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Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last revised on October 22, 2026.

General

At NovelTea, we care about your personal information, so we have prepared this Privacy Policy to explain how we collect, use, and share it. This Privacy Policy applies to the NovelTea mobile app, this website, and related services (the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree with NovelTea's collection, use, and sharing of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Beyond this Privacy Policy, your use of the Service is also subject to our Terms of Use.

NovelTea is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. See "Children" below.

Please note that NovelTea is constantly testing and improving our product features. Any features discussed in this Privacy Policy may not be available to all users.

Information We Collect

When you use the Service, NovelTea may collect the following personal information about you.

a. Account Registration

You register for a NovelTea account using Sign in with Apple. When you register, Apple shares with us the basic profile information you choose to share, which typically includes your name and your email address. If you use Sign in with Apple's "Hide My Email" feature, Apple provides a private-relay email address instead of your real one. NovelTea does not collect or store passwords for your account.

You can manage your NovelTea account from Settings within the app.

b. Profile and Listening Data

After you register, a profile is created for you. Your profile is populated by information you submit and by your use of the app, such as your display name, the answers you give during onboarding (a few questions about how you like to listen), the books you have started, the narrator you chose for each book, your playback position in each chapter, and which chapters you have completed. This information is stored in our database (hosted by Supabase) so that your progress follows your account to any device you sign in on.

Your profile is private. It is not visible to other NovelTea users, and NovelTea does not have a social, follower, or friends system. We do not display your activity to other users, and other users cannot search for or contact you through the Service.

c. Subscription Information

If you purchase a NovelTea subscription, payment is processed entirely by Apple through the Apple App Store; NovelTea does not receive or store your payment-card information. Apple, together with our subscription-management provider (Superwall), shares with us only the subscription-status information necessary to determine your access level — such as whether your subscription is active, in a free-trial period, canceled, or expired — and the transaction identifier that links a purchase to your account.

d. Activity Data, Diagnostics, and IP Addresses

When you use the Service, we generate data about your use of the Service, including device data (operating-system version, app version, device model, general device type), log files, and IP address. We also generate data regarding your engagement with the Service, such as the screens you visit, the features you use, the books and chapters you play, and the dates and times of your visits. We use a product-analytics service (PostHog) to collect this information.

To help us find and fix problems, the app may record crash and error reports and simplified "wireframe" recordings of how you move through the app's native screens. These recordings are not pixel screenshots, any text you type is masked, and they do not include the contents of your messages or payment details.

We use your IP address for security, fraud prevention, and delivering the Service, and not to determine your precise location. We retain your IP address for no more than thirty (30) days, unless exceptional circumstances require longer retention (such as an ongoing fraud or security investigation).

NovelTea does not show advertisements, does not use the Apple advertising identifier (IDFA), and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.

e. Communications

If you communicate with us — by email or through customer support — we collect your contact information and the contents of any messages you send so that we can respond and improve the Service.

f. Cookies

This website is a simple static site. It does not set advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not use cookies to follow you across other apps or websites.

How We Process Your Information

NovelTea processes your personal information to provide the Service, for our legitimate business interests, to comply with legal obligations, and with your consent. In particular:

a. Providing and Improving the Service

NovelTea will process your personal information to provide and improve the Service. For example, we will use your information to maintain your account, remember where you left off in each chapter and which narrator you chose, verify your subscription, detect and fix bugs, understand which books and features people enjoy, perform internal research, and provide customer service.

NovelTea may share personal information with third parties that help us provide or improve the Service, including:

These service providers are contractually limited to processing your data on our behalf and for the purposes of providing the Service.

b. Communicating with You

NovelTea may use the email address you provided (or, if you used Sign in with Apple's private email relay, the relay address that Apple forwards through) to send you:

You may opt out of receiving non-essential messages by following the unsubscribe instructions in any non-essential email or by contacting us. Essential messages (such as account or security notices) will continue.

c. Complying with Law and Preventing Harmful Activities

NovelTea may process and share personal information if necessary to comply with legal requests, such as subpoenas or court orders. NovelTea may share personal information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to assist law enforcement, or to prevent imminent harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents, or government agencies.

d. Personalized Advertising

NovelTea does not engage in personalized advertising, cross-app behavioral advertising, or sharing of your personal information with advertising networks. Our analytics and subscription-management tools are configured for our own first-party use and are not configured to share your data with advertising networks. We do not "sell" or "share" your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA").

e. De-identified and Anonymous Data

NovelTea may anonymize or de-identify your personal information, and use this data for any purpose, such as better understanding listening trends, deciding which books to produce next, and improving the Service. Such information is not considered personal information since it cannot identify any individual.

