Privacy Policy

Bookmode (iPhone app) · Last updated: November 10, 2026

1. Who we are

Bookmode ("we", "our", "us") is developed and operated by Viksva, MB, a company registered in Vilnius, Lithuania. Viksva, MB is the data controller for the data described here. Contact: mbviksva@gmail.com.

Bookmode is currently available on iPhone. If it is released on other platforms, this policy will be updated to cover them.

2. What stays on your iPhone

Bookmode keeps the following on your device: your library and shelves, reading sessions, page logs and goals, ratings and reviews, notes and their transcripts, voice note recordings, saved quotes, cover photos you add, a background photo you choose, and your settings.

There is no sign-up. You never give us a name, email address or password. The app does sign in to our backend anonymously (Firebase Authentication), which creates a random identifier that is not linked to your name or any account. The backend uses it, together with an App Check token that confirms the request comes from a genuine copy of the app, to answer book searches and optional cloud AI requests, and to limit how many requests one installation can make.

Quote scans: the photo of a page is held in memory while the scan screen is open, and the words are read on your iPhone by Apple's text recognition. The photo is not saved, not kept with the quote and not sent anywhere. Only the text you choose to save is kept, as part of your notes. The same applies to reading a title or author off a cover photo.

Voice notes are transcribed on your iPhone using Apple's speech recognition. The only exception is the optional cloud transcription in section 5.

3. iCloud backup (your own iCloud)

Bookmode can back up your data automatically to your own iCloud account. It is on by default when you are signed in to iCloud. The backup is stored by Apple, under your Apple Account, and counts towards your iCloud storage. It never goes to our servers, and we cannot see it. Apple's terms and privacy policy apply to what you keep in iCloud.

• Included: your library, reads, reading sessions, page logs and goals; notes, transcripts and quotes; cover photos, voice recordings and your custom background photo; and settings such as your reminder, daily reading minutes, onboarding answers, transcription language, note summaries, gentle streak, goal and pace, background choice, and the height, figure and unit for Book Stack.
• Not included: your cloud AI choices and your analytics choice (each device asks for itself), the apps you chose to block (iOS does not let these transfer), covers downloaded from the catalogue, cached recaps, a reading session still running, and page scan photos (never saved at all).
• When: about once a day when you leave the app, and whenever you tap Back Up Now.
• Turn it off: Settings → iCloud backup. This stops new backups. It does not delete backups already in your iCloud.
• Removed items: a photo or recording you remove stays in the backup for at least one more backup run. If your library suddenly gets much smaller, the earlier copy is kept for up to about 30 days in case that was a mistake, then removed.
• Restore: nothing is restored unless you choose to, from Settings or from an offer on a new, empty install.
• Delete a backup: Settings → iCloud backup → Restore from iCloud lists the backups of each of your devices and lets you delete any of them for good. Deleting the app does not delete them.

iCloud backup sends nothing to us or to Google. If you share anonymous usage data (section 8), we learn only that a restore happened and whether it changed anything, never what is in a backup.

Separately, you can export your library from Settings as a spreadsheet (CSV) or a full backup file (JSON). The file goes wherever you share it, and we never receive it.

4. Book search and lookup

When you search for a book, scan a barcode, or import a Goodreads, StoryGraph or Kindle file, the app sends the request to our backend, which runs on Google Cloud / Firebase (region us-central1). The backend looks the book up in two third-party catalogues:

• Google Books (Google LLC), and
• Open Library (the Internet Archive).

What is sent: the text you typed (up to 200 characters), or the ISBN from a scanned barcode, or, for an import, the title, author and ISBN of the books in your file, in batches. The camera reads the barcode on your iPhone; only the number is sent. Nothing about your library, notes or reading goes with these requests.

Our backend caches results to save lookups: book records for up to 30 days, and the results of a typed search, together with the search text, for up to 7 days. These caches are shared and are not linked to you. A counter per anonymous identifier, used only to limit abuse, is kept for about a day.

Covers are downloaded by your iPhone straight from the image servers of those catalogues (Google, Open Library), which can therefore see your IP address, as with any web request. Covers are cached on your iPhone.

