Readwise Privacy Policy
TL;DR: Our business model has never been to sell data, and it never will. We collect your account details, the content you save, and the usage and error data that helps us build better software. Readwise Highlights and Readwise Reader are private by default. Readwise Books is social, but you can make your account private. You can opt out of marketing emails and export your data from Readwise Highlights and Readwise Reader at any time.
This Privacy Policy explains what information Readwise, Inc. (“Readwise,” “we,” or “us”) collects when you use Readwise Highlights, Readwise Reader, Readwise Books, or Readwise Bookshop, how we use it, and the choices you have. To see what applies to the apps you use, go to How each app handles your information.
1. Agreement
By using the Service, you agree to this Privacy Policy. You may see it in several places, such as when you create an account, check out, or redeem a title, and in your app settings. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the Service.
This Privacy Policy does not cover websites, apps, or services we don’t control, even when we link to them in our apps, emails, or recommendations. They have their own privacy policies, and we encourage you to read them before you share information with them.
This policy uses terms defined in the Terms of Service, such as “Service” and “Third-Party Services,” and in the Bookshop Terms, such as “Partner Publisher” and “Digital Content”.
2. Information we collect in all our apps
This section covers what we collect in every app and in our store. What each one collects on top of this, how it uses it, and who can see it is described in How each app handles your information.
Information you provide to us
- Account information, such as your first and last name, email address, and phone number.
- Your content, such as the highlights, notes, documents, books, and files you save, create, or upload in our apps.
- Communications, such as questions, feedback, and other messages you send us.
- Marketing preferences, such as which emails you want to receive.
- Anything else you choose to share, which we use as described in this Privacy Policy or as explained when you provide it.
Information we receive from third parties
- Third-Party Services. When you connect a Third-Party Service to import or export content, we receive data from your account there and usually store a sign-in token so the connection keeps working. Each app’s connections are described under that app in How each app handles your information. See also Third-Party Services in the Terms of Service.
- Payment processors and app stores. Stripe processes our payments, and its privacy policy at stripe.com/legal covers your card details. Stripe may share your name, the last digits of your card, and your billing information with us. If you subscribe through the Apple App Store or Google Play, the store tells us the status of your subscription, but not your payment details.
- Sign-in providers. If you sign in with a Third-Party Service, such as Amazon or Apple, it sends us information such as your name and email address.
- Social media. We run pages on platforms such as X, Meta, and LinkedIn. When you interact with those pages, you or the platform may share information with us, which we handle under this Privacy Policy. The platform’s own privacy policy covers what it collects.
Information collected automatically
We and our service providers may automatically collect information about your device and how you use the Service and our communications, such as:
- device information, such as your operating system and version, device manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, memory and storage size, processor usage, device type, and language settings;
- connection and location details, such as your IP address, unique identifiers, mobile carrier, network type, and general location, such as city, state, or region, based on your IP address; and
- activity and usage, such as the pages or screens you view and for how long, navigation paths, the page that sent you to us and the first page you visited, features used, access times, session length, and whether you open our marketing emails or click links in them.
We do not collect your precise location.
Cookies and tracking technologies
We and our service providers collect that information with these technologies:
- Cookies. Small text files your browser stores. They identify your browser, keep you signed in, remember your preferences, enable features, measure performance, and help us understand how the Service is used.
- Local storage. Browser and app storage, such as HTML5 storage, that holds larger amounts of data, such as session status, reading settings, and sign-in data.
- Web beacons. Also called pixel tags or clear GIFs. They tell us when a page or email is viewed or a link is clicked, for example to measure email open rates.
- Third-party tools. Services such as Google Analytics, which may use cookies or similar tools to collect information about your device and activity. They handle that information under their own privacy policies, for example how Google uses data.
Device permissions
Our mobile apps may ask for optional permissions, for example, to download content for offline reading, to send you notifications, or to support voice-controlled playback. If you allow notifications, we store a notification token for your device. Granting a permission is always your choice, and you can change it at any time in your device settings.
