Privacy, plainly told.

The moment of discovery. To build your shelf we need only the small things you hand us: a mood and a book you loved. These shape the shelf we show you and are never joined to your email or identity unless you choose to give us one.

An email, only if you offer one. If you join The Sunday Shelf newsletter, or ask us to save a shelf along to you, we keep the email you typed — and only then. If you don't, we never have it.

Anonymous, quiet analytics. We keep a tiny, anonymous session marker (not your name, not your profile) to understand in broad strokes how readers move from mood to shelf. This is our own first-party system — there are no third-party ad or tracking scripts on this site.

The short version: mood, a book you loved, an email you choose to give, and an anonymous session marker. That's the whole shelf.

• We don't track your location. No GPS, no geolocation, no IP-pinning to a spot on a map. We only ever guess a broad country region (and only coarsely, from your browser's language) so "find this book" can suggest nearby bookshops. Nothing precise, nothing stored against you.
• We don't fingerprint you. No device fingerprinting, no cross-site tracking, no following you around the internet.
• We don't sell your data. Not your email, not your shelves, not your reading. Ever.
• We don't recommend books by commission. Every pick is hand-chosen for the mood you gave. Affiliate availability affects only where a book can be found — never whether it's recommended. See the affiliate note below.

ShelfMuse doesn't use tracking cookies, and we don't place third-party cookies. To keep your visit gentle and your session coherent, we use your browser's session storage — a small, transient scratchpad that clears when you close the tab or window. It holds only an anonymous session marker and, once, the source (like a search engine or social link) that brought you here, so our analytics can tell a return visit from a first one without ever knowing who you are.

We do load the ShelfMuse lettering through Google Fonts, which means your browser reaches Google's servers to fetch those font files (as any site using hosted fonts does). We load no other third-party scripts.

Subscribing is always a deliberate choice: the box you tick to join is never pre-checked, and without it we save nothing. When you do opt in, we keep a dated record of your consent. And you can withdraw it anytime, in one click, from the unsubscribe link in any note we send — we then stop sending and keep a careful record of your withdrawal. Rejoining later is always your call, and we log that too.

When you use a "Find this book" shortcut, we may earn a small commission from the bookseller (such as Amazon, Bookshop.org, or Kobo) if you go on to buy. This is a normal, everyday way small, independent sites stay alive — but we want it said plainly: commission never shapes a recommendation. A book earns its place solely because it fits the mood you asked for. Affiliate links only ever decide the friendly shop we point you toward when you're ready to find it.

You're always in the driver's seat:

• Unsubscribe from The Sunday Shelf anytime via the link in any note — one click, recorded, respected.
• Ask us to confirm, correct, or delete the little we hold about you. Write to us and we'll sort it — we keep only what's needed to serve you, so there is rarely much to do.
• Browse freely — you don't need an account to find or share a shelf. You never did.

For any question about privacy or your data, the warmest way in is the unsubscribe page — just visit it and you'll find the door open whenever you'd like to talk.