ReadGo Privacy Policy
ReadGo is a reading app made by Koray Ertekin, an independent developer ("we", "us"). This policy explains what information the app and this website handle, where it goes, how long it is kept, and the choices you have. In short: your books and your reading stay on your phone, except the passages you choose to have read aloud in Listen mode.
What stays on your phone
Everything you put into ReadGo is stored only on your device:
- the books and documents you import (EPUB, PDF, text files), and the photos and scans you take of printed pages
- the text ReadGo extracts from them, your reading positions, chapters you've finished, your reading streaks and daily goal
- your settings (text size, theme, reading speed)
Text recognition for scans and photos runs on your phone, using Apple's or Google's built-in on-device technology. Your pages are not uploaded anywhere for this.
You can use ReadGo without an account. If you create one (see below), your library still stays on your phone: we have no copy of it. The only text that leaves your phone is what you choose to listen to (see Listen mode below).
What is sent from your phone
ReadGo sends two kinds of technical information to help us improve the app. Neither ever includes the text, titles or file names of anything you read. You can turn each one off at any time in Settings → Privacy.
Usage statistics (through an analytics provider). Anonymous events such as "a PDF was imported", "the reader switched to Focus mode", "a plan was bought" or "an import failed", with details like the file type, the number of words or chapters, and the reading speed setting. These are not linked to your name, email address or any account, and are used only to understand which features are used and what goes wrong.
Crash reports (through a crash-reporting provider). When the app crashes or hits an unexpected error, a report with technical details is sent: the error and where in the app it happened, your device model, operating system version and app version. Crash reports don't include your books or what you were reading.
Both are stored in the European Union. These providers process the information on our behalf and only for these purposes.
Accounts (optional)
Creating an account is your choice; the app works without one. You need one for Listen mode and ReadGo Premium. If you sign in, we store:
- your email address
- your name, if you sign in with Apple or Google and they share it (with Apple you can hide your email address, and we then receive a private relay address instead)
- which sign-in method you used, and when you signed in
Accounts are stored with our cloud hosting provider, in the European Union, which processes this information on our behalf. Sign-in emails (the link or code you ask for) are sent through an email delivery service, which receives your email address only to deliver them. If you sign in with Apple or Google, that company learns that you use ReadGo. Your account is not linked to usage statistics or crash reports.
Listen mode (optional)
Listen mode reads books aloud in an AI voice and needs an account. When you play or download a passage:
- the text of that passage is sent to our server and to an AI-based text-to-speech provider, which turns it into speech. The provider processes the text on our behalf, only to create the audio. Under its terms for this service, it doesn't use the text to train its AI models and keeps it for no more than 30 days. If we change provider, we will update this policy.
- the audio is stored with your account, together with a fingerprint of the text and when it was made, so the same passage isn't made (or charged) twice and so we can limit how much can be made at once. We also record how many listening minutes you have used and have left.
- a copy of the audio is saved on your phone, so it plays without a connection.
The title and author of the book are not sent. Passages you don't listen to never leave your phone.
ReadGo Premium (optional)
ReadGo Premium and extra listening minutes are bought through the App Store and need an account. Apple handles the payment; we never see your card or payment details. We use a purchase-verification service to check purchases: it receives your account's ID (a random code, not your name or email address), what you bought, when it renews or ends, and the App Store's record of the purchase. It processes this on our behalf, and our server uses it to give your account its listening minutes.
Where your information is processed
Our cloud hosting, analytics and crash-reporting providers store information in the European Union. Our text-to-speech provider, purchase-verification service and email delivery service are based in the United States and may process information there. Where information leaves the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, these providers protect it with the safeguards the law requires, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
- Your account, listening minutes and narrated audio: until you delete your account.
- Your purchase history with our purchase-verification service: until you delete your account. Apple keeps its own record of your purchases under its own privacy policy.
- Text sent for narration: no more than 30 days, by the text-to-speech provider.
- Usage statistics and crash reports: for the providers' standard retention periods, after which they are deleted.
The legal basis (for readers in the EU and UK)
We use your account, the passages you listen to and your purchases to provide the service you asked for (performance of a contract). We use anonymous usage statistics and crash reports, which you can turn off, for our legitimate interest in keeping the app working and improving it.
What we don't do
- We don't sell your information or share it for advertising.
- We don't track you across other apps or websites.
- We don't collect your contacts or location, and we don't collect your name or email address unless you create an account.
Permissions
- Camera: only when you choose "Scan pages", to photograph printed pages.
- Photos: only the photos you pick in "Choose photos".
Deleting your data
Settings → Delete all my data permanently removes every book, your reading progress, streaks and settings from your phone. Deleting the app does the same. There is no other copy of your library to delete.
Profile → Delete account permanently deletes your account and the information stored with it, including the audio made for you in Listen mode, your listening minutes and your purchase history with our purchase-verification service, and ends ReadGo's link to your Apple sign-in. It doesn't cancel a Premium subscription, which Apple bills: cancel it first under Profile → ReadGo Premium → Manage subscription. It does not remove the books on your phone.
Audio saved on your phone is removed with its book.
Anonymous usage statistics and crash reports can't be linked back to you, so they can't be looked up or removed individually; providers delete them after their standard retention periods.
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, or to stop using it, by writing to the address below. We'll reply within 30 days. Depending on where you live, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
This website and the waitlist
ReadGo runs the waitlist at readgo.app. If you join it, we collect:
- your email address
- the phone you chose (iPhone or Android), whether you asked to hear about Listen mode, the language you used the site in, and, if you arrived through a tagged link, which site sent you (for example "tiktok")
- when you signed up and confirmed your address, as a record of your consent
We use this only to send you beta invitations and news about ReadGo's launch, on the basis of your consent. You are added to the list only after you click the confirmation link we email you.
The list is stored and emails are sent with an email service based in the European Union, which processes the information on our behalf. We don't sell the list or share it with anyone else.
You can leave at any time with the unsubscribe link in any email, or by writing to [email protected]. We keep waitlist details until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
The company that hosts the website also provides two things on it:
- Visitor statistics: anonymous counts of visits, such as pages viewed, country and the site that linked to us. They use no cookies and do not identify or follow individual visitors.
- A check that sign-ups come from people: when you submit the form, technical signals from your browser and your IP address are used to tell people from automated scripts. To limit abuse we also count sign-up attempts per IP address for ten minutes, then discard the count.
The website sets no advertising or tracking cookies. It stores your language choice in your browser so the page opens in the same language next time.
Children
ReadGo is not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update the effective date above and, for significant changes, tell you in the app.
Contact
Questions about privacy: [email protected]