Vusch · Privacy

Privacy Policy — Vusch

Last updated: 23 June 2026

1. Who we are

Vusch is an iOS app by:

Roger Nitzsche · Sole proprietorship · General Guisan-Strasse 119 · 4054 Basel · Switzerland

For privacy enquiries:

2. The principle — what happens to your data

In short: We have no servers. We collect nothing. We track no one.

All your book data — titles, authors, notes, ratings, quotes, tags, covers, reading dates — stay on your iPhone. If you wish, iOS synchronises them via your private iCloud account to your other devices. The data never reaches us; iCloud is a direct connection between your devices and Apple.

We have no technical way to see, read, or share your library.

3. iCloud sync (Apple as data processor)

If you enable iCloud, Vusch synchronises your library via your private CloudKit container iCloud.app.vusch.ios. Apple acts as data processor under GDPR / Swiss FADP. Apple's privacy terms: apple.com/legal/privacy/

We have no access to this container. CloudKit is an end-to-end connection between your devices and Apple.

4. Which features talk to the internet

When you add a book or accept an AI suggestion, the app fetches book metadata (title, author, publisher, cover) from these services. We send only the ISBN or title + author:

• Open Library (openlibrary.org) — primary source, free service
• Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (services.dnb.de) — for German-language publishers
• Apple Books / iTunes Search (itunes.apple.com) — for covers
• Google Books (googleapis.com) — only if an API key is configured

None of these requests include who you are. The services see our request the same way they would any other app — as an anonymous lookup.

5. Apple Intelligence (AI features)

If your iPhone supports Apple Intelligence, we use Apple's on-device language model. Book placements, reading-pattern analysis, recommendations, and library chat never leave your device.

If your iPhone does not support Apple Intelligence, these features simply aren't available — no cloud-AI workaround, no data transmission.

6. Speech recognition (dictation)

If you dictate notes or quotes, we use Apple's SFSpeechRecognizer with requiresOnDeviceRecognition enabled. Your voice never leaves your iPhone and is not processed by Apple's servers.

7. Camera (ISBN scanning)

The camera is used only during the scan to recognise the ISBN barcode. No images are stored, uploaded, or retained beyond the moment of recognition.

8. Purchases (Vusch Complete)

Purchases run through Apple's StoreKit. We see neither your payment data nor your full name. Apple gives us only the signed information "this user has purchased" so the app unlocks premium features.

Refunds also go through Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com).

9. External links (Swiss bookshops)

In the recommendations area you can open a suggested book directly at a Swiss bookshop of your choice. We currently support three:

• Orell Füssli (orellfuessli.ch) — national
• Ex Libris (exlibris.ch) — national, part of Migros
• Bider & Tanner (biderundtanner.ch) — Basel

Tapping one of these opens Safari with a public search URL. We send neither personal data nor your library content — only title and author of the suggested book as search parameters. Once the bookshop is open, their privacy policy applies.

If we later activate affiliate programmes (Webgains/Awin/Adcell), only a technical channel identifier (UTM parameter) is added — no user identification. If activated, we will also label the links as "advertising" in the app and update this privacy policy accordingly.

10. "Quote of the Day"

Vusch displays a daily rotating literary quote on the Library screen. If you have entered your own quotes from books, those are selected. Otherwise a curated collection of public-domain classics is used. Both run locally on your iPhone — no external service involved.

11. Crash reports and analytics

We use no third-party analytics (no Firebase, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Sentry, Google Analytics).

Apple's built-in iOS crash reporting (Xcode Organizer) may send anonymised crash logs to Apple — you can disable this under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements. We see only aggregated, anonymised crash statistics; no personal data.

12. Your rights (GDPR / Swiss FADP)

Even though we have no data, you have:

• Right to information — write to us, we will honestly answer "we have nothing about you".
• Right to erasure — in the app under Settings → Your Data → Delete all books. This irreversibly removes all local books including notes, ratings and (if iCloud sync is enabled) the iCloud copies on all your devices linked to the same Apple ID. To also uninstall the app: Home Screen → long-press the Vusch icon → "Delete app".
• Right to data portability — you can export your entire library as JSON (Settings → Your Data → Export data).
• Right to rectification — the data is yours; you edit it directly in the app.
• Right to object — Vusch performs no profiling and no automated decision-making.

For any matter:

13. Supervisory authorities

For complaints you have the right to contact the competent supervisory authority:

• Switzerland: Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), edoeb.admin.ch
• EU: the respective national data protection authority

14. This website

The pages under vusch.app serve exclusively legal obligations (privacy, terms, imprint, support) and a minimal landing. The site sets no cookies, loads no external resources (fonts, analytics, trackers, font CDN), and communicates with no Google, Meta or similar third parties.

When you visit, the host (Cyon) maintains technically unavoidable logs — IP address, user agent, timestamp — which are deleted within a few days and are not analysed by us.

15. Changes

If we change this policy, we add the new date above. Material changes are announced in the app.