Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and how to reach us

Noverie, the company named at the top of this policy, is the controller of the personal data described here; its details are on the company information page. For anything about your data, write to noverie.team@gmail.com. We answer within 30 days.

2. What we collect

We collect only the data the Service needs to work. By category:

• Account data — your email address, a display name, a hashed password (we never store the password itself) and, if your sign-in provider supplies one, a profile picture.
• Sign in with Google — if you choose Google, Google sends us your Google account ID, name, email address and profile picture. We use them only to create your Noverie account and sign you in. We request no other Google data (the openid, email and profile scopes only) and never see your Google password.
• Reading data — the books on your bookshelf, where you stopped in each chapter, your bookmarks and notes, and which chapters you opened. This powers “Continue reading”, your reading statistics and the popularity shelves.
• Ratings — the stars (1 to 5) you give a book (each language edition is rated separately) or a chapter, with the time you first rated it and the time you last changed it, saved with your account. What is shown publicly is set out in section 3.
• Reviews and comments — the reviews you write (the text, whether you marked it as containing spoilers, when you posted it and last edited it, and which language edition it is about) and the chapter comments you post (the text, when, and on which chapter); the reviews and comments you like; the reports you make (the reason, your note and the time); the record we keep when your posts or your account are moderated (what was done, the reason, which member of our team did it and when — and, if your account is muted, until when and why); and when you confirmed the name your reviews and comments appear under. What is shown publicly is set out in section 3.
• Preferences — interface language (a new account starts with the language you sign up in; change it in Settings), theme, reader settings (reading preset, light/dark, text size and column width, saved with your account: one set for computers, one for phones and tablets) and your cookie choice.
• Purchases (once paid chapters launch) — your credit balance, a ledger of purchases and unlocks, and order references from our payment processor. Card and bank details go directly to the processor and never reach our servers.
• Technical data — your IP address, browser and device type, the time of each sign-in session, and request logs our hosting provider keeps for security and troubleshooting. Each time you open a chapter’s text we record your account, the chapter, the time, your network block (the first 24 bits of an IPv4 address or the first 48 bits of an IPv6 address, never the full address), your browser type, whether the request came through the website or our API, and the outcome (the chapter access log). Counters keyed by IP address protect the sign-in and password-reset endpoints against abuse. Counters keyed by your account record how many times you submit a rating, add a bookmark, post or edit a review or a comment, like one or take a like back, or make a report, each minute and each day, whether or not it goes through; they protect against abuse and are kept for 2 days. When you open an address without a language in it (such as noverie.xyz), our hosting provider tells us the country or region of your IP address, which may decide the language the site opens in (see section 3); we use only the country or region, for that request, and do not store it.
• Messages you send us — for example an email asking for help.

We do not collect precise location, contacts, health or biometric data, and we do not knowingly collect data from children (see section 9).

3. Why we use it

For readers in the EEA, the United Kingdom and similar jurisdictions, each purpose rests on a legal basis, given in brackets.

• To provide the Service: create your account, sign you in, keep your bookshelf and reading position, deliver the chapters you open or unlock, and record your ratings and show them to you (performance of our contract with you).
• To open the site in your language: an address without a language in it (such as noverie.xyz) opens in the language this device remembers (the language cookie, see section 4); failing that, in your browser’s language; failing that, by the country or region of your IP address — Traditional Chinese for Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and mainland China, English everywhere else. The country or region is looked up for that request only and never stored (our legitimate interest in showing the Service in a language you can read).
• To show ratings in aggregate: how many readers have rated each edition of a book is always public; the edition’s average and how its ratings spread across one to five stars are shown only once at least five readers have rated it — on the book’s page, on book cards, in search and browse results and on the home page — and are also included in the page data that search engines read. We never show who gave a rating, except that a review shows the stars its writer gave that edition (see the next item). Chapter ratings are never made public: you see your own, and our editorial team sees only each chapter’s totals, which it uses to improve the catalogue (our legitimate interest in helping readers choose books and in improving what we publish).
• To publish reviews and comments: your reviews are shown to anyone, with the name you confirmed for them, the stars you gave that edition, when you posted them and whether you edited them; your chapter comments are shown only to signed-in readers who can read that chapter. We show how many readers liked a review or a comment, never who did (performance of our contract with you).
• To keep reviews and comments safe for everyone: reviews and comments that contain a link (a web or email address) are shown to other readers only after a member of our team has approved them; we review reports and may hide or remove posts, or mute an account so that it cannot post for a while, under the Community Guidelines; a post that three different accounts have reported is hidden automatically until we have looked at it. We never tell the person who was reported who reported them (our legitimate interest in a safe community, and our legal obligations).
• To keep the Service safe: detect abuse, rate-limit sensitive endpoints and actions such as rating, bookmarking, posting, liking and reporting, investigate incidents and enforce our Terms. To protect authors’ work against piracy and abuse, we keep the chapter access log (see section 2), put invisible marks tied to your account in chapter text, so text copied out of the Service can be traced to the account it came from, and apply reading limits and flags: reading a very large number of chapters in a short time pauses reading for a while, and patterns that suggest piracy are flagged, for example fetching many chapters in a rapid run, one account used from many networks or sessions, or many accounts on one network. After a person has reviewed the evidence, we may suspend reading for that account; signing in and your account settings are not affected (our legitimate interest in a secure Service and in protecting the works we publish against piracy and abuse).
• To send transactional messages: account verification, password reset, purchase receipts and important notices about your account (performance of the contract). Optional messages such as new-chapter alerts are sent only if you turn them on (consent), and you can turn them off at any time.
• To understand usage in aggregate: daily active readers and chapter views are counted once per reader per day and stored as totals, never as a profile of you (legitimate interest in running the Service).
• To meet legal obligations: tax and accounting records for purchases, and responding to lawful requests.

