The short version
Shelf Steward is the personal logbook for a person who looks after a neighborhood book-sharing box. The app does not collect, transmit, sell, or share any of your data, because it does not have a server at all. Everything you enter — your boxes, shelf counts, curb-check notes, stash books, rotation plans, photos and saved links — stays stored only on your own device.
What the app stores, and where
All of the information below is written to on-device storage (SwiftData and the file system inside the app's own sandbox) and to Apple's local notification scheduler. None of it leaves your device, and none of it is visible to us.
| Information | Where it lives | Leaves the device? |
|---|---|---|
| Boxes, shelves and shelf counts you set up | On-device database | No |
| Curb-check entries, condition notes, issue tags | On-device database | No |
| Photos taken or chosen during a curb check | On-device app folder | No |
| Home stash of donated books | On-device database | No |
| Rotation calendar and theme notes | On-device database | No |
| Saved page links you add | On-device database | No |
| Reminder times you choose | Local notification scheduler | No |
| App settings (haptics, animation, theme) | On-device preferences (UserDefaults) | No |
Because nothing is collected, there is nothing for us to see, store on a server, sell, or share with advertisers or data brokers. If you delete Shelf Steward, all of this information is deleted along with it.
Camera
Shelf Steward asks for camera access only when you tap "Take photo" while logging a curb check. The photo is saved directly to the app's own folder on your device. We never see it, and it is never uploaded anywhere. You can decline camera access and still use every other part of the app; you'll simply skip the photo step.
Photo library
If you choose a photo from your library instead of taking a new one, Shelf Steward uses Apple's system photo picker. The picker runs outside the app and only hands over the single image you select — the app never receives a general listing of, or access to, the rest of your photo library.
Notifications
Shelf Steward can remind you when a curb check is due or when it's time to swap a shelf theme. These reminders are scheduled locally on your device using Apple's notification framework. We do not use a push notification service, and no notification content is sent to or generated by a server.
Links you open inside the app
Reading-list pages, book-drive pages, your neighborhood group page, or your city's permit page — anything you choose to open — loads inside the app's own built-in browser so you never have to leave Shelf Steward. That browser simply displays the web page you asked for; Shelf Steward does not record your browsing activity, and does not inject any tracking of its own into those pages. Ordinary web browsing protections (such as cookies set by the site you visit) are governed by that site's own privacy policy, not this one.
Required-reason APIs
Apple requires apps to declare a reason for calling a small set of system APIs, even when no personal data is involved. Shelf Steward reads its own app preferences using UserDefaults (reason code CA92.1) purely to remember your in-app settings, such as whether haptics are on. This has nothing to do with tracking and is disclosed in the app's Privacy Nutrition Label as "Data Not Collected."
Children's privacy
Shelf Steward is a tool for the adult or teen steward who maintains a book-sharing box, not a service directed at children, and it does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, of any age — because it does not collect information at all.
Changes to this policy
If this policy ever changes — for example, if a future version of the app adds an optional online feature — we will update this page and change the effective date above before that version ships.
Contact
Questions about this policy or the app can be sent through the support page.
Shelf Steward has no user account system, so there is no personal profile for us to look up, and no data to export or delete on request beyond simply deleting the app from your device.