Effective date: September 17, 2026
1. Overview
This policy explains what information bookstoread.org (“BooksToRead”, “we”, “us”) collects when you visit, how we use it, and the choices you have. You never need an account or any personal information to browse bookstoread.org, and there are no comment sections. The one exception is BooksToRead Daily, our reading app, which asks you to create an account. Section 12 explains what that involves.
2. Information We Collect
We do not collect names, email addresses, or payment details from people who browse the site. If you create a BooksToRead Daily account, section 12 covers what we collect. Two kinds of information arise automatically.
- Server logs. Our hosting provider records standard technical data for every request, including IP address, browser type, pages requested, and timestamps. This data is used for security and troubleshooting.
- Analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand which pages are read. It sets cookies and collects device and usage information under Google’s privacy policy. We see aggregate statistics, not profiles of identified individuals.
3. Email Newsletter
If you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address to send you updates when we add new people and books to the directory. We use double opt-in, so you confirm your subscription by clicking a link in a confirmation email before we send anything else.
We use your address only for these updates. We do not sell it or share it with third parties for their marketing. Delivery is handled through MailPoet, which stores and processes your address for this purpose.
Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link. You can withdraw consent at any time by clicking it or emailing [email protected], and we will remove your address from our active list. Our newsletters link to pages on this website and do not contain affiliate links.
4. Cookies and Local Storage
Visiting the site may place the following in your browser.
- Analytics cookies set by Google Analytics to distinguish visits.
- Performance cookies set by our caching software, LiteSpeed, to serve pages faster.
- Display preferences. Your dark mode and list or grid view choices are saved in your browser’s local storage. They never leave your device and are not sent to us.
- Amazon cookies. When you click a book link to Amazon, Amazon may set cookies on its own site to credit a resulting purchase to our affiliate account. This happens on Amazon’s domain under Amazon’s privacy policy.
- Daily login cookies. If you use BooksToRead Daily, a login cookie keeps you signed in on that device for up to 30 days. It is removed when you log out.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site remains fully readable without them. BooksToRead Daily needs its login cookie to keep you signed in.
5. How We Use Information
We use this information to run and secure the site, to learn which people and books our readers find useful, and to measure the site’s reach. We do not sell personal data or run advertising networks. Apart from the interests and likes BooksToRead Daily keeps for its own account holders (section 12), we do not build profiles of individual visitors.
6. Third-Party Services
Three third parties process data in connection with this site, each under its own privacy policy. Hostinger provides hosting, from a data centre in the United States. Google provides analytics. Amazon operates the affiliate program you reach when you click a book link. Links to external sites, including recommendation sources and Wikipedia, are outside our control.
7. Your Rights
Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012 gives you the right to ask for access to personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected, and to withdraw any consent you have given. Visitors in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom also have rights under the GDPR, including access, rectification, erasure, and objection. If you have a BooksToRead Daily account, you can download a copy of your data or delete your account yourself, at any time, from Settings in the app. Apart from Daily accounts, we hold little or no data that identifies you, but we will honour every request. Write to [email protected].
8. Retention and Security
Server logs and analytics data are kept on our providers’ standard schedules and then deleted or aggregated. The site is served over HTTPS. Apart from BooksToRead Daily accounts, described in section 12, we keep no databases of visitor personal data.
9. Children
This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version and its effective date will always be posted on this page.
11. Contact
Send privacy questions and requests to [email protected].
12. BooksToRead Daily Accounts
BooksToRead Daily is our reading app. To use it you create an account, and this section explains what that means for your data.
What we collect. Your first name, your email address and your password. We never see or store your password itself, only a scrambled version that can’t be turned back into it. As you use Daily, we also keep the topics you choose, the cards and quotes you like or save, the reading you log, and a record of your activity in the app, such as which cards you viewed and which sessions you finished.
Why we collect it. To run your account, to keep your progress when you switch devices, to choose cards that suit your interests, and to improve Daily. We look at which cards readers like as a whole to decide what to show. Other readers never see what you like or save. We don’t sell your data or use it for advertising.
Your agreement. When you create an account, you agree to this policy, and we record the date and the version you agreed to.
The newsletter is separate. Signing up for Daily doesn’t subscribe you to our newsletter. There is a separate, optional box for that. If you tick it, section 3 applies, and you can turn the newsletter off at any time in Settings.
Where it is stored. Your account data is kept on our hosting provider’s servers in the United States. Only BooksToRead’s site administrators can see it.
How long we keep it. For as long as you have an account. If you haven’t used Daily for two years, we email you a warning, and we delete the account 30 days later unless you log in.
Your choices. In Settings you can change your name, email address and password, download a copy of everything Daily holds about you, and delete your account. Deleting your account takes effect straight away. It removes your details, your likes, saves, topics, reading history and app activity, and your newsletter subscription. For anything else, write to [email protected].
Emails about your account. We send these only when they are needed: to send you a login code each time you log in, to confirm your email address, to reset your password, to confirm a new email address, to tell you your account has been deleted, and to warn you before an unused account is deleted. They are not marketing.