Commonplace Privacy Policy

Effective 11 September 2026

Commonplace is a reading app for classic literature. This policy says what the app does with information. It covers Commonplace for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android.

In short

• Your library, notes, saved passages and reading places stay on your device.
• Commonplace has no accounts, no advertising, no analytics and no crash reporting, and it does not track you.
• We do not collect personal information. Nothing you write in Commonplace is sent to us.
• If you turn on Sync with Google, your notes and reading places are kept in a private folder of your own Google Drive. We cannot see it.
• Finding and downloading books contacts the book catalogues listed below. They receive ordinary connection information, as any website does.

What stays on your device

Your library and its details, books you import, your reading places, the daily passages you have been given, your notes, bookmarks and saved passages, cover choices, display preferences, and the history of each edition you hold. Searching your library, including the full text of your books, happens on the device. None of this is sent to us.

Finding and downloading books

When you browse or search the Bookstore, or download a book, Commonplace contacts the services that supply the books:

• the Commonplace catalogue (library.readcommonplace.com), for catalogue records, covers and book downloads;
• Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org), for its catalogue and downloads;
• Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org) and the Gutendex search service (gutendex.com), for searching and downloading public-domain texts;
• Open Library (openlibrary.org), for catalogue records and covers;
• Google Fonts, for typeface files the app does not already have.

These services receive what any website receives when a device asks it for something: your IP address, the time, and what was asked for — including the words you type into the Bookstore’s search, which go to the services that answer it. Each handles that under its own privacy policy. The Commonplace catalogue is served by a hosting provider that processes the same connection information in order to deliver the files; we do not use it to identify or follow readers. Commonplace never sends these services your notes or the books you imported.

When you open a link — to a source edition’s web page, for example — it opens in your browser.

Sync with Google (optional, off unless you turn it on)

Sync keeps your reading the same across your devices. It works through your own Google account, and no Commonplace server is involved.

When you turn it on, Commonplace asks you to sign in with Google and asks for one permission: to use a hidden folder in your Google Drive that belongs to Commonplace alone. It cannot see or change anything else in your Drive, and no other app can see that folder.

Into that folder Commonplace writes your notes; your saved passages and daily passages, with the notes on them; passages you have hidden or set aside; your reading places; a list of the books in your library (title, author, edition, when it was added and whether it is pinned); and a random identifier for each of your devices. It does not copy the books themselves, books you imported, your preferences or your reading history. A catalogue book you hold on one device is downloaded again from the catalogue on your others.

This information travels directly between your device and Google, and Google stores it under your Google account and Google’s privacy policy. We never receive it and cannot see it. It is protected by Google’s own storage encryption, not by a separate Commonplace password, so anyone who can get into your Google account could read it.

Signing in also gives the app the email address of your Google account, so that the Sync screen can show which account is in use. It stays on your device.

Turning sync off stops syncing and signs you out of Google inside Commonplace; your device and your Drive folder are left as they are. To delete the copy in your Drive, open Google Drive on the web, go to Settings, then Manage apps, find Commonplace and choose “Delete hidden app data”. You can remove Commonplace’s access at any time in your Google Account, under Security, in your connections to third-party apps and services.

Commonplace’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. That information is used only to provide sync. It is never sold, never used for advertising, and never transferred to anyone.

Backups

“Make a copy of Commonplace” in Settings creates a complete backup file, encrypted with a password you choose (Argon2id and AES-256-GCM), and puts it wherever you decide. We never receive it. Keep the password safe: it cannot be recovered, and anyone with the file and its password can read what is in it.

On Android, the system’s own backup keeps what you write (never the text of your books) in your Google account, under your device’s backup settings. On iPhone and iPad, the app’s data is included in your iCloud or computer backups, under your device’s settings.

Photos

If you choose a picture from your photo library to use as a book cover, Commonplace receives only the picture you choose. It never uses the camera.

Widgets and Apple Watch

The home screen widgets and the Apple Watch app show the day’s passage and the book you are reading. Commonplace passes that information between the app, its widgets and your Apple Watch; it is not sent anywhere else.

Children

Commonplace is a general-audience app for reading classic literature. It does not collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Your choices and rights

Because we do not collect personal information, we hold nothing about you to access, correct, export or delete. What Commonplace keeps is on your device — you can delete books, notes and saved passages in the app, or remove the app — and, if you use sync, in your own Google Drive, which you control as described above.

Changes

If Commonplace ever begins to collect information — for example, if accounts are introduced — this policy will be updated before that happens, with a new date at the top, and the app will ask you before anything new is collected.

Contact

Questions about this policy or about Commonplace: support@readcommonplace.com