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Last updated: 25 August 2026 · applies to the “Kindread” app and this website
Lindhavn Studio
Owner: Jan Wergin
Speditionstraße 15a
40221 Düsseldorf, Germany
Email: janwergin@aol.com
Kindread is deliberately data-minimal. There are no user accounts, no sign-up, no tracking, no advertising cookies and no analytics. We only process the data needed to show you book recommendations and nearby bookshops.
When you search for a book, your query is sent to our server and processed to generate recommendations. We use:
Only the search term / book title is transmitted – no names, contact details or identifiers that identify you. Requests are not combined into profiles. Our server does not store the requests. At Anthropic, inputs and outputs are deleted within 30 days; only if a breach of the usage policies is reported can they be kept there for up to two years.
When you “watch” a book (to be notified once it is published in German), the app occasionally asks our server in the background whether a German edition has become available. Only public book identifiers (Open Library work IDs) are transmitted – no names, no contact details, no device identifier. Our server stores nothing. The notification is generated locally on your device; your watch list lives – like your reading list – only on your device and in your own iCloud.
The camera is only used when you actively start it.
If you use “Bookshops nearby” and grant location access, your approximate location is used to find bookshops around you via Apple (MapKit). We do not store your location. Processing by Apple is subject to Apple’s terms.
Books you save are stored locally on your device. If you are signed in to iCloud, your reading list is additionally synced between your devices via your personal iCloud (Apple), subject to Apple’s privacy terms. We ourselves have no access to this data – nothing is transmitted to us.
You can import your reading history from Goodreads or StoryGraph as a CSV file. The file is read and processed on your device – it is not uploaded.
When you later open the reading map, the title and author of each book you have read are sent to our server and from there to Anthropic (Claude), to determine the author's country and the story's setting. Nothing about you goes with them: no contact details, no device identifier. This happens once per book – after that the result stays on your device, and that is where the map is drawn. At Anthropic the same retention period applies as in section 3.
Where Kindread shows links to partner booksellers (e.g. Thalia, Waterstones) via the Awin affiliate network and you follow such a link, you leave the app, where the respective provider’s privacy policy applies. If you buy there, Kindread may receive a commission – we receive no personal purchase data.
Book covers are loaded directly from our partners’ image servers (e.g. Thalia, Waterstones). As with any image request on the internet, your IP address is transmitted to the respective provider; we transmit no further data in the process.
Via "A note for Emily" in the app you can voluntarily send us ideas and wishes. Only your text, an optional email address (if you would like a reply), the app language, the app version and the time of submission are transmitted and stored – no IP address, no device identifier. Notes are stored on our server (Vercel), used solely to improve the app and never shared with third parties. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); an informal message is enough to have a note deleted.
Our server and this website are hosted by Vercel Inc. When accessed, technically necessary data (e.g. IP address) is processed, as with any internet service. We also derive the approximate country of origin from the IP address in order to show you suitable bookseller links (such as a retailer in your country). The country is only used for the request at hand and is not stored. Vercel deletes the access logs automatically after one day; we do not analyse them or combine them with other data.
Processing is carried out to provide the features you request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and based on our legitimate interest in a functional app (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Vercel, the Internet Archive and Google are based in the USA; for Anthropic our contracting party is Anthropic Ireland, Limited in Ireland, but the processing likewise takes place in the USA. Each of these recipients has its own legal basis:
We will provide a copy of the standard contractual clauses on request at the email address above.
You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability and objection, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Contact us at the email above. As we keep no accounts, we generally hold no persistently stored data attributable to you. We delete your message and our reply once the matter is settled – at the latest after three months.
← Back to Kindread · Legal noticeThis policy is updated whenever the app’s features change.