Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 29, 2026

Verbiary is built for readers, and we keep data collection to what the app actually needs to work. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have.

This Privacy Policy applies to the Verbiary mobile app and the website at verbiary.app (together, the “Service”), operated by Watershed Labs LLC (“Watershed Labs,” “we,” “us”).

Information we collect

When you visit our website

If you enter your email address on our website, we store it to notify you when Verbiary launches. It’s handled by our email provider, EmailOctopus.

If someone sends you a Verbiary invite link and you open it in a browser, the invite page sends the code in the link to our backend (Supabase) to look up the invitation, and, if the invitation comes with a book, your browser loads its cover from Open Library. If you tap Get Verbiary or Copy invite, the page copies the invite link to your clipboard so the app can pick it up after you install it — the page never reads your clipboard. Invite pages set no cookies, run no analytics, are hidden from search engines, and don’t pass the link on to other sites. Like any website, ours is served by a hosting provider, Vercel, which processes standard request information such as your IP address in order to deliver the pages.

When you use the app

• Account information. When you create an account we process your email address, or, if you use Sign in with Apple, the identifier (and email) Apple provides. Authentication is handled by Supabase.
• Your vocabulary. The words you save, the sense you selected, and any optional page number, note, or sentence you add, along with the books you add to your library. This content is stored on your device and synced to our backend (Supabase) so it stays available to you. It stays private to you unless you make a friend or read a book with someone — see Reading with other people.
• Book lookups. When you add a book, your search terms are sent to Open Library to find matching titles.
• Reading with others. If you invite someone, or accept an invitation, we also collect a display name, an optional photo, your invite links, your friendships (and anyone you have removed as a friend) and reading circles, if you joined through someone's invite link, the record of whose link it was, your choice of who can see your shelf, any blocks or reports you make, and — if you allow notifications — a push token for your device. Each is described below.
• Purchases. If you start a subscription, we receive your subscription status from Apple through RevenueCat. We never receive your full payment-card details — those are handled by Apple.
• Diagnostics & analytics. We use PostHog for privacy-conscious product analytics (how features are used) and Sentry for crash and error reports, so we can fix problems and improve the app. Analytics events about invites, friends, reading circles, and your name and photo never include an invite code, anyone’s name, a circle’s name, a photo, or which book it was, and we strip invite codes from the app-open events our analytics tool records automatically.

What we do not do

Dictionary lookups happen entirely on your device against a bundled offline dictionary, and the words you look up are never sent to anyone else. Once you are signed in, a record of each lookup — the word, the book you were reading, when, whether you were online, and whether you kept the word — is stored with your account so we can understand how Verbiary is used; it is never shown to other readers, and it is removed with your account. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising. There are no public profiles and no way to search for people in Verbiary: other readers see you only if you invite them or accept their invitation. The app never reads your clipboard unless you tap Paste, and it does not use your camera.

Reading with other people

Verbiary is private by default. Until you invite someone or accept an invitation, nobody else can see anything of yours. Reading with other people is optional and invite-only, and it takes one of two forms: a friend sees the books on your shelf you have chosen to show and the words you keep in them, and a reading circle sees only the circle’s books. A circle reads one book at a time. If the person hosting your circle moves it to a new book, everyone who can still read with the host is carried along: they see the same names and photos there, and your words on that book are visible only once you add it and choose to show them.

Your name and photo

The first time you invite someone, or accept someone’s invitation, we ask what the people you read with should call you: a name, and a photo if you’d like one. We never ask at sign-up. The photo is chosen from your photo library and cropped to a small square on your phone before it is uploaded. Your name is stored with your account; your photo is stored in private storage with Supabase that is not publicly accessible, and people allowed to see it receive a link to it that expires after about an hour.

Your name and photo are visible only to your friends and to people who share a reading circle with you — never publicly, and never together with your email address. One exception, which the app tells you about when it asks: your name travels with any invite link you send, so whoever has the link can see who it is from before deciding to accept. Your photo never travels with a link. You can change your name, and change or remove your photo, at any time in Account.

