Privacy Policy

The Bearing is a publishing and reading platform operated by NGANDIWEB ("we", "us"). Our website is thebearing.app and our mobile apps are "The Bearing" on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Contact: thebearing@ngandiweb.com.

The information we collect falls into four buckets:

• Account data. Email address, password (hashed by our auth provider), display name and pen name if you set them, date of birth if you provide it (used only for birthday emails and legal-age verification), and reading genres you choose during onboarding.
• Content you create. Books, chapters, blog posts, comments, and reviews you write on the platform. This content is private by default and only becomes public when you publish it.
• Reading activity. Which books you have opened, how far you have read in each one, which authors you follow, and which books you have downloaded for offline reading. We store reading progress so you can pick up where you left off across devices.
• Technical data. IP address at the time of a request (kept in access logs for up to 30 days), device model and OS version (sent with error reports so we can reproduce bugs), and an Expo push notification token per device you sign in on (used only to deliver the notifications you have subscribed to).

• We do not collect precise location data.
• We do not collect contacts, photos, or calendar data beyond files you explicitly upload.
• We do not collect payment card details directly - purchases go through Stripe, which handles that data under their own privacy policy.
• We do not sell your personal information to advertisers or data brokers. Ever.

• To operate the platform - showing you the right books, recording your reading progress, delivering the notifications you enable.
• To send transactional email (welcome message, chapter alerts from authors you follow, birthday greeting, receipts for purchases) via Resend.
• To sync new signups to HubSpot as marketing leads (opted in by default; you can unsubscribe from any email at any time).
• To fix bugs, using anonymized error reports collected by our in-app error reporter.
• To calculate aggregate usage stats (daily active users, most-read books) that never identify individual readers.

The Bearing runs on infrastructure operated by other companies. When you use us, your data touches these processors:

• Supabase - hosts our database and user authentication (US regions).
• Vercel - hosts the web app and API routes (global CDN).
• Cloudflare R2 - stores book cover images and manuscript files.
• Resend - sends transactional email on our behalf.
• Expo - relays push notifications to iOS and Android devices.
• Stripe - processes payments for subscriptions and marketplace services.
• HubSpot - stores contact records and tracks the stage of each author's publishing journey (account created, manuscript uploaded, order placed, payment, publication).
• Google Cloud (Vertex AI) - runs AI features you invoke (consistency checks, cover generation).
• Modal.com - runs AI writing suggestions.
• Meta Platforms - Meta Pixel and server-side advertising measurement, only with your consent.

Each of these providers has its own privacy policy governing how they handle your data as our processor.

We use a small number of cookies on thebearing.app. One of them, tb_consent, simply remembers your cookie choice for 12 months. If you accept, a second cookie, tb_attr, keeps the campaign or link you arrived from for 90 days so we know which of our ads and posts work.

With your consent only, we also use the Meta Pixel, a tool from Meta Platforms, Inc. The Meta Pixel measures how our advertising performs: it records which pages you visit on thebearing.app and key actions such as creating an account, requesting a booking or starting an order, and may match them with your Facebook or Instagram account to measure and improve our ads. Meta processes this data under its own privacy policy. If you decline, the Meta Pixel is not loaded and nothing is sent to Meta.

To make this measurement more reliable, our servers also send the same key actions (such as creating an account, starting an order, completing a payment or requesting a booking) to Meta, together with an encrypted (hashed) version of your email address and account ID. This only happens if you accepted. If you decline, nothing is sent to Meta from our servers either.

You can change your choice at any time using the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of the page. Withdrawing consent stops further tracking from that moment. In our mobile apps, with your consent only, we use Meta tools to measure advertising. You can change your choice in Settings.

Cookie settings

Request deletion of your The Bearing account and associated data

Wherever you live, you can:

• Ask for a copy of every piece of personal data we hold about you.
• Ask us to correct anything that is wrong.
• Ask us to delete your account and everything tied to it (published content included).
• Unsubscribe from any category of email using the link at the bottom of that email.
• Withdraw notification permission at any time in your device settings.

For any of the above, email thebearing@ngandiweb.com from the email address on your account. We respond within 30 days, usually within 48 hours.

The Bearing is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.

We update this page when the way we handle data changes. The "Last updated" date at the top always reflects the most recent revision. Material changes are also announced by email to everyone with an active account.

Any question or concern about privacy at The Bearing: thebearing@ngandiweb.com.