Cliff privacy

Updated September 15, 2026. BookPal is operated by Richie Etwaru.

What the app keeps

Your anonymous account identifier and reading position let Cliff keep your place. Conversation text is encrypted by the server before database storage. What you kept (the ideas, commitments, reflections and things about you that Cliff saves in your own words) is stored as readable database fields protected by access rules.

Likes and favorites: a like on a book or a chapter adds one to a count everyone sees, and nobody sees who liked it. A favorite is yours alone, listed on your Shelf. Taking either back hides it and changes the count; the record of it stays with your account until you delete the account.

Reels in Discover: a reel made with an AI presenter says so on the video and under it. It is not the author. An author's own reel is uploaded by the author and labelled as theirs.

Talking to Cliff

BookPal is voice only. With your permission, Google receives your microphone audio and the conversation context for the live conversation. That context can include the book, your place in it, what you kept, and recent turns. Providers process requests under their own service terms. The app does not promise that providers retain no data.

Original audiobook playback does not require AI consent. Tapping Cliff requests AI processing. You can withdraw AI permission in Settings. This stops new AI requests; it does not undo processing already performed.

Storage and diagnostics

Supabase stores account data, progress, and content. The BookPal worker handles conversations. Vercel serves the web app. We do not save raw microphone recordings in the app. If you send a diagnostic report, it contains technical event types, identifiers, and timings. It is used to investigate faults.

Your controls

In Settings, What you kept lists what Cliff saved. Forget this erases those words. You can also delete your account and associated app data, including what you kept, in Settings. Deletion does not remove the shared books. Restoring a browser backup can restore an old local token, which the server will refuse after account deletion.

Retention

Your app data is retained until you remove it or delete your account; a like or favorite you take back is kept, hidden, until then. Infrastructure backups may persist until the hosting provider’s retention period expires. No fixed backup purge period is promised here.

Contact

Use Support for available support options.