Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 November 2026

Who we are

PlotScroll is an app for reading classic books in short sessions. It is run by Alex Lee, a sole trader trading as PlotScroll ("PlotScroll", "we", "us").

Address: Office 22224, 182–184 High Street North, East Ham, London E6 2JA, United Kingdom
Email: privacy@plotscroll.app
ICO registration number: pending

We are the "controller" of the personal data described here under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). If you are in the European Union, the EU GDPR also gives you the rights below.

The short version

• What you read stays on your phone. Your reading progress, the nights you have read, the books you have saved and your settings are stored on your device, not on our servers.
• No accounts. You do not sign up or give us your name or email to use PlotScroll.
• No advertising, no tracking, no selling data. We do not use advertising networks or tracking tools, and we do not sell or share what you read.
• Purchases go through Apple. Apple takes payment; we never see your card details. A service called RevenueCat tells the app whether you have a subscription.
• We look at which country you are in, then forget it, so that we only show you books that are out of copyright where you are.

What data is involved, and why

1. Data kept only on your device

The app stores on your phone: which books and sessions you have read, the nights you have read, books you have saved or finished, your answers in the welcome screens (for example roughly how long you spend scrolling each day), your reading settings (text size, light or dark page, lamp brightness), your reminder time, and whether you have said you are over 18.

This information does not leave your device unless you choose to share it (for example with "Share your shelf" or "Export what this phone holds"). You can delete all of it at any time in Settings → Delete everything, or by deleting the app.

2. Fetching books: our content server

When the app downloads the list of books and the text of a book, your device contacts our content server, which runs on Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., USA). Like any internet request, this involves your device's IP address. Cloudflare tells our server which country the request comes from, and the app tells it whether you have said you are over 18, so that we only send books that are out of copyright where you are and suitable for your age setting.

We use this only to deliver the right books. Our server does not store your IP address, country or reading choices. Cloudflare, as our hosting provider, may keep short-lived technical and security logs in line with its own privacy policy.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in providing the app, and in only showing books we are allowed to show where you are.

3. Subscriptions: Apple and RevenueCat

If you start a free trial or a subscription, Apple processes the payment under its own terms and privacy policy. We do not receive your name, email address or payment details from Apple.

We use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc., USA) to check whether you have an active subscription. RevenueCat receives a random identifier created for your copy of the app (not your name or email), the purchase and renewal records that Apple provides (which product, when, price and currency, trial status, App Store country), and basic technical information such as your app version, device type, operating-system version and IP address. RevenueCat processes this on our behalf, to unlock the library and keep your subscription working across reinstalls (through "Restore a purchase").

Lawful basis: performing our contract with you (giving you what you paid for), and our legal obligations to keep financial records.

4. Reminders

If you turn on the nightly reminder or the free-trial reminder, these are scheduled on your phone. No server sends them and no data leaves your device for them. You can turn them off in the app or in your phone's Settings.

5. When you contact us

If you email us, we will use your email address and what you tell us to reply and help. We keep this correspondence for up to 24 months unless we need it longer to resolve a problem.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in answering you.

6. Visiting our website

Our website, plotscroll.app, is hosted by Cloudflare. When you visit it, your browser connects to Cloudflare, which, like any web host, sees your device's IP address and the basic technical information your browser sends with each request (such as the page asked for and the browser type). The website does not use cookies, analytics, advertising or tracking tools, and we do not use your visit to identify you. Cloudflare may keep short-lived technical and security logs in line with its own privacy policy.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in running a website that works and is kept secure.

What we do not do

We do not use analytics or advertising tools in the app or on our website. We do not build profiles of you, and we do not make automated decisions with legal or similar effects about you. We do not sell your personal data or share it with anyone for marketing.

Who we share data with

Only the service providers above, and only for the purposes described:

• Cloudflare, Inc.: hosting and delivering the books, and hosting our website.
• RevenueCat, Inc.: subscription status.
• Apple: the App Store and payments (Apple acts under its own terms and privacy policy).

We may also disclose data if the law requires it.

International transfers

Cloudflare and RevenueCat are based in the United States and may process data outside the UK and EU. Where they do, the transfer is protected by recognised safeguards, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in their data-processing terms, or the UK–US data bridge where the provider is certified under it.

How long we keep data

• On your device: until you delete it in Settings or delete the app.
• Our content server: nothing about you is stored.
• Our website: we store nothing about visitors. Cloudflare's short-lived technical and security logs are kept under its own policy.
• RevenueCat: for as long as you have, or recently had, a subscription with us, and afterwards for as long as we need purchase records for tax and accounting (normally six years in the UK), unless you ask us to delete it sooner where the law allows.
• Emails to us: up to 24 months.

Children

PlotScroll is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. Some books are shown only if the reader says they are over 18. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal data (for example by emailing us), contact us and we will delete it.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us for a copy of your personal data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to receive it in a portable form. Because your reading data lives on your phone, you can see it, export it and delete it yourself in the app's Settings at any time. For anything held by RevenueCat, email us at privacy@plotscroll.app from any address and include the subscription identifier shown in Me → Settings → Subscription ID so we can find the record.

We will reply within one month. There is no charge.

If you are unhappy with how we have used your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113), or, in the EU, to your local data protection authority.

Cancelling a subscription

Deleting the app or your data does not cancel a subscription. Subscriptions are managed by Apple: on your iPhone go to Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions, or use Settings → Manage inside PlotScroll.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we use personal data, we will update this page and the date at the top, and where the change is significant we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

privacy@plotscroll.app
PlotScroll, Office 22224, 182–184 High Street North, East Ham, London E6 2JA, United Kingdom