HUSHBOUND
Hushbound Privacy Policy
Last updated
Sanvi Apps Limited ("we", "us") operates Hushbound, a fiction-reading app for iOS and Android and its website at sanviapps.com/apps/hushbound. We are based in London, United Kingdom. This notice explains the personal information involved when you visit the website, use the app, sign in, read stories, send feedback or buy a subscription. Contact us at support@sanviapps.com about this notice or your information.
Information we handle
- Identity and account information. When available, the app creates a guest account identifier. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive an account identifier and any name and email address you choose to share. Apple may give us a private relay email address. We keep the account details needed to recognise you across devices. Your sign-in provider also handles information needed to authenticate you.
- Reading and preference information. The app records reading progress and times, completed chapters, highlights, favourites, bookmarks, ratings and preferences. It uses interactions with stories and search results to suggest other stories. Signed-in readers' information is stored online so it can sync across devices. Guest reading records remain on the device unless you sign in and import them, although a guest account can still contact our sign-in provider.
- Feedback and correspondence. If you send feedback, we receive your message and any screenshots you choose to attach, along with file details, the submission time and your account identifier. We store these so we can review the feedback. Screenshots may show other information visible in the image. If you email us, we receive your email address, message and anything else you include.
- Purchases and access. Apple or Google handles purchases made through its app store. Our subscription provider receives an account identifier and purchase information to check your access. We keep the product, subscription status and expiry information needed to provide that access, as well as records of subscription events. We do not receive full payment-card details. If website checkout becomes available, its payment provider will also process those purchases.
- Analytics and technical information. If you allow website analytics, the analytics provider receives page views, referring pages, interactions and browser or device identifiers. The app also uses PostHog analytics when the service is available. Recorded app events can include screen visits, book and chapter identifiers, genres and tropes, approximate reading time and progress, compact paragraph ranges, favourites and bookmarks, normalized lower-case terms submitted on the search page, paywall and subscription actions, notification responses, and text deliberately saved with Hushbound's highlight feature. A signed-in account's internal user ID is associated with those events; we do not send the account's email or name to PostHog. The provider may also collect automatic app, usage, session and device information and infer an approximate city from ordinary network information such as an IP address. Hushbound does not request precise device location for analytics. The app and website fetch service settings even if you reject website analytics. Providers that deliver these services receive ordinary network information, such as IP address and browser or device details.
- Information stored on your device. Hushbound keeps reading data, preferences, content caches and notification choices on your device. If you request a reading reminder and grant notification permission, your device schedules it using your time zone and the selected story or chapter; the reminder may appear on your lock screen. The website stores your analytics choice and, if website billing is offered, a billing identifier in your browser.
Why we use it and the legal bases
Where UK or European data-protection law applies, the legal basis depends on the purpose:
- Providing the service and purchases: we process account, reading, sync and subscription-access information to provide Hushbound and the features you request. The basis is performance of our contract with you, or steps you request before entering one. Without the relevant account or purchase information, some features cannot work.
- Optional website analytics: we load analytics after you allow it. The basis is your consent. You can reject it and continue using the website. See “Analytics and browser choices” below.
- Support, feedback, recommendations and service security: we use relevant information to answer requests, improve story discovery, maintain the service and investigate misuse. We rely on legitimate interests in providing and improving Hushbound and protecting its users, subject to your rights to object. Story suggestions do not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on you.
- Mobile analytics: the app currently has no in-app consent or withdrawal setting for analytics. Its purpose-specific legal basis and any consent requirement need confirmation. Notification permission is not analytics consent. Contact us with an objection or request.
We have not identified advertising or marketing-email uses for Hushbound. This notice does not assume that processing by an app store or sign-in provider is controlled entirely by us; those providers also handle information under their own notices.
Who receives information
We share information with providers that help us run Hushbound: Google for sign-in, PostHog for app analytics, Cloudflare for hosting and storing signed-in reading information and feedback, and RevenueCat for subscription access. Apple and Google also handle sign-in or app-store purchases when you choose those services. If website checkout is offered, Stripe will handle payments. Our email provider receives messages you send to our support address. Those providers' own notices explain information they collect when you use their services. We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect Hushbound and its users.
These providers can process information outside the United Kingdom, including where they operate their services. Their published terms describe their own processing arrangements. We have not verified the exact processing regions or account-specific international transfer safeguards for Hushbound. You may request available details at support@sanviapps.com.
Analytics and browser choices
The Hushbound website offers Allow analytics and Reject choices. Website analytics starts only after acceptance; rejecting it does not stop the requests needed to deliver the site, sign you in or fetch service settings. Your choice is saved in your browser. The website currently has no persistent control to reopen the banner or withdraw a prior acceptance. Clearing this site's stored browser data removes the saved choice so the banner can appear again; you can also use browser controls to restrict storage. A separate website preference control remains to be implemented.
The mobile app does not currently offer an equivalent analytics choice. Notification permission controls reminders, not app analytics. You can turn off notifications in your device settings. Contact us to discuss an analytics objection or deletion request; we cannot promise that deleting your Hushbound account removes analytics records held by providers.
How long information is kept
Hushbound does not have one retention period for all data. The app prunes detailed local reading-activity records older than one calendar year, but preserves chapter-completion markers. Local recommendation events are pruned after 30 days when pruning runs, with additional volume limits. Signed-in recommendation segments stored on our server are set to expire 730 days after their last update; a scheduled cleanup removes expired segments. These limits do not apply to every copy of reading or account data.
Other reader records, feedback, subscription records, analytics, support email and operational logs do not have a single confirmed expiry period. Reader records are needed while an account remains active and until deletion is requested; feedback and correspondence are needed while a request is handled; purchase records are needed while we verify and administer access. There are not yet automatic deletion periods for all of those records. We assess deletion requests individually. Some data may continue in providers' systems or backups after it is removed from our live records. The retention settings for analytics, service logs and backups, email, subscription providers and app stores have not been verified. We will update this notice when those details are established.
Account deletion and your rights
Signed-in users can request account deletion in the app settings, subject to a recent sign-in. The app then removes the associated reader profile, synced reading and recommendation records, and feedback and screenshots linked to that account identifier from our live records. It clears active local reader records and deletes the signed-in account, then starts a new guest session. The process does not cancel an Apple, Google Play or possible web subscription. Manage or cancel subscriptions with the relevant billing provider.
This in-app flow does not erase our subscription records, every device cache or reminder, purchase records held by the subscription provider, analytics history or all provider backups. Guest feedback is linked to a guest identifier, but the in-app deletion flow requires a signed-in account. Contact us if you want help with guest information, access, correction, export, deletion or another privacy request. We may need to verify that you control the relevant account or identifier before responding.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, erase, restrict or receive a copy of information, to object to certain processing, and to withdraw consent where consent is the basis. These rights can be subject to legal exceptions. Contact support@sanviapps.com to exercise them. UK residents can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office; residents elsewhere can contact their local privacy authority where applicable.
Security, age and changes
We use sign-in checks to protect account-related requests and restrict administrative access to feedback. No online service can guarantee complete security. Tell us promptly if you think your account or information is at risk.
Hushbound is intended for adults aged 18 and older. We do not have a verified age-checking system. If you believe a person under 18 has provided information through Hushbound, contact us so we can assess and address it.
We will revise this notice when our practices change and update the date shown above. Material new uses of personal information should be brought to users' attention before they begin. The current version is available at this URL.