The short version. Readholic has no accounts. We don't know your name, email address, or Apple Account. Your books stay on your device (and in your own iCloud, if you use it); they are never uploaded to us. When you ask the AI to explain a passage or make flashcards, the selected text is sent to our servers and on to an AI provider (OpenAI, or DeepSeek if you choose it) to write the answer; the app tells you which one before the first request. Flashcard decks you choose to publish in the community are public; everything else is yours. We show no ads, we don't track you across apps or websites, and we never sell your data.
Who we are
Readholic is made by Paroaria LLC, an independent app studio. For anything in this policy, contact hello@paroaria.ai.
What we collect, and why
An anonymous device identity
Readholic doesn't have user accounts. Instead, your device proves it is a genuine device running the real app (Apple App Attest on iOS, Google Play Integrity on Android), and our service derives an anonymous, random identifier from that. This identifier is not your name, email, phone number, Apple Account, or advertising ID, and we cannot connect it to you as a person. We use it to keep your flashcards and study progress, to enforce usage limits, and to attach your Pro subscription.
AI requests
When you use an AI feature (Explain, follow-up questions, flashcard or quiz generation), we send the passage you selected (or the chapter's text, when you generate flashcards for a whole chapter), the book and chapter title, your question, and your preferred response language to our servers, which forward them to an AI provider to write the response. We never send the whole book. Explanations come back to your device and live there (and in your iCloud); our servers keep a copy for 24 hours only, so the same request can be answered again if your connection drops. Flashcards and quizzes are stored with your anonymous identifier so the app can schedule your reviews.
Study and learning data
Flashcard review grades, quiz answers, and spaced-repetition schedules are stored so the app knows what is due and how well you know each card. If Learning Memory is on, we also keep a compact profile of what you've asked about (topics, concepts you found difficult) to make future explanations more relevant. It is on by default; you can view, reset, or turn it off at any time in Settings.
Community decks
Readholic has a community Forum where readers share flashcard decks. Nothing is shared unless you publish a deck yourself, and publishing is always an explicit, confirmed step. A published deck contains the cards' questions and answers, the deck title and subject, and a display name you choose shown alongside a random profile id. It never includes your anonymous identifier, your notes, the passages' locations in the book, your reading activity, or your review history. Other readers download decks as independent copies: unpublishing removes your deck from the Forum, but copies people already saved stay in their libraries. Readers can rate and thank decks, report them, and block a creator; reports go to us for review.
Purchases
Subscriptions are processed entirely by Apple (or Google Play). We never see your payment details. To activate Pro, we receive the transaction's signed receipt data from the store: product, purchase and expiry dates, and an anonymized token that ties it to your anonymous identifier.
Service logs
Our servers keep operational logs (request timestamps, feature used, model used, token counts, error codes) to run the service, enforce fair-use limits, and debug problems. Our AI gateway keeps the same kind of metadata about each AI request but not the text itself. Logs are retained for up to 30 days.
What never leaves your device
- Your books and documents. EPUBs and PDFs you import are stored on your device only. AI features send only the specific passage or chapter involved, never the whole file.
- Your reading activity. Positions, bookmarks, highlights, notes, and your saved explanations are stored on-device. If you are signed into iCloud, Apple syncs them between your devices through your private iCloud database, which we cannot read.
When you download public-domain books or papers (Project Gutenberg, OpenStax, arXiv), your device fetches them directly from those services, which see your IP address like any website you visit.
Who processes data for us
| Processor | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services (US) | Hosting for our backend and database. |
| Roadie (our own AI gateway, Paroaria LLC) | Routes AI requests to the model provider, holds the provider keys, meters usage. |
| OpenAI (US) | The default AI provider: writes explanations, flashcards, and quizzes from the text we send. We use the business API, which is not used to train their models. |
| DeepSeek (Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, China) | Used only when you choose the DeepSeek model in Settings, or when your App Store storefront is mainland China, where the default provider cannot be offered. The text we send is processed on DeepSeek's servers in China under DeepSeek's API terms. We send the passage and your question, not your name or email; we have neither. |
| Apple / Google | App distribution, purchases, device attestation, and (Apple) your private iCloud sync. |
The app names the provider handling your request before you use an AI feature for the first time, and again in Settings. We do not sell personal data, we do not share it for advertising, and there are no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs in the app.
How long we keep things
- Explanation cache: 24 hours.
- Flashcards and study history: until you delete them or your data.
- Quiz sessions: 7 days.
- Learning Memory profile: until you reset or disable it in Settings, or delete your data.
- Published decks: until you unpublish them or delete your data (copies other readers downloaded stay in their libraries).
- Usage counters: up to 40 days.
- Service logs: up to 30 days.
- Subscription records: for the life of the subscription plus what tax and accounting rules require.
Your choices and rights
- Delete individual items: explanations and flashcard decks can be deleted in the app.
- Reset Learning Memory: Settings › Learning Memory.
- Unpublish a deck: from the deck's page in the Forum.
- Delete everything: Settings › Delete Account & Data erases all server-side data linked to your device identity, including your published decks and the AI gateway's records about you. You can also email hello@paroaria.ai. Because we hold no account details, deleting the app also permanently orphans your server data, which is then unreachable by anyone.
- Depending on where you live (e.g. the EU/EEA, UK, or California), you may have additional rights of access, correction, portability, and objection. Email us and we will honor them.
Security
All traffic uses TLS. AI provider keys live only on our servers, never in the app. Device attestation (App Attest / Play Integrity) prevents forged clients from accessing the service. Server-side data is stored encrypted at rest.
Children
Readholic is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. The app has no advertising, and its only social feature is the sharing of flashcard decks described above.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update this page and the effective date above. Material changes will be called out in the app. 31 August 2026: added DeepSeek as a selectable AI provider, described community decks, and documented in-app data deletion.
Contact
Paroaria LLC · hello@paroaria.ai