Beta · updated 26 October 2026
Privacy, with care.
Your reading memories can be deeply personal. This page explains what Margins keeps, how optional services work, and the choices you have.
Margins by Bookish Baddie is operated by Gracious Nyoni. For privacy questions, access requests or deletion help, contact bookishbaddie18@gmail.com.
What you choose to keep
We store your account email and account identifier; your chosen reader name; books, reading-session details, notes, quotes, ratings and reflections; and recordings, photographs and short videos you save. Soundtrack details may be attached to your memories. If you use AI, transcripts and saved drafts may also be kept. Supabase manages your password authentication; Margins does not store a readable copy of your password.
Where your memories live
Your synced reading space and media are held in the Margins Supabase development project in Frankfurt, Germany. Vercel hosts the beta application. Your browser or app also keeps account-scoped copies on your device, including recovery checkpoints for unfinished voice recordings. Daily independent backups of synced reading content, account identifiers and a minimal ownership list (email address and confirmation date) are encrypted before transfer to a private Backblaze bucket in the United States. New copies are protected from deletion for seven days; they are currently retained until an operator removes them. Removed accounts are excluded from future backups, but older protected copies may remain. These are operator-managed recovery copies, not public files.
Each signed-in reader is restricted to their own account data. Media is held in a private storage bucket and accessed using authenticated requests or time-limited links. This is not end-to-end encryption: operators with privileged provider access may be able to access content for maintenance, security or support. Protect access to your device as well as your account.
AI is an optional extra
Ordinary reading and saving do not require AI. When you consent to transcription or reflection, selected content is sent through our server to the OpenAI API. Depending on your selection, this can include your words, recordings or extracted video audio, selected photographs or video frames, book context, and soundtrack details. The generated writing can be inaccurate; you can edit it or keep your own words instead.
OpenAI states that API data is not used to train its models by default unless the customer opts in. Reflection requests disable response storage, but that does not guarantee zero retention; provider security and abuse-monitoring retention may apply. Processing is not guaranteed to remain in Frankfurt. See OpenAI’s API data controls.
Music and book searches
If you connect Spotify, Spotify receives your sign-in and playback activity under its own policies. Margins keeps an encrypted account-linked connection token and may save the music details attached to a session. Spotify audio is not copied into your voice recordings. You can disconnect in Margins and revoke access through Spotify.
Book searches are sent to Open Library through our server. Cover images and external links can contact third-party services, which may receive standard connection information such as your IP address. We do not send your private reflections to Open Library. See Spotify’s privacy policy and Internet Archive’s policies.
Account emails
Supabase sends account-confirmation and password-reset emails through Brevo. Brevo processes the recipient email address, message contents (including time-limited account links) and delivery information. These emails do not contain your reading memories. Brevo may add delivery or open-tracking information to account emails.
Technical information
Essential sign-in cookies and device storage support your session, saved copies and recovery. This beta has no advertising SDK or third-party app analytics tracker. We keep a small, private account activity summary: your first and latest visible app activity and the number of different days you use Margins, counted using South African calendar days. It helps us understand whether readers return. It does not inspect your memories, record your page history or measure reading time. The summary starts from this feature’s introduction and is removed with account deletion. Hosting and service providers may process IP addresses, request timestamps, error information and security logs to run their services. Margins application errors are designed not to log memory bodies, recordings, passwords or connection tokens. The absence of an analytics tracker does not mean no technical data is processed.
Keeping and removing data
Your saved memories remain with your account until you remove them or request account deletion. The last ten successful reading-space revisions are retained for recovery. Removing a memory from your library does not necessarily immediately erase its media or its appearance in an earlier revision. Do not treat individual-memory removal as immediate permanent erasure; contact us if you need help with that.
Account deletion is available in the app’s account settings. It asks for your current password and the word DELETE, blocks further account use, and attempts to remove the account’s stored media and associated data. If deletion fails, a retry is required; contact us if you cannot finish. Device copies and exports on other devices must also be removed separately. We cannot delete a file you have downloaded or shared elsewhere. Third-party services may retain limited security or legally required records under their policies.
Your choices and help
You can access and edit your memories, export a full backup, decline AI, disconnect Spotify, and request account deletion. Write to the privacy contact above for access, correction or deletion assistance, including questions about South African privacy rights and overseas processing. We may need to verify account ownership. Never email your password, recovery links or private recordings as your first support message.
This is a beta. Daily encrypted content backups are configured and a content recovery check has passed. Complete authentication/infrastructure recovery and full device interruption testing are still outstanding. A device copy or synced account is not a guarantee against loss. Please read Keeping your memories safe before relying on Margins as your only archive.