation content handled by OpenAI may remain in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days, or longer if legally required.
You can delete local reading information in the app, avoid the optional recommendation and import features, revoke developer keys from the account dashboard, or ask us to review or delete information tied to your email through the support page.
Children
Collected is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Changes and questions
If this policy changes materially, we will update the effective date here. For a privacy question or request, use the Collected support form and choose Privacy.