Effective October 17, 2026
This policy covers the mobile application Bhakti Library, this website, bhaktilibrary.org, and the online concordance at concordance.bhaktilibrary.org, all published by Christopher Norris. The short version: the app collects anonymous usage statistics and crash reports, and the two websites use Google Analytics, all to help us understand what to improve — never your name or email, never your notes or bookmarks, and never anything sold or used for advertising. You can turn the websites' analytics off at any time.
What we collect
The app sends two kinds of anonymous data:
- Usage statistics — which parts of the app are opened, what is searched for, and which features are used. This is counting, not watching: it tells us what people find useful, so we know where to spend effort.
- Crash reports — if the app crashes or hits an error, a technical report is sent automatically so we can fix it.
Both are anonymous. Neither carries your name, your email, or your Apple or Google account, and neither can be traced back to you or to your device — not by us, and not by anyone processing it for us. We never combine them with anything that could identify you.
What we never send: the content of your notes, the passages you highlight, or the names you give your collections.
How the app works
Bhakti Library ships with its complete scripture library included and works fully offline. Your bookmarks, highlights, collections and reading position live on your device, and what you write in them never leaves it.
Third parties
The app contains no advertising and no third-party tracking in the sense of following you across other apps or websites. The anonymous usage statistics and crash reports are handled for us by a small number of service providers, each bound to use that data only to provide their service to us and never for their own advertising. When installed through the App Store or Google Play, Apple or Google may also collect installation and crash statistics under their own privacy policies; we receive only the aggregated, anonymous forms of those reports. If you would like to know which providers we use, write to us at the address below.
This website
bhaktilibrary.org uses Google Analytics to count visits: which pages are opened and in what order, how a visitor arrived, from which country, on what kind of device and browser, and whether the beta sign-up button was pressed. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser so that it can tell a returning visitor from a new one. Those cookies hold a random number, not your name, email or account, and Google Analytics does not store your IP address. We keep Google's advertising features turned off for these sites, so this data is not used to show you ads.
The site also counts page views with the same provider as the app's statistics. That count sets no cookie and keeps nothing that would recognise you on a later visit. The sign-up form itself is a Google Form and is covered by Google's privacy policy.
The online concordance
concordance.bhaktilibrary.org uses Google Analytics and the same page count in the same way, kept separately from the website's. Because each Sanskrit word has its own page, they tell us which words readers look up, which they look up next, and what they search for, which is how we decide what to improve. Beyond the analytics cookies, it stores nothing in your browser except, on your device alone, which way you last chose to view a word's occurrences.
Turning analytics off
The first time you visit either site, a notice at the bottom of the page says that it uses Google Analytics. Pressing OK, or simply carrying on, leaves analytics on. Turn off stops it — Google Analytics and the page counts alike, on this website and the concordance both — and a small cookie of our own remembers that choice for a year. (Safari keeps it only for a week after your last visit; after a longer absence the notice will ask again.) You can change it here at any time:
If your browser blocks cookies, no analytics run at all, since a Turn off could not be remembered. A content blocker stops them too.
Beta program
If you sign up to beta test the app, we use the email address you provide solely to send beta invitations and testing-related updates, via Apple TestFlight and Google Play's testing programs. Your email is never sold or shared, and you can ask to be removed at any time.
Children
The app is directed at a general audience of teens and adults. The app's anonymous usage statistics and crash reports described above are not personal data — they carry no name, account, email, or other identifying information for anyone, adult or child — so no personal data is collected from children.
Changes
If a future version of the app or the site changes these practices, this policy will be updated first, with the effective date above revised and the specifics spelled out — the same way this page was updated when Bhakti Library's anonymous usage statistics and crash reporting went from planned to actual.
Contact
Questions about this policy: info@bhaktilibrary.org