FictionChat Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 18, 2026
FictionChat is an ebook reader that lets you chat, by text and voice, with characters from books you import. This policy explains what data FictionChat (“we”) collects, how it is used, and the choices you have.
The short version
- Your books stay on your device. We never upload your book files.
- Your chat messages, questions, and short excerpts of the book you are reading are sent to AI providers (OpenAI and Google) to generate responses — only after you explicitly consent in the app, and only while you use AI features.
- Voice conversations stream your microphone audio directly to the AI provider during the session. Audio is not stored by us.
- We collect usage analytics tied to your account to improve the app. We do not sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps and websites.
- You can delete your account (and the data tied to it) inside the app.
Data we collect
Account information. When you create an account we collect your email address and a password (stored as a secure hash by our authentication provider, Supabase). Signing in is required for AI features.
Reading data you create. Your reading progress, highlights, bookmarks, and notes (including their text) are synced to our database (Supabase) so they follow you across devices. Your book files themselves are never uploaded.
AI conversations and book context. When you use AI features — character chat, voice conversations, character extraction, portraits, or read-aloud of AI replies — your messages and questions, the book's title/author, short excerpts of the current pages, and character descriptions are sent to our server and processed by third-party AI providers (OpenAI and Google) to generate the response. Voice sessions stream your microphone audio directly to the provider (OpenAI or Google) for the duration of the session. We show you a consent screen before your first AI interaction; declining means no data is sent. AI-generated character portraits may be cached in our storage, keyed to the book (not to you personally), so other readers of the same book don't have to regenerate them.
Usage analytics. We use PostHog (cloud service, US) to understand how the app is used: events such as opening a book, starting a chat, hitting a usage limit; the titles/authors of books involved; session durations; app version; device type, operating system and screen size; and a random app-scoped identifier. Analytics are linked to your account ID and email. We deliberately do NOT collect the text of your notes, searches, chat messages, or books in analytics — only counts and lengths. The app does not record your screen.
Error data. If something fails, we log the error type, an error code, and a truncated error message, linked to your account, so we can fix it.
What we don't collect
No advertising identifiers, no location, no contacts, no photos, no cross-app tracking, no data sales, no ads. Search terms inside books are not collected (only the fact that a search happened and its length). Book files never leave your device.
Who processes your data
| Processor | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Account authentication; database for reading data sync |
| PostHog (US) | Product analytics |
| OpenAI | AI chat, voice conversations, text-to-speech (processing only) |
| AI chat, voice conversations, character portraits (processing only) | |
| Google Cloud | Hosting for our API server |
We send AI providers only what is needed to generate your response. Per their API terms, OpenAI and Google do not use API data submitted this way to train their models.
Retention and deletion
Your account data, reading data, and analytics profile are retained while your account exists. You can delete your account in the app (Profile → Delete Account); this permanently removes your account and the data tied to it in our database, including reports and waitlist entries. To request deletion of analytics data or anything else, contact us at the address below.
Children
FictionChat is not directed at children and is rated 16+ on the App Store. Do not use FictionChat if you are under 16.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (e.g., GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California), you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data. Contact us and we will honor these requests.
Changes
We will update this page when our practices change and revise the date above. Material changes will be announced in the app.