Privacy

Last updated 30 September 2026

Shelfclip reads what you copy and share so it can organise it for you. That makes privacy the product, not a footnote. This page says exactly what stays on your devices, what reaches our servers, who processes it, and how to get it back or delete it. It covers the Mac and iPhone apps, shelfclip.com, the browser extension and the connection for AI assistants.

The short version

Passwords, keys, one-time codes and card numbers are caught on your device and never uploaded.
Text and links you save are uploaded so they can be sorted, tagged and, on Pro, synced. Pictures are uploaded only to sync them, on Pro. Files never leave your Mac.
No ads, no analytics, no tracking, and your clips are never sold or used to train AI models.
Export your library from the app at any time; delete your account in the app and everything on our servers goes with it.

What never leaves your device

Sensitive copies. Passwords marked by password managers, API keys, private keys, one-time codes, card numbers and ID numbers are detected on your Mac or iPhone (and in the browser extension), kept only on that device, and deleted after one hour. Our servers check again and refuse anything that slips through.
Files you copy in Finder stay on your Mac.
Pictures on the Free plan. The picture stays on the device that copied it; only the text read from it on the device (if any, and if it is not sensitive) is uploaded to be sorted.
Searching by keyword, pasting and browsing your history work without a connection and send nothing.

What reaches our servers, and why

Your clips. The text and links you copy, share, save from the extension or save through an assistant (never sensitive ones), plus what you add to them: the one-line annotation, shelf moves, pins and the filing rules Shelfclip learns from your moves. We use them to judge what is worth keeping, file and tag it, build the search index and, on Pro, sync it to your other devices.
A device id. A random id each app and the browser extension make when installed, stored with the clips that install saves. On the Free plan it is how each device is shown only its own clips. It says nothing about the device or about you.
Pictures, on Pro only. A copy of each picture, scaled down on your device (at most 2048 pixels on the long side), so it appears on your other devices and in the web library.
Link details. For a link you save, our server fetches the public page (or the site’s public API, for example GitHub, YouTube or X) to read its title, description and, for articles, the text. Only the link is sent; nothing about you. The public details are cached and reused for anyone who saves the same link; the fact that you saved it is not shared with anyone.
Your account. Your email address, used to send sign-in codes and to answer you. If you use Sign in with Apple we also receive Apple’s identifier for you, the email address Apple shares (which can be a private relay address), and a token that lets us revoke the sign-in when you delete your account. If you continue with Google we receive your Google account identifier and your email address only; we don’t ask for your name or profile picture. You can use Shelfclip without an account; we then know only an anonymous id for that device.
Sign-in sessions. Each signed-in device, browser extension and connected assistant has a session that records the IP address and app or browser name it signed in from, to keep your account secure.
Your plan. Whether you are on Free, Pro or Lifetime, and Apple’s signed record of your purchase (product, dates and transaction id), plus the renewal and refund notices Apple sends us. We never see or store your payment details.
Crash and hang reports from the apps, collected by Apple’s MetricKit on your device: call stacks, the app version and the device model and system version. They contain no clip content and are used only to fix bugs.
Email you send us at support@shelfclip.com, used to answer you.

AI processing

Clips are sorted and tagged by models on Cloudflare Workers AI, reached through Cloudflare AI Gateway. One of them, the Jev classifier, is provided by a third party (Typesafe) through Cloudflare. Search by meaning stores a numeric summary of each clip in Cloudflare Vectorize. Clip text is sent to these models only to process it. We never use your clips to train AI models.

Who processes your data

Cloudflare runs our servers and stores your data (Workers, Durable Objects, D1, R2, Queues, Vectorize), runs the AI models above, renders public pages for link details, and sends sign-in emails. Each account’s clips live in their own isolated storage object. Cloudflare may process data in any of its locations, including the United States.
Typesafe provides the Jev classifier, which receives clip text through Cloudflare AI Gateway to judge it.
Apple handles App Store purchases, subscriptions and refunds, and Sign in with Apple, under Apple’s own privacy policy.
Google handles “Continue with Google” sign-in, under Google’s own privacy policy.

We don’t use any other service providers, advertising networks or analytics services.

What we never do

Sell your data or show you ads.
Use your clips to train AI models.
Put analytics or tracking scripts on this site or in the apps, or track you across other companies’ apps and websites.

The browser extension

Shelfclip for Chrome sends something to Shelfclip only when you save it: the address of the page or link, or the text you selected, together with the address of the page it came from. It does not read pages you don't save, keep a browsing history, or run on any site except shelfclip.com until you press Save, the shortcut or a menu item. Selections that look like passwords, keys or codes are refused in the browser and never sent. The extension stores its sign-in and a list of your last 20 saves in the browser; Disconnect removes both and ends that sign-in. Data from the extension is used only to provide Shelfclip's features, is never sold, and is never used for advertising or to train AI models.

AI assistants you connect

If you connect an assistant (for example Claude or Cursor) to Shelfclip, it can search and read your clips. It can save or delete clips only if you ticked that permission when you approved it, and it can only delete clips it saved itself. You can see which clips an assistant saved on the “From agents” shelf. What the assistant does with what it reads is governed by that assistant’s own privacy policy.

How long we keep it

We keep your clips and account for as long as you have the account. Throwaway clips are archived automatically after about 30 days. When you delete a clip it disappears from every device, the web library, search and connected assistants straight away, and deleting it erases its content from our servers right away: its text, title, summary, note, tags, picture and search entry. All that stays is a bare deletion record (the clip’s id, its type, when it was deleted and a one-way fingerprint of its content) so your other devices catch up. Our storage keeps point-in-time backups, so a deleted clip is gone from those within 30 days. Anonymous device libraries follow the same rules.

Export, correct or delete your data

Export: in the app, Account → Your Data (on the Mac, Settings → Account) saves everything you’ve kept on that device as a Markdown or JSON file. Passwords and codes are never exported.
Correct: move, annotate or delete any clip in the app.
Delete: Account → Delete account, in the Mac or iPhone app, erases every clip, tag, picture and search entry on our servers, your plan record and your sign-in, along with the library on that device. A subscription bought through the App Store keeps billing until you cancel it in your Apple Account settings.
For anything else — a copy of what we hold, a deletion you can’t do in the app, or a question about your rights under the law where you live — write to support@shelfclip.com. We answer within 30 days.

Children

Shelfclip is not directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has an account, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll update the date above and say so in the apps before the change applies to you.

Contact

Questions or requests: support@shelfclip.com.