Invite links and the Paste button

Verbiary has two kinds of invite link, and both look like verbiary.app/i/…. You send them however you like. Each is a random code that contains nothing about you or your reading, and accepting one requires an account so the people you read with know it’s you.

Your personal link makes whoever accepts it your friend (see Friends). You can attach a book to it. Anyone who has it — with or without the app — can see your name, and the attached book’s title, author, and cover if there is one. It works for up to 10 people and for 30 days, whichever comes first, and attaching a different book changes what it shows from then on. A circle’s link belongs to the circle’s host: anyone who has it can see the book’s title, author, and cover, the host’s name, the circle’s name if it has one, and where the club is in the book, if the host has said. It expires after 30 days. You can close your links or replace them with new ones at any time. Closing or replacing a link stops new people from using it; your friends stay friends, and everyone already in a circle stays. Only books added from the catalogue can be attached to a link or shared, never one you typed in yourself.

If you install Verbiary after opening an invite in your browser, the app offers a Paste button when you first open it. The app reads your clipboard only at the moment you tap that button — never on its own and never in the background — and only the invite code found in what you paste is sent to our backend.

Who invited you. If you accept an invite link within two weeks of creating your account, we record whose invite link it was — their account, the kind of link, and when — and, later, when you went on to keep a handful of words. We use this to understand how readers find Verbiary and, in future, to thank the person who invited you. It is never shown to other readers; the person who invited you may later see that you joined and that you kept words, never which words. It is removed with your account.

Friends

When someone accepts your personal link, or you accept theirs, the two of you become friends. Friends see the books on your shelf and the words you keep in them. In full, friends can see:

• each other’s names and photos;
• each other’s shelves: every book you have chosen to show, including ones you’ve archived, and in each the words you keep — with the sense you chose, the page, any sentence you added, and when you kept it — and basic details of that copy, such as whether it’s on your shelf or archived and how many words you’ve kept.

Friends never see the words you look up, a book you’ve hidden, or a book you typed in yourself. Once you have a friend, the books you’ve added from the catalogue are shown to your friends unless you hide them, and so is each one you add after that.

You decide what friends see. Hide my words here, in a book’s menu, takes that book off what your friends see and hides your words in it from your friends and from any circle reading it. Who can see my shelf, in Account, set to Nobody, hides your whole shelf and every word in it from all of your friends at once; people in your circles still see your words on the circle’s books. Remove friend ends a friendship without telling the other person, and they can’t use the personal link you had then to become your friend again; a new link you make later is a new invitation. A block ends a friendship too (see below). Because a personal link works for more than one person, someone you didn’t expect can become your friend if your link is passed on: they appear among your friends, and you can remove them, or close your link, at any time.

If you and someone read a book together through a Verbiary invitation before friends existed, the two of you are now friends, and they can see the books you show and the words in them; you can remove them, or set Who can see my shelf to Nobody, at any time.

Reading circles

A reading circle is a group that reads one book at a time — the app asks its host for a name — and everyone who joins through the circle’s link is a member. Being in a circle with someone does not make them your friend, and removing someone from a circle does not end a friendship: to stop a friend seeing a book, hide it or remove them as a friend. Members of a circle can see:

• each other’s names and photos, and who else is in the circle;
• on the circle’s books only, for each member who shows their copy: the words they keep in it — with the sense they chose, the page, any sentence they added, and when they kept it — and basic details of that copy, such as whether it’s on their shelf or archived and how many words they’ve kept.

Inviting someone to a circle, or joining one, shows your copy of the circle’s book to the circle. You can hide your words in that book again and stay a member, or leave the circle altogether; either way, the words you kept stay yours. Members of a circle see your words on the circle’s books only — never your other books, and never the words you keep in them — unless they are also your friends. People in other circles on the same book cannot see your words unless they are your friends, and the words you look up are never shared with anyone. If the person hosting a circle leaves it, hosting passes to someone still in it, or, if nobody there can take it on, the circle carries on with its links closed; a circle nobody is left in is deleted. If the person hosting a circle deletes their account, that circle ends for everyone in it.

