Privacy policy
Wrist Reads keeps your books, highlights and exact reading position on your iPhone and Apple Watch. To run and improve the app and measure our own App Store ads, we collect usage analytics (with an approximate location from your IP address), subscription records and any messages you send us. We don’t track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and we don’t sell your personal information. You can turn usage analytics off in the app’s Settings.
Wrist Reads is made by Adam Watkins, an independent developer in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who publishes apps as Still Frost and sells Wrist Reads on the App Store under his own name. He has also used the name Palm Tree Dreams, which appears in our email address.
Adam (“we” or “us”) is responsible for the personal information described here, as our privacy officer (in Quebec, the person in charge of the protection of personal information) and as controller under the GDPR and UK GDPR.
This policy covers the Wrist Reads apps for iPhone and Apple Watch, the Wrist Reads pages on stillfrost.com, the feedback and emails you send us, and the App Store reviews of Wrist Reads that Apple shows us. Apple’s own services, such as payments and Apple Ads, are covered by Apple’s privacy policy.
There’s no account or sign-in. Your books, reading progress, bookmarks, highlights and settings are stored in Wrist Reads on your iPhone. Books you send to Apple Watch are stored there too, and travel with their titles, authors, highlights and reading position over Apple’s own connection, not through us. Your library isn’t synced through iCloud, but it’s included in device backups.
Our analytics refer to books by random IDs. Apart from two exceptions, we don’t receive your books’ text, titles or authors, your highlights, exact reading position, file names, searches or import links, though analytics do see things like file types, rough progress, chapter numbers and a PDF’s page count on Apple Watch.
First, when you pick an entry from a book’s contents list on Apple Watch, analytics record the name shown, which can be a chapter, story or part title, or even the book’s own title, taken from the book or from your own file or text. Second, when you add a Free Library classic, they record whether it’s the one we suggest first and whether it’s one of the few downloaded from Project Gutenberg, which can show which classic it is, and so which book later reading events are about.
For the free plan’s import limit, your iPhone keeps a count of your imports and one-way fingerprints (hashes) of them, not their content. This record isn’t synced, can outlast the app and isn’t sent to us, but analytics include the count, so a reinstall can report it under a new analytics ID.
Wrist Reads doesn’t take or keep photos, read your photo library, contacts or health data, or use Location Services or GPS. Reminders, including one on iPhone two days before a free trial ends, are scheduled on your device; we don’t send push notifications.
The iPhone and Apple Watch apps send usage events to PostHog, our analytics provider, and RevenueCat runs subscriptions on iPhone. Analytics are tied to random IDs rather than your name, but they aren’t anonymous, so we treat them as personal information.
Wrist Reads shows no third-party ads, has no session replay or screen recording, never uses the advertising identifier (IDFA) and never asks to track you. We use this information only for the purposes in this policy, never for third-party advertising or for decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
When the app asks a one-tap question, it records under your analytics ID that it was shown, your answer or dismissal, and whether you tap “Tell us more” or “Want a reply? Add your email”.
Messages you write from “Talk to us” in Settings or after a one-tap question (up to 2,000 characters, with that question and your answer) are sent through PostHog only when you tap Send. Each has its own random ID instead of your analytics ID and no session, language, time zone, library or location details, and we don’t use these details to link it to your other activity. PostHog still receives your IP address and may store it, so messages aren’t anonymous.
Your email address is included only if you turn on “I’d like a reply” and enter it, and you can choose to include the app version. We reply from our Gmail account, which then keeps your address and our conversation; your books, reading history and purchase details aren’t attached.
You can also email palmtreedreamsinc@gmail.com, or tap “Email feedback” to write from your own email account, usually with your name. For App Store reviews, Apple shows us your rating, review, nickname and App Store country. We use messages and reviews to help you and improve Wrist Reads, may reply to reviews publicly and may keep short private notes. Please don’t send passwords, payment details or whole books.
Free Library classics come from Project Gutenberg. Starting with Wrist Reads 2.0.30, most are built into the app with their covers, and only a few are downloaded from gutenberg.org when you add them. Earlier versions download every Free Library book from gutenberg.org when you add it, and load the covers from there too, starting with the setup screens when you first open the app.
Each request gives Project Gutenberg your IP address and the book or cover requested, and can show it came from Wrist Reads; its privacy policy says it deletes access logs, including IP addresses, within 60 days.
Importing a book from a link sends your IP address and the request to that website, not to us. Links you tap, and online images or styles in an imported EPUB, load from their own sites under their own policies.
Our website, stillfrost.com, uses PostHog to count page views and clicks on our App Store links, and may record time on page and scrolling. A random ID in local storage, and possibly a first-party cookie holding another, link visits from the same browser. PostHog receives your IP address, from which it adds an approximate location, the page address, referring site and browser and device type; the site doesn’t record your screen or build a profile of you.
Vercel, our host, receives your IP address, requested pages and browser details to deliver and secure the site.
We share personal information only as this policy describes, and Adam is the only person at Still Frost with access to the analytics, subscription records and messages described here.
