This policy describes how the Longbox iOS app handles your information. If you use Longbox without signing in, we store nothing about you — the app works fully offline and keeps everything on your device. The only exceptions are ones you choose: opening the leaderboard loads it from our servers, and a Dropbox account or comic server you connect is reached directly from your device (see section 5).
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address, or the account identifier Apple or Google gives us if you use their sign-in | To identify your account and let you sign back in |
| Your display name. If you signed in with Apple in version 1.0 of the app and shared your name, that name became your starting display name. You can change it any time from your Profile, or hide yourself from leaderboards in Settings → Privacy. | Shown to you in the app, and to others on leaderboards unless you opt out |
| Reading state — how far through a comic you are, current page, favourites, and when you last read it | So your place is restored after a reinstall or on another device |
| Reading statistics — pages read, reading streaks, total time spent reading, and daily page counts | To show your stats, and to build leaderboards |
| Comic lookup queries — the series name, issue number, year, and page count of a comic you're identifying, or the words you type into "Wrong Comic?" | To find the right comic in our metadata database, and to cache the answer so nobody has to look it up twice |
| A lookup log — your account ID and a timestamp each time a lookup happens | Rate limiting and abuse prevention only. It records that a lookup happened, not what it was for |
| Your purchase record, if you buy premium — the transaction ID Apple gives us, which product it was for, and when it renews, expires, or was refunded | So paid features work on every device you sign into, and so a purchase can be confirmed with Apple rather than taken on trust |
| Panel positions, only if you turn on Panel zoom in Settings → Beta Features — the coordinates of the panels the app found on pages you read, stored against the same opaque comic key described below | So your other device doesn't have to work them out again. Coordinates only — no page images, ever |
| A name report, only if you report someone's display name — the name you reported, whose it was, and that it was you who reported it | So we can act on abusive or impersonating names. No other user can read reports, not even the person who filed one |
| A leaderboard removal, only if we take you off the leaderboard — that we did it, when, and a short note of why | So a removal is deliberate, recorded, and can be reversed. It hides you from the board only; your stats, sync, and account are untouched |
To match your reading progress to the right comic across devices, we need a stable identifier for each file. We do not send your filenames. Instead the app computes a one-way cryptographic hash (SHA-256) of the filename, file size, and your account ID, and sends only that. The result is an opaque string we cannot reverse into a filename, and mixing in your account ID means the same file produces a different value for every user — so the stored values can't be compared across accounts or matched against a list of known comics.
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with anyone for advertising or marketing. There is no business model here that involves your data.
If you're on the leaderboard: your display name, your rank, and the one number that board ranks by — pages read, current streak, or longest streak. That is what a leaderboard is; it cannot show a ranking without showing the number. Nothing else about you is shown to anyone else — not what you read, not your library, not your email, not your total reading time, and not your day-by-day page counts.
Leaderboards are on by default. To hide yourself, open Settings → Privacy and turn off "Show me on the leaderboard." Your stats keep tracking normally; you simply stop appearing to others. This is enforced by our database's own access rules, not by the app politely leaving you out.
That is everyone. None of them is an advertising network, an analytics service, or a data broker, and none of them ever receives your comics.
Comic metadata in Longbox comes from the Grand Comics Database, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. We host our own copy of that data, so looking up one of your comics does not tell the Grand Comics Database, or anyone else, anything about you or your library.
You can delete your account at any time from inside the app, under Settings → Profile. Deleting your account permanently removes your login, your display name, your synced reading progress, your reading statistics, your lookup log, any saved panel positions, your premium purchase record, any name report you filed or that named you, and any record of a leaderboard removal.
This is immediate and cannot be undone. Comics on your device are not affected — they're yours and they stay where they are.
You may also request access to, correction of, or a copy of your data by contacting us at the address below. If you're in the UK, EU, or California, you have these rights by law, and we'll honour them regardless of where you live.
Account data is kept until you delete your account. Cached comic metadata is not personal information — it describes published comics, not people — and is kept indefinitely so lookups stay fast for everyone.
Longbox is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll remove it.
If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page. If a change meaningfully affects how your information is handled, we'll tell you in the app rather than quietly editing this page.
Questions about privacy, or want a copy of your data? Email support@getlongbox.app.