Privacy

Last updated 11 November 2026

In short

No analytics, no advertising, no tracking. Visitors get no cookies; only friends with an account get a login cookie when they log in. Everything, including the book covers and fonts, is served from our own server in Switzerland. Without an account, the only thing you can send is your name, when you tap “I want to read it as well”.

Who is responsible

Pio Gino Steiner, Switzerland · info@piogino.ch
books.piogino.ch is a private, non-commercial hobby project, together with movies.piogino.ch and news.piogino.ch.

What happens when you visit

“I want to read it as well”

The name you enter and the book are stored on our server so the person whose book it is knows whom to lend which book (when several people have it, you choose whose copy). Nothing else is stored with it. That person also gets the same information (name and book title) as a message in the Telegram app, if they have linked it; Telegram is operated by Telegram Messenger Inc., and the message reaches Telegram's servers outside Switzerland, including countries without an equivalent level of data protection. Requests are deleted when they have been handled, and at the latest after 180 days; a Telegram message stays in the chat until it is deleted there. Please only enter your name, nothing else.

To keep out spam bots, the form also sends a short-lived token the page fetches when you open it, and an empty field people never see. Neither contains anything about you.

Accounts

One account works on all piogino.ch sites: books.piogino.ch, movies.piogino.ch and news.piogino.ch. The account data (username, public name, color, password hash, last login, Telegram chat id) is kept once, on our server, and each site keeps what you add there (here: your books, your statements and your reading list).

You can create an account yourself (“Create an account” in the login, while sign-up is open), or get one from Pio. No email address is asked; if you forget your password, the admin can set a new one. To limit sign-ups by scripts, the number of new accounts per internet address is counted for an hour, in the server's memory only. The admin is told of each new account (public name and username), on Telegram if linked. The password is stored as a salted hash (nobody can read it); the time of your last login is shown to the admin only, to see which accounts are in use. Your public name, color, statements and lists are shown on the sites; the rest is not.

When you mark another person's book (“I want to read it as well” while logged in), it is added to your reading list, and when you recommend their book too (“Recommend it too”), it is added to your recommendations; either way that person is told your public name, in their requests and on Telegram. Your Telegram chat is linked by sending the bot a code shown only in your account; our server reads the bot's recent messages to find that code and keeps only your chat id.

Logging in sets a login cookie (piogino_session, for piogino.ch and its sites) that keeps you logged in for up to 30 days, on all the sites; it is needed for the login and used for nothing else.

You can delete your account yourself (My account → Delete my account, with your password). It is deleted on all piogino.ch sites: your books, statements and requests here at once, what you added on the other sites within the hour. The admin is told that you left. Or write to info@piogino.ch.

Feedback

The “F” button at the bottom right sends feedback to the admin: the kind you chose, your message, the page you were on, the parts of the page you pointed at, the size of your browser window, and your email address if you gave one for an answer (and your public name if you are logged in). It is stored on our own server, and the admin gets a short note of it on Telegram. Feedback is deleted once it has been dealt with, and at the latest after a year. The same anti-spam token and hidden field as in “I want to read it as well” are used; neither contains anything about you.

Links to other sites

“Open Library ↗” opens the book's page on Open Library (the Internet Archive, USA) in a new tab. Nothing from there is loaded until you click, after which its own privacy policy applies. Book data and covers come from Open Library, and emotes from 7TV, but your browser never contacts them: our server fetches them and serves them itself (also the small covers in the search while you add a book).

Stored in your browser

• books-view / planning-view in the session storage of the open tab: your sorting and filter choice, so the list looks the same when you come back; deleted when you close the tab.
• books-theme in local storage: light or dark, if you chose one with the switch at the top (Auto stores nothing).
• piogino_session, a cookie: only if you log in with an account (see Accounts).

None of this is used for tracking.

Your rights

Under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) you can ask what personal data about you is processed, and have it corrected or deleted, for example a request with your name. Write to info@piogino.ch. You can also contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

Credits and sources

Titles, authors, years, page counts, subjects, descriptions and covers come from Open Library, an open, editable library catalogue by the Internet Archive. Its catalogue data is free to use; covers and descriptions remain the work of their publishers and authors. This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Open Library or the Internet Archive.

Emotes come from 7TV and are served by our own server. books.piogino.ch is a private, non-commercial hobby project without advertising.

Changes

This statement is updated when the site changes; the date at the top shows the current version.