Content across our apps
One Readwise account works across all of our apps, so content you create in one app can appear in another. For example, highlights you make in Readwise Reader or Readwise Books are also saved to your Readwise Highlights library.
3. How we use your information
We use personal information for the purposes below. Where the law requires a legal basis, we rely on the one noted for each purpose. How each app uses your information is described under that app in How each app handles your information.
To provide the Service
We need this information to perform our contract with you under the Terms of Service. We use it to:
- create and maintain your account, and keep your content in sync across your devices and apps;
- save, import, and export your content, and run the features you choose to use, including AI features as described in the AI Policy;
- process subscriptions and purchases, deliver titles and print orders, and manage digital rights; and
- respond to your questions and requests, and send you service messages, such as security alerts, updates, and account notices.
To improve and personalize the Service
This is in our legitimate interest in building better and safer software. We use your information to:
- troubleshoot, test, and research how the Service is used;
- recommend books, documents, features, or readers to follow, based on your interests and activity; and
- notify you about activity relevant to you.
To send marketing
With your consent, or as otherwise permitted by law, we may send newsletters, promotions, and other marketing by email, in the app, or by other means. You can withdraw your consent at any time, as described in Your controls and settings.
For safety, security, and legal compliance
This is in our legitimate interests, and sometimes required by law. We use your information to:
- detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorized or illegal activity, and enforce the Terms of Service;
- keep our systems secure;
- comply with legal obligations, such as keeping transaction records or responding to lawful requests; and
- defend against legal claims and disputes.
We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects, without your explicit consent.
4. Sharing of personal information
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in the cases below. What each app shares, and with whom, is described under that app in How each app handles your information.
With other users
Other people can see what you share or make public, along with your name or profile.
With Third-Party Services
If you connect a Third-Party Service as an export destination, we send it the content you choose to export. That service handles it under its own terms and privacy policy.
For Google services you connect, Readwise’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
With AI providers
When you use an AI feature, we send our AI providers only the text, images, or audio needed to deliver it. Our agreements do not allow them to use it to train their models. Which providers we use, and how they may handle that data, is described in the AI Policy. Our team may review AI chat conversations and other AI requests to monitor quality and fix problems.
With service providers
We share personal information with companies that help us run the Service, under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only on our behalf. These include providers of:
- hosting, infrastructure, and databases;
- fetching and processing web pages, documents, and audio;
- analytics and error monitoring;
- email and messaging;
- customer support and content moderation;
- identity verification and fraud detection; and
- payment, tax, and order fulfillment.
With publishers
Publishers receive sales reports for their titles, with the order details, the price, and your general location, but without your name, email address, or payment details.
For legal and compliance reasons
We may share personal information with professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers, as needed for the services they provide to us. We may also share it if the law requires it, or if we believe in good faith that it is reasonably necessary to:
- respond to lawful requests from public authorities;
- protect the rights, property, or safety of Readwise, our users, or others; or
- investigate and enforce possible violations of the Terms of Service.
We give a government agency information about the books you browse, buy, or read only with a court order, unless you agree or someone faces imminent danger of death or serious physical injury.
Business transfers
If Readwise is involved in a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, including bankruptcy or dissolution, your information will likely be transferred as part of it, following applicable law. We will make reasonable efforts to require the recipient to honor this Privacy Policy. This does not give us the right to sell your information, and we do not want that right.
5. Your controls and settings
You can manage how your personal information is collected, used, and shared:
- Account information. View and update it at any time in your account settings.
- App controls. Controls for a single app, such as exporting your data or making your Readwise Books account private, are listed under that app in How each app handles your information.
- Third-Party Services. Disconnect any Third-Party Service in your account settings.
- Email preferences. Choose which emails you receive in your account settings.
- Marketing emails. Unsubscribe using the link in any marketing email, or by contacting us.
