Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide

• Email address — used for passwordless sign-in. Required.
• Display name — shown to other users. Optional but recommended.
• City and state — displayed publicly on your profile to help requesters estimate shipping. Optional.
• Full mailing address — street, unit, postal code. Kept private; only disclosed to a counterparty after an exchange is approved. Optional, but required to complete exchanges.
• Bio — a short public description of yourself. Optional.
• Book listings — title, author, condition, cover image URL, and notes you enter for each book.
• Exchange messages — messages sent between you and another user during an exchange.
• Ratings and comments — feedback you leave after a completed exchange.

Information collected automatically

• Session tokens — stored in a secure cookie to keep you signed in.
• Standard server logs — IP address, browser type, pages visited, and timestamps. Retained briefly for security and debugging, then discarded.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To authenticate you and maintain your session.
• To display your profile, listings, and exchange history.
• To facilitate book exchanges between users.
• To send transactional emails — sign-in links and exchange status notifications.
• To calculate and display response rates and ratings.
• To enforce these Terms and investigate reported abuse.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond operating the platform.

3. Information Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for their own purposes. Information is shared only in these limited cases:

• With the counterparty in an exchange — once both parties have approved an exchange, each party's full mailing address is revealed to the other for the purpose of shipping the book.
• Infrastructure providers — we use Neon (database), Vercel (hosting), and Resend (email). These providers process data on our behalf under their own privacy policies and do not receive data for their own use.
• Legal requirements — we may disclose information if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of users or the public.

4. Public Information

The following is visible to anyone on the platform:

• Your display name
• Your city and state (if provided)
• Your book listings
• Your rating average and number of completed exchanges

Your email address and full mailing address are never publicly visible.

5. Data Retention

Your account data is retained as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, your profile and listings are removed. Exchange records may be retained in anonymized form for the other party's history. Server logs are deleted within 30 days.

6. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure session cookies, and access controls on our database. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized parties will never gain access. We recommend using a PO Box rather than your home address.

7. Children's Privacy

Ketab Gardesh is available to users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

8. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction — update your profile information at any time from your account settings.
• Deletion — request account deletion. We will remove your profile and listings.
• Portability — request your data in a machine-readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the address below.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the platform evolves. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of Ketab Gardesh after changes are posted means you accept the updated policy.

10. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, email us at privacy@ketabgardesh.com.