Your Privacy Rights

You have the following rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you, in addition to any other rights required by applicable law (subject to verification of your identity and exceptions provided by law):

You may delete your account at any time from Settings → Delete my account inside the app. Deleting your account permanently removes your profile, your listening progress, your narrator choices, and your subscription record from our database, and revokes NovelTea's Sign in with Apple authorization for your Apple ID. Your App Store subscription itself is managed by Apple: to stop future charges, cancel it in your Apple ID subscription settings.

To make another privacy-related request, please send an email to support@thenoveltea.com. NovelTea will respond to your request without undue delay, and in all cases within forty-five (45) calendar days of receipt. The response period may be extended once by an additional 45 days when reasonably necessary, and we will inform you of any such extension within the initial 45-day period together with the reason. If NovelTea declines to take action regarding your request, we will inform you within 45 days of the justification, and provide instructions for how to appeal. Appeals may be sent to the same address; we will inform you in writing of any action taken in response within 60 days. If your appeal is denied, we will provide you a method through which you can contact the Attorney General in your state to submit a complaint.

Please note that these rights are not absolute and NovelTea may refuse a request if there is a legitimate reason — for example, if we cannot authenticate your identity, if the request would violate the rights of a third party or applicable law, or if it would interfere with the Service.

Data Retention

To ensure your account stays operational, NovelTea will generally retain your personal information until your account is deleted. However, NovelTea may retain certain information longer if necessary to provide the Service, defend our legitimate interests or those of third parties, comply with legal requirements, resolve or defend ourselves in disputes, investigate misuse or disruption of the Service, or perform agreements. We may also retain anonymous data indefinitely.

When you delete your account, your account details, listening progress, and narrator choices are removed from our database immediately, and any remaining copies (such as in backups or analytics systems) are deleted or de-identified within a commercially reasonable period (generally within 90 days), except where we are required or permitted by law to retain certain information (for example, for tax, accounting, security, fraud-prevention, or dispute-resolution purposes).

Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13 years of age. NovelTea does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and learn that your child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please alert us at support@thenoveltea.com and we will take steps to delete it. Users between 13 and 18 should use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

Do Not Track

The Service is not designed to respond to "do not track" signals sent by some browsers.

Links to Third-Party Websites

The Service may contain links to other websites, such as Apple's subscription-management pages. NovelTea is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other websites, including any personal or financial information collected by third-party payment processors. We encourage users to be aware of the privacy policies of other websites they visit. This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected by NovelTea. Any time you click on a link or submit your personal information to a third-party website, you will be subject to that third party's privacy policies.

Privacy Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make material changes, we will use reasonable efforts to notify you — for example, by emailing you at the last email address you provided us, by posting notice within the Service, or by other means consistent with applicable law — and will take additional steps as required by applicable law. We will indicate the date this Policy was last revised at the top and bottom of this page. If permitted by law, your continued use of the Service after the Policy has been updated indicates your acceptance of the changes.

Where We Process Your Information

NovelTea is based in the United States and processes data in the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand and consent that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States in connection with operating the Service and fulfilling your requests, and that United States data-protection and privacy laws may differ from those in your country.

Contact Us

SIER Technologies Inc., doing business as NovelTea, is the data controller of your data. For all privacy-related inquiries and any questions or concerns you have about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at support@thenoveltea.com or write to us at:

SIER Technologies Inc. (d/b/a NovelTea)
379 San Jose Ave
San Francisco, CA 94110
United States of America

Last revised on October 22, 2026.

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