- Cookies and tracking. Set your browser to refuse or delete cookies, though some features may not work without them. You can also opt out of analytics with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. We do not currently respond to “Do Not Track” signals from browsers.
- Delete your account. Delete it in your account settings or by contacting us. Deleting your account is permanent, and we can’t restore it, so export anything you want to keep first. You also lose the titles you bought from Readwise Bookshop and any unused store credit. Deleting your account ends a subscription you pay us directly, but not one you pay through the Apple App Store or Google Play, so cancel that in the store first. Some records may be kept for legal, tax, or security reasons, as described in Data retention.
6. How each app handles your information
Each app collects different information and shows different things to other people. You only need to read the parts for the apps you use.
Readwise Highlights
| What we collect | The highlights, notes, and tags you import or create, your Daily Review and Mastery history, and photos of book pages you capture. |
|---|---|
| Third-Party Services | When you connect a reading service or an export destination, we store the sign-in token it gives us. For Kindle, our browser extension sends us your Amazon session cookie instead. We never receive your Amazon password, and we delete the cookie when you disconnect Kindle. |
| How we use it | We use your review history to choose which highlights to show you in Daily Review, and we keep your highlights in sync with the Third-Party Services you connect. When you use Ghostreader, chat with your highlights, listen to your Daily Review, or turn a photo of a book page into highlights, we use AI to read the text involved, as described in the AI Policy. |
| Who can see it | Your highlights, notes, and tags are private by default. Other people can see your information in these cases: If you share a highlight as an image, anyone with the link can see it. If you turn on Broadcast, anyone can subscribe to get your highlights by email, and your Broadcast page shows your first name and a few of your highlights. If you keep a Daily Review streak, your first name and streak may appear on our public streak leaderboard. Passages you highlight may count toward popular highlights shown to other readers of the same book, for example in Supplemental Books or Readwise Books, but never with your name, notes, or tags. |
| Your controls | Export your highlights at any time from your export page, turn off Broadcast, or disconnect any Third-Party Service in your account settings. |
Readwise Reader
| What we collect | The documents you save, such as articles, PDFs, EPUBs, newsletters, RSS feeds, YouTube videos, X threads, and emails you forward to your personal Reader email addresses, plus your highlights, notes, tags, and reading progress. Our browser extension sends us information only when you use it to save or highlight a page. It does not track the websites you visit. |
|---|---|
| Third-Party Services | When you import from another read-later app, we receive the documents and highlights you saved there. When you connect X, we store a sign-in token so we can import your bookmarks. When you set up Send to Kindle, we store your Kindle email address so we can send documents to it. |
| How we use it | When you save a link, our servers or our content-processing providers fetch the page, so the website sees our request rather than yours. When you use Ghostreader, chat with a document, listen with text-to-speech, or save a podcast, the text or audio involved is sent to our AI and speech providers, as described in the AI Policy. |
| Who can see it | Your library is private by default. Other people can see it in these cases: If you create a public share link, anyone with the link can see that document, your highlights and notes on it, and your name. If you share a highlight as an image, anyone with the link can see it. Passages you highlight may count toward popular highlights shown to other readers, but never with your name, notes, or tags. |
| Your controls | Export your library at any time from your Reader profile, disable any public link, or disconnect X or Send to Kindle in your account settings. |
Readwise Books
| What we collect | Your reading and social activity, including: your reading sessions: start and end times, progress, time spent, the device you read on, and any photos or recaps you add; your shelves, ratings, reviews, highlights and annotations, photos of book pages you capture, and reading goals; your profile: your username, photo, bio, location if you add one, links, who you follow, your posts and comments, and your direct messages; and the device name and the city and country of its IP address, when you sign in with a code on a new device. |
|---|---|
