Privacy Policy
Short version
Abookify keeps your library on your own hardware. Your audiobooks, ebooks, reading positions, bookmarks, and any API keys you enter stay on your device and on the server you run. We — PJ3 Labs Inc. — operate no servers that your app talks to, run no analytics or advertising, show no ads, and collect no personal data. There are no accounts to create. The only times data leaves your device are ones you set up yourself, and they are listed below.
What we never collect
- The audiobooks, ebooks, transcripts, bookmarks, notes, or any other content in your library.
- Your reading or listening history, or which books you own.
- Which features you use, how often, or when — there is no usage analytics.
- Advertising IDs, device-tracking identifiers, or location.
What leaves your device, and when
The server you run
When you pair the app with an Abookify server you run, the app exchanges your library, playback positions, streamed audio and text, and a device name and platform (used for sync) with that server — your own hardware, over your local network or a relay you use to reach it from outside your home. The server software is open source and stores your library in a database on your machine; no part of it is sent to PJ3 Labs Inc. The server URL and any pairing/authentication token are held in your device's secure storage (iOS Keychain / Android Keystore) and are never transmitted to us.
Reaching your server from outside your home (optional relay)
If you connect using an Abookify relay address rather than a local one, your HTTPS traffic to your server is tunnelled through NullBore's relay infrastructure so you can reach your home server remotely. It is a transport to your own server; see nullbore.com for how the relay handles traffic. Connecting over your local network does not use the relay.
Cover art
When you look up or search for a book cover, the search runs on your server (which may query a public catalogue such as Open Library, sending the book's title and author). The preview thumbnail images shown in the app's cover picker are then loaded directly by your device from the cover source's servers — an ordinary image request, with no account, key, or other personal data attached. The cover source is a third party; the image it serves is subject to its terms, not ours.
AI recaps and questions
These are optional and off until you set them up. They can run two ways:
- Through your server (default). When you ask a question or request a recap, the app sends it to the Abookify server you connected, which answers using whichever AI provider you configured on that server — either a local model (such as Ollama, which keeps everything on your own hardware) or a cloud provider you enabled with your own key.
- On your device, with your own key (optional, off by default). Under Settings → “AI on this device” you can enter your own API key so these features work away from your server; the app then calls the provider directly from your device, authenticated with your key.
Typed questions — exactly what the app sends, and to whom. When you use the on-device option with your own key, then at the moment you ask a typed question the app sends your question and the passages of the book text needed to answer it directly to the LLM provider you selected — Anthropic (api.anthropic.com) or OpenAI (api.openai.com) — authenticated with your key. When instead you use the through-your-server option with a cloud provider you configured on your own server, that request goes from your server to whichever provider you set up there.
Spoken questions (voice). Talking to a book is optional and off until you open it. When you do, the app opens a direct, real-time audio link from your device to the voice provider your server is set up for — OpenAI (api.openai.com) or Google Gemini Live (generativelanguage.googleapis.com) — using a short-lived token your server mints (your provider key stays on the server and is never sent to your device). Over that link, your spoken audio, the spoken reply, and the reading-position-bounded book passages needed to answer travel directly between your device and that provider. If the live link can't connect and you have added a Deepgram key, the app offers you — as a named choice you make, never automatically — a device-local voice loop instead: it sends the audio of your question to Deepgram (api.deepgram.com) to transcribe, and the text of the answer back to Deepgram to speak it. If you never open a voice feature, no audio leaves your device.
These are independent third-party services with their own terms. Once your content reaches a provider, that provider's privacy terms govern it, not ours. Review the policy of any provider before you enable it — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Deepgram, or whichever you configured on your server. Using a local model on your own server sends nothing to any third party.
Diagnostics and crash logs
Abookify includes no analytics SDK and no crash-reporting SDK. The app keeps a short local log of recent errors so you can report a bug; it stays on your device and is only ever shown to you in the app's Settings. If you have turned on your own device's “share diagnostics with developers” setting, the operating system may share crash logs with Apple or Google — a platform feature we neither operate nor control.
Permissions the apps request
- Camera — to scan the pairing QR code on your server's settings page. No images are stored or sent.
- Microphone — only for the optional spoken-question feature; audio goes only to the voice provider you configured (OpenAI, Google, or Deepgram), and only when you use it.
- Files / documents — so you can import audiobooks, ebooks, and
.abookfiles. - Notifications — for playback and job status.
- Local network (iOS) — to reach the server you run on your Wi-Fi.
Children's privacy
Abookify is not directed at children under 13. It has no accounts and does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children.
Your rights
Because we hold no personal information about you, there is nothing on our side to provide, correct, or delete. The data in your Abookify library is under your direct control on hardware you own; removing the app removes the on-device library, keys, and logs.
If you have used a third-party service alongside Abookify (an LLM or voice provider you enabled) and wish to exercise rights over data held by that service, contact them directly.
Compliance
This policy is intended to comply with Canada's PIPEDA, the European Union's GDPR, and California's CCPA insofar as those laws apply to a product that does not collect personal information from its users.
Changes to this policy
If we ever change what leaves your device, we will update this page and its date. Material changes that affect existing users will be communicated through the app and the Abookify website.
Contact
Questions about this policy: [email protected]
PJ3 Labs Inc.
Ontario, Canada