Privacy policy
Last updated: 2026-09-28
Summary
Read Stacks is operated by Paulo de Vries (sole proprietor, Netherlands). We collect minimum data needed to provide the service, never sell personal data, and comply with GDPR (EU/UK) and CCPA (California).
What we collect
- Email (if you joined the email list): kept on the Read Stacks list + used for account login. New list signups are closed. You can unsubscribe with the link in every email.
- Reading history: chapters you've viewed, stored locally in your browser to enable progress tracking + bookmarks. Not associated with profiling.
- Usage analytics: Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity show us, in aggregate, which pages are read and which links are clicked. Clarity does not load at all for visitors whose browser time zone is in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland.
What we do NOT collect
- Browsing data outside readstacks.com
- Social-media profile data (TikTok engagement is anonymous to us)
- IP addresses beyond temporary security/rate-limit logs (purged after 7 days)
Affiliate & advertising
Read Stacks links to books via Amazon Associates. We earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Read Stacks uses Google AdSense to serve ads on free-tier chapter pages. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. Detailed information on Google's use of data when you use partner sites is available at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Ask Amili
Questions typed into the Ask Amili box at the bottom of each page are sent to our own server (taskpeace.com) and stored anonymously: the question text only, no IP address, no cookie, no identifier. We use them to see which answers are missing. The answers come only from pages on this site.
Cookies
Read Stacks uses:
- Essential cookies: session, auth, CSRF — required for the site to function. Cannot be disabled.
- Advertising cookies (Google AdSense): set by Google to serve relevant ads. EU/UK/CA visitors are shown a consent banner on first visit and may reject personalized advertising; the banner choice is stored in your browser and can be changed any time by clearing site data.
- Analytics (Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity): outside the EU, the UK, Switzerland and California these tools can set cookies in your browser; inside those regions Google Analytics starts with its cookies switched off.
Your rights (GDPR + CCPA)
- Right to access your data (email hello@readstacks.com)
- Right to deletion (we'll remove all account data within 30 days)
- Right to portability (we export your reading history as JSON on request)
- Right to object to processing
- Right to withdraw consent (cookie banner allows reversal anytime)
Data retention
- Newsletter email: kept until you unsubscribe
- Pro account: kept while subscription active + 90 days post-cancellation
- Reading history: kept for active subscription + 90 days post-cancellation
- Billing records: 7 years per Dutch tax law
Third parties
- Cloudflare: DNS, CDN, registrar
- Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity: aggregate usage analytics
- Stripe: payments (Pro+ tiers)
- Buttondown: holds the Read Stacks email list (new signups closed)
- Amazon Associates: affiliate links on chapter pages (no data sharing — affiliate ID only)
- Google AdSense (Mediapartners-Google + AdsBot-Google): ads served on free chapter pages, ad-network cookies governed by Google's Advertising policies + the partner-sites link above. Personalization can be disabled via cookie banner or via Google Ads Settings.
Children
Read Stacks is not intended for users under 13 (COPPA) or under 16 in the EU (GDPR child data).
Contact
Privacy questions: hello@readstacks.com