Privacy Policy
Overview
PageShifter ("the App") is a native macOS, iOS, and iPadOS application for tracking the books and audiobooks you read. This privacy policy describes how the App handles information.
Information We Collect
PageShifter does not collect any personal information. The App does not:
- Collect your name, email address, or any other identifying information
- Transmit any data to the App developer
- Use analytics, crash reporting services, advertising, or tracking tools
- Access your contacts, photos, location, or any other system data
- Create user accounts managed by the developer, or require registration with the developer
- Collect or process any payment or financial information
Book Search & Cover Art
To help you add books, PageShifter looks up titles, authors, cover images, and audiobook details from public, third-party book-metadata services. When you perform a search or add a book, the App sends your search terms or a book identifier (such as an ISBN) directly to these services from your device:
- Open Library (operated by the Internet Archive): book search, edition details, and cover art.
- Apple iTunes Search API: audiobook search and details.
- Audnexus: supplemental audiobook metadata such as narrator and series information.
These requests contain only the information needed to perform the lookup (your search text or a book identifier). They do not include your name, account, device identifiers, or any other personal identity. Cover images and metadata that are returned are cached locally on your device so the App works quickly and offline. Each of these services has its own privacy practices, which apply when your device communicates with them.
Data Storage
Your library is stored locally on your Device in an on-device database: the books and audiobooks you add, reading status and progress, ratings, private notes, quotes, shelves, reading goals, and preferences. The App functions fully offline once cover art has been cached.
iCloud Sync
If you are signed in to iCloud, PageShifter can keep your library in sync across your Apple devices using Apple's CloudKit private database. Your data is stored in your own private iCloud account, in accordance with Apple's Privacy Policy. The developer has no access to it.
- Synced data includes your books and audiobooks, shelves, reading goals, and saved quotes.
- Your private writing is end-to-end encrypted. Personal notes on a book, and the text and notes of saved quotes, are stored as encrypted fields that only your devices can read; they are not visible to Apple or to the developer.
Because sync uses your private iCloud account, no library data is ever transmitted to the App developer. If you disable iCloud or sign out, your data remains available locally on each device.
Importing from Goodreads
PageShifter can import a library from a Goodreads CSV export that you provide. The file you choose is read and parsed entirely on your Device to create your library. It is not uploaded to the developer or to any third party.
Third-Party Services
PageShifter does not integrate with any advertising networks, analytics platforms, or crash reporters. The only external services the App communicates with are the public book-metadata providers described under Book Search & Cover Art (Open Library, Apple's iTunes Search API, and Audnexus), and Apple's iCloud, which is used solely for optional private sync as described above.
Children's Privacy
PageShifter does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children under the age of 13.
Changes to This Policy
If this privacy policy changes in a future version of the App, the updated policy will be published at this URL and the "Last Updated" date above will be revised. Continued use of the App after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact
Questions, issues, and feature requests are tracked publicly at the project's GitHub repository.