Your Thoughts are private. Not to us, not to your friends, not to anyone, unless you choose to share a specific Idea with a specific person. Hindsights are private always.
In Settings → Privacy you can choose whether people can send you friend requests, whether your "Currently Reading" is shown to friends, and whether your profile stats are visible.
We use anonymous, aggregate analytics to understand how the app is used, never tied to your identity, and only with your consent. You can turn this on or off anytime with the Anonymous usage analytics toggle in Settings → Privacy.
In Settings → Notifications you control which emails you receive (friend requests, shares, Hindsight reminders, and more), with a master switch over all of them.
Upload an avatar in Settings → Profile. Same rules as book covers:
Q: Can Marginal staff read my Thoughts? Your Thoughts are yours. We don't read them, and our access controls are built so they stay private.
Q: What's a Hindsight, and can anyone see it? A Hindsight is a short reflection you write months after locking a book: a note from a later version of you to the reader you were. It is the one thing in Marginal that can never be shared, with anyone, ever. There's no toggle, no request, no exception. A Hindsight is deeply personal and reflective; a thing like that isn't meant to be handed to someone else. It's a conversation with yourself.