Privacy Policy

Effective May 23, 2026

Alcove is a personal ebook library manager for Mac and iPad, made by Much Better Than Cats LLC. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and how it is handled. The short version: your library is yours. We don't sell your data, and we collect as little as possible.

Your Library Data

Your book metadata — titles, authors, ratings, tags, reading status, and imported files — is stored locally on your device and, if you choose to enable it, synced across your devices via iCloud. We never see this data. Apple's iCloud infrastructure handles the sync; their privacy policy applies to that transmission.

Deleting Alcove and your iCloud container removes all library data entirely.

Metadata Lookup

When you look up book metadata or cover art, Alcove contacts free public sources — currently OpenLibrary and Google Books. These requests include the book's ISBN or title and author so the source can identify it. We don't control these services; their privacy policies apply to the information they receive.

Metadata lookup is initiated only when you explicitly request it. No library content is sent automatically in the background.

AI Features

Alcove offers optional AI-powered features — such as tag suggestions, series inference, and author deduplication — that analyze your book metadata. These features work in one of two ways, depending on your device and settings.

On-Device AI (Apple Intelligence)

On supported devices, Alcove uses Apple Intelligence to process your library entirely on your device. No book data leaves your device during this process. This is the default and is available at no additional cost on supported hardware.

Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)

As an optional paid unlock, you can connect Alcove to an AI provider of your choice — such as Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenAI, or a self-hosted local model — using your own API key. When you use this feature:

  • Alcove sends limited book metadata to the provider you have selected and configured. This includes book titles, author names, and descriptions or blurbs. It does not include the book's file contents, your reading progress, ratings, personal notes, or any other personal information.
  • Your API key is stored securely in your device's system keychain and is never transmitted to Alcove's servers.
  • Much Better Than Cats LLC does not receive, store, or have access to the metadata sent to your chosen provider. You are sending data directly to a third-party service you have independently signed up for.
  • The privacy policy of the provider you select governs how they handle your data. Links to privacy policies for common providers: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google.

Before the BYOK feature makes its first request, Alcove will show you a one-time disclosure identifying the provider and confirming what data will be sent. You can disable BYOK at any time in Settings, which stops all further transmissions to your configured provider.

If you use a self-hosted local model (such as Ollama running on your own machine or network), no data leaves your local environment at all.

Alcove Plus Subscription Services

Alcove Plus is an optional subscription that unlocks enhanced features requiring a backend connection. These features route through Much Better Than Cats LLC's servers, hosted on Cloudflare's global network, before reaching the third-party service that fulfils the request.

Enhanced Metadata (ISBNdb)

When an Alcove Plus subscriber requests enhanced book metadata or cover art, the request is routed through our servers to ISBNdb, a comprehensive book database. The information sent includes the book's ISBN, title, and author — the minimum needed to identify the book. Our servers do not store this data after the response is returned to your device. ISBNdb's privacy policy governs how they handle lookup requests on our behalf.

Subscription Verification

When you use a subscription-backed feature, your device sends an encrypted receipt token to our servers so we can confirm your subscription is active with Apple. This token is issued by Apple and does not contain your name, payment details, or library data. Verification results are cached briefly to avoid checking on every request; they are not stored long-term.

Cloud AI Processing

Alcove Plus will include AI-powered library features processed through our servers. When this feature is used, your book metadata (titles, authors, and descriptions) is sent to our servers, which forward it to our AI provider on your behalf. We do not store your book metadata after the response is returned. This feature is not yet available; this section will be updated with provider details when it launches.

Aggregate Service Analytics

To improve Alcove Plus features and understand how the service is used, our servers collect anonymized, aggregate statistics from requests we process on your behalf. This data is never linked to you as an individual.

The following basic operational statistics are always collected and cannot be opted out of. They contain no information about your library:

  • Feature usage counts (how many metadata lookups, AI classification runs, etc. occur per day)
  • Performance metrics (response times, cache hit rates, error rates) used to optimize queries and infrastructure

The following content-derived statistics are collected only if you have not opted out via the Usage Analytics setting in Alcove's Settings (see In-App Analytics below):

  • Popular genres, tags, and author names across the Alcove community — derived from metadata lookups and AI requests, counted only after a minimum number of users have contributed the same term to prevent singling out any individual

Individual request records are aggregated and discarded — we do not build a profile of your personal library activity. Aggregate statistics cannot be used to reconstruct what any individual user searched for or owns.

Our servers log standard operational metadata — timestamps and response codes — for reliability and abuse prevention. These logs do not contain your book data and are retained for no more than 30 days.

In-App Purchases

Alcove offers optional paid features through Apple's App Store. All payment processing is handled entirely by Apple; Alcove never receives your payment information. Apple's privacy policy governs purchase transactions. Purchase receipts are verified with Apple's servers to confirm entitlements; this process does not transmit your library data.

Crash Reports

Alcove uses Sentry to collect crash reports and error diagnostics. When a crash occurs, Sentry may collect:

  • Device model and operating system version
  • App version
  • A stack trace describing where the crash occurred

Crash reports do not include your name, email address, book titles, or any library content. You can opt out of crash reporting in Alcove's Settings.

Email List

If you submit your email address through the launch notification form or beta interest form on this website, we store it for the purpose of sending you updates about Alcove — release announcements, beta invitations, and occasional product news. We will never sell or share your email address with third parties. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email we send.

Beta Feedback

If you submit feedback, bug reports, or feature requests — via Sentry, our feedback board, or direct email — that information is used solely to improve Alcove. We do not share it.

In-App Analytics

Alcove uses TelemetryDeck to collect anonymous, aggregated usage data — things like which features are used and how often, and which app version is running. TelemetryDeck is designed to be privacy-preserving by default: signals are hashed and cannot be tied back to an individual. We use this data solely to understand how the app is used and to prioritize improvements.

No personally identifiable information is collected. No book titles, authors, or library content are ever included in analytics signals.

The Usage Analytics toggle in Alcove's Settings controls both TelemetryDeck signals and the content-derived aggregate statistics described under Alcove Plus above. Turning it off stops both. Basic server operational statistics (usage counts and performance metrics) are unaffected by this setting.

Website Analytics

This website does not use any third-party analytics or tracking scripts. No cookies are set. No cross-site tracking occurs.

Children's Privacy

Alcove is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to This Policy

If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the effective date above. Continued use of Alcove after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions or requests regarding your data: privacy@alcoveapp.app

Much Better Than Cats LLC · hello@alcoveapp.app