Privacy Policy

Operator: The Vaulted Studio LLC
Service: The Vaulted Spine
Public privacy/support contact: support@vaultedstudio.com
Effective date: October 12, 2026
Last updated: October 12, 2026

1. Scope

This Privacy Policy describes how The Vaulted Studio LLC collects, uses, discloses, retains, and protects personal information in connection with The Vaulted Spine application and related services.

The Vaulted Spine may be available to readers in multiple countries. Interface-language preference and country/region are separate concepts; use of one of the currently supported interface languages does not determine where a reader lives.

2. Information readers provide

Depending on the features used, The Vaulted Spine may process:

- account information such as username, email address, name, credentials or external-authentication identity, and account status;
- required date of birth for age eligibility and age-appropriate protections;
- reader-selected country/region and language/locale preferences;
- profile information and privacy/discoverability choices;
- personal Library, TBR, Edition, acquisition, reading-history, reading-session, goal, and collection information;
- reader-uploaded Edition photographs such as cover, spine, and edge images;
- journal entries, reviews, quotes, notes, annotations, theories, moments, and other reader-created records where supported;
- Book Club posts, replies, votes, polls, recommendations, events, membership activity, and other community contributions;
- support requests, reports, appeals, rights complaints, and related correspondence;
- subscription/entitlement information received from an application marketplace or other authorized purchase channel; and
- preferences such as optional marketing, research-participation, notification, privacy, and discoverability choices.

The Vaulted Spine processes information only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, the features a reader chooses to use, security and legal obligations, and operation of the Service.

3. Date of birth and younger readers

A date of birth is required to determine whether a person meets the minimum account age and whether teen protections apply. The Vaulted Spine is intended for account holders age 16 and older.

Date of birth is private by default. The Vaulted Spine does not intend to display a reader's date of birth, birth year, or minor status to other readers merely because it is stored on the account.

Readers age 16 or 17 receive additional age-based protections. When a reader turns 18, age-based restrictions may expire, but the Service will not automatically make the reader's existing privacy choices less private.

Date of birth is not displayed publicly by default. If the Service offers a birthday-related sharing feature, public sharing requires a separate deliberate reader choice and does not expose birth year or calculated age by default.

4. Information collected automatically

The Service may process limited technical information necessary to authenticate requests, operate infrastructure, secure accounts, diagnose failures, prevent abuse, and understand application reliability. This may include device or app version, operating system, timestamps, network or request metadata, crash diagnostics, security events, and server logs.

Private journals, private Edition photographs, passwords, and comparable private content are not intentionally attached to analytics or reliability events.

5. How information is used

The Vaulted Studio may process information to:

- create, authenticate, secure, and administer accounts;
- determine age eligibility and apply age-appropriate protections;
- provide the personal Library, TBR, Edition, Reading Center, Journal, profile, Book Club, subscription-tracking, and related features selected by the reader;
- store and technically process reader-uploaded media, including resizing, cropping, optimization, thumbnail creation, backup, and delivery;
- apply privacy and discoverability choices;
- provide reader metrics, reading progress, collection tools, and requested exports;
- provide customer support and respond to privacy, safety, moderation, or intellectual-property matters;
- prevent abuse, investigate reports, enforce rules, and protect the Service and its readers;
- administer subscriptions/entitlements and resolve billing-related support where information is available to The Vaulted Studio;
- maintain, debug, secure, and improve the Service using appropriately limited operational information; and
- comply with law and protect legal rights.

Where applicable law requires a lawful basis for processing, The Vaulted Studio relies on an appropriate basis for the relevant activity rather than treating acceptance of this Privacy Policy as blanket consent.

6. Private and shared information

The product principle is that personal records remain private unless the reader deliberately uses a sharing feature or a clearly selected privacy setting makes particular information visible.

Private Library/TBR details, private Journal material, private notes, annotations and theories, private reading records, private Edition information, and reader-uploaded Edition media do not become public merely because they are stored by the Service.

Edition records and reader-uploaded Edition media remain private by default and Favorite Editions are not included on the Public Reader Profile.