5. Cloud transcription and cloud AI (optional, off unless you choose)

By default, voice notes are transcribed, and "Ask your notes" is answered, on your iPhone, using Apple's speech recognition and Apple Intelligence where your iPhone supports them. Nothing leaves your iPhone for these. Two optional features use the cloud. Each is a choice you make per device and can change at any time in Settings → Reading notes.

Cloud transcription for other languages

Off by default. If you turn it on, a voice note in a language your iPhone cannot transcribe offline is sent once for transcription. Recaps and wrap-ups of notes in such a language are written the same way, from the text of those notes and the quotes you saved for that book. Turning it on does not send earlier notes unless you ask Settings to transcribe them. Turning it off cancels anything not yet sent.

Ask with cloud AI (Gemini)

When Apple Intelligence cannot answer on your iPhone, the app asks once whether to use Gemini. Until you say yes, nothing is sent and answers come from your notes themselves. If you agree, each question sends a copy of the question and the notes and saved quotes selected for it.

What is sent, and what is kept

• Sent: for transcription, the note's recording (at most 5 minutes) and its language; for recaps, wrap-ups and questions, the text of the relevant notes and saved quotes (at most about 10,000 characters), the question (at most 500 characters) and the language. Not sent: the book's title, an ID of the note, your name. The request carries the anonymous identifier and App Check token from section 2.
• Where it goes: to our backend function, which passes it to Google's Gemini models, currently through the paid Gemini API with Google Cloud Vertex AI as the backup route, and returns the result. Google may process it in the locations it uses for these services, including the United States.
• What we keep: nothing. Audio and text exist in memory only for the duration of the call. Our logs record only technical details of each call: the type of request, its size, the claimed length of a recording, the model used, how long it took and whether it succeeded. They contain no audio, notes, questions or answers.
• What Google keeps: under the Gemini API terms for paid use, Google does not use this data to improve its products. It keeps prompts and responses for 55 days to detect abuse and for safety, security and legal reasons, and may keep them for a limited time for caching.

Your notes are never stored on our servers. They are saved on your iPhone, and in your own iCloud if backup is on. Each cloud question or transcription sends a copy of what it needs.

The "Previously..." recaps, wrap-ups and answers shown with those features may be wrong. See the Terms of Use.

6. Screen Time and app blocking

Blocking uses Apple's Screen Time framework. When you pick apps to block, Apple gives Bookmode opaque tokens that stand for them. We cannot see which apps you picked or what you use them for, and nothing about your app usage leaves your iPhone. Blocking only runs during your reading sessions. You can turn Screen Time access off at any time in the iPhone's Settings app.

7. Subscriptions (RevenueCat and Apple)

Bookmode Pro is a subscription. Apple processes the payment; we never see your card or Apple Account details. We use RevenueCat, Inc. (United States) to check and manage your subscription. RevenueCat receives your purchase history for Bookmode, an anonymous app user ID it creates (shown in Settings as the Support ID), and, with its requests, your iPhone's vendor identifier (IDFV). This is not linked to a name or email. We do not read or use the advertising identifier (IDFA), and the app does not ask to track you across other companies' apps and websites.

8. Anonymous usage statistics (Firebase Analytics)

Bookmode sends a small, fixed set of anonymous usage events to Firebase Analytics (Google Analytics for Firebase), so we can see which features get used. It is off until you allow it, wherever you are. At first launch, before onboarding, everyone sees a "Help improve Bookmode?" screen with two equal buttons, Share and Don't share. Nothing is sent before you answer, and nothing is sent if you choose Don't share. You can turn it off or on at any time in Settings → Privacy → Share anonymous usage data. While it is off, the app sends no analytics at all. Turning it off is not reported.

