The short version

ReadZen is a Reddit app that shares classical Zen/Chan Buddhist texts — original Chinese, English translations, and full citations — as interactive posts. We collect almost no personal data. There is no password to create, no cross-site tracking, no advertising, no cookies, no analytics of our own, and we never sell data or use it to train AI. The Buddhist texts the app displays are fetched from two public sources (GitHub and Cloudflare Pages), and those requests contain no information about you — only the address of a public file. Everything the app stores lives inside Reddit’s own infrastructure for the subreddit where it is installed: a small cache of public texts, housekeeping counters, and a tiny public preview attached to each post. When you use the composer or expand a link, the app reads the Reddit content you explicitly point it at and, only on your action, publishes a post or comment attributed to you. In short: we handle public Buddhist texts, not your personal life.

The rest of this policy says the same thing in more detail.

1. Who we are

ReadZen is operated by Fabian Trunz (“we,” “us”), who acts as the data controller for the limited processing described in this policy. You can reach us at any time at fabian.trunz@gmail.com. We aim to respond to privacy inquiries promptly.

2. Scope

This policy covers the ReadZen app running on Reddit’s Developer Platform (Devvit) — including its posts and reader, corpus search, Zen-master profiles, the lineage graph, the dictionary, the composer, link expansion, and a rotating “Case of the Day.” It does not cover Reddit itself: Reddit is the platform ReadZen runs on and is the primary controller of your Reddit account data, governed by Reddit’s own User Agreement and Privacy Policy. This policy supplements — and does not replace, supersede, or contradict — Reddit’s terms.

3. What we collect

We collect only what the app needs to function, and nothing more:

• Post and comment identifiers. When ReadZen renders a post, it uses that post’s Reddit ID (e.g., a t3_* identifier) as a storage key — for example, to keep a per-post counter or cache entry. These IDs identify posts, not you.
• Content you explicitly point the app at. If you use the link-expansion feature or the composer, the app reads the specific post or comment body you invoked it on, in order to find and render the cited passage. It does not scan, monitor, or read anything you did not explicitly act on.
• Your Reddit username, for attribution only. When you choose to share a passage or commentary, your username may appear in the published content (e.g., “shared by u/yourname”) or the post may be published as you, with your explicit action (see Section 5). Your username is displayed as attribution in visible Reddit content; we do not build or store any profile of you.
• A small public preview per post. Each ReadZen post carries up to 2 KB of public, non-personal data (a text route, a short Chinese/English excerpt, and a citation line) so the post can render instantly. This contains no user data.

We do not collect: passwords or credentials of any kind; your browsing or voting history; your subscriptions, saved items, or private messages (the platform does not even expose these to us); your email address (unless you email us); precise location; device fingerprints; or any health, financial, or other sensitive data.

4. How we use data, and why

Every use is tied directly to the app’s stated function — displaying and sharing public Buddhist texts on Reddit:

We use data for nothing else. No advertising, no recommendation profiling, no audience measurement.

5. Posting and commenting as you

ReadZen only ever publishes to Reddit as a result of your explicit, manual action — pressing a clearly labeled button such as “Post to r/…”. Content published this way is attributed to you (either posted from your account with Reddit’s user-consent mechanism, or posted by the app account with a visible “shared by u/yourname” line). The app never posts, comments, or votes on your behalf automatically, and no core feature is locked behind publishing something.

6. Where data is stored, and for how long

All app data is stored in Redis, a key-value store provided and hosted by Reddit as part of the Developer Platform, scoped to the subreddit where ReadZen is installed. Nothing is stored on our own servers — we do not operate any.

What lives there: cached copies of public Buddhist texts, Case-of-the-Day rotation state, per-post counters, and short-lived housekeeping markers (e.g., a note that a given comment’s link was already expanded). None of it is personal data.

Retention: transient and housekeeping entries carry an expiry of no more than 30 days, after which Reddit’s infrastructure deletes them automatically. Cached public-text entries are refreshed or expired on the same basis. We keep data only as long as it is needed for the app to function, and we delete it when it is no longer necessary, when the app is uninstalled or discontinued, when you or Reddit request it, or when the law requires it.

