Privacy
Last updated September 25, 2026
The Spicy Collective is built for adult readers who want honest information about what is in a book. We collect only what we need to run the site, we never sell your data, and we do not run ads.
What we collect
- Account: your email address and password (stored securely by our login provider; we never see your password).
- Profile: your display name, chosen avatar, which badges you display, and your praise preference.
- Reviews and ratings: star ratings, spice ratings, and anything you write in a review.
- Shelves: which books you add to Want to Read, Reading, Read, or DNF, and the dates you added, started, finished, or stopped them. Also any shelves you make yourself, including what you name them.
- Book notes: what you mark as in, or not in, a book (Delights and content notes).
- Referrals and badges: your invite code, who joined through it, and badges you have earned.
- Feedback: anything you send us, including an optional reason if you delete your account.
- Notifications: when someone tags you, replies to you, follows you, or you earn a badge. Read ones are removed after 30 days.
- Imported books: if you upload a Goodreads export, we read the rows on your spicy shelf to fill your shelves and ratings. We do not keep the file.
What is public and what is private
- Public: your reviews and ratings appear on book pages with your display name, avatar, and the badges you choose to show. Pick a display name that does not identify you if you prefer privacy.
- Private: your email, shelves, reading dates, reading stats, and praise preference. Only you can see them.
- Your choice: shelves you make yourself start private. You can make any one of them public, and then its name and the books on it can be seen by anyone.
- Anonymous in aggregate: your book notes. When enough readers agree, a Delight or content note is added to or removed from a book, but no one can see who marked it.
Age
This site is for adults 18 and older. We ask you to confirm your age when you join. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we will delete it.
Cookies
We use cookies to keep you logged in, to remember that you confirmed your age, and a short-lived cookie (about a minute) to show a thank-you message after you add book notes. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. When you click a link to Amazon, Amazon may set its own cookies under its own privacy policy.
Who helps us run the site
We rely on a few trusted services that process data on our behalf: Supabase (database and login), Netlify (hosting), Cloudflare (domain and security), and Resend (account emails). They only receive what they need to provide their service.
Affiliate links
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. You pay the same price as always; Amazon pays our commission from its own share. We do not receive your personal information from Amazon, and earnings never influence ratings, tags, or content notes.
Deleting your data
You can delete your account at any time from Account, then Settings. Deleting your account permanently erases your profile, reviews, ratings, shelves (including any you made yourself), reading dates, book notes, notifications, and badges. Any tags your notes helped confirm are recalculated without them.
Contact
Questions or requests about your data: [email protected].
Payments, Premium, and Emails
Payments. Premium payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and are never seen or stored by us. We keep only a Stripe customer reference, your subscription status, your plan, and your renewal date, so we know which features to turn on. Payment receipts are sent by Stripe. Stripe's privacy policy is at stripe.com/privacy.
Newsletter. Members are subscribed to our newsletter when they join. You can turn it off anytime in Account, Settings. Every newsletter has a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can turn it off in your Account at any time.
New book alerts. Premium members can choose tropes to follow. If you do, we email you when a matching book is added. Turn alerts off anytime in your Account.
Admin access. A small number of site administrators can view account information, including reading activity, shelves, and stats, even when your shelves are private. They use this only to provide support, moderate the community, and keep the site running. Administrators never share this information outside the site.
We never sell your email. Your email address is used only to run your account and send the emails you asked for. We do not sell, rent, or share it with advertisers.