Open Europe Book Logo

    Privacy Policy

    Last updated: 26 October 2026

    This privacy policy describes how personal data is processed when you use OpenEuropeBooks (www.smartpaper.fi), a service through which people can request scans of books held in libraries they cannot visit, scan books for others, and order printed books.

    Summary

    We process your personal data so that we can run your account, match scan requests with scanners, deliver scans to the person who asked for them, take payments for print orders and subscriptions, and meet our legal obligations.

    We process, for example, your email address, your country, language and home library, the scan requests you make or fulfil, your credit balance, and payment and delivery data for print orders. We never see your card details.

    We keep as little personal data as the service needs, and delete it as soon as it is no longer needed. Scans only pass through our storage on their way to the person who requested them. We do not sell personal data and we do not use it for advertising.

    1. Controller

    OpenEuropeBooks is operated by Smart Paper Oy, Finland ("we", "us"), which is the controller of the personal data described here.

    For scans, we act as a hosting intermediary: we store files uploaded by users only on their behalf and for the purpose of delivering them to the requester.

    2. Contact

    Questions about this policy, and requests to exercise your data protection rights:

    Smart Paper Oy / data protection

    Email: boekify@smartpaper.fi

    3. Purposes and legal bases of processing

    Providing the service and the contract between you and us (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b))

    • Creating and managing your account, signing you in, and keeping your settings.
    • Showing you catalogue search results and the libraries that hold a book.
    • Handling scan requests: assigning a request to a scanner, receiving the scan, letting the requester review it, delivering it, and cleaning up afterwards.
    • Keeping your credit balance. Credits are an internal unit of the service. A request holds one credit and a completed scan earns the scanner one; credits cannot be bought or cashed out. The balance is calculated from a record of credit movements, which is linked to your account.
    • Processing print orders and subscriptions, and sending the printed book to you.
    • Sending you service messages about your requests and tasks, by email and, if you allow it, by push notification. Notification emails never name the book or the library. You can switch off notification emails in the settings.

    Consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a))

    • Push notifications: we store your device's push subscription only if you allow push notifications. You can withdraw the permission in your browser or device at any time.
    • Cloud storage: if you connect Google Drive or a Solid Pod, we use it only as described in sections 4 and 5. You can disconnect it at any time.

    Legal obligations (GDPR Art. 6(1)(c))

    • Keeping accounting records of payments, as required by Finnish accounting law.
    • Handling notices about unlawful content and responding to requests from authorities, as required by law, including the Digital Services Act.

    Legitimate interest (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f))

    • Keeping the service secure and preventing abuse, fraud and misuse of scan requests.
    • Handling feedback, disputes and legal claims.

    Where we rely on legitimate interest, we have assessed that it does not override your fundamental rights and freedoms.

    We do not carry out profiling or automated decision-making that has legal or similarly significant effects on you. We do not use analytics or advertising cookies.

    4. Data processed

    Account data

    • Email address, country, language, home library and notification settings.
    • Your password, which is stored only as a hash by our authentication provider.
    • Your credit balance and the record of credit movements.

    Scan request data

    • The book and the library the request concerns.
    • The state of the request and its history (open, assigned, delivered, completed, cancelled, expired).
    • The person who made a request is stored in pseudonymised form and never next to the request in the clear. Watermarks on scans carry the request number, not your email address.

    Scans

    • The page images and files uploaded by the scanner. See section 7 for how long they are kept.

    Notification data

    • If you allow push notifications: the push subscription of your device.
    • Email delivery data needed to send account and notification emails.

    Payment and print order data

    • Payments are handled by Stripe or PayPal or other payment providers. We never see or store your card details. We receive confirmation of the payment, the order or subscription status, and the contact and delivery details needed to complete the order.
    • For print orders: the link to the book file and a photo of the library receipt.
    • For the annual subscription: the subscription status and the period it covers.

    Cloud storage data

    • Google Drive: an encrypted refresh token only (see section 5).
    • Solid Pod: the address of the Pod only.

    Technical data

    • Log data generated when you use the service, such as timestamps and error information, used for security and for fixing faults.

    5. Google user data and your own cloud storage

    You can save accepted scans, and provide the pages you scan, through your own cloud storage. We support Google Drive and Solid Pods.

    Google Drive

    If you connect Google Drive, we ask only for the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file. It lets us see only the files and folders our app has created, or the files you pick yourself in the Google file picker, and never the rest of your Drive.

