Privacy Policy
Last updated: 7 October 2026
Grimdark Archive is an independent fan project. We try to collect as little as possible, keep most of it first-party, and tell you plainly what happens. This page is a plain-language summary, not legal advice.
What we collect, and why
Anonymous usage analytics. To understand how the catalog is used and how fast it
loads, we record first-party engagement (such as which books are opened, searches, clicks on
the buy button and which format and retailer they went to, and the steps of a sign-in: whether the
button was shown, clicked and completed, never who), page-performance measurements (Core Web Vitals),
a new-versus-returning flag, and roughly how many books your browser has marked when the visit
begins (none, 1 to 5, 6 to 20, or more than 20). For each visit we also record which kind of page it began on, the
site or link it arrived from if your browser sent one (the site's address only, never the page), any
campaign tags in the address you followed (ref and utm), whether you are on a
phone, tablet or desktop, and the family of your browser and operating system (never the full browser
identifier or a version).
Within a visit these are tied to a short-lived session id kept in your browser's sessionStorage
that is discarded when you close the tab. It is not a cross-visit identifier and it is never joined to an
account. To count how many different people visit in a day, we compute a hash from your network address
and browser identifier keyed by a random value that is replaced every 24 hours and deleted the following day, and keep only the hash.
It cannot be reversed, it cannot recognise you tomorrow, and the address and identifier it was computed
from are not stored. We also record an approximate country from Cloudflare's edge network.
Separately, we count how many visits each day are signed in, as daily totals split only by the
new-versus-returning flag and that count band, with no session id and never which account.
Known crawlers are not counted. To keep your own visits out of these counts and the page statistics
below on a device, open any page of the site with ?notrack=1 added to the address
(?notrack=0 turns counting back on). We run no advertising.
Page statistics from Cloudflare and Ahrefs. Two outside services also count page views
for us. Cloudflare, which hosts the site, collects page-view and page-speed statistics (Cloudflare Web
Analytics): referrers, browser and device type, and country. Its script loads only after the page has
finished loading. Ahrefs collects page-view statistics (Ahrefs Web Analytics): the address of each page
you view, including anything after the ? such as a search you typed or the book you opened,
the page's title, the site you came from, your screen size and pixel density, your preferred languages,
the addresses of links you click, where forms you submit are sent, and, if its own script fails, the
error it hit. Like any website, Ahrefs receives your network address and
browser identifier with each request. It uses them to estimate your country and city and, combined with a
random value it replaces every day, to count unique visitors, and says it does not store the raw address.
Neither service sets cookies, and the Ahrefs script stores nothing in your browser. Ahrefs also says it may use anonymized,
aggregated data from all the sites it measures to improve its own services and in published studies. See
Ahrefs'
description of its web analytics (opens in a new tab).
Neither script loads if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, or after you
opt out with ?notrack=1 as above.
Reports you send. If you report a missing book, an inaccuracy or anything else about the catalog, we store your message and which book it was about. If you send any of those reports while signed in, it also carries your account, for one purpose: so the site can tell you, on a later visit, that the report has been addressed. The form says so before you send. That link is removed when you delete your account; the report itself stays, without it. If you report a bug, we store your message, an optional email (only if you choose to give one), and technical context attached at the moment you submit: your browser and operating system, viewport size, language, the page you were on, recent in-page actions, and any recent JavaScript errors. This is collected only when you submit a report, to help us reproduce and fix the problem. Bug reports are never linked to an account.
Your collection, without an account. The books you mark as owned or read are stored in
your browser (localStorage). The first time your browser marks a book anywhere on the site,
the anonymous analytics above record which book it was, tied only to that visit's session id, and each
visit carries the rough count band described there. Each time you add a book to your collection or remove
one, they also record which book, whether it was added or removed, and where on the site you did it (the
catalog, a book page or a list page), tied at most to that visit's session id. Your collection itself, the list of your books,
stays in your browser unless you sign in. You can download
them as a file at any time from the "Download my collection" control.
When you import a Goodreads, StoryGraph or Hardcover export, the file is read in your browser and never uploaded. The books it adds are saved like books you mark yourself (and synced to your account if you are signed in), and we record only which site the export came from and how many books were added. If you choose to report books we don't list, the titles you send are stored with your report.