| Third-Party Services | When you import from Goodreads, we use your Goodreads session to copy your shelves, ratings, reviews, and friends list, including your friends’ names, photos, and profile links, so you can find them on Readwise Books. We delete the session when the import finishes. Imported shelves, ratings, and reviews follow your account privacy setting, so on a public account everyone can see them. When you import from Kindle, the app reads your library through Amazon’s website. If you turn on Kindle sync, it also checks your reading progress in the background to log your reading sessions. |
| How we use it | We notify you about activity relevant to you, such as reading session recaps, engagement from other readers, or leaderboard updates. When you use Ghostreader, listen with Assistive Reader, turn a photo of a book page into highlights, or log a reading session with a photo, we use AI to read the text involved. When Session Recaps are on, we also use AI to summarize your reading sessions. We may use the titles and authors on your shelves and your reading activity to recommend books or suggest other readers with similar taste to follow, as described in the AI Policy. |
| Who can see it | Readwise Books is social, so other readers can see some of your activity: Your name, username, photo, and bio are always visible, and you appear in search, reader suggestions, and reading leaderboards. Comments you leave on other readers’ posts are visible to anyone who can see those posts. Your shelves, ratings, reviews, reading sessions, posts, location, and links are visible to everyone by default. If you make your account private, only followers you approve can see them. You can also make individual books private, so only you can see them. Direct messages are visible only to the people in the conversation. We may review them to handle a report, and we may use automated tools to check them for spam and abuse. Passages you highlight may count toward popular highlights shown to other readers of the same book once at least three readers have highlighted them, but never with your name or annotations. |
| Your controls | Make your account or individual books private, or turn off syncing with Third-Party Services, such as Kindle. To get a copy of your Readwise Books data, such as your shelves, ratings, reviews, and reading sessions, contact us as described in Your rights. |
Readwise Bookshop
| What we collect | Your purchases, including: what you buy, what you paid, and any discounts you used; for ebooks and audiobooks, identifiers and encryption keys for the devices you read on; and for print books, your name, phone number, and shipping address. |
|---|---|
| From Partner Publishers | When you buy or redeem a title on a Partner Publisher’s storefront and use its “Read on Readwise” link, the Partner Publisher sends us the following, but not your payment details: your name and email address, to link the title to your Readwise account; the order details, such as the order date, order ID, title, price paid, discount applied, and redemption code, to fulfill the order; and your general location, such as country, region, or ZIP code, to manage territorial rights. |
| How we use it | We use it to process your order, calculate sales tax, ship print books, protect your ebooks and audiobooks, and give you access to titles from Partner Publishers, as described in Partner Publisher fulfillment in the Bookshop Terms. |
| Who receives it | Some of this information goes to the service providers that help complete your order, and to publishers: Stripe processes your payment. Anrok calculates sales tax from your address. Ingram prints and ships print book orders, and receives your name, phone number, and shipping address. For each Digital Content sale, the publisher receives the order details, the price, and your general location: country, state or region, ZIP code, and for some publishers, city. Publishers do not receive your name, email address, or payment details. We may also give publishers dashboards for their titles, with sales, public ratings and reviews, the passages readers highlight most, and aggregated or de-identified reading data, such as total reads and completion rates. None of it includes your name or username. |
| Your controls | See your order history and receipts, get help with your orders, check your store credit, and update your saved payment methods in your account. |
7. Data security
We use technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information, including:
- encryption of data in transit and at rest;
- secure authentication and session management;
- access to personal information limited to people who need it;
- secure cloud infrastructure and regularly updated software; and
- internal procedures for handling data breaches.
No system is completely secure, and data sent over the internet cannot be guaranteed safe. We work hard to protect your information, but we cannot promise absolute security.
If a data breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.
8. Data retention
We keep personal information for as long as we need it to provide the Service, for the purposes in this Privacy Policy, and to meet legal, tax, and regulatory obligations. To set retention periods, we consider the type and sensitivity of the information, the risk of harm from unauthorized use, why we process it, whether we can achieve that another way, and legal requirements.
