Without an account
- The web edition keeps your highlights, notes, bookmarks, reading-plan progress, reading streak and appearance settings in your own browser's storage. They never leave your device, and clearing your browser's site data removes them.
- So the library works offline, your browser also caches pages and texts you have opened.
- The Windows app keeps everything in a folder on your computer. It contacts the internet only when you ask it to: optional book downloads, opening a link, or an AI assistant you configure yourself (it is off by default), sync, if you sign in, and once a day a check for a newer version, which you can turn off in Settings.
- We use no cookies, no advertising and no third-party trackers.
- To see how many people visit and which pages they read, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics. It counts page views, the site a visitor came from, the type of device and browser, the country, and how fast pages load. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and does not identify you or follow you from site to site. Its small script is the only one we load from outside our site, apart from Google's sign-in script on the Account page if you choose to sign in. Fonts and everything else are served from our own site.
- Like any website, our host (Cloudflare) processes basic connection details such as IP addresses to deliver pages and protect the site from abuse. We do not use them to identify or profile readers.
If you choose to sign in with Google
Signing in is optional and only adds sync between the browsers and the Windows app (version 1.4 or later) where you sign in.
- What we receive from Google: your Google account ID, email address, name and profile picture. We ask for nothing else. We never see your password and cannot access your Gmail, Drive, contacts or any other Google data.
- What we store: that basic profile, plus the reading data you create: highlights, notes, bookmarks, reading-plan progress, reading activity (for your streak), your place in each work, course checkmarks, and appearance settings (including the first name you gave for greetings, if any). We also keep a record of each signed-in device's session (stored as a scrambled code, with when it started and expires) so you stay signed in.
- Why: only so the same data appears wherever you sign in. We do not use it for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not share it with anyone except Cloudflare, which stores it for us.
- Who can see it: the site's administrators can see your name, email, when you joined and were last seen, your signed-in devices, how much you have synced, which works you are reading and how far, your reading-plan progress and reading days, and which passages you highlighted or bookmarked. We use this only to help you when you ask for support and to protect the service from abuse. The text of your notes stays hidden unless an administrator opens it to look into abuse, and every such look is recorded.
- Where: in a Cloudflare database. Connections are encrypted (HTTPS).
- Your control: signing out keeps a copy on that device and stops syncing. Delete my synced data (on the Account & sync page) permanently removes your account and everything synced from our servers. You can also revoke access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
Nicaea Library's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Donations
Gifts are made on honestapologist.com and processed by Stripe. Nicaea Library never sees your card details. See the HonestApologist privacy policy for how those payments are handled.
Children, changes and questions
The library is free for everyone to read. Accounts are not intended for children under 13.
If this policy changes, we will update this page and its effective date. We will never start using your data for advertising or selling it.
Questions or requests: contact us on HonestApologist.