Accounts (optional)
Signing in is optional and exists to keep your collection in sync across your devices; the only other thing it is used for is the report notice described above. Everything above works without it. When sign-in is available and you choose to use it:
What an account stores. Your Google account identifier (an opaque number, not your name), your email address and whether Google marks it as verified, the times you created the account, last used it and first changed your collection, the set of books you have marked, a random per-browser id used to keep your devices in step, and, as described under Reports above, any report about the catalog you sent while signed in, until you delete the account. We do not store your name, your profile picture, or anything else Google offers.
What Google receives. When sign-in is available, a visit while signed out shows Google's own Continue with Google button, served by Google from accounts.google.com, so Google learns that your browser opened a page carrying its button. If you sign in, Google learns that you signed in to this site. Both are under Google's own policy, as an independent controller. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services (opens in a new tab).
Sign-in outcomes. We count how many sign-ins succeed, how many create a new account, and how many are refused and why, as daily totals with no identifier and no session id. These totals are kept on the server and are not affected by the opt-out above.
Who else processes it. Cloudflare hosts the site, the database that holds accounts and collections, and the cookieless page statistics described above. Ahrefs (Ahrefs Pte. Ltd., Singapore) provides the other page statistics described above and may process them outside your country, including in the United States; it never receives your account or your collection. We do not sell your personal information or use it for advertising, and accounts are never joined to the analytics above.
How long we keep it. A sign-in session lasts 90 days. An account is kept until you delete it. Deleting an account removes its sessions immediately and its remaining data shortly after, during periodic clean-up rather than on a fixed schedule. When you remove a book from a synced collection, a small deletion marker for that book is kept for 180 days so that your other devices learn about the removal, then it is cleaned up too. Expired sessions and other housekeeping data are removed the same way. There is no automatic deletion for inactivity.
Why we are allowed to. Because you asked for it: providing the sync you signed up for, and telling you about a report you sent while signed in, is the legal basis. There is no profiling and no marketing.
Your rights. You can see what we hold (your collection is the account; a report you sent while signed in is the message you typed, and the site shows you when it was addressed), download the collection as a file, sign out, and delete the account yourself from the account menu, which asks you to type your email address to confirm. Deleting the account ends every session on every device. For anything else, email us at the address below.
Cookies and local storage
We set no cookies on an ordinary visit, and neither do the page-statistics services above. If you sign in, we set one strictly necessary first-party
session cookie (__Host-bl_session, 90 days) that keeps you signed in. The only other
thing it is read for is the daily count of signed-in visits above, which names no account. It is
not used for advertising or to follow you across sites. Google's sign-in button is Google's
own and is covered by Google's policy. We use your browser's
localStorage and sessionStorage for the purposes above. Clearing this site's data
in your browser removes all of it.
Third parties
Buy links take you to Bookshop.org or Amazon, which apply their own tracking under their own policies. Those links carry our affiliate id, so the retailer can credit a purchase or sign-up to this site and pay us a commission (see the affiliate disclosure); review links to Goodreads and Audible carry nothing of ours. Retailers report purchases to us only in aggregate; we never receive anything that identifies you. Book cover images are loaded from Amazon and Open Library. The site is hosted on Cloudflare, and page statistics come from Cloudflare and Ahrefs as described above. We do not sell your personal information or use it for advertising.
Retention
Raw analytics rows (the per-visit and per-event records described above) are kept for 13 months and then deleted; the daily totals computed from them are kept indefinitely and contain no identifiers. The random value that keys the daily visitor hash is deleted the day after its creation. Reports are kept for as long as they are useful for running and debugging the site, and a bug-report email is kept only to follow up on that report. Account retention is described above. Cloudflare and Ahrefs keep the page statistics they collect under their own terms; Ahrefs does not publish a fixed retention period.
Your choices
Leave the email field blank if you do not want a reply. You can clear this site's data at any time
from your browser. You never need an account to use the catalog or to keep a collection on one
device. Turning on Global Privacy Control in your browser (or Do Not Track, where your browser still
offers it) stops the Cloudflare and Ahrefs analytics scripts from loading on this site, and so does
?notrack=1. If a content blocker removes either script, the site works exactly the same.
Contact
Questions, or want something removed? Email brian@desired-path.com.
Changes
We may update this policy. The "last updated" date above reflects the current version.