This app does not collect your personal data. There are no accounts, no tracking, no analytics, and no advertising. Everything you do in the app stays on your device.
1. The short version
- We do not collect personal information of any kind.
- There is no sign-up and no login. The app has no user accounts.
- The app contains no analytics, no crash-reporting, no advertising, and no third-party SDKs whatsoever.
- Your reading progress, listening position, bookmarks and preferences are stored only on your device and are never uploaded.
- We never sell or share data, because we never have any.
Our App Store privacy declaration is “Data Not Collected.”
2. What is stored on your device
The app keeps a small private database on your phone (an on-device SQLite file inside the app’s own sandbox). It holds:
- Settings — your interface language, reading language, theme and font size.
- Reading progress — which chapter you were on and how far down the page.
- Audio progress — your playback position in the audiobook.
- Bookmarks — any passages you save.
- Downloads — a record of which chapters are cached for offline reading.
None of this ever leaves your phone. It is not backed up to any server we operate, it is not synced between devices, and it is not visible to us. It is removed when you delete the app.
3. Network activity, stated honestly
The app is not fully offline, so we want to be precise about the only two times it talks to the internet. Both are ordinary anonymous requests — no account, no identifier, no login token is attached to either.
a. Downloading book content
Chapter text, audiobook files and chapter artwork are hosted on a public Cloudflare R2 storage bucket and fetched over HTTPS as needed. These are plain, anonymous file requests, the same as opening a public web page.
b. Checking for app updates
The app asks Expo’s update service (u.expo.dev) whether a newer version of the app’s content or code is available. This is how new chapters and new audiobook narration reach you without an App Store update.
The honest caveat: as with every request made by every app and browser on the internet, the servers that answer these requests can see your IP address and the file you asked for in their ordinary server logs. That is a property of how the internet works, not something we designed to observe you. We do not read, mine, export or link those logs to any person, and we have no way to do so — there is no identity in the app to link them to. We do not operate any analytics on top of them.
4. Children’s privacy
The app is safe for readers of all ages with respect to data: because it collects nothing at all, it collects nothing from children either. We do not knowingly or unknowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13, in compliance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar laws. There is no sign-up, no profile, no messaging and no user-generated content. Please note that the novel itself is a work of adult literary fiction and is age-rated accordingly on the App Store.
5. Your control and how to delete your data
Since all your data is on your own device, you are in complete control of it:
- Delete everything: delete the app from your device. This permanently removes the local database, all cached chapters and audio, and every preference.
- Free up space: in iOS Settings → General → iPhone Storage → A Life Against the Tide, you can offload or delete the app and its stored content.
There is nothing for us to delete on our side, and no data-access request to make, because we hold no data about you. If you would like that confirmed in writing, simply email us and we will say so.
6. Content and authorship
The novel is the original work of the author and is protected by copyright. The Chinese audiobook narration is generated using AI text-to-speech (ElevenLabs) from the author’s own text, and the English translation is machine-assisted and reviewed by the author. This is disclosed for transparency; it involves none of your data.
7. Changes to this policy
If this policy ever changes, the revised version will be posted at this address with a new effective date. Since the app collects no data, any future change is far more likely to shorten this document than to expand it.
8. Contact
Questions about privacy, or anything else, reach the author directly:
heng.henry.zhang@gmail.com
本应用不收集您的任何个人数据。没有账户，没有追踪，没有统计分析，也没有广告。您在应用内的一切操作都保留在您自己的设备上。
一、简要说明
- 我们不收集任何形式的个人信息。
- 应用无需注册、无需登录，根本没有用户账户体系。
- 应用中不含任何统计分析、崩溃上报、广告或第三方 SDK。
- 您的阅读进度、收听位置、书签与偏好设置仅存储在您的设备本地，从不上传。
- 我们不会出售或共享数据——因为我们根本没有数据。
我们在 App Store 的隐私声明为“未收集数据”（Data Not Collected）。
二、设备上保存了什么
应用会在您的手机上（应用自身的沙盒内）维护一个小型的本地 SQLite 数据库，其中包含：
- 设置——界面语言、正文语言、主题与字号。
- 阅读进度——您读到第几章、页面滚动到何处。
- 音频进度——有声书的播放位置。
- 书签——您收藏的段落。
- 下载记录——哪些章节已缓存以便离线阅读。
以上内容从不离开您的手机：不会备份到我们的任何服务器，不会跨设备同步，我们也无从查看。删除应用即一并清除。
三、网络行为的如实说明
应用并非完全离线，因此我们希望准确说明它仅有的两种联网情形。二者都是普通的匿名请求，不携带任何账户、标识符或登录凭据。
1. 下载书籍内容
章节正文、有声书音频与章节插图托管于公开的 Cloudflare R2 存储桶，按需通过 HTTPS 获取。这与打开一个公开网页并无二致，属于匿名的文件请求。
2. 检查应用更新
应用会向 Expo 的更新服务（u.expo.dev）询问是否有新版内容或代码。新章节与新录制的有声书正是通过这一机制送达，无需前往 App Store 更新。
需要如实提醒：与互联网上任何应用、任何浏览器的请求一样，响应这些请求的服务器会在其常规日志中记录您的 IP 地址和所请求的文件。这是互联网的固有机制，并非我们为观察您而设计。我们不会读取、挖掘、导出这些日志，也不会将其与任何个人关联——应用中根本不存在可供关联的身份信息。我们也未在其上运行任何分析统计。
四、儿童隐私
就数据而言，本应用对所有年龄段的读者都是安全的：由于它完全不收集任何数据，自然也不会收集儿童的数据。我们不会有意或无意地收集 13 岁以下用户的个人信息，符合美国《儿童在线隐私保护法》（COPPA）及同类法规的要求。应用没有注册、没有个人资料、没有社交功能，也没有用户生成内容。请注意：小说本身属于面向成年读者的文学作品，App Store 的年龄分级已据此设定。
五、您的控制权与数据删除方式
由于所有数据都在您自己的设备上，您对其拥有完全的控制权：
- 彻底删除：从设备上删除本应用，即可永久清除本地数据库、全部缓存的章节与音频，以及所有偏好设置。
- 释放空间：在 iOS 的“设置 → 通用 → iPhone 储存空间 → A Life Against the Tide”中，可卸载或删除应用及其存储内容。
我们这一侧没有任何可删除的内容，也无需提交数据访问请求，因为我们并不持有关于您的任何数据。如需书面确认，来信即可，我们会予以说明。
六、内容与著作权
本小说为作者原创作品，受著作权法保护。中文有声书由作者本人的文本经 AI 语音合成（ElevenLabs）生成，英文译本为机器辅助翻译并经作者校订。此处披露仅为保持透明，与您的数据无涉。
七、本政策的变更
本政策如有修订，新版本将发布于本页面并标注新的生效日期。鉴于应用不收集任何数据，未来的修订更可能使本文更简短，而非更冗长。
八、联系方式
有关隐私或其他任何问题，欢迎直接联系作者：
heng.henry.zhang@gmail.com