Privacy
Last updated October 17, 2026
Your books stay on your device.
The files you add, the text you paste, the articles you save, your highlights, your reading progress and your settings are stored by your browser on this device. They are not uploaded to us, and we cannot see them. Clearing this site's data in your browser deletes them.
What reaches our server.
When you save a web article, our server fetches that page for you and sends its text back to your browser. It does not keep the page or its text. Our hosting provider keeps short-lived request logs, and those include the link you saved. The starter books, the summaries and the guides' free previews are downloaded from our site like any other web page.
If you buy Readshark Plus.
You pay on Stripe's page, and we never see your card. Stripe tells us your email address and that the payment went through, and later whether it was refunded; we use them only to keep Plus on, to send the sign-in links you ask for, and to answer you. This browser keeps a small signed pass with that email address, and sends it to our server when you open a whole guide, so the server can check it. About once a week, while you are online, it asks our server whether the payment still stands. A sign-in link is sent by our email provider to the address you type.
Reading aloud.
Listen uses the voices that come with your device or browser. Some browsers also offer online voices; with one of those, the text being read is sent to the browser's maker to be turned into speech. Your device's own voices work without sending anything.
No accounts or ads, and one simple visit counter.
Readshark has no sign-up (Plus needs only the email address you pay with) and shows no ads. To count visits, each page you open sends our own server its address (without anything you shared into it), the site that sent you here, and a random number kept in your browser so a return visit is not counted twice. It also notes a few taps by name: which summary or guide from our library you open, which book's "Get the book" link you tap, and when you look at or start buying Readshark Plus. It sets no cookies, it is not shared with advertisers or anyone else, and it never sees your own books, your text or your notes.
Links to buy books.
"Get the book" opens Bookshop.org, and we earn nothing from it. What Bookshop.org does with your visit is covered by its own privacy policy.