Privacy policy
Doomreader, on the web at doomreaderapp.com and as the Android app com.doomreaderapp. Last changed 7 October 2026.
The short version
Your books and your reading stay on your device. To improve the app, Doomreader records how it is used (which screens are opened, what is tapped, and recordings of the screen) through PostHog, an analytics service; you can turn this off in Settings. If you sign in to sync, the books you add yourself and your reading data are also kept in your own cloud space, which only you can reach. If you save a web article, its link goes to our server so it can fetch the article for you; neither is kept there. If you ask a question about a book or article (Pro and Plus), the question and a few short passages of it go through our server to Google's Gemini to answer it; we keep none of them.
Without signing in
The books you add are saved in your browser's storage on your device, together with your reading progress in each book, your likes, your notes and your settings. The files themselves are never sent anywhere. Apart from the link of a web article you choose to save, the questions you choose to ask, and usage analytics (each below), your library is not sent anywhere either. Clearing the app's data or uninstalling the app removes it.
Usage analytics
We use PostHog (PostHog Inc., United States) to see how Doomreader is used, so we can find what works, what confuses people and what breaks, and improve it. It runs in the app and on this website, and it collects:
- usage events: the screens and pages opened, the buttons tapped, and actions such as adding a book, reading cards (counted in batches), liking a post, asking a question, starting a subscription or changing a setting. For a free book from our library the event names that book; for a book you added yourself it says only that it is your own book, its format (EPUB or PDF) and a rough size. Events never contain the text of your books, your notes, your questions or the answers, or the link of an article you saved (only its website's name);
- session recordings: a replay of what was on the screen and how you moved through the app, which can include the text of the book or article on screen. What you type into a field is hidden in the recording, as are your notes, your questions and your email address;
- errors the app runs into, and how fast pages load;
- device and browser details (type of device, operating system, browser, screen size, language), the page that sent you to us, and your IP address, from which PostHog works out an approximate location (country and city);
- a random identifier kept in your browser's storage, so a visit can be connected with the next one. No cookie is set for this.
If you sign in, these events are connected with your account (your user id, email address, name and plan), so we can see how the app is used across your devices. When you sign out, the app starts again with a new random identifier. Our server also sends PostHog a few events of its own, under your user id: when a subscription starts, renews, is cancelled or stops, with its plan, length, currency, amount and country, and when a question about a book is answered or refused, with the reason. These never contain your questions or the passages.
To stop it, open Settings in the app and turn off "Allow usage analytics". Nothing is then loaded or sent from that browser, on the app or on this website. It is also off when your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. PostHog keeps the data for us under its data processing agreement, and describes its handling at posthog.com/privacy.
Saving web articles
When you paste or share a link to a web article, the link is sent to our server, which fetches that one page from its site, picks out the article and sends it back to your device, where it is saved like a book. Neither the link nor the article is stored on our server. To stop the service being misused, the server counts how many articles are saved per hour, keyed by a scrambled form of your IP address (or of your user id when you are signed in), and deletes the counts after a few hours; its logs keep the site's name and a scrambled form of the link, never the link itself. The site you save from sees a request from our server, not from you. Pictures in articles are not loaded, so those sites do not learn your address either. If you sign in to sync, the articles you save are kept in your own cloud space like your books (see below).
Asking about a book or an article
Signed in, you can ask a question about the book or article you are reading (a few a month for free, more with Pro). The app picks a few short passages that may hold the answer on your device (never the whole book or article) and sends them, with your question and the title and author, to our server, signed in as you. Our server sends them to Google's Gemini API, which writes the answer, and the answer comes back to your device. We use Gemini's paid service, not its free one, whose terms let Google use what is sent to improve its products. Our server does not store your question, the passages or the answer. To apply your plan's limits it keeps, under your user id, how many questions you asked this month, today and this minute; its logs keep the number of words used (in tokens), never what was asked, with a scrambled form of your user id.
If you speak a question instead of typing it, the app uses your browser's own speech recognition. Some browsers, such as Chrome, send the sound to their maker's servers (Google, for Chrome) to turn it into text; that is the browser's service, not ours, and we never receive the sound. If the answer is read aloud, your device's own voices read it.
Free books and the discover feed
The free books (public-domain classics from Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg and Wikisource) are fetched from our own storage on Google Cloud Storage: the list of books in the languages you chose (in every language if you sync, so the app can tell a free book from your own), short excerpts, covers and, when you choose to read or add one, the book itself. These are plain downloads of public files, the same for everyone, with no account, cookie or identifier attached. As with any download, Google's servers see your IP address and browser details.
