Privacy

Plain English, because that's how we'd want to read it.

What changed lately:

14 October 2026: we count visits to the site, without cookies.
3 October 2026: photos of the spines of your books.
30 September 2026: notifications on your phone, and Pagemates is now for readers aged thirteen and up.

Who we are

Pagemates is made in the Netherlands by Merlijn Andriessen, trading as Pagemates. For anything about your data, write to hello@pagemates.app.

What we keep, and why

Your bookplate: the three books you chose, the character you named, and the number you were given. This is the point of the site.
Your email address, only if you choose to keep your number. We use it to sign you in without a password and to tell you when the app opens for you. Nothing else, and never for anyone else.
Your handle, which is public: it's the address of your profile, pagemates.app/@handle.
Your referral link and who came through it, so friends who join through your link move you up the line.
A code for where you came from (for example, which video), so we can see what works. No advertising identifiers, no tracking pixels.
A scrambled version of your internet address when you make a bookplate, so one machine can't make thousands of them. It can't be turned back into your address, and we don't use it for anything else.

Counting visits to the site

We count which pages of pagemates.app get opened, so we can see which posts bring people here and where the site is unclear. Vercel does this for us with Web Analytics. It sets no cookie, doesn't follow you to other sites, and doesn't keep your internet address. For each visit it notes the page, the site you came from, your rough location (country, region and city), and your kind of device and browser. Each page counts once per browser tab, and we never send the part of a link after the question mark, so codes in a link stay out of it.

In the app

If you use the app, we also keep what you put into it:

Your shelf: the books you want to read, are reading, finished or set down, with your ratings and closings. Any book can be marked private, and then only you see it.
Where you're in a book, and which copy you read. This is what keeps spoilers away from you: nothing from further in the book is shown to you.
Your reading sessions: when you started and stopped, and the pages in between. Other readers can see that you're reading now, and your profile shows how many evenings and pages you read this week. A private book stays out of both.
Your beats, circle messages, waves, and who you follow. These are visible to other readers in the places you would expect: on the book, in the circle, on your profile.
Your name and the line under it, if you add them. Both are public on your profile.
Notifications, if you turn them on. Your phone gives the app a code, so we can tell you about a letter, a circle you were asked to join, or a reply to your beat. The message says who it's from and which book. It goes through Expo, the service the app is built with, and then through Apple or Google, which deliver it to your phone. Turn notifications off or sign out, and we delete the code.
A few steps in the app, such as whether you finished or skipped "Where are you now?", so we can see where the app is unclear. Never what you typed, and never which book.
Reports and blocks. If you report something or block someone, we keep that so we can act on it. The other reader isn't told who reported them. If we take down something you wrote, we tell you in the app and keep a copy that only we can see, so we can put it back if you show us we got it wrong. That copy goes when you delete your account.

Your profile on the web

Your profile at pagemates.app/@handle is open by default, like a page in a library: anyone with the link sees your bookplate, your name and the line under it, what you're reading, your shelf and your closings. Search engines may find it. A book you marked private never shows there, and neither does your email.

You can close your profile in Settings, on the site or in the app. Then visitors only see your bookplate, which is the thing you made to show, and readers signed in to Pagemates see the rest. Closing it also takes your name off the closings on public book pages.

Profile photos

A photo is optional. Your phone crops it to a square, makes it small, and strips the hidden details a camera adds, such as where it was taken. Nobody sees it until it has passed a check.

The check is automatic and is done for us by Sightengine, a company in France. It looks for nudity, violence, hate symbols and abusive text in the picture, and tells us what it found. If the check is unsure, the photo stays hidden until a person at Pagemates has looked at it. If another reader reports your profile, your photo is hidden until we have looked. You can remove your photo in Settings at any time, and it's then deleted from our storage.

Photos of your book spines

Supporters can photograph the spines of their own books, so their bookcase shows their own copies. This is optional, one book at a time. Your phone keeps only the spine: it crops the photo to the frame, makes it small, and strips the hidden details a camera adds, such as where it was taken. The photo is stored privately.

You see it in your bookcase right away. Other readers see it only after a person at Pagemates has looked at it, and never for a book you marked private or for someone you blocked. A spine that passed the check can also be shown for the same edition in another reader’s bookcase, without your name. You can take a photo again or remove it at any time, and it's then deleted from our storage.

What we don't do

No advertising, no selling or sharing your data, no tracking across other sites.
No analytics cookies. The cookies we set keep you signed in, on the site or after you open the email link, and remember the language you chose.
No generative AI writes anything you see on Pagemates. The photo check above judges a picture. It doesn't make anything.

Who helps us run it

Your data is stored with Supabase in Frankfurt, Germany. The site runs on Vercel, with its servers for this project in Frankfurt, and Vercel also counts the visits to it. Sign-in emails are sent through Resend. Notifications, if you turn them on, go through Expo in the United States and then Apple or Google. Profile photos are checked by Sightengine in France, which receives the photo and nothing else about you. Book titles, covers and descriptions come from Open Library, which only sees the search you type, not who you are. These companies process data on our behalf and under our instructions.

Your rights

You can take everything with you and delete your account yourself, in Settings on the site. Export gives you your shelf as a spreadsheet and everything else as a file. Deleting your account removes your bookplate and its number, your place in line, your profile photo, the photos of your spines, and everything you put into the app, straight away. You can also email hello@pagemates.app from the address you used, and we'll show you what we hold, correct it, or delete it within a few days. You also have the right to complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

How long

As long as you've a bookplate with us. If you never keep your number, an unclaimed bookplate has no email attached and is removed after ninety days.

Age

Pagemates is for readers aged thirteen and up. If you're under sixteen, a parent or guardian needs to be fine with you using it. If you're a parent and think your child is on Pagemates without that, write to hello@pagemates.app and we delete the account.

Changes

If this page changes in a way that matters, we'll say so at the top with the date. We won't change what we do with your email without asking you first.