Shelfie Privacy Policy
Last updated October 2, 2026
The short version. Shelfie keeps your family's home library so everyone in your household can see it on their own phone. We store what you put in, we use it only to run the app, and we never sell it or use it for advertising. Usage analytics never include your books' titles, your family's names or anything you type, and you can turn them off.
Who we are
Shelfie is made by Joel Nelson, an independent developer in the United States ("we", "us"). Questions about this policy or your data: shelfielibraryapp@gmail.com.
What we collect
Your account. Your email address, used to sign you in with one-time codes, and your name if you add one. Sign-in is handled by Neon Auth.
Your library. Everything you add to Shelfie: books and their details, copies and where they're kept, notes, the names (and, if you choose, birth years) of family members you add, who has read what with dates and ratings, reading lists and wishlists, and loans, including the borrower's name and any phone number or email you choose to record for them. Only add a borrower's contact details if they're happy for you to.
Your household. Which household you belong to, its name, its invite code, and who else is in it.
Purchases. If your household buys the one-time "Unlimited library" upgrade, we keep the App Store transaction ID so the upgrade works on every phone in your household. Apple handles the payment; we never see your payment details.
Usage analytics. Counts of what's used, such as "a book was added", "a loan was created", "the app was opened", along with your account ID, your household's ID, and basic device and app information (model, operating system and app version). We don't record your location. These never include book titles, ISBNs, names, notes, contact details or invite codes. There is no screen recording. We use PostHog to process this data.
Book lookups. When you scan or type an ISBN, our server asks Open Library and Google Books for the book's details. Only the ISBN is sent; it isn't tied to you.
On your phone only. Loan reminders are scheduled on your phone; the camera is used only to read barcodes, and images are never saved or sent.
How we use it
- To run Shelfie: showing your library, syncing it between the phones in your household, scheduling reminders, and exporting your data when you ask.
- To understand which features are used so we can improve them, using the analytics above.
- To keep the service secure, for example limiting repeated wrong invite codes.
We don't sell your data, share it with advertisers, or use it to track you across other apps and websites.
Who can see it
- Your household. Everyone in your household can see and edit the whole library, including family members, reading history, lists and loans. Anyone with your household's invite code can join it, so share it only with people you trust; you can get a new code in Settings at any time.
- Service providers who run parts of Shelfie for us, only for that purpose: Neon (database, sign-in and hosting, in the United States), PostHog (analytics, United States), and Apple (purchases and app distribution).
- If the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users or others.
Links to Bookshop.org
"Buy on Bookshop.org" opens Bookshop.org in your browser. What you do there is covered by Bookshop.org's own privacy policy. We may earn a commission on purchases through these links; Bookshop.org doesn't tell us who you are or what you bought.
Children
Shelfie is for parents and other adults to manage a household library. Children don't have accounts. Parents may add their children's names and reading history, and that information is used only to run the app for that household. We don't knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.
Your choices
- Turn off analytics: Settings → Privacy → Share usage analytics. This stops both the app and our server from recording your usage.
- Turn off reminders: Settings → Reminders.
- Get a copy of your data: Settings → Your data exports everything as a backup file or spreadsheet.
- Correct or remove things: edit or delete any book, family member, list or loan in the app.
- Delete your account: Settings → Delete account. This deletes your sign-in account and removes you from your household. If you're the last person in the household, the household and its whole library are deleted too.
You can also email us to ask what we hold about you or to have it deleted, including analytics data.
How long we keep it
We keep your library for as long as your household exists, and your account until you delete it. After deletion, copies may remain in our database provider's backups for a limited time before they're overwritten. Analytics data is kept for up to two years.
Security
Data travels over encrypted connections, and the database is encrypted at rest by our provider. Every request is checked so people can only reach their own household's library. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date above, and for significant changes we'll let you know in the app.
Contact
Email shelfielibraryapp@gmail.com.