Privacy Policy

Who we are

Shelf (“the app”, “we”) is a personal web app for keeping lists of things to try, watch, read, and visit — on your own or shared with people you invite. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. If you have questions, reach out through the app.

What we collect

• Account details. Your name, email address, and a securely hashed password. We never store your password in plain text.
• Your content. The shelves, items, notes, links, images, reactions, and activity you create, plus who you share shelves with.
• Encrypted notes. Notes in your private vault are end-to-end encrypted in your browser using a key derived from your passphrase. We store only the ciphertext — we cannot read them, and we cannot recover them if you lose your passphrase.
• Technical data. To keep you signed in and secure, we store session records that include your IP address and browser user-agent.

How we use it

We use your data solely to provide the app: authenticating you, storing and displaying your shelves, and enabling sharing with people you invite. We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising or profiling.

Third-party services

When you add or search for items, the app may contact these services to fetch details (titles, cover art, addresses). Your search text is sent to the relevant service; your account and private data are not:

• TMDb — movie and TV metadata and images.
• Open Library — book metadata and cover images.
• Google Places / Maps — restaurant and place lookups, and resolving pasted Google Maps links. See Google’s Privacy Policy.
• Link previews — for wishlist links you paste, we fetch the page to read its Open Graph preview tags.

These providers have their own privacy policies. Our hosting and database provider stores the data described above on our behalf.

Sharing

When you share a shelf, its contents become visible to anyone you invite (via a revocable invite link) and to anyone with a read-only view link you generate. You can revoke either link at any time, which immediately cuts off access.

Retention & your rights

We keep your data for as long as your account exists. You can edit or delete your shelves and items at any time. To access, export, correct, or permanently delete your account and all associated data, contact us through the app. Deleting your account cascades to remove your shelves, items, notes, reactions, and activity.

Cookies

We use a single essential cookie to keep you signed in. We do not use tracking or advertising cookies.

Children

Shelf is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the “Last updated” date above.