Privacy Policy (United States)

Version 1.0 — Effective date: 2026-09-02

The short version: BeyondRead is a local-first reading app. Your books, bookmarks, quotes and reading progress stay on your device — we cannot see them. Only the AI features talk to our server, and only when you are signed in and have turned them on. We do not sell your data, we do not show ads, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.

1. Who we are

BeyondRead (bundle id com.zhinengbooks.us) is developed and operated by Zhang Liu, an individual developer.

• Developer location: South Carolina, United States
• Servers for the US edition: United States (Tencent Cloud, Silicon Valley region)
• Contact: zhang3917@hotmail.com

2. What never leaves your device

The reader works without an account and without a network connection:

• The books you import (EPUB, PDF, MOBI) — stored only in the app's sandbox on your device.
• Bookmarks, quotes, reading positions, folders, reader settings.
• Your reading history. We have no analytics SDK and no advertising SDK.

If you never sign in, the app sends us nothing at all.

3. What we collect, and why

We collect information only when you sign in and use the AI features:

• Apple account identifier (the stable sub Apple issues for this app) — collected at Sign in with Apple, to recognize your account.
• Email address (may be Apple's private relay address if you chose "Hide My Email") — provided at your first Apple authorization only. Shown in Settings so you know which account you are in, and used to match support requests.
• Optional username — if you set one in Settings, as a second way to sign in to the same account.
• Password — if you set one. Stored only as a salted scrypt hash; we cannot read it.
• AI request content — the passage you selected, nearby context, your follow-up questions, and the book's title and author, each time you use "Ask AI". Sent to the AI model to produce the answer; retained as described in §6.
• AI Digest input — the book's table of contents and a short opening sample of each chapter (at most 200 characters per chapter), when a digest is generated. The digest is grounded in the real structure of the book. **The full text of your book is never uploaded.**
• Usage counters — how many AI calls and digests you used, to enforce plan quotas.
• Security records — IP address, request identifiers, timestamps, token counts and outcome of each AI call, for abuse prevention, billing integrity, and answering complaints about a specific AI output.
• Subscription tier and expiry — if you subscribe, to grant the features you paid for. Payment itself is handled entirely by Apple; we never see your payment details.

We do not collect your name, phone number, contacts, location, photos, or device advertising identifiers. We do not use your content to train AI models.

4. AI processing and the model provider

When you use "Ask AI" or "AI Digest", the content described above is sent to our server in the United States and relayed to Google LLC (United States), whose Gemini models generate the answer. We send Google only what is needed to answer: your selected passage, nearby context, your questions, and the book's title, author, table of contents and short chapter openings. Our server holds no conversation state; each request stands alone. Google processes this content as a service provider under the API terms that apply to our use of the Gemini API; its handling is described in Google's own terms and privacy documentation.

The US edition uses no other model provider. Every AI-generated article carries a notice that it was generated by AI. AI output can be wrong. It is not professional advice (see the Terms of Use, §5).

5. Legal bases and purposes

We use the data in §3 to: provide the AI features you request; enforce plan quotas and prevent abuse (including quota fraud); maintain security and audit records; respond to complaints about specific AI outputs; and comply with legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

6. Retention

• AI request records (your input, the AI's answer, IP address, book title): retained in encrypted form for up to 3 months, then the content, IP address and book title are permanently scrubbed. What remains afterwards is minimal technical metadata (timestamps, token counts, model name, outcome) that can no longer identify what you read or asked.
• Sessions: a signed-out session is revoked immediately and its record is deleted within 7 days.
• Account data (identifiers, email, username, password hash, counters): kept while your account exists; deleted when you delete your account (§7).
• Quota ledger: see §7 — one non-reversible hash, kept to protect the free allowance.

7. Deleting your data

• Local data: delete the app. Everything in §2 is gone; we never had it.
• Your account: Settings → Account → Delete Account, entirely in-app, no need to contact us. This deletes your account row, usage counters and subscription record, and asks Apple to revoke the app's authorization for your Apple ID.
• Two narrow exceptions, stated plainly: 1. AI request records within the retention window. They are kept for the remainder of the 3-month window for security and complaint-handling, but are immediately detached from your deleted account and are not used for anything else. They are scrubbed as described in §6. 2. One salted, non-reversible hash of your sign-in identity. It cannot be turned back into your Apple ID or email, and contains nothing that can contact you. Its only purpose is that if the same identity signs up again, the free allowance you already used is not issued a second time. If you want even this removed, email us — but the free allowance will then not be restorable.

To exercise any request by email instead, write to zhang3917@hotmail.com from the email address associated with your sign-in (Apple's relay addresses work too). We respond within 30 days.

8. Your privacy choices and applicable U.S. privacy rights

Depending on your state (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of your personal information, and to opt out of "sales", "sharing" or targeted advertising. We voluntarily provide access, correction, and deletion options to all U.S. users — regardless of whether a particular state privacy law applies to us — through the in-app mechanisms and the email above. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined in those laws, so there is nothing to opt out of; for the same reason, browser "Global Privacy Control" signals have no effect on this app. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

9. Children

The app is intended for users 17 and older and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has used the AI features, contact us and we will delete the associated records.

10. Security

All traffic uses HTTPS. Retained AI content is encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) with keys held outside the database. Passwords are stored only as salted scrypt hashes. Session tokens are stored hashed; signing out revokes the session server-side immediately. No system is perfectly secure, but unencrypted copies of your content do not sit in our database or backups.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or who receives it, we will present the updated policy in the app and ask for your consent again before the AI features continue. Cosmetic edits do not trigger re-consent. Earlier versions are available on request.

12. Contact

• Email: zhang3917@hotmail.com (responses within 30 days)
• Developer: Zhang Liu, South Carolina, United States