Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how the makers of Bushido: The Path (“we”, “us”, or “our”) handle information in connection with the Bushido: The Path mobile application (the “App”) and the website bushidotheway.com (the “Site”). It describes what we actually do today. We designed both to collect as little as possible — and the App is built so that your personal reading data never reaches us at all.

Short version: The App collects no personal information. Your reading progress, bookmarks, highlights, and journal entries stay on your device and, if you use iCloud, in your own private iCloud account that we cannot access. The only information we receive is the email address you choose to give us on this website’s waitlist form.

1. The App

Your reading data stays with you

Your reading progress, bookmarks, highlights, and journal entries are stored on your device using Apple’s on-device database. If you are signed in to iCloud, this data may also sync through your own private iCloud account (CloudKit) so it is available on your other Apple devices. This is your personal iCloud storage — we have no access to it, and it is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy. We never receive, see, or store your journal entries or reading activity.

No accounts, no tracking

The App does not require an account and does not ask you to sign in. It contains no third-party advertising, analytics, or tracking software. The App keeps a few simple counters (such as how many days you have opened it) purely on your device to decide when to show an optional in-app supporter prompt; these counters are never transmitted to us or anyone else.

Audio streaming and downloads

Narrated audio is delivered from our content-delivery network (Cloudflare). As with any app that loads content from the internet, our delivery network processes standard technical request information (such as your device’s IP address) for the limited time needed to serve the audio and to protect against abuse. These are ordinary server logs; we do not use them to build a profile of you or to identify you, and we do not combine them with any other information about you.

Purchases

The App offers optional one-time “supporter” purchases. These are processed entirely by Apple through the App Store. We do not receive your name, payment card, or other payment details — Apple simply tells the App whether a purchase is active so it can unlock the corresponding thank-you. Apple’s handling of your purchase is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy.

2. The Website

Waitlist / “Notify me” signup

If you choose to join our waitlist on this website, we collect:

• Your email address, which you enter into the form.
• Basic signup details: the page or source you signed up from, your IP address, and the date and time — recorded to prevent spam and abuse.

The form uses a hidden anti-spam field (a “honeypot”); submissions that trip it are discarded and not stored. We store this information in a database hosted by Cloudflare. The website is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, which processes standard web-server logs to deliver and secure the Site.

We use your email address only to send you the occasional update you asked for — a passage from the text and news about the App. We do not sell it, and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing. When we enable our email newsletter tool (Kit, also known as ConvertKit), your email address will be shared with that provider solely to deliver these messages; every message includes an unsubscribe link.

3. Third Parties We Rely On

• Apple — provides the App Store, in-app purchases, and (through your own account) iCloud sync. See Apple’s Privacy Policy.
• Cloudflare — hosts the website, the waitlist database, and the audio content-delivery network.
• Kit (ConvertKit) — will deliver our email newsletter once enabled; receives only the email addresses of people who joined the waitlist.

We do not sell or rent your personal information to anyone.

4. Data Retention

We keep waitlist email addresses until you ask us to remove yours or unsubscribe, after which we delete it within a reasonable period. Standard server logs held by our hosting and delivery providers are retained only for a short time for security and operational purposes. Data stored on your device or in your own iCloud account is controlled by you: you can delete it at any time by removing entries in the App or deleting the App, and by managing your iCloud storage in iOS Settings.

5. Your Choices and Rights

• Unsubscribe: every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link. You may also ask us to remove your email at any time (see Contact).
• Access, correction, deletion: because the only personal information we hold is your waitlist email address, you may ask us for a copy of it, to correct it, or to delete it. Reading data lives only on your device and your own iCloud, so you delete it directly.
• California residents (CCPA/CPRA): you have the right to know what personal information we collect (a waitlist email address and related signup metadata), to request its deletion, and to correct it. We do not sell or share your personal information, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.
• EU/UK residents (GDPR): where GDPR applies, you have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection. Our legal basis for processing your waitlist email is your consent, which you may withdraw at any time by unsubscribing or contacting us.

6. Security

We use reasonable technical measures to protect the limited information we hold, including transport encryption (TLS) and reputable cloud infrastructure. No system is perfectly secure, but collecting as little as possible is itself our strongest safeguard.

7. Children’s Privacy

The App and Site are intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

8. International Users

We operate from the United States. If you join our waitlist from outside the United States, your email address may be stored and processed in the United States and other locations where our service providers operate.

9. Changes to This Policy

We will update this Policy as the App and Site evolve. In particular, we are developing optional features — such as user accounts and a community experience — that would collect more information than we do today. We will not begin collecting any new category of information until we have updated this Policy to describe it and, where the law requires, obtained your consent. When we make material changes we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to access or delete your waitlist email, see our Contact page.