To keep the discover feed fresh and a little closer to your taste, the app remembers on your device which excerpts you have seen (the most recent few thousand) and a small score for the authors and genres you read on or add. This is worked out on your device and is not sent anywhere, unless you sign in to sync.
If you sign in to sync
Sync is optional. You sign in with your Google account, in which case Google tells us your name, email address and a user id, or with an email address and a password, which Firebase keeps only as a secure hash that we cannot read. To confirm an email address, we send it one link; we send nothing else unless you ask for a password reset. From then on these are stored in Google Firebase, in the United States, under your user id:
- the book files you add (EPUB and PDF), with their title, author and size; for a free book, only its title, author and size, since its file is the public copy in our own storage and your other devices download it from there;
- the web articles you save: their text, title, site, author, date and link (not their pictures);
- your reading progress in each book and article, and when you last read it;
- your likes, including the short passage you liked;
- your discover history and preferences: which free book excerpts you have seen, the scores for the authors and genres you read on or add, and the genres you chose for discover, so the discover feed is the same on all your devices;
- your notes, with the passage each one is on (a note you delete is wiped, leaving only a marker that it was deleted, so your other devices delete it too);
- whether your account has sync switched on.
They are used only to keep your library the same on all your devices. They are not shared, sold or used for advertising. Security rules let only your signed-in account read or change them. Everything travels encrypted.
Firebase, which runs sign-in and storage for us, also receives your IP address and browser details when you sign in or sync, as any web service does. Google acts on our behalf here and describes its handling at firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
Deleting your data
Removing a book or an article removes it from the cloud as well as from your device. Your notes on it are kept, since they are your own writing, until you delete them, which removes them from the cloud too. To delete your whole account and everything stored with it, open the account button in the app and tap "Delete my account"; it is deleted at once.
Payments
Doomreader Pro is bought on our website. The payment is handled by Razorpay (Razorpay Software Private Limited, India), our payment processor: you enter your card or other payment details in Razorpay's own payment window, and we never see them. Razorpay tells us about each payment: the plan, the amount, when it renews or ends, whether the card was issued outside India, and the country of the card when it says so. Before you pay we ask where you live, the country and, in India, the State, because tax law requires it on the invoice we issue; it also decides whether you pay in rupees or US dollars. We keep these payment records, and the invoices (with your account id), for as long as tax law requires, even after an account is deleted. Razorpay's own handling is described at razorpay.com/privacy.
When you open your account page in a browser, it asks our server which prices to show. The server works out your country from the request itself, to choose rupees or US dollars, and writes only that country in its log; nothing else is kept. The Android app shows no prices and sells nothing: it says to open the website in your browser instead.
Feedback and sharing
If you send feedback from the app, we store what you send so we can read it and answer it: your message, the email address you give for a reply (if any), and, if you leave "Include device details" ticked, the app's version, your browser's user agent, your screen size, whether you use the Android app or a browser, and your theme and feed look. You do not need to be signed in, and nothing else about you or your books is attached. It is kept in Google Firebase in the United States, where only we can read it, and deleted when you ask at privacy@doomreaderapp.com. Emailing us instead works just as well.
When you export your notes, the file or text is made on your device and goes only where you send it through your phone's own share sheet, or into your downloads; we are not told.
When you share a passage as an image or share the app, the image is made on your device and goes only where you send it through your phone's own share sheet; we are not told.
Your rights, wherever you live
These apply to everyone, and include your rights under the EU and UK GDPR, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act and similar laws. You can ask to see the data we hold about you, have it corrected, get a copy to take elsewhere, have it deleted, or object to how it is used. Deleting your account in the app does most of this at once; for anything else, email privacy@doomreaderapp.com and we answer within 30 days. If you think we have got something wrong, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Why we may use your data: to provide the sync you signed up for and the subscription you bought (performing our contract with you); to keep invoices and order records, which tax law requires (legal obligation); to fetch an article you ask us to save and to answer a question you ask about what you are reading (your request); to read and answer feedback you choose to send (your consent, which you can withdraw by asking us to delete it); to keep the service secure and stop abuse, such as the hourly count of saved articles (legitimate interest); and to understand how the app is used and improve it, through usage analytics, which you can turn off in Settings (legitimate interest). Nothing is used for advertising, and we do not sell data.
Where it is kept: Google Firebase stores synced data in the United States. Google processes it for us under its data processing terms, which include the EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers out of Europe. PostHog stores usage analytics in the United States and processes it for us under its data processing agreement.
Children
Doomreader is not made for children under 13.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes too. Questions go to privacy@doomreaderapp.com.