What Shelfi stores
- Your account: email address, and the name you choose for your greeting.
- Your library: the books you add, copies and special-edition notes, read status, ratings and wishlist.
- Photos you take to identify a book (front or back cover), kept with your account.
- Simple daily usage counts (how many scans and searches), used only for fair-use limits.
- If you subscribe: your App Store subscription status. Apple handles payment; Shelfi never sees card details.
Signing in with Apple or Google
If you sign in with Apple, Shelfi receives the name and email address Apple shares with it. If you choose to hide your email, that is a private relay address from Apple, and Shelfi uses it like any other email address.
Deleting your account also revokes Shelfi's Sign in with Apple access. You can also stop using Sign in with Apple for Shelfi at any time in your Apple ID settings.
If you sign in with Google, Shelfi receives your name, email address and profile picture from Google, and uses only your email address and name, to identify your account. Shelfi doesn't get access to your Gmail, contacts or anything else in your Google account. You can remove Shelfi's access at any time at myaccount.google.com → Security → Your connections to third-party apps.
Who helps run it
Shelfi uses Supabase (database, sign-in, photo storage), Vercel (servers), Apple (purchases and Sign in with Apple), Google (Sign in with Google) and an email provider (sign-in links).
To identify books and suggest reads, cover photos, the text on them and your book list are sent to AI models (Anthropic, via Vercel AI Gateway); book descriptions are processed by OpenAI to find similar books; titles and ISBNs are looked up on Hardcover, Google Books, Open Library and the web.
These services process data only to provide Shelfi.
What Shelfi doesn't do
No ads, no tracking across apps or websites, and your data is never sold.
Data retention
Shelfi keeps your account, library and photos for as long as you have an account, so they're there whenever you open the app. They are kept until you delete your account.
Deleting your data
Settings → Delete account removes your account, library, ratings, wishlist and photos. Book details shared by everyone (titles, covers, series) stay in the catalog.
Cancel a subscription separately in your Apple ID settings. Deleting your account doesn't cancel it.
Children
Shelfi is not directed at children under 13, and it doesn't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, get in touch and it will be deleted.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new “last updated” date. Please check back from time to time.
Who runs Shelfi
Shelfi is made by Duncan Lutz, an independent developer.
Contact
Questions about your data or this policy? Email hello@shelfi.app
You can also find help on the support page.