7. Deletion

We honor Reddit’s deletion signals:

• If a post or comment is deleted, we delete all related content the app holds for it — titles, bodies, extracted URLs, cached renderings — from our Redis storage. We may retain only the bare ID and creation timestamp as non-content metadata.
• If a Reddit account is deleted, we remove the account’s identifiers (t2_*) and all author-identifying information from any data the app holds.
• We do not retain deleted content in any form — including anonymized or aggregated form.

Because the app stores no per-user records in the first place, in most cases there is simply nothing to delete beyond expiring caches.

8. Your rights and how to exercise them

You may at any time request access to, correction of, or deletion of any data ReadZen holds that relates to you. The easiest way is to email fabian.trunz@gmail.com with your Reddit username and your request; we will act on it and confirm. Deleting your Reddit post, comment, or account also triggers the deletion behavior in Section 7 without any need to contact us.

If you are in the EEA/UK (GDPR): our legal bases are your consent (for actions you explicitly trigger, such as publishing a passage) and our legitimate interest in operating a functioning, non-commercial scholarly app (for minimal housekeeping data such as post-ID counters and caches). You additionally have the rights to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.

If you are a California resident (CCPA/CPRA): you have the right to know what personal information we collect (this policy is the complete answer), to request deletion, and to non-discrimination for exercising your rights. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined in the CCPA, so there is nothing to opt out of; we honor the spirit of “Do Not Sell or Share” by never doing either.

9. Third parties

Exactly three outside parties are involved, and here is precisely what each sees:

1. Reddit, Inc. — the platform ReadZen runs on. All reading, writing, computation, and storage (Redis) happen inside Reddit’s infrastructure, under Reddit’s own terms and privacy policy.
2. GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com) — hosts public, Creative-Commons-licensed Buddhist text data. The app requests static public files.
3. Cloudflare Pages (readzen.pages.dev) — hosts the public search manifest and text indexes. The app requests static public files.

Requests to GitHub and Cloudflare Pages are one-way and carry only a fixed public file address — no user data, no content, no identifiers of any kind. To state it plainly: no Reddit user data ever leaves Reddit through this app. We use no analytics providers, ad networks, tracking pixels, or any other data processors.

10. What we will never do

Affirmatively and without exception, ReadZen does not:

• sell, license, rent, or otherwise commercialize any data;
• use any Reddit data to train AI, machine-learning, or large-language models;
• profile users — and never on protected characteristics such as race, religion, health, or politics;
• surveil users or monitor content beyond what you explicitly invoke the app on;
• collect passwords, credentials, or unnecessary personal information;
• knowingly collect data from children under 13, or collect health, financial, biometric, or other sensitive data from anyone;
• ask you to create an account or profile outside Reddit.

11. Security and breach notification

The app’s storage and execution are secured within Reddit’s Developer Platform; we follow a strict data-minimization design (the best security for data is not holding it), restrict outbound network access to the two public text hosts listed above, and collect no credentials. If, despite this, we become aware of a security breach affecting any data handled by ReadZen, we will promptly notify both affected users and Reddit, and take reasonable steps to remedy it.

12. International transfers

App data resides in Reddit’s infrastructure and is subject to Reddit’s data-hosting arrangements. ReadZen itself transfers no personal data internationally — the only data we receive directly is what you send us by email, which is processed by the operator in Switzerland.

13. Children

ReadZen is not directed at children under 13, and consistent with Reddit’s own rules, users under 13 may not use it. We do not knowingly collect any data from children under 13; if we learn we hold such data, we will delete it.

14. Cookies and tracking

ReadZen sets no cookies and uses no tracking technologies — no analytics scripts, no fingerprinting, no persistent client-side identifiers. The app’s web view keeps no lasting local storage of its own.

15. Relationship to Reddit’s terms

Your use of Reddit is governed by Reddit’s User Agreement and Privacy Policy. This policy applies only to the ReadZen app and does not supersede, replace, or contradict Reddit’s terms in any way.

16. Changes to this policy

If our data practices change, we will update this policy, revise the “Last updated” date above, and — for material changes — note the change prominently in the app’s listing or the policy itself. Continued use of ReadZen after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

17. Contact

Questions, concerns, or requests: fabian.trunz@gmail.com (Fabian Trunz).