Privacy policy

The short version

• We keep what you save so we can file it and show it back to you.
• If you allow AI processing, we send the content needed for AI filing, search, chat and voice transcription to outside providers. You can keep AI processing off and still save and organize notes yourself.
• We count how the app is used, such as which screens are opened. The counts never include the words of your notes.
• We do not sell your data, and we do not show ads.
• You can export your library, and deleting your account deletes your data.

What we collect

• Your account. Your email address, your time zone and how you sign in (email and password, Apple or Google). If you sign in with Apple or Google, they pass your name to the company that runs our sign-in, and it keeps your name with your account. Shelves does not copy your name into its own records. It asks the sign-in company for it when an app needs to show it.
• What you save. Notes, links, photos, videos, files, voice recordings and their transcripts, shelves, tasks, dates and places. Notes you bring in from another app are saved the same way. These are stored on our servers so they sync to your devices. A video is stored as it was recorded, so it may carry the place where it was filmed.
• What Shelves works out from them. Which shelves a note belongs on, the things it mentions (a place, a book, a film), details looked up about those things, and search data built from your notes. If you allow AI processing, Shelves also keeps a copy of the pictures and videos in the web pages and social media posts you save, so they keep showing in your note.
• Your Apple Calendar, if you connect it. You choose this in Settings. Shelves then reads the events in the calendars you pick. For each event it reads the title, the start and end, the place written in it, any link, and the names of the guests and whether each is going. It does not read the notes or alerts inside an event, and it does not read your Reminders. It does not keep guests' email addresses. A guest with no name shows as the part of their address before the @ sign. The events are stored on our servers, so they show on your other devices. We also store the names of your calendars, your choices about them, and the name of the phone that reads them. Shelves can write back to Apple Calendar. It passes on edits you make to an event in Shelves, and it adds new Shelves events there if you pick a calendar for them. When you delete an event in Shelves, you choose whether it is deleted in Apple Calendar too.
• Saved websites you open. When you open a website you saved, Shelves marks it as visited. The mark is stored on our servers and syncs to your other devices. Shelves does not record websites you did not save.
• Chats. The questions you ask in chat and the answers.
• Your changes. When you move a note to another shelf, we keep a record of the move, with the note's text, so filing gets better for you.
• Your location, when you ask for places or notes near you. Your phone's position goes with that request, so your saved places can be ranked by distance. When you search the map for a place to save, it also goes to the service that looks up places, to centre the search. We do not keep it.
• How the app is used. Counts of what you do, such as which screens you open and for how long, that a note was saved, opened, moved or deleted, that a shelf was made or a task done, that a search or a chat answer finished, and how long each took. They also show that the app was installed or opened. Our servers send timings too, such as how long filing a note took. Each count goes to an analytics service, with your Shelves account number (a random number, not your email) or, before you sign in, a random number made for your install. It also gets your app version, your phone's platform, language, time zone and screen size. A count never holds the words of a note, a title, a search, a chat message or a link. It gets no screen recordings and no record of your taps. Like any internet service, the analytics service can see the network address your phone connects from. We tell it not to use that address to work out where you are.
• Device and crash information. If you turn on notifications, a token to send you reminders and a random number the app makes for your install. Crash and error reports, and how long screens take to open. A crash report says what went wrong and on what kind of device, and carries your Shelves account number. It can include a short recording of the screen, with all text and images hidden before it leaves your phone.

How we use it

We use your information only to run Shelves for you:

• to save, sync and show you your notes;
• to file notes onto your shelves, find the things in them and look up their details;
• to transcribe voice notes, answer your questions in chat and search your library;
• to send the reminders you ask for;
• to find and fix bugs, and to reply when you write to us.

AI and your notes

Before an outside service processes your content for AI features, the app asks you to allow AI processing. Until you allow it, none of your notes, links, attachments or recordings are sent for AI processing.

If you allow it, Shelves sends what each feature needs: notes and attachments to AI model services, reached through a routing service, for filing, chat and writing help (when a chat question is about your days, that includes the tasks and calendar events it needs); note text to an embedding service for search by meaning; voice recordings to a speech transcription service; and names and links from your notes to services that read saved links, search the web and look up places, films and books. A graph database keeps the start of each note and the names in it, to find related notes. A logging service records AI requests and answers so we can find and fix problems.

If you decline, you can still save, read, search by word and organize notes yourself. AI filing, chat, search by meaning, voice notes and dictation, link previews, details about places, films and books, and reading text in attachments are unavailable. You can change your choice at any time in Settings, How your data is handled. Turning AI processing off stops new AI work, and work already under way stops at its next step. It does not undo processing already completed.

If you connect another AI app to Shelves yourself, that app can read your notes whatever you choose here.

We do not use your notes to train AI models. For AI model requests, we ask our routing service to use only model providers that say they do not keep your data or train on it.

Who we share it with

We do not sell or rent your information. We share it only with companies that help us run Shelves, and only what each one needs to do its job:

• companies that host our servers and store your data;
• a sign-in provider that handles accounts and passwords, and keeps the name Apple or Google passes on;
• AI model, embedding, speech transcription, web search, link reading, graph database and AI request logging services, for the processing described above, only after you allow it;
• services that look up public details, such as a place's address or a film's cast. For a lookup we send only what it needs, such as a name, a link or an area to search near. Lookups you start yourself, such as searching the map for a place, work whatever you choose about AI;
• a service that delivers notifications to your phone;
• an analytics service that receives the usage counts and timings described above, and never the words of a note;
• crash and error reporting, so we can fix problems.

These companies may use your information only to provide their service to us. If you would like the list of service providers we use, email info@planfesti.com.

We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users. If Planfesti is ever sold or merged, this policy would still apply to your information, and we would tell you first.

Your choices

• AI processing. Choose Allow or Keep AI processing off when the app asks. Change your choice later in Settings, How your data is handled.
• Device permissions. Shelves asks before it uses your location, camera, photos, microphone, calendar or notifications. You can say no, and change your mind later in your iPhone's Settings.
• Apple Calendar. Connect or disconnect it in Settings, Connections, Apple Calendar. When you disconnect, you choose whether the events stay in Shelves or are removed. Disconnecting changes nothing in Apple Calendar.
• Export. Download a copy of your library at any time, from Settings, Export.
• Delete your account. In the app, go to Settings, Delete account, and type DELETE to confirm. This deletes your account and everything in it. You can also email info@planfesti.com and we will do it for you. See Support for the steps.
• See or correct your data. Everything you have saved is in the app. For anything else, write to us.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while you have an account. When you delete your account, we delete your data from our servers.

Keeping it safe

Your data travels between the app and our servers over encrypted connections. Only the people who build Shelves can reach our systems, and only to run and fix the service.

Children

Shelves is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters, we will tell you in the app or by email.

Contact

Planfesti, info@planfesti.com