Privacy Policy
Memory of Books (voiceofbook.com, “the service”) records who read a book and how. The service is designed to keep as little information as possible. This page explains what we keep, why, and who can see it. (The Japanese version is the governing text.)
1. What we don't keep
- We don't ask for your name, address, phone number or date of birth.
- We don't store where a photo was taken (GPS coordinates). Coordinates are read on your device and sent only to find the nearest city or municipality; they are not stored or logged. The same applies to “Use my current location” and to choosing a place by tapping the map.
- Photo metadata (EXIF, such as the time taken and the camera model) is removed on your device when the photo is redrawn, and removed again on our server before saving.
- There are no passwords; you sign in with a link sent by email.
2. What we keep
- Email address: for signing in and for letters from your books (a notice when a book you passed on gets a new record, a monthly look back and a year in review).
- Reading records: the photo (resized to 1600 px on the long side), a color taken from it, the city where you read the book, the month, your words (up to 140 characters), and which reader you were.
- Books you registered: book details such as title and author, and a cover photo if you added one.
- Settings: language, whether you receive letters (when your books are read, the monthly look back and the year in review), the books you get letters about, and your town (city level) and the works you asked us to watch for. Nobody else can see these.
- Encounters (app): encounters are on from the start, but the app uses your location only after you allow location access on your device. You can switch each item on your card on or off, and turn encounters off at any time. On your device it is rounded to a square of about 150 m, and only that square's code and a 15-minute time slot are sent (never your exact location). Squares are deleted after 24 hours. If someone else was nearby at the same time, you exchange cards (the book information you chose), and we keep the date and the city or municipality where it happened. Your name and email address are never shown. Turning encounters off stops location use and deletes stored squares.
- The “give to the author” button: we record the amount entered, which book or work page it came from, the screen language and the time (and your account, if you are signed in). Giving is not open yet: no money changes hands and we never ask for card or bank details. We use this only to learn how many readers want to support authors.
- Signing in with Google or Apple: only if you use it, we keep that account's identifier (set by Google or Apple) and your email address so we can recognize you. We don't receive your name, photo or other information. The same email address means the same account as signing in by email.
- Name and icon (app): we keep the name you choose and the icon you pick from our set. Only people you pass by can see them; they never appear on book pages. It doesn't have to be your real name. If you don't choose, we use a name and icon picked for you.
- Cookies: only to keep you signed in (90 days) and to remember your language (1 year). No advertising or tracking cookies.
- Access logs: our cloud provider (Cloudflare) keeps access logs, including IP addresses, for a limited time to investigate problems and prevent abuse. To limit repeated requests, we briefly count requests per email address and IP address.
3. Who can see what
- A book's page (where its QR code leads) is public. It shows each record's photo, words, city, month and reader number. Please check what's in your photo before recording.
- Readers' names, email addresses and accounts are never shown on book pages or in letters.
- Friends (following): People who follow you see your name and icon, the titles of the books you're reading now and how far you are, and the titles and months of the books you finished. People you follow back also see the city where you read, your words, which copy (its book page) and the journeys of the books you passed on. People who don't follow you see only your name and icon (and your @ID if you set one). Turn off “Show my reading to people who follow me” to hide your reading from everyone. You can also remove followers or block people.
- Letters go to the person who registered the book, to earlier readers, and to people who chose to get letters about it. People who asked to be told about the work and whose town is near the place also get a letter. They include the city, reader number, distance, words and photo.
- For sharing on social media, we create an image card with the title, author, number of readers, distance, the journey line and colors from the photos. It doesn't include the photos themselves or your words.
4. Why we use it
To let you sign in and register and show books and records, to send letters, to prevent abuse and run the service safely, and to answer your questions. We don't use your information for advertising and we don't sell it.
5. Other companies and storage outside Japan
- We don't give your information to third parties without your consent, except as required by law.
- The service runs on the cloud of Cloudflare, Inc. (United States). Data is stored and email is sent using its services, in its data centers in several countries, including Japan.
- When looking up book details we send only the ISBN or title to openBD, NDL Search and Open Library — never your information.
- Your browser loads fonts from Google Fonts and scripts from jsDelivr, which receive your IP address and similar information.
- Maps are made by Protomaps from OpenStreetMap data and served from this service's own servers (Cloudflare). Viewing a map does not send your information to any other map provider.
6. Security
All connections use HTTPS. Sign-in links and sessions are stored only as hashes, and sign-in links work once, for 15 minutes. Only the operator can access the stored information.
7. Deleting and stopping
You can delete your own records from a book's page, stop letters from an email or your page, and delete your account from your page. Deleting your account removes your email address, photos, words and cover photos. The book's history keeps only the reader number, city and month, in a form no longer linked to you.
8. Requests and contact
For requests to disclose, correct, stop using or delete your information, or questions about privacy, write to privacy@voiceofbook.com. For anything else, contact@voiceofbook.com. Please write from the email address you registered with.
9. Operator
The service is run by an individual. We will tell you the operator's name and address without delay if you ask (privacy@voiceofbook.com).
10. Changes
We will announce changes on this page, and by email to registered addresses for significant changes.