Last updated August 16, 2026
Reading should be free, and it shouldn't cost you your privacy either. Here's exactly what we collect and why.
ReadAwesome is free for every individual reader, permanently, and is funded by voluntary donations and paid organization plans - never by advertising or by selling personal data. This policy explains what information we collect, why, and the controls you have over it.
Account information: when you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture. (In local development without Google sign-in configured, a lightweight session cookie is used instead, with no third party involved.)
Content you upload: documents you upload (PDF, DOCX, EPUB, TXT) or article links you paste, plus the text we extract from them, are stored so you can read them and pick up where you left off.
Reading activity: reading progress, session history, per-word timing, streaks, XP, levels, and achievements - this is what makes resume-where-you-left-off and the optional gamification features work.
Notes, highlights, and vocabulary: any highlights, notes, or words you save while reading.
Social features: friend requests and friendships, Shared Reads you create or join, and organization memberships - all only ever between people who explicitly invite or accept each other, never automatic.
Donations: if you donate through Ko-fi, we receive the donation email, a transaction ID, the amount and currency, and any name or message you chose to make public on Ko-fi. ReadAwesome never handles or stores your payment card details - Ko-fi processes payment directly.
Session data: a signed cookie that keeps you signed in. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and ReadAwesome has no third-party analytics or advertising scripts.
To operate the reading experience itself: storing and serving your documents, remembering your progress and preferences, and powering the optional social and gamification features you choose to use.
To recognize donors who explicitly opt in to public recognition (the Thank-You Wall), and to apply the purely cosmetic supporter perks tied to a matched donation.
To communicate with you about your account when necessary - for example, a friend invitation you sent, or a Shared Read invite.
We do not use your data to train third-party AI models, and we do not build advertising profiles from your reading activity.
We share information only with the service providers that make ReadAwesome work: Google (for sign-in), and Supabase (authentication, database, and file storage). If you donate, Ko-fi processes the payment and sends us the transaction details listed above.
We do not sell or rent personal information to anyone, and we do not share it with advertisers.
Content within a Shared Read (like your reading progress in that group) is visible only to the other people you've explicitly invited into or who joined that Shared Read - never to the public unless you separately opt in to a public profile.
Your public reading profile (app/u/[your name]) is off by default and can be turned on or off anytime in Settings.
Appearing on the global leaderboard is on by default, like most gamified apps, but can be turned off anytime in Settings without affecting your streak, XP, or achievements.
Donation recognition defaults to private; you choose if and how you're shown on the Thank-You Wall.
You can delete any uploaded document from your library at any time, which removes its stored file and extracted content.
There's no self-serve full account deletion yet - to request deletion of your account and associated data, contact us using the details below and we'll process it.
We retain your account and content for as long as your account is active. If you delete a document, its stored file and extracted text are removed. Donation records tied to a Ko-fi transaction may be retained longer where needed for financial reconciliation.
ReadAwesome is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 outside of a school-managed Organization account set up and administered by a teacher or institution.
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit and access controls on our infrastructure. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security.
If we make material changes to this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page and make reasonable efforts to let users know.
Questions about this policy or a request about your data can be sent to hello@readawesome.com.