    We use this access only to provide the cloud folder feature you see in the app: to create the "Open Europe Books" folder, to deliver accepted scans into it, to take in the pages you pick when you fulfil a scan request, and to delete those source files from your Drive once the task is finished.

    We store only an encrypted refresh token. The address of your Google account is not stored; it is read from Google when you open your settings.

    Google user data is not sold, not used for advertising, not used to train AI or machine learning models, and not shared with anyone except as needed to provide this feature, for security, or when required by law. No person at Smart Paper Oy reads it unless you ask us to, or for security or legal reasons.

    OpenEuropeBooks' use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

    You can switch to another cloud in the app, or revoke our access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions. When you delete your account, the token is deleted and the access is revoked.

    Solid Pod

    If you use a Solid Pod instead, we store only its address. Everything that is read from or written to the Pod happens in your browser.

    6. Sources of data and how scans move

    Personal data is collected mainly from you when you create an account, make or fulfil a request, or place an order. Catalogue and library information comes from public library catalogues and library directories and does not concern individuals. Payment confirmations come from payment providers.

    A scan moves through the service like this:

    1. The scanner uploads the pages to our private storage.
    2. The requester reviews the scan and accepts it.
    3. After acceptance, the scan is moved to the requester's own cloud storage.
    4. The copy in our storage is deleted. Credits are transferred only after all of these steps have succeeded.

    Each scan is delivered to one requester for one request. We do not reuse scan files or keep a library of them.

    7. Retention

    Data Retention
    Account data Until you delete your account.
    Credit records Until you delete your account.
    Scans in our storage Deleted after delivery and acceptance. If a request expires or is cancelled, the files are deleted.
    Scans you delivered to others Stay with the requester after you delete your account, without your name.
    Scan request records Kept while needed to run the service and handle disputes; the requester is stored only in pseudonymised form.
    Push subscription Until you disable push notifications or delete your account.
    Google Drive refresh token Until you disconnect Google Drive, revoke our access, or delete your account.
    Photo of the library receipt (print orders) Deleted once the paid order is handed to the print queue.
    Print order and payment records Six years from the end of the financial year in which they were created, as required by accounting law.
    Technical logs A limited period, as set by our hosting providers' log retention, for security and fault-fixing.

    Data may be kept longer in exceptional situations, such as when the law or an authority requires it, or because of a legal claim.

    8. Recipients and service providers

    We do not sell personal data. We disclose it only in the following cases:

    • Service providers. We use the providers below to run the service. They process data only on our behalf and each only for its part of it:
      • Supabase: database, authentication and file storage.
      • Vercel: hosting.
      • Stripe/PayPal: payments.
      • Google: Google Drive, if you connect it.
      • Our email provider: account and notification emails.
    • Other users. A scanner sees the book and library of a request they accept, but not who made it. A requester receives the scan but not the scanner's email address.
    • Authorities. We disclose data to courts and other authorities with a statutory right to it, on a written and specific request, in the form and scope the matter requires.
    • Legal claims. We may disclose data to advisers where needed to establish or defend a legal claim.

    9. International transfers

    Our main service providers store data in the EU. Some providers, such as Google, Stripe, PayPal and Vercel, are US companies, so data may be transferred outside the EU and EEA. These transfers rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

    10. Security

    We protect personal data with technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, as required by Article 32 of the GDPR:

    • Access to data is restricted in the database at row level, so users can only reach their own data.
    • Scans are stored in private storage, not publicly accessible.
    • Requesters are stored in pseudonymised form next to scan requests.
    • Passwords are stored only as hashes. Google refresh tokens are stored encrypted.
    • Connections to the service are encrypted.
    • Notification emails do not name the book or the library.

    11. Your rights

    You have the right to:

    • be informed about the processing of your data,
    • access your data,
    • have your data corrected,
    • have your data erased ("right to be forgotten"),
    • restrict processing,
    • object to processing based on legitimate interest,
    • receive your data in a portable format,
    • withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing done before the withdrawal,
    • lodge a complaint with the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman (tietosuoja.fi).

    You can delete your account yourself in the settings. Deleting the account removes your data, except accepted scans you delivered to others, which stay with them without your name. Deletion is blocked while you have live requests or tasks, so that other users are not left without their scan.

    These rights apply within the limits permitted and required by data protection and other law. To exercise them, contact us at the address in section 2. We may ask you to verify your identity so that data is not disclosed to anyone other than you.

    12. Changes

    We continuously develop the service and may change this policy, also because of changes in law or regulatory guidance. We will publish the new version on this page with a new date. Please review this policy regularly.