Acceptable Use Policy

The few rules

This is a private notebook, not a publishing platform. Almost nothing you would naturally do here is a problem, so the list is short and it is mostly about the service rather than about your writing.

IYour notes are your business

A reading journal is a place to be uncertain, unfair, half-formed and wrong. Arguing with an author, writing something you would not say at a dinner party, recording a thought you later disown: all of it is the point. We do not moderate the content of your blocks, and we are not reading them.

The rules below exist because a service can be misused in ways that hurt other people or the service itself. They are not an attempt to supervise your thinking.

IIWhat may not be stored

There are a few categories where the content genuinely does matter, because holding it is unlawful in itself or because storing it here makes us party to something.

• Child sexual abuse material. There is no context in which this is acceptable. It will be removed, the account closed, and it will be reported.
• Material that is objectionable under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.
• Content whose purpose is to threaten or harass a specific person, or which would breach the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015.
• Other people's private information gathered and stored here for a purpose that is not your own reading.
• Whole copyrighted works. Quoting a passage you are writing about is ordinary and expected. Pasting an entire book in so the library becomes a copy of it is not.

IIIWhat may not be done to the service

• Trying to reach another person's library, account or data by any means.
• Probing, scanning or testing the security of the service without written permission. If you are a security researcher, see below: we would rather hear from you than have you stopped.
• Automated bulk requests, scraping the catalogue through us, or load that would degrade the service for others.
• Using the service as general file storage, a backup target, or a way to distribute files.
• Reselling access, or sharing one account among several people.
• Interfering with how the software works, including circumventing sign-in or usage limits.

IVThe catalogue behind a book

Adding a book looks it up. That lookup goes through services we do not own, which have their own limits and their own terms, and our access to them is on the same footing as anyone else's.

So writing|read is not a route to bulk catalogue data. Using it to pull records at volume, to rebuild a catalogue elsewhere, or in any way that would cost us that access, is a breach of this policy.

VIf you find a security problem

Please tell us at security@writingread.com before telling anyone else, and give us a reasonable chance to fix it.

Testing done in good faith, against your own account, without accessing anyone else's data, without degrading the service and without publishing the details before a fix, is not something we will pursue you for. Deliberately reaching another person's notes is not research, and the previous sentence does not cover it.

VIWhat happens if a rule is broken

The response is meant to fit the problem. For most things, that is an email asking you to stop.

• Minor or accidental: we ask you to fix it.
• Serious or repeated: the account is suspended while we work out what happened.
• Severe: the account is closed. Where the law requires it, or where someone is at risk, we report it.

Except where acting immediately is legally required, we will tell you what the problem was and give you a chance to respond. And unless a court or the law says otherwise, you will be able to export your own writing before the account goes. Losing access to a service is a proportionate consequence. Losing eight years of your own notes is not.

VIIReporting something

If you believe content on writing|read breaches this policy, or infringes your copyright, write to hello@writingread.com. Tell us what the content is, where it is, and why. For a copyright complaint, include enough for us to identify the work and confirm you have the right to complain about it.

Note that libraries here are private by default. There is generally nothing public to point at, which makes most reports about this service unlikely.

VIIIContact

Anphase Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand.
General: hello@writingread.com
Security: security@writingread.com

This policy forms part of the Terms of Service.

Last updated 30 August 2026 · Effective 30 August 2026