Privacy Policy — Reads

Reads is a calm, private place to keep what you read and what you think about it. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and — just as importantly — what we never touch. Reads is currently in beta; practices may evolve, and we'll update this page and its date when they do.

What we collect

• Account information — your email, authentication data (e.g. a password hash), and profile settings you choose (display name, username, role, time zone, preferences).
• Your library — the items you save (links, titles, authors, covers, and any files/PDFs you upload), your notes and takeaways, journeys, tags, and checklist entries. This is your private content.
• Discover activity — when you use Discover (open-access search), we record what you search for and which open-access resources you add or open (the resource's title and identifier). We use this to improve discovery and to show aggregate trends.
• Technical data — a sign-in session/cookie and basic operational logs needed to run the service securely.

What we never do with your writing

Your notes, takeaways, and the things you save privately are yours. We do not read them to build recommendations, we do not use them to train models, we do not use them for advertising, and we do not share them. Discover's signal is limited to what you search and which public resources you add or open — never the thoughts you write.

How we use what we collect

• To operate Reads — your library, journeys, Reflect, and related features.
• To improve Discover — as aggregate, de-identified trends (e.g. which open-access resources are widely read), and, in the future, to recommend resources based on search-and-save signal. Anything shown publicly is aggregated across people, never an individual's activity.
• To keep the service secure and reliable.

Sharing

We don't sell your data. We share information only with service providers that help us run Reads (for example, hosting, file storage, and email delivery) acting on our instructions, and where required by law. Aggregate, de-identified trends contain no personal content.

Open-access resources

Discover searches open-access sources such as OpenAlex and Open Library and only shows results you can actually open. Opening or downloading a resource takes you to its source, which is governed by that source's own terms. We don't host the content.

Keeping and deleting your data

You can export everything you've saved and delete your account at any time from Settings. Deleting your account permanently removes your library, notes, journeys, and settings, and frees your email so you can start fresh. Before we erase it, we keep an anonymous, de-identified snapshot of reading patterns — counts, kinds, source domains, and tag labels, never your email, titles, or the words you wrote — which isn't tied to you and is used only to make Reads better.

Your choices

You can access, export, or delete your data from Settings. When we add personalized recommendations, we'll also add a control to opt out of contributing your search/save signal — and even then, your notes and takeaways will remain off-limits.

Contact

Questions or requests about your data: privacy@filxo.com.