Privacy Policy

ilmVault (“we”, “us”, “our”) is an AI-powered reading platform that lets you upload, read, and annotate EPUB and PDF books, interact with an AI reading coach, and connect with other readers. This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and how it is handled.

By creating an account or using ilmVault, you agree to this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

The short version: We collect only what we need to run the service. We do not sell your data. Your uploaded books are yours. You can delete your account and all associated data at any time.

Account information

When you sign up, we collect your email address, display name, and — if you sign in via Google — your profile picture URL. We use Supabase for authentication; your password (if you use email/password login) is hashed and never stored in plaintext.

Content you upload

Books (EPUB and PDF files) you upload are stored in Cloudflare R2, an object storage service. We store the file, its metadata (title, author where parseable, file size, format), and a table of contents if we can extract one. We also index book content in a vector database to power the AI search and coaching features.

Reading activity

We store your reading progress (current page/position per book), highlights and their colours, inline notes, tags, and recall card responses. This is the core data that makes the coaching and reinforcement features work.

AI interactions

When you use the AI reading coach, we send the relevant passage and your question to Anthropic's Claude API. We store the questions you ask and the responses you receive so that your coaching history is accessible within the app. These interactions are not used to train AI models.

Payment information

Billing is handled entirely by Stripe. We never see or store your card number, CVV, or full billing address. We store your Stripe customer ID and subscription status to manage your plan.

Usage and technical data

We collect standard server access logs (IP address, browser type, pages visited, timestamps) for security, debugging, and abuse prevention. We do not use third-party analytics trackers (e.g. Google Analytics) on the platform.

• To provide and operate the service — authentication, file storage, reading progress, highlights, coaching, reinforcement.
• To process payments and manage subscriptions via Stripe.
• To send transactional emails (account confirmation, password reset, subscription receipts, recall card digests) via Brevo.
• To power AI coaching features by passing relevant book passages and your queries to Anthropic's Claude API.
• To run background jobs (RAG indexing, digest emails, storage warnings) via Inngest.
• To investigate abuse, debug issues, and maintain security.

We do not use your data for advertising. We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties.

We share data with the following third parties only as necessary to operate the service:

All third-party providers are contractually bound to process data only as instructed and in compliance with applicable data protection law.

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account:

• Your profile, reading progress, highlights, notes, and recall cards are deleted within 30 days.
• Uploaded book files are deleted from Cloudflare R2 within 30 days.
• Vector embeddings (used for AI search) are deleted within 30 days.
• Billing records required for legal/tax compliance are retained for 7 years in accordance with applicable law.
• Anonymised, aggregated usage statistics (containing no personal identifiers) may be retained indefinitely.

You can export your highlights and notes at any time from the account settings page before deleting your account.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data:

• All data is transmitted over HTTPS/TLS.
• Database access is restricted by role-based access controls (Supabase RLS policies).
• File storage uses private buckets with signed URLs for access.
• API keys and secrets are stored as environment variables, never in source code.
• Passwords are hashed using bcrypt.

No system is 100% secure. In the event of a data breach that affects your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the relevant supervisory authority as required by applicable law.

Depending on where you are located, you may have the following rights under GDPR, CCPA, or other applicable law:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion — request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
• Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Restriction — ask us to restrict processing in certain circumstances.
• Opt-out of sale — we do not sell personal data, so this right is always satisfied.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] from the address associated with your account. We will respond within 30 days.

ilmVault uses a small number of cookies and similar technologies:

• Session cookie — used to keep you signed in. This is strictly necessary for the service to function.
• Preference cookie — stores your UI preferences (theme, reader settings). This is strictly functional.

We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking cookies, or third-party analytics cookies. You can clear cookies at any time through your browser settings, though this will sign you out.

ilmVault is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the EU under GDPR). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us at [email protected] and we will delete the account promptly.

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “last updated” date at the top. For material changes, we will notify you by email or by a prominent notice within the application at least 14 days before the change takes effect.

Continued use of ilmVault after the effective date of a change constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

If you have questions about this policy or your personal data, please contact us: