Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 5, 2026

This explains what LocalBooks (Belladrey LLC) collects, why, and your choices. Short version: we collect as little as we can, we don’t sell or share your information for advertising, and there are no ad trackers or third-party analytics on LocalBooks.

1. What we collect

What	Why	How long
Email address	To send sign-in links, and occasional notices about your account or books (for example a moderation decision).	Until you delete your account.
Sessions: a random sign-in token (we store only a one-way hash of it), when it was created and last used, the app or browser it’s from, your IP address and the country it maps to.	To keep you signed in, let you and us see where an account is signed in, and spot misuse.	Up to 180 days, or until you sign out.
Author profiles and books: names, bios, photos, websites, where you live (as a place you choose, not a precise location), book details, covers, buy links.	This is what the directory shows. It’s public on purpose.	Until you delete it.
Ebook files you upload.	To show the book in the reader, as you choose (sample only, or the whole book for signed-in readers).	Until you remove the ebook or replace it.
Reading progress: which book and paragraph you’re on, which chapters you’ve finished.	So you can pick up where you left off, on any device.	Until you delete your account.
Echoes you leave, with the start of the paragraph they’re on.	To show you your own Echoes, and the book’s author the totals (never who left them).	Until you remove them or delete your account.
Reports you send: the reason, your description, and your email if you give it (required for copyright notices). We also keep a scrambled code derived from your IP address, not the address itself.	To handle the report and to spot abuse of the report form. Copyright notices may be shared with the person whose content was reported, as the law expects.	As long as needed to handle it and keep a record of moderation decisions.
Abuse protection: counters keyed to your IP address or email for sign-in and report attempts; Cloudflare Turnstile’s bot check on those forms.	To stop spam and automated attacks.	Counters expire after one hour. Turnstile: see Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
Trailer showings: which trailer played, in which book, when, and whether it finished or you saved the book.	To vary what you see, count views for trailer packs, pay the author of the book you were reading, and stop fraud. Authors see totals only, never who.	Until you delete your account (then kept without your account, as totals).
Trailer pack purchases, earnings and cash-outs (authors).	To deliver what you bought, pay what you earned, keep accounts and meet tax rules.	As long as tax and accounting law requires (usually seven years), even after you delete your account.
Server logs: requests to our servers (IP address, page, browser) kept by our host for errors and security.	To keep LocalBooks running and secure.	A few days.

Payment and payout details stay with those providers: Stripe collects your card and billing address (we keep the amount, tax, billing country and state, and Stripe’s reference numbers), and Dots collects identity documents, tax forms and payout accounts (we keep Dots’ reference number and your cash-out history).

Buying an ebook: the author is the seller, so the payment is made to the author’s own Stripe account and the author receives what Stripe shares with a seller: your name, email address, billing address and the payment. LocalBooks itself shows authors only how many copies sold, never who bought them.

2. Cookies and browser storage

We use only what the site needs. No advertising or analytics cookies, so there’s no cookie banner.

lb_s (cookie): keeps you signed in. Only set when you sign in.
lb_theme, lb_reader, lb_echo_hint, lb_lang_dismissed (stored in your browser, never sent to us): your light/dark choice, reader settings, whether you’ve seen the Echo tip, and whether you dismissed the language suggestion.
lb_preview (cookie): only for the pre-launch preview.

3. Who we share it with

We don’t sell your personal information or share it for advertising. We use these service providers to run LocalBooks:

Cloudflare, Inc. (USA): hosting, database, file storage, sending email, bot checks (Turnstile) and security. Our fonts and maps are served from our own servers, not Google or other third parties.
[Hostinger: the support@ mailbox]
Stripe, Inc. (USA): payments for trailer packs, listings and ebook purchases, and sales tax.
Dots Technologies Corp. (USA): identity checks, tax forms and payouts to authors.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect people’s safety, or as part of a sale or merger of LocalBooks (the buyer would be bound by this policy). Public content (profiles, listings, samples) is visible to everyone, including search engines and AI assistants.

4. Your choices and rights

Edit or unpublish your profiles and books, and remove ebooks, from your dashboard at any time.
Download everything we hold about you, or delete your account and everything in it, any time from Dashboard → Account. You can also email support@localbooks.app from your account’s address to access, correct, export or delete your data, and we’ll do it within 30 days.
If you’re in the EU, UK or a similar jurisdiction, you also have the rights to object, restrict processing, data portability, and to complain to your data protection authority. Our legal bases are: performing our agreement with you (accounts, listings, reading), legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention, moderation) and legal obligations.
If you’re in California or another US state with a privacy law: we don’t sell or “share” personal information for cross-context advertising, and you have the right to know, correct and delete. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights.

5. Children

LocalBooks isn’t meant for children under 13 to sign in, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. Books for young readers are listed for parents, teachers and readers of all ages to discover. If you think a child has given us information, email us and we’ll delete it.

6. Where your data is

LocalBooks runs on Cloudflare’s global network, so your data may be processed in the United States and other countries. Where required, transfers rely on Cloudflare’s data protection terms, including Standard Contractual Clauses.

7. Security

No passwords to leak; sign-in links work once and expire after 30 minutes; we store only hashes of session tokens; everything travels over HTTPS. No system is perfectly secure, and we’ll tell affected users and authorities about a breach as the law requires.

8. Changes and contact

We’ll post changes here and, for material ones, tell signed-in users before they take effect. Questions or requests: support@localbooks.app, or Belladrey LLC, [mailing address]. [EU/UK representative, if required.]