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Privacy

Effective July 4, 2026

The short version: we don't want your data. No accounts, no cookies set by us, no database — your queries are not saved on our servers.

What we collect: nothing personal

Book Distiller has no sign-up, no login, and asks for no name, email, or payment details. There is no user database because there are no users to store.

What happens to a query

When you distill a book, the title you typed travels over HTTPS to our server, which forwards it to Anthropic (the maker of Claude) to generate the summary. If you press Listen and AI narration is enabled, the summary text is sent to OpenAI to synthesize audio. These providers process the text to produce a response, subject to their own privacy policies.

Generated summaries are kept briefly in server memory (up to 24 hours) so that repeat requests for the same book are instant. This cache is never written to disk or a database, is not linked to you in any way, and evaporates automatically.

What stays on your device

The "Recent" list on the home page is stored in your browser's local storage — on your device only. It never leaves your browser and we cannot see it. Clear it anytime through your browser's site-data settings.

Analytics

The site uses Vercel Web Analytics, a privacy-friendly, cookie-free analytics service that reports anonymous, aggregated page-view counts (e.g., how many people visited today, from which country). It does not use cookies, does not fingerprint you, and does not track you across other sites.

Server logs

Our hosting platform (Vercel) keeps standard, short-lived operational logs used only for debugging and abuse prevention. These may transiently include query text and IP addresses, are never linked to an identity, and expire automatically per the platform's retention policy.

Third parties

The only parties that process any data are: Anthropic (summary generation), OpenAI (optional narration), and Vercel (hosting and anonymous analytics). We sell nothing to anyone — there is nothing to sell.

Changes & contact

If this policy changes, the effective date above will be updated. Questions? Use the Feedback page.

© 2026 Book Distiller · Dan Gardner, MD
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