PostHog, RevenueCat and Cloudflare process personal information for us under data processing terms that require them to keep it secure and confidential and to process it only on our instructions to provide their services to us. Apple handles it as the platform Wrist Reads runs on, under its developer agreement with us and its privacy policy. That gives the information Wrist Reads shares with them the same or equal protection as this policy.
Adam also uses everyday tools that work under their own terms rather than only for us: Google’s Gmail for our support inbox, Slack for private notifications to Adam, Vercel to host our website, GitHub to store the app’s code and his working notes, and AI assistants from OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude) to help read support emails and reviews and look at analytics. His AI accounts are set so these conversations aren’t used to train their models, and he shares only what each task needs.
For information about California residents, RevenueCat’s terms also let it use that information internally to build and improve its services, to protect against security incidents and fraud, and for other purposes California law allows. We’ve opted out of PostHog using our data to develop its own products and models.
We may also disclose information when the law requires it, such as for a valid court order, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our users or others. Apple and Project Gutenberg act as independent organizations for their own services. The main privacy policies are linked at the end of this list.
We’re based in Canada. PostHog stores our analytics, and RevenueCat our subscription records (on Amazon Web Services), in the United States. Our other providers and tools (Apple, Google, Cloudflare, Slack, Vercel, GitHub, OpenAI, Anthropic and Project Gutenberg) may process information in the United States or elsewhere, where courts, law enforcement and national security authorities may access it under local law. If you’re in Quebec, please note that your information is communicated outside Quebec, including to the United States.
For the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Canada is recognized as providing adequate protection for organizations covered by PIPEDA, as we are. For transfers to PostHog and RevenueCat, we rely on the standard contractual clauses in their data processing terms and, for PostHog, also on its certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, its UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us for a copy of these safeguards.
We use encrypted (HTTPS) connections, rely on iOS and watchOS security for your library, limit what we collect and use random IDs instead of names. No method is completely secure: if a breach affects your personal information, we’ll notify the authorities and the people affected where the law requires, directly if we have your contact details, otherwise on this page and, where we can, in the app.
We keep information for the periods below, or longer where the law requires. Deleting the app doesn’t delete what our providers already have, but if you ask, we’ll delete what we can match to you, including from the other tools below where they let us, and tell you about anything we couldn’t remove.
In Wrist Reads 2.0.31 and later, you can turn off usage analytics on iPhone in Settings > About > Share usage analytics. It’s on when you install the app. While it’s off, the iPhone app sends no usage analytics, and your Apple Watch stops too once it next hears from your iPhone. Turning it off doesn’t tell us anything about the change and doesn’t delete analytics we already have. Two things continue: a message you choose to send from “Talk to us” or after a one-tap question is still sent as described above, and RevenueCat still handles purchases, restores and the Apple Ads attribution check on iPhone. The switch also removes your analytics ID from your subscription customer record when the app next syncs with RevenueCat, so subscription events are no longer linked to how you use the app, though they may still reach our analytics under your random subscription customer ID.
Older versions of Wrist Reads have no switch. In any version, deleting Wrist Reads from your iPhone and Apple Watch stops collection by the app. If you ask us to stop analytics, or object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and we can find your records, we’ll delete the analytics we can match to you and set PostHog to discard new events from those IDs, including your subscription customer ID. While a subscription is active, Apple keeps telling RevenueCat about renewals, cancellations and refunds, which may be passed on as described above.
Manage or cancel a subscription in your Apple Account settings; deleting the app doesn’t cancel it, and Apple’s instructions are linked below. You can also:
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct or delete your personal information, get a portable copy, object to or restrict its use, and withdraw consent without affecting what we did before. We answer these requests from anyone, wherever you live, subject to legal exceptions.
To make a request, email palmtreedreamsinc@gmail.com. As there are no accounts, tell us what helps us find your records, such as roughly when you installed or subscribed, your devices and App Store country, the email address you used or, for a message sent from the app, when you sent it and what it said. Analytics tied only to a random ID that the app doesn’t show may be impossible to match to you.
We may ask for information to confirm a request is yours and use it only for that. If we can’t match records to you with confidence, we’ll tell you rather than risk someone else’s information. We’ll respond within 30 days, or sooner where the law requires, and tell you before then, with reasons, if a complex request needs longer and the law allows it. We’ll explain any records we must keep, for example for legal, tax or fraud-prevention reasons. Deleting records doesn’t cancel an App Store subscription.
If you’re unhappy with how we handled a request, tell us: Adam handles privacy complaints himself, looks into each one, keeps a record of it and replies in writing. You can also complain to a regulator below.
Wrist Reads is a general-audience reading app, not directed to children under 13, or under 14 in Quebec, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. In the EEA and the UK, children under the age their country sets for agreeing to online services, between 13 and 16, should use it only with a parent’s permission. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us: we’ll delete what we can identify and tell you about anything we can’t find or remove.
We’ll update this policy when Wrist Reads or our practices change, and change the date at the top. We’ll point out significant changes on this page and, where appropriate, in the app.
Questions, requests or complaints about privacy go to our privacy officer, Adam Watkins (Still Frost), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at palmtreedreamsinc@gmail.com. Help with the app is on our support page.