Sophinium is published by Collective Unconscious Apps LLC and is a reading app for Apple Vision Pro, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch and CarPlay. This policy explains, plainly, what the app does and does not do with your information.
The short version
No account, no sign-in, no ads, no analytics, no tracking, and no third-party SDKs.
We do not run any servers. Nothing about you is sent to us.
Your reading position, bookmarks, notes and settings stay on your devices, and sync between them through your own iCloud.
The only time anything is shared with another person is when you choose to read together, and then only what is described below.
What's stored on your device
Your reading position, bookmarks, notes you write on a book, and display preferences (text size, page colour, reading angle).
A local cache of book text and cover images you've opened, so books remain available offline.
iCloud sync
If you are signed in to iCloud, Sophinium uses Apple's iCloud key-value storage to keep your reading progress and the last book you read in step across your own devices (for example, to offer "Continue Reading" on your Apple TV). This data lives in your personal iCloud account, is handled by Apple, and is not accessible to us. Handoff, if enabled on your devices, passes your current book and page between them in the same way.
Reading together
Sophinium offers two ways to read the same book with someone else:
By code. One person starts a reading and gets a short code; others type it in. While a reading is open, each device writes a small record to the app's public CloudKit database. The record contains only: the Project Gutenberg book number, the book's title and author, the page position, and a timestamp showing the device is still there. It contains no name, email, device name or contact details. The record is deleted when you leave the reading, and a reading that is abandoned is treated as expired after a few hours. Apple's CloudKit service runs this database and may keep standard service logs; we do not use them.
By SharePlay. If you are already on a FaceTime call, you can share the reading through Apple's SharePlay. Page positions travel between participants through Apple's Group Activities; we do not see them. Voice and video travel through FaceTime, not through Sophinium.
Voice features
Read Aloud and Bedtime Story use your device's built-in speech voices. The text is spoken on your device.
Voice search (iPhone and iPad) asks for microphone and speech-recognition permission. Speech is converted to text by Apple's speech recognition, which may process audio on your device or on Apple's servers under Apple's privacy policy. Sophinium never receives or stores the audio, only the text it is turned into, and only uses it as your search.
Ask the Book (on devices that support Apple Intelligence) answers questions about the page you are on using Apple's on-device model. Your question and the page text stay on your device.
Sensors on Apple Vision Pro
The immersive library may use your head position and hand movements so that the room, the book and page-turning by hand gesture respond to you. This is processed on the device while the app is open. It is not recorded, stored, or transmitted. Hand tracking and head tracking each ask for your permission first.
Network requests
To browse and download books, Sophinium makes standard HTTPS requests to:
gutendex.com — a public API for searching Project Gutenberg's catalog
gutenberg.org (and its mirrors) — to download the text and cover of a book you choose to open
These requests carry only what is needed to fetch the search results or book you asked for (for example, a search term or a book number). We add no tracking identifiers and we do not see or log these requests ourselves. Those sites receive standard connection information, such as your IP address, as any website does, and handle it under their own policies.
Apple Watch and CarPlay
The Watch app and CarPlay show and control the book you are reading using the connection between your own devices. They do not send data anywhere else.
Deleting your data
Deleting Sophinium removes its data from that device. To remove synced reading progress, you can manage Sophinium's iCloud data in Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage. Because we hold no account and no data about you, there is nothing for us to delete on our side.
Children's privacy
Sophinium does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children. It has no accounts, no ads and no tracking.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, this page will be updated and the "last updated" date above will change.