Privacy Policy

BookMates is currently a pre-launch, independent project — we are not yet a registered company. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have, for as long as BookMates remains in this stage and beyond.

1. What we collect

• Account info: name and email address.
• Password, stored as a one-way hash — we never store or can see your plaintext password.
• One-time login codes, temporarily, for sign-in and verification.
• Your city or general location, if you choose to provide it, to show you nearby books.
• Book listings you create: titles, descriptions, and photos.
• Points balance and transaction history on the platform.

2. How we use it

• To run your account and let you list, discover, and borrow books.
• To match you with books and members near you.
• To send transactional emails — login codes, verification, password resets, and activity notifications.
• To maintain and improve the platform.

3. Sessions and cookies

We use cookies to keep you signed in: a short-lived access token and a longer-lived refresh token. These are used only to maintain your session, not for advertising or tracking.

4. What's shared with other members

When you arrange a borrow, the other member sees what's necessary to complete it — for example, your name and general area. We don't share your email, password, or exact address with other members.

Please don't share anything beyond that yourself. Don't give other members your financial details, government ID, exact home address, or other private information — on the platform or when meeting in person. BookMates isn't responsible for information members choose to exchange with each other outside of what the platform requires, and always meet in a public location when handing off a book. See our Terms of Service for more on meetup safety.

5. Security

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt before storage, and we take reasonable steps to protect your data. That said, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

6. Data retention and deletion

We keep your information while your account is active. You can request that we delete your account and associated data at any time by contacting us.

7. Your rights

You can access, update, or request deletion of your personal data at any time — through your account settings where available, or by contacting us directly.

8. Third-party services

We use third-party services to run BookMates, including email delivery (SMTP) to send transactional emails, and hosting and analytics infrastructure (Vercel). These providers process data on our behalf and don't use it for their own purposes.

9. Children's privacy

BookMates is not intended for use by anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect data from children.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as BookMates develops. We'll post the updated version here with a new “Last updated” date.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy, or want to access/delete your data? Reach out via our contact page.