Privacy policy
- Brainfill has no account, no ads and no analytics tools. It doesn't track you.
- Your books, reading positions, marks, notes, reading stats and settings stay on your device.
- When the app crashes or freezes, it sends a technical report to our server. It holds no books, notes or anything you wrote. Turn it off in Settings › Send crash reports.
Who we are
Brainfill (“we”, “us”) makes the Brainfill app for iPhone and iPad. If you have a question about this policy or your data, write to support@brainfill.app.
What stays on your device
Your books (the ones you add and the free classics that come with the app), your library and collections, reading positions and sessions, marks and notes, the words you look up, reading stats and settings are stored only on your iPhone or iPad. So is the small snapshot of your library that the home-screen widgets show. Your device's own backups (iCloud Backup or a computer) include them, under Apple's terms.
What leaves your device
- Crash and performance reports. Once a day, and after a crash or a freeze, iOS gives the app a report about how it ran (Apple's MetricKit). Brainfill sends it to our server so we can fix crashes, freezes and slow screens. A report holds what the app's code was doing and the kind of error; how long the app took to start and respond, and the memory, processing time, battery and storage it used; and your device model, iOS version, region format and the app's version. It doesn't hold your books, marks, notes, library or anything you type, and nothing in it ties it to you. To stop one network from sending too many, our server keeps a scrambled form of the network's address for one hour. Turn reports off in Settings › Send crash reports; reports waiting on your device are then deleted unsent.
- Update check. When you open Brainfill, at most every six hours, the app asks our server which versions it still supports. The request carries nothing about you.
- Open Library. When you search for a book to log one you finished elsewhere, your search goes to Open Library (run by the Internet Archive), and covers load from its servers.
- The web. “Search” on selected text opens Google in an in-app browser, and Google receives that text. Links in books open in the same browser. Those sites handle your visit under their own policies.
- Apple. The dictionary and translation use Apple's services and on-device features. If you share analytics with app developers in your device's settings, or test Brainfill through TestFlight, Apple may give us crash reports and usage statistics of its own, under Apple's settings.
Our server
Our server (alex-dump-backend.fly.dev) is hosted by Fly.io in Singapore. It keeps crash and performance reports for 90 days. Its logs hold technical details such as which request was made and how long it took, never your content or IP address; Fly.io may keep network logs under its own policy. Daily backups are kept for 5 days.
Deleting your data
Deleting a book removes it with its marks and reading stats. Deleting the app removes everything Brainfill stored. Reports on our server aren't tied to you and expire after 90 days; to ask about them, email us.
Advertising and tracking
Brainfill shows no ads. We don't track you across other companies' apps or websites, and we don't sell or share your data.
Children
Brainfill isn't made for children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, write to us and we'll delete what we can find.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK, or in California), you may have the right to access, correct or delete your personal data and to object to how it's used. We send crash reports because we have a legitimate interest in fixing the app, and you can turn them off at any time; everything else is part of providing the features you use. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Changes to this policy
We'll post any change on this page with a new effective date. Before Brainfill sends anything new, such as with AI features in a later version, this page will say so and the app will ask your permission first.