In general:
- your account information is kept until you delete your account;
- your content, such as highlights, documents, reading activity, and AI chats, is kept until you delete it or your account, even if your plan ends. The only exceptions are inactive uploaded files, which we may remove, content that breaks the Terms of Service or the law, and accounts we close, including inactive ones, under Suspension and termination in the Terms of Service; and
- purchase and transaction records, and digital-rights license records without your name, may be kept after your account is deleted or closed, for audit, tax, legal, or publisher reporting reasons.
If you ask us to delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal information within a reasonable time, unless the law requires us to keep it. Backup copies may remain for a limited time.
Questions about how long we keep a specific kind of information can go to hello@readwise.io.
9. Your rights
Depending on where you live, data protection laws may give you rights over your personal information. To use them, contact us as described in Contact information. We may ask you to confirm your identity first.
If you live in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, or another U.S. state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law, you have the rights in this section. Residents of California and some other states can appoint an “authorized agent” to make requests for them, if the agent confirms their identity and authority as the law requires. You will not be discriminated against for using these rights.
Information requests
You can ask us for:
- information about how we collect and use your personal information. This Privacy Policy provides it, so you do not need to ask;
- access to a copy of your personal information, in a portable, machine-readable format where applicable;
- correction of information that is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date;
- deletion of information we no longer need to provide the Service or for other lawful purposes; and
- other rights, such as objecting to or restricting how we use your information, and withdrawing your consent where applicable.
Complaints
Depending on where you are, you may complain to a data protection authority, for example in the country where you live or work, or where you think a problem occurred.
Limits on your choices
Sometimes we cannot fully meet a request, for example where it would affect the rights of others, stop us from providing a service you asked for, or prevent us from meeting legal obligations or enforcing our rights. If you are not satisfied with our response, contact us as described in Contact information.
10. Children’s privacy
The Service is not intended for children below the minimum age in Eligibility in the Terms of Service, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that we collected personal information from a child without the parental consent the law requires, we will delete it as quickly as possible.
If you believe a child has given us personal information, or you are a parent or guardian who wants to review or delete a child’s information, contact us at hello@readwise.io.
11. International data transfers
Readwise is based in the United States. We may store and process your personal information in the United States and other countries, which may not offer the same protection as your home country. When we transfer personal information across borders, we use the safeguards the law requires. For people in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on one or more of:
- adequacy decisions by the European Commission or the UK government;
- Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission;
- the UK International Data Transfer Addendum;
- your explicit consent; or
- other valid legal bases under data protection law.
We require third parties that process personal information for us to protect it to the same standard. For questions about international transfers, or for a copy of the safeguards we use, contact hello@readwise.io.
EEA and UK representative contact information
For users in the EEA, we have appointed VeraSafe Ireland Ltd., Unit 3D North Point House, North Point Business Park, New Mallow Road, Cork T23AT2P, Ireland, as our EU data representative. For users in the UK, we have appointed VeraSafe United Kingdom Ltd., 37 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TL, United Kingdom, as our UK data representative.
You can contact our EU representative at the address above, through VeraSafe’s contact form, or by phone at +420 228 881 031.
You can contact our UK representative at the address above, through VeraSafe’s contact form, or by phone at +44 (20) 4532 2003.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as our practices, technology, or legal requirements change. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top. If the changes are material, we will also give you notice before they take effect, for example in the app, on our website, or by email.
13. Contact information
Readwise, Inc. is the company responsible for your personal information (the “data controller”). For questions, concerns, or requests about this Privacy Policy or your personal information, contact us:
- Email: hello@readwise.io
- Mail: Readwise, Inc., 5540 Centerview Drive, Suite 204, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
We treat privacy and data protection notices sent to that email address as official communications.
Readwise accepts service of legal process by email to legal@readwise.io from government and law enforcement agencies, if it is sent from the official email address of the requesting agency.