What do AI reading apps' privacy labels say?

01The labels, side by side

Alphabetical. "None listed" means the label has no such section.

02What do the three headings mean?

Apple's guidance for developers defines the terms the labels use:

• Collect means "transmitting data off the device in a way that allows you and/or your third-party partners to access it for a period longer than what is necessary to service the transmitted request in real time."
• Data used to track you covers data linked with data from other companies' apps and websites for advertising or shared with data brokers. Apple's examples include "Displaying targeted advertisements in your app based on user data collected from apps and websites owned by other companies" and "Sharing device location data or email lists with a data broker."
• Data linked to you is data tied to your identity. Apple notes that "Personal Information" and "Personal Data" as defined under privacy laws "are considered linked to the user."
• Data not linked to you has been stripped of identifiers and must not be linked back.

Apple tells developers "You're responsible for keeping your responses accurate and up to date", and each listing says the information "has not been verified by Apple".

03What stands out for reading companions?

• Page photos. Magic Bookmark finds your place from a photo of your page, and its detailed label lists "Photos or Videos" under user content, used for app functionality. Fable, Thus Far, Claude, Gemini and Kindle also list photos or videos in their detailed labels; ChatGPT's does not.
• Pasted text. Anything you paste into a chatbot (a passage, your notes) is user content sent to the maker. All three chatbot labels list user content linked to you.
• Advertising purposes. ChatGPT's detailed label lists "Third-Party Advertising" as a purpose for some usage data, and its age rating section says it "Contains" advertising. Fable's age rating section also says it contains advertising. Magic Bookmark's detailed label lists an email address used for "Developer's Advertising or Marketing".
• Tracking. Thus Far is the only one of the seven that lists purchases and usage data as used to track you.
• One label per app. Kindle's label covers the whole Kindle app, not Ask this Book alone; the chatbot labels cover everything the chatbot does, not just book talk.

04What do the store tools' labels add?

Google Play Books and Spotify now run AI reading features (Book insights and audiobook Recaps), so their labels matter to readers who use them:

• Google Play Books lists no data used to track you, a long list of data linked to you, and search history and diagnostics as data not linked to you.
• Spotify lists contact info, identifiers and usage data as data used to track you, and the longest list of linked data in this table, including health and fitness, financial info and contacts. Spotify is a music, podcast and audiobook app, so much of that list has nothing to do with reading.

A label describes the whole app, not one feature. Using Recaps does not by itself send Spotify more data than listening does; the label tells you what the app as a whole may collect.

05How common is tracking among reading apps?

In our study of 30 reading apps, all 30 publish an App Store privacy label and 12 list data used to track you, most often identifiers (11 apps) and usage data (8). One app, Book Tracker, reports Data Not Collected. Among the apps with AI reading features, Magic Bookmark, Basmo, Spotify, Thus Far and Blinkist list tracking data; Kindle, Google Play Books and Readwise Reader do not.

06How should you read these labels?

1. Compare the tracking section first. It is the shortest and the one most people care about.
2. Then scan "linked to you". More categories means more kinds of data tied to your account.
3. Open the detailed label on the App Store page to see purposes (app functionality, analytics, advertising) for each data type.
4. Remember the limits. Labels are self-reported, can change with any update, and "Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age", as each listing says.

07What can you do to share less?

• Photograph only the page you need, and avoid capturing other people or personal items in the frame.
• Paste short passages rather than whole chapters into a chatbot, and avoid personal details in book chats.
• Check each app's privacy settings and policy, linked from its App Store page.
• If tracking matters to you, prefer apps whose label lists no data used to track you, and use your phone's tracking settings.

For tracker apps such as Goodreads and The StoryGraph, our sibling site compares labels in Reading app privacy labels. Full profiles of the apps above: Magic Bookmark, Kindle, Fable, Thus Far, general chatbots.