We do not make automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you, and we do not build advertising profiles.

4. Cookies and local storage

Strictly necessary cookies are the only cookies we set:

• A session cookie (__Secure-better-auth.session_token; better-auth.session_token on an unencrypted connection) that keeps you signed in. It is httpOnly and signed, and it lasts up to 30 days or until you sign out.
• A language cookie (noverie-locale) that remembers your interface language — one you choose in a language menu or in Settings, or, while you are signed in, the one saved with your account — so the site opens in it. It holds only the language code and lasts up to one year; deleting your account removes it from the device you delete it on.
• A short-lived state cookie during Sign in with Google that protects the sign-in flow against forgery.
• A short-lived cookie during sign-in with two-step verification that links the password step to the code step; it expires after ten minutes.

Your browser's local storage keeps a few preferences on your device only: theme, interface preferences, and your cookie choice. It also keeps a copy of your reader settings, with your account ID, to draw the reading page before it loads; the settings themselves are saved with your account. Nothing in local storage is sent to third parties.

We use no analytics or advertising cookies and no cross-site trackers. The cookie banner's “Accept all” therefore currently enables nothing beyond the essentials; if we ever add analytics we will update this page first and honour an “Essential only” choice.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking the session cookie means you cannot stay signed in.

5. Who we share data with

We share personal data only with providers that process it on our behalf under contract, and only what each one needs:

• Vercel (hosting and content delivery, United States) — runs the website and keeps short-term request logs.
• Neon (database hosting, United States) — stores the account data, reading data, ratings, reviews and comments, likes, reports and moderation records described above.
• Google (sign-in) — only if you choose Sign in with Google; Google's own privacy policy applies to your Google account.
• Paddle (payments, once paid chapters launch) — acts as the merchant of record for purchases, handles payment details, taxes and invoices, and is an independent controller for the payment data you give it.
• Resend (transactional email, once enabled) — delivers the account emails described in section 3.

We never sell personal data and never share it for behavioural advertising. We may disclose data if the law requires it, to protect the rights, property or safety of Noverie, our readers or others, or as part of a merger or sale of the Service, in which case we will tell you before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

6. International transfers

Our servers are in the United States. If you use the Service from the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, your data is transferred there under the safeguards our providers offer — Standard Contractual Clauses or participation in the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us for details of the safeguards that apply to your data.

7. How long we keep data, and deleting your account

We keep your account data for as long as your account exists. You can delete your account at any time in Settings. When you do, the account is disabled immediately, your email address, name and picture are erased, and all sessions are ended; the reading data and preferences tied to the account are deleted or made anonymous. The ratings you gave are kept and still count towards each book’s average and number of ratings; they are no longer linked to your name or email address, only to the closed account’s internal ID.

Your reviews and comments are kept until you or we delete them; when one is deleted, its text is erased at once, and what remains of it (when and where it was posted and deleted) is removed 12 months after the deletion. If you delete your account, your reviews and comments stay but are shown as a deleted account’s, without your name; your likes and the reports you made stay too (the likes still count), linked only to the closed account’s internal ID; a mute on your account, and the reason for it, are deleted with the account. Reports are kept for 12 months after they are closed (when we have dealt with them, or the post was deleted), and each entry of the moderation record for 12 months after it was made.

The chapter access log is kept for 90 days, flags for 12 months, and the counters keyed by your account for 2 days.

We keep some records after deletion where the law or a legitimate need requires it: purchase and ledger records for as long as tax and accounting rules demand, security logs for a limited period at our hosting provider, the chapter access log and flags for the periods above (so that leaks can still be traced; then they are deleted), the ratings you gave (see above) until the book or chapter they rate is deleted, your reviews, comments and likes (see above) until they, or the book or chapter they are about, are deleted, reports and the moderation record for the 12 months above, and aggregate statistics that contain no personal data. Backup copies are overwritten on a rolling schedule within 30 days.

8. Your rights and choices

Wherever you live, you can see and change your account details and preferences in Settings, and delete your account there. You can delete your reviews and chapter comments yourself where you posted them; if that chapter or book cannot be opened for the time being (it became paid, was unpublished, or your reading is suspended), contact us and we will delete them for you. You can also ask us to:

• give you a copy of the personal data we hold about you, in a portable format;
• correct data that is inaccurate;
• delete data, or restrict or object to how we use it;
• withdraw a consent you gave earlier, which does not affect what happened before.

If you are in the EEA or the United Kingdom, these are your rights under the GDPR, and you may also complain to your data protection authority. If you are a California resident, the CCPA/CPRA gives you the rights to know, delete and correct, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information — we do not sell or share personal information as those laws define it, and we will never treat you differently for exercising a right. We honour Global Privacy Control signals; since we do no cross-site tracking, there is nothing further to opt out of.

To exercise a right, email noverie.team@gmail.com from the address on your account. We may ask you to confirm it is you.

9. Children and mature content

The Service is not directed to children under 13, or under the age at which your country lets you consent to online services on your own (16 in parts of the European Union). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children below that age; if you believe a child has created an account, tell us and we will delete it.

Works rated 16+ or 18+ show their rating on the work's page, so readers, parents and guardians can see it before reading; works rated 18+ are meant for adults.

10. Security

All traffic is encrypted in transit (TLS). Passwords are stored only as salted hashes, session cookies are httpOnly, sensitive endpoints are rate-limited, and access to production data is limited to the people who operate the Service. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure; if you find a weakness, please report it to us and we will act on it.

11. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we publish the new version here with a new effective date. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell you in the product or by email before it takes effect.

12. Contact

Questions, requests or complaints: noverie.team@gmail.com.