Methodical Enterprises LLC
Last updated: October 12, 2026
The short version: Lexi keeps your library on your device. There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking. Looking up a book sends its barcode number, title or author to public book databases. The spine library is on by default: Lexi asks Apple's iCloud for spine photos other readers shared, and you can turn that off. Your own spine photos are shared only if you turn that on. If you choose to read with friends, what you share with them (your place in a book, your notes on it, messages and book clubs) is stored in Apple's iCloud, where we can also see it.
This policy applies to the Lexi reading-tracker app for iPhone and iPad (listed on the App Store as Book Tracker: Lexi, and formerly named Lunara), published by Methodical Enterprises LLC ("we," "us").
Your books, reading progress, reading log, notes, shelves, favorites, spice ratings and tropes, photos you add of covers and spines, and settings are stored on your device, and Lexi's widgets are drawn from them there. Lexi has no user accounts and we run no servers. This information leaves your device only through features of iOS you control (such as your own iCloud device backup, or the share sheet when you share a quote card) and the features described below.
Importing a Goodreads library reads the export file you pick, on your device. Lexi then looks up covers for the imported books, as described next.
Lexi asks public book databases for a book's details and cover:
The services Lexi contacts are:
Only the ISBN, title, author's name or words read off a spine are sent. Your notes, reading progress, library, and any information about you are never included, and no account or device identifier is attached. These services have their own privacy policies and see the network request, including your IP address, as with any web request. You can always add a book by typing it in yourself.
Lexi can show a book the real spine of its edition, photographed by another Lexi reader. This is on by default. For each book that has no spine photo of its own, Lexi asks Lexi's public database in Apple's CloudKit (part of iCloud) for spines, by a code made from the book's ISBN (or its title and author). It does this when you open or return to Lexi and when you add books, and asks about a book with no shared spine again only every few days. These lookups don't save anything in iCloud. To turn them off, switch off Settings → Spine Library → Use spines other readers photographed.
Share my spine photos, in the same place, is off by default. If you turn it on and agree to Lexi's community rules, the spine photos you add (taken with the camera or chosen from your library), including ones you added before, are stored in Lexi's public CloudKit database with the book's ISBN (or title and author), the time, and a random contributor ID that is separate from your reader ID, so readers with the same edition can see them. Only spine photos are shared, never covers or other pictures, and only when the lettering on the photo names the book. Sharing needs an iCloud account; using other readers' spines doesn't. Turning sharing off stops new photos from being shared; photos already shared stay until they are deleted (see below).
You can report a shared spine from the book's page. It is taken off your book at once, and you can also hide everything from the same contributor. A report stores the spine's ID, whether you hid everything from that contributor, and the time, so we can review it and delete the spine for everyone if it breaks the rules.
Reading together is optional and needs an iCloud account. Friends are added by scanning each other's code in person (or typing it in when there's no camera). If you use it, Lexi stores the following in Lexi's public database in Apple's CloudKit, so your friends' devices can receive it:
iCloud also records, on everything Lexi saves there (including shared spine photos and reports), an ID that Apple assigns to your iCloud account for Lexi. It is not your name or Apple ID, but it is the same on everything you save from that account.
The names you give your friends stay on your device and are never uploaded. The first time you open Reading Friends, Lexi asks permission to show notifications. To tell you when a message arrives, Lexi asks iCloud to wake your device for messages addressed to your reader ID; the notification's text is written on your device.
Who can see it. Lexi finds each item only by reader IDs, book and group IDs that were handed over in person, and never lists or searches readers, so in practice only the friends and club members you read with see what you share. Records in a public CloudKit database can be read by the Lexi app on any device that knows where to look, though. Apple stores this data under its own privacy policy. We can see all of it through Apple's CloudKit tools, and we use that only to review reports and remove content that breaks Lexi's community rules.
Reports, blocking and leaving. Anything a friend sends you can be reported. It disappears from your device at once, and we review the report and delete the item for everyone if it breaks the rules. Blocking a reader removes everything they sent you from your device and stops them being your friend; nothing is sent anywhere and they aren't told. Leaving a book club removes it from your device; if someone else created it, your reader ID can stay on its member list.
Lexi uses the camera, only when you open it, to scan a book's barcode, to photograph a cover or spine, and to read a whole shelf of spines from one photo. Barcode frames and shelf photos are read on your device and not kept. Cover and spine photos you take are stored on your device as that book's image, and the lettering on a cover photo is read on your device to fill in a new book's title and author. You can turn camera access off at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera.
To use a picture from your photo library, Lexi uses the iOS photo picker: Lexi receives only the photo you choose and never has access to the rest of your library. On devices that support it, you can have Image Playground draw a cover from the book's title; Apple creates the picture, and it is stored on your device as the book's cover.
A spine photo leaves your device only if you turn on spine sharing, as described above.
Lexi contains no analytics, no advertising SDKs, no crash-reporting services and no tracking of any kind. We do not build a profile of you and do not track you across apps or websites.
Lexi does not ask for anyone's name, email or age, and its reading-together features connect only people who have exchanged codes in person.
Your library lives on your device, and deleting Lexi removes it. Your reader ID stays in your iCloud Keychain. What you shared through reading together or the spine library, and any reports, stay in iCloud until they are deleted; nothing there expires on its own, and Lexi can't delete it from inside the app. Blocking or removing a friend removes their content from your device only. To have everything you shared deleted, email us the code shown under your friend code in Settings → Reading Friends (and, for spine photos, which books you shared spines for), and we will delete it.
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page and post the new version here.
Questions? Email dwheat@methodical-ep.com.