Profile sections and discoverability follow the Service's privacy controls and backend authorization rules. Content deliberately contributed to a Book Club or other shared community surface is visible according to that surface's audience/membership rules.

7. Reader-uploaded photographs and media

Reader-uploaded Edition photographs are used to represent and help identify the reader's particular Edition within their personal collection and applicable private features. The Service may create smaller thumbnails or optimized derivatives for display and performance.

The Vaulted Studio does not claim ownership of those photographs merely because they are uploaded and does not sell them as The Vaulted Studio's own photographic assets. Processing by infrastructure/service providers on The Vaulted Studio's behalf is not the same as selling the photographs as owned media.

Eligible Edition media may be included when the reader uses an available Collection Export option.

8. Logos, third-party brands, and catalog information

The Service may display third-party book/catalog data and brand identifiers to help readers identify books, Editions, publishers, vendors, retailers, and subscription/book-box providers. Rights remain with the applicable rights holders.

The Vaulted Studio maintains a rights/brand contact process at support@vaultedstudio.com and an internal record of permissions or restrictions obtained from companies during operation.

8A. Retailer links and affiliate attribution

The Vaulted Spine may provide reader-initiated links to third-party retailers. The Vaulted Spine may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through retailer links, at no additional cost to the reader.

When a reader chooses a retailer link, the reader leaves The Vaulted Spine and interacts with the retailer and, where applicable, an affiliate network under those third parties' own privacy, cookie, tracking, purchase, payment, shipping, return, refund, inventory, and tax practices. The Vaulted Spine does not control those third-party practices.

A retailer or affiliate-network link may include limited attribution identifiers needed to identify The Vaulted Spine as the referring source.

Private Journal entries, notes, annotations, quotes, private reading activity, private profile information, reader-uploaded Edition media, and unrelated private collection information are not to be transmitted for affiliate attribution. Affiliate links must remain reader-initiated and must not use cookie stuffing, forced redirects, or invisible tracking.

9. Community safety, reports, and moderation

The Service may process reports, moderation history, supporting evidence, internal notes, appeal information, and security records to enforce Club and platform rules, protect readers, prevent repeated abuse, and address legal or safety concerns.

Club Owners and Moderators may exercise Club-level authority through the permissions supplied by the Service and may escalate suspected violations. The Vaulted Studio retains final platform-level authority over accounts.

A report does not automatically establish wrongdoing. Moderation information is limited to what is reasonably necessary for investigation, enforcement, appeal, safety, and related legitimate purposes.

10. Service providers and disclosures

The Vaulted Studio may use service providers to host infrastructure, store media, deliver communications, authenticate users, process marketplace entitlement information, monitor reliability/security, or otherwise operate the Service. Providers receive only the information reasonably necessary for their role and are subject to appropriate contractual or legal protections where required.

Service providers receive information only as reasonably necessary for their role, subject to applicable contractual and legal requirements.

The Vaulted Studio may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to valid legal process, protect rights or safety, investigate fraud/abuse/security incidents, or complete a corporate transaction subject to applicable protections.

11. Sale, advertising, analytics, research, and AI

The Vaulted Studio's privacy commitments include:

- not to sell reader personal data;
- not to sell reader-uploaded images or private content as The Vaulted Studio's own assets;
- not to use private reading activity for targeted behavioral advertising;
- not to use private journals, notes, quotes, Edition photographs, or comparable private reader content to train general-purpose AI models;
- to allow necessary operational/security telemetry needed to provide and protect the Service;
- to use aggregated or appropriately de-identified information for product understanding and improvement with safeguards; and
- to keep marketing communications and research participation optional.

If The Vaulted Studio materially changes how personal information is used, it will update this Policy and provide notice or obtain consent where required.

Privacy rights and baseline privacy protections do not depend on Free, Premium, or Founder membership. A membership or entitlement change does not by itself make private reader information public or reduce the reader's privacy controls.

12. Authentication providers

If the Service offers authentication through Apple, Google, or another identity provider, The Vaulted Studio receives only the identity or account information provided through the configured authentication flow and needed to establish or link the reader's Vaulted Spine identity. The Vaulted Studio does not receive the reader's password for that third-party provider.

