PageTide
PageTide Privacy Policy
PageTide is an audiobook and EPUB app. This page explains what it does with your information. The short version: your books, your listening and reading, and your notes stay on your devices and in your own iCloud. I don't run a server for PageTide, I don't have accounts, and there are no ads, analytics or trackers in the app.
What PageTide doesn't collect
- No account, name, email address or phone number. You never sign up for anything.
- No analytics, usage statistics or crash-reporting tools.
- No advertising, and no tracking across other apps or websites.
- No location, contacts, photos, health data, or microphone recordings.
- Nothing about what you read or listen to is sent to me.
PageTide includes no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking code. The one open-source library it uses to display EPUB books (Readium) runs entirely on your device.
Your books stay with you
PageTide works with books you already own, in your iCloud Drive, in a folder you choose in the Files app (including folders from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or a network drive that appear there), or on your own Audiobookshelf server. It reads those files to play and display them. It doesn't send your book files to me or to anyone else. (If you import books into PageTide's own iCloud Drive folder, those copies live in your iCloud Drive, under your Apple Account.)
PageTide doesn't write to your own library folders. When you ask it to keep a copy of a book on your device, it makes that copy in the app's own storage, which you can clear.
Transcription and alignment happen on your device
To line the audiobook up with the text for read-along, PageTide transcribes the audio and matches it against the book's words. This uses Apple's on-device speech technology and PageTide's own code. Audio and text never leave your device for this. The first time you use it for a language, iOS may download Apple's speech model for that language from Apple; that's iOS managing its own files, and none of your audio is sent.
iCloud sync stays in your private iCloud
PageTide uses iCloud so your library, positions and notes follow you between your devices. This goes into your own private iCloud storage, tied to your Apple Account. Only you can read it. I can't see it and have no access to it.
What syncs: your library list and book details (titles, authors, covers), where you are in each book, bookmarks, highlights and notes, reading and listening history and streak counts, settings, the folders you've added, the text and timing data PageTide builds from your books for read-along and search, and the name and address (not the password) of any Audiobookshelf server you've connected. It counts against your iCloud storage. If you're not signed in to iCloud, PageTide keeps this data on the device only.
You can delete it any time by removing the app and managing its data in Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage.
Open Library lookups
Sometimes a book file is missing a cover, title or author. By default PageTide asks Open Library (openlibrary.org, run by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit) to fill the gaps. You can turn this off in Settings with "Look up missing covers and details online". When it's off, PageTide makes no Open Library requests at all. You can also use "Find better match" to search by hand, which does the same lookup.
What's sent: the book's title, author and ISBN (when it has one), as part of a normal web request. Open Library will also see your device's IP address, as any website does, and a User-Agent line that names the app and version and includes PageTide's contact address, which Open Library asks apps to provide. Cover pictures are fetched from Open Library's cover service, which can pass the request on to the Internet Archive. PageTide sends nothing else about you or your library. The request goes straight from your device to Open Library: there is no PageTide server or shared database in between, so I never receive or keep these lookups, and each device looks a book up for itself. Open Library may keep its own ordinary server logs. Open Library handles these requests under its own policy at openlibrary.org and archive.org/about/terms.php.
Purchases
PageTide is free to download and use with a small number of books. A one-time in-app purchase unlocks the rest. Purchases and Family Sharing are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. I never see your payment details, name or Apple Account. PageTide asks Apple whether you own the unlock so it can switch features on; that check is between your device and Apple.
Audiobookshelf (your own server)
If you connect an Audiobookshelf server, PageTide talks directly to that server and only that server: the address you typed, your username and password, your library list, the audio you stream or download, and your listening progress. The app also tells the server a random per-install device ID, "PageTide" as the app name, the app version and your device model (such as "iPhone"), as Audiobookshelf requires. Your password is sent once to sign in and is not kept. A sign-in token is stored in the iOS Keychain on that device only; it doesn't sync to iCloud or to your other devices.
I don't run or see that server. What it does with the data is up to whoever runs it (often you), and is covered by their rules, not this policy. PageTide only allows an unencrypted http:// connection to addresses on your own home network; anything on the internet must use https://.
Files and iCloud Drive
PageTide reads files from places you give it access to: its own iCloud Drive folder, and folders you pick in the Files app. It uses the access only to list, play, display and, if you ask, copy those books. Access to a folder is remembered on your device only.
Widgets, Siri, Shortcuts, Handoff and notifications
- Widgets, Control Center controls and the sleep-timer Live Activity show book titles, covers and progress. PageTide shares that information between the app and its widgets through an on-device storage area (an App Group). It doesn't leave your device.
- Siri and Shortcuts can start or pause your book. These requests are handled by Apple and your device.
- Handoff lets you continue a book on another of your Apple devices. Apple sends the information between your devices.
- Reminders (such as a gentle reading nudge) are scheduled on your device. PageTide has no push-notification server.
- CarPlay shows your library on your car's display through Apple's CarPlay system.
Diagnostics
PageTide has no crash reporter. Messages it writes to the system log stay on your device. If you've chosen "Share With App Developers" in iOS Settings, Apple may give me anonymous crash and usage reports through TestFlight and App Store Connect. That's an Apple setting and is off unless you turn it on.
Children
PageTide isn't directed at children under 13 and doesn't knowingly collect anything from anyone, children included. Because the app collects no personal information, there's nothing to remove if a child uses it.
Changes to this policy
If PageTide's behavior changes, I'll update this page and the effective date at the top. If a change affects what leaves your device, I'll say so in the app's release notes too.
Contact
Questions, or want to know more? Write to Shawn McBee at admin@smickbee.com.