Privacy policy
This policy explains what personal data Leafthrough processes, why, where it goes, how long it is kept, and what you can ask for. It covers this website, the Leafthrough editor and every book shared through Leafthrough. It is written for the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP, nDSG) and, where it applies, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Who is responsible
The controller is:
Silvan Heini, trading as Leafthrough
c/o Heinimpuls
Länggasse 3
6208 Oberkirch
Switzerland
[email protected]
Write to this address for every question or request about your data.
Whose data, and what for
Everyone who visits
When you open any Leafthrough page, the hosting service receives technical request data: your IP address, the time, the address you asked for, your browser and device type, and the page you came from. It is needed to deliver the page, keep the service secure and find faults. Legal basis: legitimate interest in running a secure website (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
This website sets no cookies, runs no analytics and shows no advertising.
Authors with an account
To give you an account, Leafthrough processes your email address, and, if you sign in with Google, your name, profile picture and Google account ID as Google passes them on. To sign you in by email link, your address is kept in your browser until you open the link.
For your books, Leafthrough stores what you put in them: titles, text, layouts, scenes and settings, and the photos and videos you upload, including the metadata stored in those files (for example the date a photo was taken, and on some cameras its location). It also stores share settings, share passwords, and printed scan codes.
Legal basis: the contract with you, the terms of service (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).
Guests without an account
If you start a book without an account, Leafthrough creates an anonymous account for your browser and stores your book with it, the same way as for an author. A guest book holds up to 10 photos and no videos. If you save it to an account, it moves there and the anonymous account is deleted. If you never save it, the book, its photos and the anonymous account are deleted after 30 days. Legal basis: the contract with you (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).
Buyers
Unlocking a book is a purchase from Stripe, which acts as the seller (merchant of record). Stripe collects your payment details, billing address and email, calculates and charges tax, and processes them under its own privacy policy as its own controller. Leafthrough never sees your card details. From Stripe, Leafthrough receives and stores a purchase record: the payment ID, the book, your account ID, the amount, the currency, the status (paid, refunded or disputed) and the dates. Legal basis: the contract with you (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)) and the duty to keep business records (GDPR Art. 6(1)(c), Swiss Code of Obligations Art. 958f).
People who open a shared book
Anyone with a share link or a printed scan code can open a book without an account. Besides the technical request data above, Leafthrough records failed password attempts per share link, so that a link can be locked for a while after too many wrong guesses; this is not tied to you or your IP address. If you enter a password, your browser keeps it for that tab only, so you are not asked again while you read. Legal basis: legitimate interest in showing the book its author shared and protecting it (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
People shown in photos and videos
Authors upload photos and videos of other people, such as family and friends. Leafthrough stores and shows them only as part of the author's book, and only to people the author shares it with. The author is responsible for having the right to use these images and for the consent of the people shown, as the terms of service require. Legal basis for Leafthrough's part: the contract with the author and legitimate interest in providing the service (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b) and (f)).
If you appear in a book and want an image removed, ask the author first. If that is not possible, or the author does not act, write to the address above with the share link or a description of the book and which images show you. Leafthrough will review the request and remove images where your rights outweigh the author's.
Protection against abuse
The editor uses Firebase App Check with Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise to tell the real app from automated scripts. reCAPTCHA evaluates technical data from your browser and device, and its interaction with the page, and sends it to Google. Legal basis: legitimate interest in protecting the service and its data (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).
Service providers and countries
Leafthrough uses these service providers. They process personal data on Leafthrough's behalf and under its instructions, except Stripe for the purchase itself, as described above.
- Google Firebase (Google Ireland Limited, Ireland; Google LLC, USA): hosting of the website and the editor, accounts and sign-in emails, the database, file storage for photos and videos, and server functions. The server functions run in Zurich, Switzerland. The database is stored in the European Union (Google's eur3 multi-region), and photos and videos are stored in the European Union (Google's EU multi-region). Hosting delivers pages from Google's global network, so request data may be processed close to you, anywhere in the world.
- Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise (Google LLC, USA): protection against abuse, as described above.
- Stripe: checkout, payment, tax and refunds for unlocks, as the seller. Stripe processes data in the EU and the USA, among other countries; see Stripe's privacy policy.
Where data goes to a country without adequate data protection as recognised by Switzerland or the EU, such as the USA, the transfer relies on the Swiss-U.S. and EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified under it, and otherwise on the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and recognised by the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.
How long data is kept
- Account and books: as long as the account exists. A book you delete is deleted with its photos, videos, share link and print codes.
- Guest books never saved to an account: deleted with their photos and the anonymous account after 30 days.
- Purchase records: 10 years, as business records required by Swiss law. They stay when the book or the account is deleted, but then no longer lead to a person.
- Technical request data and server logs: kept by Google for up to 30 days.
- In your browser: the sign-in session until you sign out, the email address for an email link until it is used, and a share password until you close the tab.
Leafthrough does not promise to keep books for good: back up anything you cannot replace.
Your rights
Under Swiss and EU data protection law you can ask:
- for access to the personal data Leafthrough holds about you, and a copy of it;
- for incorrect data to be corrected;
- for your data to be deleted, or its processing restricted;
- to receive data you provided in a common, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another service;
- to object to processing based on legitimate interest;
- to withdraw a consent you gave, for the future.
Write to [email protected]. Leafthrough may ask you to prove your identity first, and answers within 30 days. You can also complain to a data protection authority: in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), in the EU the authority of the country where you live or work.
Deleting your account
There is no delete button yet. To have your account deleted, email [email protected] from the email address of the account, and say that you want it deleted. A request from any other address cannot be checked and is not carried out. Leafthrough deletes the account within 30 days and confirms by email.
Deleting an account removes:
- the account and its sign-in details;
- every book in it, with all photos and videos;
- every share link and printed scan code, which stop working.
Purchase records are kept for 10 years as business records, no longer linked to a person. Unlocks are lost with their books and are not refunded.
Changes
This policy changes when Leafthrough's data processing changes, for example when a new service provider is added. The date below shows the latest version.
Last updated