Privacy

The short version

• • No account, and no sign-up: every feature is free and anonymous.
• • No tracking cookies, and therefore no cookie-consent pop-up.
• • Your saved routes, reading progress, and notes stay in your own browser and are never uploaded to a server.
• • Visitor analytics are cookieless and aggregated, never tied to you.
• • The newsletter is optional and double opt-in; your email is used only to send it, and you can unsubscribe or be deleted at any time.

What's stored, and where

When you save a route, mark a book as read, write a note, or review an idea, that information is written to your browser's local storage: a private store on your own device, tied to this site. It is never transmitted to PoliReads or anyone else. It stays until you clear it.

Because it lives in one browser on one device, it does not sync to your other browsers or phones. From My Library you can download or emailyour reading list — a plain document of your routes, books, and progress — to keep or share. To erase your data, clear this site's data in your browser settings, or delete individual saved routes from the library.

Cookies

PoliReads does not set advertising or tracking cookies, and does not build a profile of you across the web. That is why you are not asked to accept cookies when you arrive: there is nothing non-essential to consent to.

Analytics

To understand roughly how many people use the site and which pages are visited, PoliReads uses Vercel Web Analytics. It is privacy-friendly by design: it uses no cookies, does not collect personally identifiable information, and does not track you across other sites. The data is aggregated: counts of page views, not a record of any individual.

We also record a few anonymous, aggregated interaction counts: for example which tradition or focus a route was generated for, and how many people reach each step, so we can improve the product. These events contain no personal data, no notes, and nothing you type; they are simple counts, never tied to you.

Optional AI explanations

Some features can generate an optional AI explanation or challenge for a route or a book, on demand and only when you ask for one. To produce it, the relevant route or book context — the selected titles, their roles, and the tradition and goal you chose — is sent to the configured AI provider so the text can be written. That is the only thing sent: your saved library, reading progress, private notes, and anything you type elsewhere are never included. If you never request an AI explanation, nothing is sent at all.

Optional newsletter

If you choose to subscribe to the newsletter, your email address is sent to Buttondown (our email service provider) solely to deliver it. Subscription is double opt-in: you receive a confirmation email and are only added to the list once you click the link inside it. Every issue contains a one-click unsubscribe link.

The newsletter is the same curated issue for everyone: no personalisation, no interest tags, no segmentation. Only your email address is stored with the subscription. Your questionnaire answers, notes, reading progress, and saved book lists are never sent to anyone.

You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any issue, and you can ask for your address and interests to be deleted entirely by replying to any newsletter email. If you never subscribe, nothing in this section applies to you.

Links to booksellers

Book pages link out to retailers and libraries so you can find each book. Once you follow a link, that site's own privacy policy and cookies apply; PoliReads has no control over them. Some purchase links may be affiliate links. PoliReads recommendations stay deterministic and are never ranked by monetization.

Your control

Because PoliReads keeps no server-side account and never receives your library, there is no personal profile for us to look up, hand over, or delete. You already hold all of it, in your own browser, and can download or erase it at any time. The only third parties involved are the cookieless analytics described above and — only if you subscribe — the newsletter provider, where you control your subscription and can request deletion at any time.

Changes

If this notice changes, the updated version will be posted here. Last updated: June 2026.