Privacy Policy

Effective date: 19 March 2026 · Version française (legally binding)

The French version of this Privacy Policy is the legally binding reference. This English version is provided for information purposes only.

1. Data controller

The data controller is Potomitan SASU, operator of book-tribe.fr, registered at 31 rue Montagne de la Fage, 75015 Paris, France. Contact: contact@book-tribe.fr.

2. Data we collect

When you create an account and use Book Tribe, we collect the following personal data:

Account data: username, email address, hashed password, account creation date
Profile data (mandatory at signup): country of residence, gender, preferred interface language (EN/FR), profile theme colour
Profile data (optional — signup screen 2): nationality, year of birth, zodiac sign, country of birth
Profile data (optional — profile edit): city, profile photo (image file, max 5 MB)
Socioeconomic data (all optional — profile edit): income level expressed as a multiple of the local minimum wage, years of education, field of studies, occupation, professional sector
User preferences (profile edit): preferred language, preferred currency
Reading data: books added, reading sessions, notes, personal quotes, ratings, reading goals, reading pace, shelf organisation
Social data: reading circles you join or create, InMail messages, challenge participation and scores
Technical data: login timestamps, last activity timestamp, IP address (stored for security purposes), browser/device type (journal entries), session identifiers
Passkey authentication data (optional): if you choose to enable passkey (biometric) login, we store a cryptographic public key credential associated with your account. Your fingerprint, face scan, or other biometric data is never transmitted to or stored by Book Tribe — biometric verification happens entirely on your device. The credential we store contains: a credential identifier, a cryptographic public key (a mathematical value, not biometric data), an optional device label (derived from your browser's user agent string), and the enrollment date. This data is retained until you remove it via Profile > Passkeys, or until you delete your account.

We do not collect payment card data directly. Payment processing (if applicable) is handled by a certified payment provider.

3. Purpose and legal basis

Purpose	Legal basis
Providing and operating the Book Tribe service	Contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR)
Account security and fraud prevention	Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR)
Managing Premium subscriptions and billing	Contract performance
Sending service-related emails (verification, password reset)	Contract performance
Contextualising reading activity within cultural and socioeconomic dimensions — understanding how reading habits relate to cultural background, education level, occupation and economic context — in order to refine the reading recommendations made by the Book Tribe algorithm, both to you and to users with similar profiles. This data is provided voluntarily; it is never used for commercial profiling or sold to third parties.	Consent via voluntary disclosure (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR)
Improving the service	Legitimate interests
Complying with legal obligations	Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR)

4. Data retention

Your data is retained for the duration of your account. If you request deletion of your account, your personal data will be deleted within 30 days, with the exception of data we are required to retain under applicable law (e.g. billing records, which are kept for 10 years under French accounting law). Anonymised statistical data may be retained indefinitely.

5. Data sharing, monetisation and third parties

We do not sell your personal data.

Hosting: Your data is hosted on servers operated by our hosting provider (Likuid.com). Please refer to section 9 for information on data location.

Affiliate links: Book Tribe displays outbound links to third-party book retailers (such as Fnac and Bookshop.org) which may include affiliate referral codes. Clicking these links takes you to the retailer's website, which operates under its own privacy policy. We do not share your personal data with these retailers; the referral code identifies Book Tribe as the referrer, not you as an individual.

Advertising (not currently active): Book Tribe does not currently use advertising networks or serve targeted ads. If advertising is introduced in the future, this policy will be updated at least 30 days in advance, and where required by law, your consent will be sought before any personal data is used for advertising purposes.

Analytics: We do not use third-party analytics trackers (no Google Analytics, no Meta Pixel, or equivalent).

We may disclose your data if required by law or court order.

6. Cookies and tracking

Book Tribe currently uses only functional session cookies, strictly necessary for the operation of the service (authentication, language preference). We do not currently use advertising or tracking cookies. No cookie consent banner is required for strictly necessary cookies under the ePrivacy Directive. If tracking cookies are introduced in the future, a consent mechanism will be implemented in accordance with CNIL guidelines.

7. Your rights

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right of access — obtain a copy of your data
Right of rectification — correct inaccurate data
Right of erasure — request deletion of your data
Right to data portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format
Right to object — object to processing based on legitimate interests
Right to restrict processing — request limitation of processing in certain circumstances

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contact@book-tribe.fr. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the CNIL (French data protection authority): cnil.fr.

8. Data security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data: passwords are stored using one-way hashing, connections are secured via HTTPS, and access to production systems is restricted.

9. Data location and international transfers

Our hosting provider is Likuid.com. Your data is hosted on servers located in the Netherlands (European Union). No transfer of personal data outside the European Union is made.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. Material changes will be notified by email or by a notice on the site. The date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was last updated.

11. Contact

contact@book-tribe.fr