Privacy policy

This policy explains what information Libra Esoterica (“we”, “us”) collects when you use the website and its features, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to the public catalog, member accounts and community features (ratings, reviews, tags, lists, shelves, follows), the Pro subscription, and the AI research tools.

The short version: browsing the catalog needs no account and collects only routine technical data. If you create an account we store what you give us and what you do on the site. We do not sell personal information and we do not run third-party advertising.

When you browse without an account

• Technical data sent by your browser: IP address, browser and device type, referring page, pages requested, and timing. Our hosting provider records this in server logs to keep the site running and secure.
• Aggregate analytics via Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights: page views, country-level location derived from IP, device class, and performance metrics. These tools do not use cookies and are designed not to identify individuals; the IP address is not stored with the event.
• Search queries you type are processed to return results and may be kept in short-lived logs for debugging and abuse prevention.

When you create an account

• Account details from the sign-in provider you choose (email address, name, profile picture, and a provider identifier). Sign-in is operated by Clerk; see “Service providers” below.
• Profile information you add: username, display name, bio, and the traditions you mark as interests.
• Activity you create on the site: ratings, reviews, helpful votes, tags, lists and their notes, shelf status (want to read, reading, read, abandoned), and who you follow.
• Usage records such as when you last signed in and, for Pro features, counts of research messages and semantic searches used for rate limiting.

When you subscribe to Pro

• Payments are processed by Stripe. We receive your Stripe customer identifier, subscription status, plan and billing period, and whether a payment succeeded. We never see or store your full card number.

When you use the AI research tools

• The questions you ask, the assistant’s answers, and the catalog passages retrieved to answer them are stored with your account as research sessions so you can return to them. Token counts are recorded for usage limits.

• To operate the catalog, accounts, community features and subscriptions you ask for.
• To display your public contributions (reviews, public lists, ratings, tags) under your username.
• To personalise discovery, for example surfacing traditions you have marked as interests.
• To keep the site secure, prevent abuse and spam, and enforce usage limits.
• To understand which parts of the site are used and how they perform, in aggregate.
• To respond when you contact us and to send service messages about your account or subscription.

We do not use your reviews, lists, research questions or other content to train AI models. Research requests go to model providers through their commercial APIs, whose terms exclude the use of API inputs for training.

We use a small number of providers to run the site. Each receives only what it needs for its role and is bound by its own terms and privacy commitments.

• Vercel — hosting, server logs, Web Analytics and Speed Insights, and the AI Gateway that routes research requests.
• Neon — the managed Postgres database that stores the catalog and account data.
• Clerk — sign-in and account management, including social sign-in with providers such as Google, Apple, GitHub or others you choose. Clerk receives the identity data your chosen provider shares.
• Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing for Pro. Stripe collects your payment details directly under its own privacy policy.
• AI model providers (for example Anthropic and OpenAI), reached through the Vercel AI Gateway — they process the text of research questions, retrieved catalog passages and search phrases to generate answers and embeddings. Requests are sent without your name or email.
• Amazon — when you follow a “buy” link, you leave our site and Amazon’s policies apply. See “Affiliate links” below.
• Cover image hosts — book covers come from the libraries and archives that supplied them (for example Open Library, Gallica, or Wikimedia Commons) and are fetched and resized by our hosting provider’s image service, so those hosts see requests from our servers rather than from you.

We may also disclose information when required by law, to protect the rights and safety of users or the public, or as part of a merger, acquisition or asset transfer, in which case this policy continues to apply.

Libra Esoterica is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Links to Amazon on book pages carry an affiliate tag; if you buy something after following one, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Amazon may set cookies on its own site to attribute the referral. We do not receive information about what you buy beyond aggregate reporting.

• Session cookies set by Clerk keep you signed in and protect against cross-site request forgery. They are strictly necessary and are removed when you sign out.
• Preferences such as your light/dark theme are kept in your browser’s local storage and never leave your device.
• No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies are set by us.

You can clear cookies and local storage in your browser at any time; you will be signed out.

Reviews, ratings, tags, helpful votes, public lists and the books on your public shelves are visible to anyone, together with your username, display name and profile picture. Lists you mark private are visible only to you. Your email address is never shown publicly. Research sessions are private to your account.

• Account and activity data: for as long as your account exists.
• Billing records: for as long as required to meet tax and accounting obligations after your subscription ends.
• Server logs and abuse-prevention data: typically 30 days or less.
• Research sessions: until you delete them or your account.

When you delete your account, your profile, ratings, reviews, tags, lists, shelves, follows and research sessions are deleted from our database. Backups are overwritten on a rolling schedule.

• Access and correction — your profile and contributions are editable from your account.
• Deletion — you can delete your account from account settings; this removes your data as described above.
• Portability — Pro members can export research sessions and lists; anyone can request a copy of their data.
• Objection and restriction — you may ask us to stop or limit particular processing.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU/EEA, the UK, or California) you may have additional statutory rights, including the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. To exercise any right, contact us via the contact details on the About page. We will verify the request through your signed-in account and respond within the time the applicable law requires.

All traffic is encrypted in transit. Database access is restricted to the application and to operators who need it. Authentication and payment credentials are handled by Clerk and Stripe respectively and never stored on our servers. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting your data we will notify you as the law requires.

The site is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.

Our providers operate globally, and information may be processed in countries other than your own, including the United States. Where required, transfers rely on recognised safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

We will post any changes here and update the “last updated” date. For material changes affecting account holders we will also show a notice on the site or send a service message.

Questions about privacy or this policy: use the contact details on the About page. Please include enough detail for us to identify your account and the request.