Privacy policy

Last updated October 25, 2026

iCritiq is a place to rate, shelve and review books, and to follow other readers. It's run by Atalias. This policy says what we collect, why, who can see it, and how to delete it. Questions: support@atalias.com.

What we collect

• Your email address, to send you sign-in codes.
• Your profile: the name and handle you choose, and if you add them, a bio, a photo, favorite genres and four favorite books.
• What you post and do: ratings, shelves, written and video reviews (including the picture and sound you record), replies, helpful votes, who you follow and block, the book clubs you start or join with what you post and vote for in them, and reports you send.
• What you watch: which video reviews you watch, how far into each one you get, and which you like. We use it to count views and to choose videos for the feed.
• Your messages with other members, who can message you, and which messages you've read.
• Your phone's push token, if you allow notifications, so we can send them.
• Technical records: when you use iCritiq, our servers record the request, your IP address and the time, to keep the service working and secure. We keep these only as long as we need them for that.

We don't use advertising, we don't track you across other apps or websites, and we don't sell your information.

What others can see

• Other members can see your profile name and handle, your bio, photo, favorite genres and four favorite books, your reviews and replies, the rating you gave a book you reviewed, your follower and following counts, and who you follow and who follows you.
• They also see which books are on your shelves, and how many books you've read, reviewed and shelved.
• People who follow you see the ratings you give, on the books' pages.
• A video review shows how many members have watched and liked it, not who. Which videos you watch, and how much of them, isn't shown to anyone.
• Your email address and the reports you send aren't shown to other members.
• Your messages are seen only by you and the member you're writing to. Once you accept a conversation, the other member can see when you've read their messages.
• In a book club, your threads, replies and likes, and that you're a member, are seen by the club's members, and by anyone for a public club. Public clubs are listed for everyone to find; private ones only for the people invited. A club's vote shows the totals, not who voted for what. Unlike messages, club posts are checked and moderated like reviews, and the club's owner and moderators can remove them.
• Members you block can't see your profile, reviews, replies or club posts, or message you, and you can't see theirs.

How we use it

• To run iCritiq: sign you in, show your profile and posts, and notify you of activity.
• To keep iCritiq safe. Reviews, replies, videos, bios, profile photos, and club names and posts are checked automatically before they're posted, and our moderators review what's reported or flagged. Moderators can see the content involved and a shortened form of the email address of the account that posted it (like a***@e***.com); only our administrators see addresses in full. Messages are checked automatically before they're sent; moderators don't read them.
• To answer you when you contact us.

Who else handles it

• Hosting. iCritiq's servers and stored files (including videos and photos) are hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the United States.
• Apple and Google deliver push notifications. They receive your phone's push token and the text of each notification (for a message, the sender's name and the start of the message).
• Email delivery. Amazon Simple Email Service, part of AWS, sends your sign-in codes, so it receives your email address.
• Open Library (the Internet Archive) provides book information. The app loads book covers straight from Open Library, so it sees your IP address when covers load. It doesn't receive your account information.
• We may share information if the law requires it, or to protect people from harm.

Deleting your information

You can delete your account at any time: in the app under Profile → Settings → Delete account, or on the account deletion page. Deleting your account permanently removes your profile (including your photo), ratings, shelves, reviews, videos, replies, club threads and replies, votes, likes, what you've watched, follows, blocks and notifications, along with copies of your content kept in moderation records. A club you own passes to another of its members, or is deleted if nobody else is in it. Your conversations are deleted too, for both you and the other member. Reports you sent stay with our moderators, but no longer say who sent them. Video and photo files are deleted from storage within minutes. Deleted information may remain in backups for up to 30 days, until they're replaced.

If your account was suspended or banned for breaking our community guidelines, you can still delete it, and the same things are deleted. We keep only a scrambled (one-way hashed) form of its email address, so it can't be used to sign up again: until the suspension would have ended, or for good after a ban. A banned account can't sign in, so to delete one, email us from its address and we'll do it. We may also keep information where the law requires it, or to deal with a legal claim.

You can change your name and handle in the app, and delete any review, reply or club post you've posted. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to ask for a copy of your information or object to how it's used: email us.

Children

iCritiq is for people aged 13 and over. If we learn that an account belongs to someone younger, we delete it.

Security

Information travels to and from iCritiq encrypted. Sign-in codes expire quickly and are stored only in scrambled form, and video files are reachable only through short-lived links.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app before the change takes effect.