Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 2026
What we collect
When you sign in with Google we receive your name, email address, and profile picture. As you use Spine, we store what you create: your username, bio, reading tastes, shelves and reading progress, notes, quotes, prompt answers, likes, and shelf decorations. If you scan a quote from a photo, the photo is read in your own browser and is never uploaded to us.
How we use it
To run Spine: showing your shelf, your profile, your reviews, quotes, and DNF reasons in the community feed, and — only if you switch it on — the rest of your reading activity there too. Your shelf activity is private by default. We do not sell your data, and we do not show advertising.
What others can see
Quotes, prompt answers, book reviews and your reasons for setting a book aside are visible to other users alongside your username, together with the star rating on a review. The rest of your reading activity (what you start and your progress) appears in the community feed only while "Share my activity" is turned on in your profile. Your personal notes are never shown to anyone else.
Third parties
Sign-in is handled by Google. Book details and covers come from the Google Books API. Your data is stored in our database hosting provider. Each of these processes data under their own policies.
Cookies
We use session cookies to keep you signed in, and your browser's local storage for small preferences (such as your shelf view). No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Your rights
In the app you can delete your quotes, edit or clear your notes and reviews, and edit or remove your answer to the day's prompt. You can ask for your account and all of its data to be deleted, or for a copy of your data by contacting hellospineapp@gmail.com. If you are in the UK or EU, you also have rights to access and port your data under data protection law.
Contact
Privacy questions: hellospineapp@gmail.com