Readgate
Privacy Policy
Readgate is designed to place a short learning moment before selected apps and websites. This policy explains which information stays on your iPhone, which limited information is processed by service providers, and the choices available to you.
1. Scope and contact
This policy applies to the Readgate iPhone app, its iOS extensions, readgateapp.com, and support requests sent to us. Readgate is responsible for the processing described here unless a provider acts independently under its own terms. Privacy questions and requests can be sent to hello@readgateapp.com.
Readgate does not require an account. It does not use advertising identifiers, sell personal information, or use data for third-party advertising targeting.
2. Information stored on your device
The app stores the information needed to run and personalize Readgate locally, including:
- Your Family Controls selection of protected apps, websites, and categories. The selection is shared locally with Readgate's iOS extensions so iOS can apply and remove gates.
- Onboarding answers, goals, topic choices, reading preferences, reactions, and setup or permission status.
- Gate settings such as schedules, unlock duration, gate delay, daily cap, current unlock state, and local notification state.
- Up to 500 recent reading sessions, which may include content title, source URL, categories, timestamps, reading time, completion and unlock status, and related progress statistics.
- Downloaded or bundled content, content queues, and first-party configuration caches used for faster loading and offline availability.
Readgate does not receive your general Screen Time history. Protected app names and website domains are not intentionally sent to Readgate servers, product analytics, or crash reporting.
3. Content and first-party network requests
Many Insight Cards and Readgate Originals are bundled with the app and do not require a content request. When network content is used, Readgate may request curated pages directly from Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, or other Wikimedia services. Those providers receive normal connection data such as IP address, user agent, requested page, and request time under the Wikimedia Privacy Policy.
The app also requests a curated title index and configuration from readgateapp.com. These requests may expose normal server log data such as IP address, app version or user agent, requested file, and request time. Readgate does not include your protected app selection or reading history in those requests.
4. Purchases and subscriptions
Apple processes App Store payments. Readgate uses RevenueCat to show the Pro paywall, validate purchases, restore purchases, provide subscription management, and determine whether Pro is active.
RevenueCat may process an automatically generated app user identifier, Apple receipt and purchase history, product and entitlement identifiers, subscription dates and status, device and app information, country or currency information, and limited paywall context such as where the paywall or a benefit code action was opened. Readgate does not set an email address or named account identifier in RevenueCat.
5. Anonymous product analytics
Readgate uses PostHog, configured with its EU endpoint, to understand whether onboarding, reading gates, and subscription screens work. PostHog assigns an anonymous installation identifier and may receive technical app and device metadata.
Events may include onboarding step and selected goal, profession, feeling or topic labels; authorization result; counts of selected apps, categories, and websites; paywall source and outcome; content category and type; mood band; read or skip time; unlock source and outcome; selected intervention style; topic detail counts; shield handoff path; and technical exception type or message.
Readgate does not intentionally send protected app names, website domains, content titles, support messages, email addresses, Apple IDs, or advertising identifiers to PostHog. Person profiles, surveys, feature flags, remote configuration, and automatic lifecycle event capture are disabled.
6. Error and crash reporting
Readgate uses Sentry through its EU ingest endpoint to diagnose crashes and unexpected failures. Reports may include app and OS version, device model, stack trace, error message, recent technical breadcrumbs, app session status, and the anonymous PostHog identifier so the same technical failure can be correlated across the two systems.
Sentry is configured with default personal information disabled, screenshots disabled, and performance tracing disabled. Readgate also applies client-side scrubbing to email-like text, selection tokens, content URLs, and app or article context before events are sent. No scrubber can guarantee removal of every unexpected value, so reports are limited to diagnosing the app.
7. Notifications, website, and support
Readgate requests optional notification permission for local notifications that return you from the iOS shield and warn shortly before an unlock ends. The current app does not register for marketing push notifications or upload a push token.
The current website does not set advertising or analytics cookies. Its hosting infrastructure may process standard access logs needed to deliver and secure the site.
If you email support, we receive your email address, message, and anything you choose to attach, such as screenshots, a screen recording, device model, iOS version, or app version. Do not include information that is not needed to investigate your request.
8. Information not intentionally collected
- No Readgate account profile, name, phone number, or mailing address is required.
- No precise location, contacts, photos library, camera, microphone, health, or fitness data.
- No advertising identifier, cross-app tracking, or third-party advertising data.
- No general Screen Time history or list of apps outside the selection you make in Apple's picker.
9. Purposes and legal bases
Where the GDPR, UK GDPR, or similar law applies, Readgate processes information as necessary to provide the app and subscriptions you request, to comply with legal obligations, and for legitimate interests in securing the service, fixing failures, preventing purchase fraud, and understanding whether core product flows work. These interests are balanced against the limited and pseudonymous nature of the data. Where consent is legally required, it will be requested separately and may be withdrawn.
10. Sharing and international processing
Information is shared only with the providers described above as needed for their function: Apple and RevenueCat for purchases; PostHog for product analytics; Sentry for diagnostics; Wikimedia services for network content; the website host for delivery and security; and the email provider for support. We may also disclose information when required by law or necessary to protect users, Readgate, or the public.
PostHog and Sentry are configured to use EU endpoints. Some providers or their subprocessors may nevertheless process information outside your country or the EEA. Their own privacy terms describe the safeguards they use for international transfers.
11. Retention and deletion
- Local app data remains until it is replaced, reaches an app-specific limit, or you delete Readgate or clear its data. Deleting the app does not delete purchase records held by Apple or RevenueCat.
- Sentry crash reports are retained for 90 days under the current project setting.
- PostHog events are retained according to the active Readgate project retention setting and are deleted or aggregated when no longer needed for product analysis.
- Apple and RevenueCat retain purchase records as needed for subscriptions, accounting, fraud prevention, refunds, and legal obligations.
- Support emails and hosting logs are retained only as long as needed to answer requests, operate and secure the service, resolve disputes, and meet legal obligations.
12. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to processing, receive a portable copy of certain information, withdraw consent, and complain to a data protection authority. Contact hello@readgateapp.com to make a request.
Because Readgate has no account and most data stays only on your device, we may be unable to identify a particular analytics, diagnostic, or purchase record unless you provide the relevant anonymous identifier or purchase information. You can delete local history by deleting the app. You can manage notification permission and Screen Time access in iPhone Settings.
13. Children's privacy
Readgate is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided information through support or another channel, contact us so it can be reviewed and deleted where appropriate.
14. Content rights and attribution
Readgate includes original, editorial, public-domain, and open-knowledge material. Content from Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, or other Wikimedia projects is available under the license identified by the source, commonly CC BY-SA 4.0. Source links are shown where applicable. Readgate is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.
15. Changes and contact
If Readgate's data practices change, this policy and its date will be updated. Material changes will be communicated where required. For privacy questions or requests, contact hello@readgateapp.com.