Blocking and reporting

You can block any friend, or anyone you share a circle with. A block hides the two of you from each other everywhere in Verbiary — names, photos, shelves, and words, in every circle — ends your friendship if you have one, and stops either of you from joining the other’s circles or accepting the other’s personal link. The other person is not notified. A block is between the two of you only: the other person stays in the circle with its other members.

You can also report someone, or a word they shared, with a short reason. A report records who filed it, who and what it is about, the book, the reason, and a copy of the reported content, so that it can still be reviewed if the original is deleted. Only the person who filed a report and Watershed Labs can see it. We review every report within 48 hours. For anything urgent, contact us at support@verbiary.app.

Notifications

Verbiary’s notifications come only from people you read with — for example, “Maria joined your read of Middlemarch,” “Maria joined you on Middlemarch” when someone accepts your personal link with a book attached, or “Maria is now your friend” when it has none. We never send marketing or promotional notifications. We ask for permission only when you send your first invite, never at install. If you allow notifications, we store your device’s push token with your account so we can deliver these messages, and each message passes through Expo’s push service and then Apple’s push notification service on its way to your phone. If you decline, the app won’t ask again, and you can change your choice at any time in Verbiary’s Settings or in iOS Settings. Someone you have blocked, or who has blocked you, never causes a notification to you.

How we use information

• To provide the core features — looking up words and saving your per-book vocabulary.
• To sync your saved words and books across your session and devices.
• To let you read with the people you invite — showing your name, photo, the books you show, and the words you keep in them to your friends, and your name, photo, and words on a circle’s books to that circle — and delivering invitations.
• To send you notifications from the people you read with, if you allow them.
• To review reports and keep reading with other people safe.
• To manage your account, free trial, and subscription.
• To understand usage and diagnose crashes so we can improve the app.
• To email you about the launch, if you joined the waitlist.

Service providers

We share limited information with vendors that help us run the Service, only as needed to provide it: Supabase (accounts, data storage, and profile photos), EmailOctopus (waitlist email), RevenueCat and Apple (subscriptions), PostHog (analytics), Sentry (crash reporting), Open Library (book search and covers), Vercel (website hosting), Expo (push delivery) and Apple (push notifications). Each processes data under its own terms and privacy policy.

Data retention

We keep your account and saved content for as long as your account is active. If you ask us to delete your account, we remove your personal data and saved content, except where we’re required to retain limited records (for example, transaction records) by law.

Deleting your account also removes your name, your photo, your invite links, your friendships and the record of friends you removed, the record of whose invite link brought you, your circle memberships, your blocks, the reports you filed, and your push tokens. Circles you host end for everyone in them, and your shelf and words disappear from your friends’ and other members’ view. Reports other people filed about something you shared are kept, without the link to your account, so we can finish reviewing them, for 12 months.

Your rights & choices

You can access, correct, export, or delete your personal data. You can unsubscribe from waitlist emails at any time using the link in any message. To make a request about app data, email us at the address below and we’ll respond within a reasonable time. Depending on where you live (for example, the EEA, UK, or California), you may have additional rights under local law; we honor those requests.

In the app you can also change your name, change or remove your photo, and choose who can see your shelf (in Account), close or replace your invite links, hide your words in any book, remove a friend, leave a reading circle, block or report someone, delete your account, and turn notifications off in Verbiary’s Settings or in iOS Settings.

Security

We use reputable providers and reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your data safe.

Children

Verbiary is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your country), and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

International users

We are based in the United States, and your information may be processed there and in other countries where our providers operate. We take steps to ensure your data is handled in line with this policy wherever it is processed.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we’ll revise the “Last updated” date above, and for material changes we’ll provide a more prominent notice.

Contact us

Questions or requests about privacy? Email privacy@verbiary.app, or write to us:

To report a problem with someone you read with, use Report in the app or email support@verbiary.app.

Watershed Labs LLC
30 N Gould St, Ste N
Sheridan, WY 82801
United States