Privacy
for analects.net and the Analects app
The short version: there are no accounts and no ads, and nothing is sold or shared. The app collects nothing at all. The website uses one analytics tool, described plainly below, to see how its pages are used.
The website
analects.net is a static site. Your settings (reading mode, theme, text size, and the rest) are kept in your browser's own storage and never leave it. Like any website, its pages are delivered by a server (Amazon CloudFront) that keeps standard delivery logs; they are used only to run and protect the service.
The site uses Microsoft Clarity to understand how its pages are used: which parts get read, where taps and scrolls happen, and what a visit looks like, including session recordings of that activity. Clarity sets its own cookies to tell visits apart, and the data is processed by Microsoft under Microsoft's privacy statement. It identifies sessions, not names; we use it only to make the site better, and for nothing else.
For visitors from the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, where analytics cookies require consent, Clarity is not loaded at all unless you choose to turn it on. If that is you, the switch appears below (it also lives in Settings). Turning it off again takes effect at once: Clarity's cookies are deleted and nothing further is recorded.
Episode pages can embed players from YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. When an embedded player loads, that company's own privacy policy applies to it, and it may set its own cookies. Discussion links go to Reddit; anything you post there is between you and Reddit.
The app
The app works the same way. Your reading place, settings, and starred threads live on your device. To stay current it fetches content from analects.net: ordinary web requests, logged like any page view and nothing more. Notifications about new episodes are made on your device by the app checking that same content; no push tokens or device identifiers are sent to anyone.
Notes are yours in the fullest sense: on iOS they are written to your own iCloud Drive (synced by Apple under your Apple account), and on Android to a folder you choose. They are never sent to us, and deleting the app does not delete them.
The app has no crash reporting. If something breaks, it shows an error page and suggests you email a screenshot, which is sent only if you choose to send it.
Tips and the colophon
Tips are processed entirely by whichever door you use: the App Store, Google Play, or Patreon, each governed by that company's own privacy policy; we never see your payment details. Apple and Google tell us nothing about who tipped; Patreon, by the nature of the platform, shows us a supporter's name and email, which we use to say thank you and for nothing else. Being named in the colophon is optional on every door; nobody is listed without asking to be. If you ask to be named in the 題名 colophon, the name and message you send are published on the site and in the app, along with a short scrambled code derived from the store's transaction number so you can find your own entry. The code identifies the entry, not you. Ask and your entry is removed.
If you write to us, we have your email address and whatever you wrote. It is used to reply to you and for nothing else.
Changes
If any of this ever changes, this page will say so plainly. Questions to elliott@analects.net.
Effective 24 August 2026.