• What is collected: which screens you open (from a fixed list), and how features are used, such as reading sessions, books added, notes and sharing. It also covers the steps of onboarding and of the paywall, purchase results, changes to certain settings, your answers to permission questions (such as notifications), and the type of an error when one happens. Each event carries only categories (for example "search" or "scan"), yes/no values, and rounded counts or ranges (for example "10-49 books", "15-29 minutes").
• What they never contain: book titles, authors, ISBNs, notes, quotes, tags, search text, recordings, photos, your height, or anything you type. The app is built so free text cannot be passed to analytics.
• What Firebase records itself: its automatic events (such as first open, session start, app update, in-app purchase events), device model, operating system and app version, language, and an approximate country derived from your IP address (Google does not store the IP address). It also creates a random app-instance ID, not linked to any account, that resets when you reinstall. The app does not set a user ID.
• Google's consent mode: the app uses it. Analytics storage is granted only when you have allowed sharing. Ad storage, ad user data and ad personalisation are always denied. The app does not use the advertising identifier, and vendor identifier collection for analytics and automatic screen tracking are switched off. No crash-reporting or performance-monitoring service is used.
• When you turn it off: the app stops sending and deletes the app-instance ID stored on your iPhone. If you turn it on again later, it starts with a new ID.

Google acts as our processor for this data under its Firebase terms. Your choice to share usage data is kept on your device and is not part of an iCloud backup, so a new iPhone asks again.

9. How we use data, and our legal bases

If you are in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland, we rely on:

• Contract (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)): book search, subscription checks and keeping the service working.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): cloud transcription and cloud AI, which you switch on yourself and can switch off at any time. Also anonymous usage statistics, which are sent only if you allow them. You can withdraw this at any time in Settings → Privacy → Share anonymous usage data, with no effect on anything else in the app.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): abuse prevention, such as request limits.
• Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): where the law requires us to keep or give out information.

We make no automated decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects, and we do not profile you. We do not sell personal information.

10. Who receives data

Apple and iCloud, when holding your own backup, act as your storage provider under your agreement with Apple, not as our processor. We do not share data with advertisers or data brokers.

11. Retention and deleting your data

• On your iPhone: you can delete any book, note, quote or recording in the app. Deleting the Bookmode app removes everything stored on that iPhone.
• In your iCloud: deleting the app does not delete your backups. Delete them in Settings → iCloud backup → Restore from iCloud. We cannot delete them for you, because we cannot access them.
• On our servers: we hold no library, notes, recordings or quotes. What exists is limited to the cached catalogue data and request counters described in section 4, which expire automatically, and nothing from cloud AI (section 5).
• Subscription records are held by RevenueCat and Apple under their own retention rules. Analytics data is held by Google Analytics under the retention settings of our Firebase property, and it is anonymous.

To ask us to delete or look up anything we or our processors hold about you, email us at the address below with the Support ID from Settings → Bookmode Pro. We will pass the request to the relevant processor where we can identify your data. Anonymous analytics events and cached catalogue data are not linked to you, so we may not be able to pick out a specific person's.

12. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, export and restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to withdraw consent at any time. Most of this you can do yourself in the app, because the data is on your device. For anything else, write to us. If you are in the EU/EEA, you may also complain to your national data protection authority, or to the Lithuanian State Data Protection Inspectorate (VDAI).

California residents: we do not sell personal information, and you may ask what we hold about you and ask us to delete it, using the contact below.

13. Children

Bookmode is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. See the age requirement in the Terms of Use. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete what we can identify.

14. International transfers

Our backend and its databases run in Google Cloud in the United States (us-central1), and RevenueCat is based in the United States. Your data may therefore be processed outside your country. Google LLC and RevenueCat participate in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and offer Standard Contractual Clauses, which we rely on for transfers of European data.

15. Security

Requests to our backend use encrypted connections and need an anonymous sign-in and an App Check token. Because your library is stored on your iPhone, it is protected by your iPhone's own security, so keep your device updated and locked. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example when the app changes. The "Last updated" date above shows the latest version. If a change materially affects how your data is used, we will tell you in the app before it applies.

17. Governing law

This Privacy Policy and any disputes arising out of or related to it are governed by the laws of Lithuania, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any legal action or proceeding shall be brought exclusively in the courts of Lithuania, and you consent to the jurisdiction of such courts. Nothing in this section limits the rights EU/EEA residents have under the GDPR, including the right to complain to a supervisory authority, or any mandatory consumer rights you have in your country.

18. Contact

Data Controller: Viksva, MB
Address: Gelažių g. 4C-1, LT-06231 Vilnius, Lithuania
Company code: 306082256
VAT code: LT100020293419
Phone: +370 602 71797
Email: mbviksva@gmail.com (subject line "Privacy Policy Inquiry")