Hoopla

Is Hoopla safe to use?

Yes, for most people. Hoopla lets you borrow e-books, audiobooks, comics, films, TV and music from your public library, with no payment card, no chat and no breach that we could find. We score it 63/100, below Libby (82) and a little below Amazon's Kindle (67).

The gap with Libby is about data. Hoopla's privacy notice allows it to pass your email address and device identifiers to advertising networks and social platforms so that it can show you targeted ads for Hoopla elsewhere. Library users often assume their reading stays between them and the library. With Hoopla, that is only partly true.

What Hoopla does with your data

The App Store label says Hoopla does not track you across other companies' apps. It does link contact details and identifiers to you for "Developer's Advertising or Marketing", and usage data for personalisation. The Google Play listing goes further: it says the email address and device IDs are shared with other companies, partly for advertising or marketing.

The privacy notice from Midwest Tape, the Ohio company behind Hoopla, dated 6 July 2026, is broader still. It says Hoopla does not sell data for money but may disclose it to "advertising technology partners, data analytics providers, social media platforms, and advertising networks" for targeted advertising, and that this may count as a "sale" or "sharing" under US state privacy laws. It uses remarketing pixels and builds "custom audiences based on user email addresses". What you borrow and watch is listed among the data used for personalisation and advertising. The notice also allows Hoopla to train its own AI models on your inputs and outputs unless you opt out.

Because the policy discloses more than Apple's label, we score privacy on the policy. That puts Hoopla at 54, near Kindle and far below Libby.

Can you limit it?

Partly. Hoopla honours the Global Privacy Control signal, which some browsers send automatically, and offers a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link. In the app, settings let you clear your whole borrowing history, delete single titles or hide future history. There is a separate opt-out for AI training in your account settings.

What is missing is a simple delete button. The privacy notice mentions a "Deactivate My Account" option in your account, but deactivation only cuts off access; the terms say you close your account by emailing [email protected] or by writing to the company in Holland, Ohio. The notice keeps data "as long as necessary" and says some may stay in backups. The terms also send disputes to individual arbitration in Ohio rather than court.

Security

There is little to steal: an email address, a password, your library card number and a list of loans. We found no Hoopla breach in Have I Been Pwned or in California's breach notices, and Google Play says data is encrypted in transit.

The security side is thin, though. The privacy notice promises only "standard physical, technical, and administrative measures". We found no two-step login in Hoopla's help centre, no bug bounty on HackerOne or Bugcrowd and no security.txt file telling researchers where to report flaws. Security scores 64, below Libby's 72.

Children and what is in the catalogue

Hoopla has no chat, comments or public profiles, so the risk for children is content, not contact. Kids Mode gathers titles rated G to PG for children up to 12, and Hoopla's help centre says parents should still decide whether each title suits their child. On the website, a parent can set a four-digit PIN that is needed to switch Kids Mode off. Outside Kids Mode the catalogue includes adult films, explicit music and adult fiction. The App Store rates the app 13+, and the terms ask users under 18 to have a parent's consent.

The bigger problem has been quality control. Libraries usually get Hoopla's catalogue as a whole rather than choosing each title. In 2022 librarians found Holocaust-denial books, COVID disinformation and conversion-therapy titles in it; Hoopla's chief executive told librarians the flagged books had slipped through its screening and were removed (The Verge). In February 2025, 404 Media reported low-quality, apparently AI-written e-books in Hoopla's catalogue, such as diet cookbooks by authors with no traceable identity. None of this is a scam, but it means a title on Hoopla carries less of a library's usual vetting.

Legal record

We found no fine, order or regulator investigation naming Hoopla or Midwest Tape. In June 2026 the law firm Labaton Keller Sucharow said it was looking into possible claims that Hoopla passed users' viewing activity to tracking companies in breach of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (Cord Cutters News). That is an investigation by private lawyers, with no court finding, so it does not lower the score.

How to use Hoopla more privately

1. Turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser, or use the Do Not Sell or Share link, to stop ad sharing.
2. Opt out of AI training in your account settings.
3. Hide your history if you share a device, or clear it now and then.
4. Use a unique password, since there is no second login step.
5. For young children, switch on Kids Mode, lock it with a PIN where offered, and stay nearby; for books alone, consider Libby if your library offers it.

How we scored it

The regulatory record (86) is Hoopla's strongest factor, with no fine or order. Privacy (54) is the weakest, because the policy allows sharing with ad networks that Apple's label does not show. Security (64) and transparency and control (58) lose points for the missing two-step login, bug bounty and a way to delete the account in the app.