Privacy policy
Effective 2026-10-30
This policy explains what information Podcast Shelf collects, why we collect it, and your choices. It covers our website and account services, but not the podcasts themselves or other websites we link to.
In short
We collect the information needed to manage accounts and payments, along with aggregate traffic statistics. We do not sell your data or build advertising profiles. Your locally stored reading history stays in your browser.
What we collect
Account details: your email address, a display name generated by us, and a password stored only as a salted hash. If you sign in with Google, we receive its account identifier, email address and basic profile. We do not request your date of birth during registration.
Orders and membership: which plan you bought, the amount, currency, order status and the identifier the payment channel returns. Card numbers and payment credentials never reach our servers — they are handled by the payment provider.
Reading activity: we store which podcasts you follow and which episodes you save, and, when you are signed in, which content versions you have opened. Your scroll position and last-read article stay in your own browser — see the next section.
Technical logs: IP address, request path, status code and timestamp, kept for security and abuse prevention. Aggregate traffic statistics are collected through Google Analytics 4.
Analytics also measures membership views, plan selection, checkout attempts, payment outcomes, renewals and confirmed refunds. We use pseudonymous Analytics identifiers, an internal transaction identifier, plan, amount, currency and purchase type. We do not send email addresses, display names, passwords, gift codes, card details or payment credentials to Analytics.
We do not run session replay or record your form inputs. Website typography uses fonts installed on your device, and PDF fonts are hosted by us; visiting the site does not fetch fonts from a third-party font service.
Cookies and browser storage
The session cookie keeps you signed in. If you choose an interface language, a preference cookie remembers it for one year; otherwise the homepage uses your browser language. Clearing site data removes that choice. We also use Google Analytics cookies to count visits and see which pages are read. No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies are set by us.
Reading preferences are kept in your browser's local storage, never sent to us: theme, text size, scroll position for each revision, and the title of the last article you opened. Clearing site data removes them.
You can block analytics cookies without affecting reading or payment. We honor Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control when collecting browser analytics and checkout attribution. Google also offers a browser add-on to opt out of Analytics.
Third parties
Cloudflare hosts the site and stores the database and archived source files. Google provides traffic analytics. Stripe, Alipay and WeChat Pay process payments. An email provider delivers verification and password-reset messages. Each of them processes only the data needed for its part, under its own privacy terms.
Marketing email is disabled. Verification and password-reset emails contain only information needed for account security, without promotions.
How long we keep it
Account data stays while the account exists. After an account is deleted, order and membership records are kept for as long as tax and accounting rules require. We do not use these retained records for marketing. Technical logs are kept briefly and then discarded.
What you can ask for
You can see and correct your email and display name on the account page, and cancel automatic renewal there. For a copy of your data, or to have your account and its personal data deleted, write to fenggit@gmail.com from the address on the account; we will confirm your request and respond within a reasonable time. Deleting an account does not remove records we are legally required to keep, and does not cancel a payment dispute already in progress.
Children
New accounts are limited to people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect children's personal information. If we discover an underage account, we will investigate, restrict access and handle its personal data as required by applicable law.
Where data is processed
Hosting, storage and analytics are provided by companies that operate globally, so your data may be processed outside mainland China. Where that happens, it is covered by the provider's contractual and security commitments.
Changes and contact
If we make changes to this policy that affect your rights, we will update the effective date above and explain the changes here. Questions, requests and complaints: fenggit@gmail.com.