Privacy policy

Draft. A lawyer is reviewing this policy. When the final version is published, you'll be asked to read and accept it.

This policy covers Pica. The Parquecasa Publishing shop has its own privacy policy at parquecasapublishing.com/privacy.

Who we are

Pica is run by Parquecasa Publishing, a sole proprietorship in British Columbia, Canada. Caleb Parkhouse is responsible for how Pica handles your information.

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@parquecasapublishing.com
Mail: Parquecasa Publishing, [ADDRESS]

What Pica keeps

Your account

Your email address and your password. The password is stored only in a form that can't be read back.
The year you were born. The age check asks your birth month and year; Pica keeps only the year.
Which versions of these documents you agreed to, and when.
Your settings, and the field handle, motto and portrait you choose to add.

Your archive

Each card you file: the book, and how Pica identified it (a barcode, an ISBN you typed, a search, the answers you gave).
What you tell us about your copy, such as its printing, price or cover artist.
Your photos of the cover, barcode and copyright page.

When you sign in

The IP address and the browser or device of each session. Our account provider keeps these while the session lasts. [REVIEW]

What Pica doesn't collect

Your location, contacts, phone number, mailing address or payment details.
Any advertising or analytics data. Pica runs no ads, trackers or analytics.

Why

To run your account and keep your archive.
To identify your books: your photos and barcodes are compared against the Library.
To build the Library, if you share with it (below).
To keep Pica secure, and to answer you when you write to us.

We don't sell your information, and we don't use it for advertising.

Your photos

Photos taken in Pica are drawn fresh by the app, so they carry no camera details or location. A portrait you upload has its camera details and location removed before it's stored. Your portrait can be opened by anyone who has its exact link. No one else sees your cards or photos.

The Library

The Library is what Pica knows about books, shared by every reader. You add to it in two ways:

Covers you share. While "Add your covers to the Library" is on, your cover photos help Pica recognise copies for everyone. It's on unless you turn it off. We tell you so when you sign up, and the switch is in Settings.
Printings you add, when yours isn't listed. Other readers can see and choose them.

Contributions carry no name. Nothing in the Library says who added them. How they may be reused is set out in the Terms.

Turning sharing off stops your future covers from being shared. Covers already shared stay in the Library, with nothing that leads back to you.

Who else handles your information

Pica uses these services to run. Each one handles only what it needs:

Supabase: stores your account, archive and photos, in Canada (Montréal).
Vercel: runs the app. Every request passes through its servers in the United States.
Fly.io: runs Pica's identification engine in the United States. It receives your photos and searches, and never your name or email.
Resend: sends account emails (confirmation, password reset) from the United States.
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB): some cover images are loaded by your browser straight from ISFDB's servers in the United States. Those servers see your IP address, as with any website. Pica sends them nothing else.
Open Library: Pica's engine sends it the words or ISBN being searched for, and nothing that identifies you.

Information outside Canada

Your account, archive and photos are stored in Canada. To run Pica, your requests and photos are processed by the services above in the United States. While there, they're subject to US law, and US courts, law enforcement and national security agencies may be able to reach them. We use providers whose security is comparable to what Canadian law expects. [REVIEW]

How long we keep it

Your account, archive and photos: until you delete them, or your account.
Sign-in sessions: until you sign out or they expire.
Our providers' logs and backups: for the short periods those services keep them, then they're gone. [REVIEW]

After you delete your account, nothing of yours is kept except Library contributions that no longer carry your name, and copies in our providers' logs and backups until they expire.

Your choices

See and download everything: Settings → "Download my archive" gives you a file with your account, every card, what you told us, how each card was identified, and all your photos.
Correct it: edit a card, your handle, motto or portrait in the app. To change your email, write to us.
Stop sharing: turn off "Add your covers to the Library" in Settings.
Delete your account: Settings → "Delete account". This deletes your account, every card, every photo, your answers and your portrait, straight away. Printings you added and covers you shared stay in the Library with nothing that leads back to you.
Ask us: write to privacy@ for a copy of your information, a correction, or anything above. We answer within 30 days, at no charge.

If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (oipc.bc.ca) or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca). [REVIEW]

Age

Pica is for people 16 and older. The age check at sign-up asks your birth month and year. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we delete it and everything in it.

Cookies and storage

Pica sets only what it needs to work:

Your sign-in session (sb-pica-auth).
pica_birth_month: carries the month and year from the age check to the sign-up form. It lasts 30 minutes and is never stored by us.
pica_signup_declined: if the age check turns someone away, it holds "1" for 7 days, so the check can't simply be retried. It contains nothing about you.

Your browser also remembers your motion and haptics settings and your place in your archive. They stay on your device.

Email

Pica only emails you about your account: confirming your address, or resetting your password. We won't send you news or offers unless you've agreed to them, and every such email will let you unsubscribe.

Security, and if something goes wrong

Your archive is private to your account, and photos are stored where only your account can reach them. If your information is ever lost or exposed in a way that could seriously harm you, we'll tell you directly, and report it to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as the law requires.

Changes

If we change this policy, the version and date at the top change. If the change matters, we'll ask you to read and accept it before you carry on.

Contact

privacy@parquecasapublishing.com · Parquecasa Publishing, [ADDRESS]