13. Subscriptions and payments

When a paid subscription is purchased through an application marketplace, the marketplace processes the payment. The Vaulted Studio does not receive full payment-card details from the marketplace unless a future payment method expressly states otherwise.

The Service may receive transaction identifiers, product or plan identifiers, entitlement or subscription status, renewal or expiration information, and other marketplace information needed to provide paid access, restore purchases, prevent fraud, and provide support.

14. Collection Export and privacy requests

Where Collection Export is available, readers may request eligible collection and account information through the options presented in the Service. Export delivery uses authenticated access and protected delivery or storage appropriate to the export method.

The convenience Collection Export is separate from formal privacy rights. Depending on applicable law, a verified privacy/access request may require access to additional personal information beyond the product export.

15. Deactivation, deletion, and inactivity

Account deactivation provides a 90-day recovery period. During that period the account is inactive and appropriate public presence is hidden, while account information is retained to permit reactivation. Signing in again during the 90-day period reactivates the account. If the reader does not reactivate, permanent deletion is finalized after the recovery period.

Readers may instead request permanent account deletion directly from Account Settings. Access ends immediately and permanent deletion is scheduled seven days after the request. Marketplace subscriptions are managed separately and must be canceled through the applicable App Store or Google Play account. Private Library/TBR/Edition records, eligible Edition media, Journal material, account identity, and comparable personal records are included in the deletion process, subject only to limited lawful retention exceptions.

Appropriate community contributions may remain only where lawfully retained and disassociated from the deleted account. Private records are not converted into community content.

The Vaulted Spine does not automatically delete an otherwise active account solely because the reader has not logged in for a long period.

16. Retention

The Vaulted Studio keeps personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Service, maintain account and legal-acceptance records, protect security, resolve disputes, comply with legal obligations, and support the account lifecycle described in this Policy.

When an account is permanently deleted, private account information is removed from active systems through the deletion process, subject to limited retention required for legal, security, fraud-prevention, accounting, backup, or other legitimate obligations. Residual backup copies may remain for a limited period and are not returned to ordinary active use merely because a backup is restored.

Shared community contributions may remain in anonymized or disassociated form where appropriate to preserve conversations. Legal, security, moderation, support, and transaction records may be retained for a period reasonably necessary for their purpose or as required by law.

17. International readers and transfers

The Vaulted Spine may be available to readers in multiple countries. Country or region is reader-selected and is not inferred from the selected interface language.

Because The Vaulted Studio LLC is a U.S. company and service providers may operate in multiple countries, personal information may be processed outside the reader's country. Where required, The Vaulted Studio uses appropriate safeguards for cross-border processing and honors applicable privacy rights.

18. Reader choices and rights

Depending on location and applicable law, readers may have rights relating to access, correction, deletion, portability, restriction, objection, consent withdrawal, or complaints to a regulator. The Service will provide appropriate mechanisms and identity verification for applicable requests.

Reader-facing Settings provide product controls such as privacy and discoverability choices, optional marketing or research preferences, account and data controls, and access to current legal documents. Privacy requests may also be sent to support@vaultedstudio.com.

19. Security

The Vaulted Studio uses reasonable technical and organizational measures appropriate to the Service and information processed. No networked service can promise absolute security. Sensitive operations such as exports, account lifecycle changes, and identity linking use appropriate authentication, authorization, logging, and verification controls.

20. Children's and teen privacy

The Vaulted Spine does not permit account creation by readers under 16. Teen accounts age 16–17 receive additional privacy and safety protections. Additional requirements may apply based on the reader's location.

21. Changes to this Policy

The Privacy Policy is versioned and dated. The Vaulted Studio will provide appropriate notice of material changes and obtain consent or renewed acknowledgement where required by law or by the nature of the change. Historical legal-acceptance/acknowledgement records may be retained according to the retention schedule.

22. Contact

Privacy questions and reader requests may be sent to:

The Vaulted Studio LLC
The Vaulted Spine Support
support@vaultedstudio.com