Is B&N NOOK safe to use?

B&N NOOK integrates 14 third-party SDKs. It collects data linked to your identity including Location, Contact Info, User Content, and Search History and 3 more categories. It does not include any advertising or attribution SDKs. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does B&N NOOK need?

B&N NOOK requests 6 iOS permissions: Camera, Microphone, Location (When In Use), Location (Always), Location (Always & When In Use), and Save to Photo Library.

How many SDKs does B&N NOOK have?

B&N NOOK integrates 14 third-party SDKs. 14 for other. None are for advertising, attribution, or analytics.

Does B&N NOOK access your location?

Yes. B&N NOOK requests location access. The developer states: "NOOK needs to know when you are at Barnes & Noble to allow you to read for free while in the store.".

Does B&N NOOK access your camera or microphone?

B&N NOOK requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "NOOK needs your permission to access the camera to scan for barcodes". Microphone access is for "NOOK needs microphone permission to allow you to record narration for your book". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does B&N NOOK run in the background?

Yes. B&N NOOK registers 3 background modes, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to B&N NOOK?

Other book apps include Noel Novel , Freewave , AnyStories , ReadAnywhere , FanFiction Reader Pro , and Audible . Each app takes a different approach to book and varies in its data collection and SDK usage.

Book · Privacy report

Barnes & Noble NOOK

Free · ★4.7 · Barnes & Noble

Is B&N NOOK safe?

It collects a lot of your data itself.

Our take. Its own App Store privacy label declares B&N NOOK links 7 categories of your data to your identity, including location, contact info, user content and search history. That collection, more than any outside tracker, is the story here.

Privacy footprint · vs 82 bookModerate

Trackers from other companies0 · none

typical book: 5

Data the app links to you7 types · some

typical book: 3 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

B&N NOOK links 7 categories of your data to you.

From the developer's own App Store privacy label. These are the kinds of data B&N NOOK ties to your identity.

LocationContact InfoUser ContentSearch HistoryIdentifiersUsage DataDiagnostics

Who else is inside

Few or no outside trackers.

We found no advertising, analytics, or attribution SDKs from other companies in B&N NOOK.

How it compares

Where it sits among book.

Every one of these apps we have scanned, on the two measures above: third-party trackers it carries (across) and data it links to you on its own label (up). Toward the top right is more invasive.

Each dot is one book app. B&N NOOK sits high on the left: it collects a lot itself but uses few outside trackers.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 14 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. None are third-party trackers.

14standard libraries

0 of the 14 are third-party trackers. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

Standard libraries14 · on-device

The app's own code plus open-source interface, storage and networking libraries.

How we know this

Counterspy downloads the app from the App Store and statically analyzes its compiled binary. Embedded SDKs are matched against a signature database and resolved to the company that operates each. We also read the developer's App Store privacy label, which lists the data the app says it collects and links to you. We do not run the app or intercept its traffic, so we report capabilities present in the code and the developer's own disclosures, not proven transmission. We assess privacy and data collection, not malware, security flaws, or developer intent. Reports are automated and never edited for payment. Scan v6.8.6, 2026-04-04.

Third-party trackers are advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs detected by static signature matching. Presence shows a capability is compiled in, not that it ran or transmitted data.
"Data the app links to you" is the count of data categories the developer declares as Data Linked To You in its App Store privacy label. Labels are self-reported and not verified by Apple.
Comparison across the 82 book in our corpus. Trackers: median 5. Data linked to you: median 3.