Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how De Groot Ventures Inc ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects your information when you use the BookNerds mobile application ("the App"). We believe in being straightforward about data practices — no surprises.
2. Information We Collect
Information You Provide
- Email address — used to create your account and send you login passcodes
- Genre preferences — selected during onboarding to personalize your feed
- Display name — optionally set in your profile
Information Generated by Your Use
- Book interactions — books you add to shelves (Wishlist, Read, Favorites), skip, or dismiss
- Author follows — which authors you follow
- Genre affinity scores — calculated from your interactions to improve recommendations
- Feed engagement — how you interact with the book feed (used to tune the recommendation algorithm)
Information We Do Not Collect
- We do not collect your location
- We do not collect contacts or phone data
- We do not track you across other apps or websites
- We do not collect payment or financial information (purchases happen on Amazon's platform, not ours)
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your data for these purposes:
| Purpose | Data Used |
|---|---|
| Authentication | Email address |
| Personalized feed | Genre preferences, book interactions, author follows, genre affinity |
| Author release notifications | Author follows, email address |
| Calendar subscriptions | Author follows, book release dates |
| Service improvement | Aggregated usage patterns |
We do not use your data for advertising. We do not sell your data to third parties.
4. How We Store Your Data
Your data is stored on secure cloud infrastructure with industry-standard protections, including:
- Encrypted data storage
- Secure API access with strict access control policies
- Encrypted data transmission (HTTPS)
5. Third-Party Services
We use trusted third-party service providers to operate the App. These providers may process limited data on our behalf for the following purposes:
- Cloud hosting and database — stores your account and interaction data
- Email delivery — your email address is shared with our email provider to send login passcodes
- Error monitoring — anonymous crash reports help us fix bugs (no personal data included)
- Book metadata — we source book information (titles, covers, descriptions) from external databases; no personal data is sent to these providers
When you tap "Buy" on a book, you are taken to an external retailer (such as Amazon). We do not send your data to that retailer — your interaction with them is governed by their own terms and privacy policy.
We do not share your personal data with any other third parties.
6. Push Notifications
If you enable push notifications, we may send you alerts about:
- New releases from authors you follow
- Important account or service updates
You can disable notifications at any time through your device settings.
7. Data Retention
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account:
- Your profile, preferences, and interaction history will be permanently deleted
- This deletion is irreversible
Aggregated, anonymized data (e.g., overall genre popularity) may be retained after account deletion since it cannot be linked back to you.
8. Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access your data — your profile and preferences are visible in the App
- Delete your account and all associated data — contact us to request deletion
- Opt out of notifications — via your device settings
- Stop using the App at any time
If you're in a jurisdiction with additional data protection rights (such as the EU/GDPR or California/CCPA), we respect those rights. Contact us to exercise them.
9. Children's Privacy
BookNerds is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your data, including:
- Passcode-based authentication (no stored passwords)
- Strict access control policies on all database queries
- Encrypted data transmission (HTTPS)
- Sensitive credentials restricted to server-side operations
No system is 100% secure, but we take data protection seriously and address vulnerabilities promptly.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we'll update the "Last Updated" date at the top. For significant changes, we'll make reasonable efforts to notify you through the App.
Continued use of the App after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.
12. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise your data rights:
De Groot Ventures Inc
Email: support@booknerds.app
This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 25, 2026.