Privacy Policy

1. Data controller

The Shelf is made for personal use by Valeri Hemsi, a natural person based in Turkey, acting as data controller within the meaning of GDPR Art. 4(7).

Contact for privacy matters: valerihemsi@gmail.com

No Data Protection Officer has been appointed, as the criteria of GDPR Art. 37(1) are not met. Use the email above for any privacy question.

2. What The Shelf collects

Nothing.The Shelf has no account, no sign-up, and no server it talks to. There is no network request that carries your information anywhere. The books you add, the seal you design, your reading streaks, your progress through the rooms — all of it is written only to your own device’s local storage, and never leaves it unless you personally choose to export or share it (for instance, by saving an image you’ve made in the app).

We do not know who you are, how many people use The Shelf, or what any individual person keeps on their shelf. There is nothing on our side to look at.

3. Purposes of processing

Not applicable — see Section 2. Everything the app does happens on your device, for the sole purpose of running the app for you.

4. Lawful basis (GDPR Art. 6)

Article 6 governs the lawful basis for processing personal data. Because The Shelf does not process any personal data on our side, no lawful-basis analysis arises.

5. Retention (GDPR Art. 5(1)(e))

We retain nothing — not because we delete it, but because it is never sent to us. Your library, your seal, and your progress live only in your device’s local storage, for as long as you keep the app installed. You can clear this data at any time from within the app or by removing the app from your device.

6. Recipients of personal data

None. We do not share data with third parties, because we do not collect any. If you installed The Shelf through Apple’s App Store, Apple separately processes purchase, download, and device-diagnostic information under its own policy, independent of us: see apple.com/legal/privacy.

7. International data transfers (GDPR Art. 44-49)

None occur, because The Shelf does not collect or transmit personal data anywhere.

8. Your rights as a data subject (GDPR Art. 15-22)

Under the GDPR, you would ordinarily have the right to:

• access data held about you (Art. 15)
• have inaccurate data corrected (Art. 16)
• have your data erased (Art. 17)
• restrict how your data is processed (Art. 18)
• receive your data in a portable format (Art. 20)
• object to processing (Art. 21)
• withdraw consent at any time (Art. 7(3))

Because we hold no data about you, exercising these rights against us would return nothing — the only copy of your data is already on your own device, and you already have full, immediate access to view or erase it there. You’re welcome to write to valerihemsi@gmail.com with any question about this.

9. Right to lodge a complaint

If you believe this notice or our handling of your data infringes the GDPR, EU/EEA residents may lodge a complaint with their national supervisory authority — a full list is at edpb.europa.eu. Turkish residents may lodge a complaint with the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) at kvkk.gov.tr.

10. Cookies and tracking

The Shelf uses no cookies, no analytics, and no trackers of any kind — on the web or in the app.

11. Automated decision-making

The Shelf makes no automated decisions about you and contains no AI features. Any suggestion the app shows you is computed locally, on your device, from the choices you’ve made in it.

12. Children

The Shelf is not directed at children under 16. As we collect no data from anyone, this is a precautionary statement rather than a practical restriction.

13. Changes to this policy

The current version of this policy is always available on this page. Material changes will be reflected here with an updated date.