Privacy Policy

Effective date: 23 May 2026 · Last updated: 16 September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how the ReadAloud mobile application (“ReadAloud”, “the App”, “we”, “us”) handles information when you use it on an iPhone, iPad or Android device.

TL;DR — ReadAloud does not collect, transmit, or share any personal data. Everything you import or read stays on your own device.

1. Data we collect

None. ReadAloud is designed to run entirely on your device.

• We do not collect personal information.
• We do not track usage, sessions, or behaviour.
• We do not use analytics, advertising, crash-reporting, or third-party tracking SDKs.
• We do not require an account, sign-up, or login.
• We do not send anything you import, read, or listen to over the network.

ReadAloud has no backend service that knows anything about you — no account database, no analytics endpoint, no sync. There is exactly one feature that uses the network, described in full below.

1.1 The one feature that uses the network: the free library (optional)

ReadAloud includes an optional free library of public-domain and original books. Opening it fetches a catalogue file, and picking a book downloads that book — both from books.heiontech.com, which is static file hosting (Cloudflare R2).

• Those requests carry only what any ordinary web request carries: your IP address, the file requested, and standard HTTP headers. They carry no account, no device identifier, and nothing about the books already on your device.
• We attach no analytics to them and build no profile from them. Our file host may keep ordinary server logs in order to operate and protect the service.
• If you never open the free library, ReadAloud makes no network requests of its own. Everything else — import, parsing, chapter detection, reading, speech, bookmarks, Traditional/Simplified conversion — runs on your device and works offline.

Links in the app to this policy, to support, or to other book websites open in your web browser; what happens there is governed by those sites.

2. Data stored on your device

ReadAloud stores the following locally, in the app’s private storage on your device:

• Books you import or download (TXT, EPUB, PDF) and the text extracted from them.
• Bookmarks, highlights, notes, reading progress, tags, and pronunciation corrections you create.
• Your settings (font, theme, voice, speech rate, etc.) — on iOS in Apple’s UserDefaults, on Android in the app’s private settings storage.

This data never leaves your device through ReadAloud, except when you choose to share or export something yourself (for example, sharing a book’s text or exporting notes), in which case it goes where you send it. It is removed when you delete the app.

Backups. If device backup is turned on, app data may be included in your personal backup: iCloud on iOS, which is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy; your Google Account backup on Android, which is governed by Google’s Privacy Policy. Neither backup is accessible to us.

3. System permissions and services we use

On both platforms

• Background audio playback — to keep reading aloud when the screen is locked or another app is in front. No audio is recorded or transmitted.
• File import — only when you tap “Import”. You explicitly select files through the system document picker; ReadAloud only reads the files you choose.
• Clipboard (Paste) — only when you explicitly tap “Paste from Clipboard”. ReadAloud does not read the clipboard at any other time.

iOS and iPadOS

• Text-to-Speech — Apple’s on-device AVSpeechSynthesizer. Text is passed to the system synthesizer for playback only. Voices are downloaded by you in iOS Settings and managed by Apple.
• Camera (Scan document) — only when you tap “Scan document”. ReadAloud opens Apple’s document camera, and the pages you capture are passed to Apple’s on-device Vision framework to recognise the text. The photos are used for that recognition and then discarded — not saved to your photo library, not stored by the app, and not uploaded anywhere. The same on-device recognition reads a scanned PDF that has no text layer, only when you ask for it.
• Dictionary and Translate (text selection) — iOS system components. Looking up a word opens Apple’s dictionary; translating opens Apple’s translation panel, which runs on your device. The first time you use a language pair, iOS may download a translation model from Apple, in Apple’s own interface. ReadAloud never sends your text to us or to any third party.
• Supporter purchases (optional) — one-time in-app purchases that support development and unlock a supporter app icon and a thank-you mark. Payment is handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. ReadAloud only checks, on your device, which supporter purchases your Apple account owns; it never receives your payment details, name, or Apple ID, and nothing about the purchase is sent to us.

Android

• Text-to-Speech — the Google Text-to-Speech engine installed on your device. ReadAloud asks it to synthesise on the device only. The first time a language is used, Google’s engine may download that language’s voice data from Google; that download is between you and Google, in Google’s own service.
• Notifications — used only for the media notification that shows and controls reading while the app is in the background.
• Share to ReadAloud — text or a text file you share from another app is saved as a book on your device. A shared link is saved as its title and address only; ReadAloud does not open or download the page.

ReadAloud does not access the microphone, contacts, photo library, location, calendar, reminders, health data, motion data, or any other sensitive system resource. On Android it does not access the camera.

4. Third-party libraries

ReadAloud uses the following open-source libraries, all of which run entirely on-device and do not collect or transmit data:

• OpenCC dictionaries (Apache License 2.0) — Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion; via SwiftyOpenCC on iOS.
• pdfbox-android (Apache License 2.0) — PDF text extraction on Android.
• AndroidX and Jetpack Media3 (Apache License 2.0) — the Android interface, playback, and media controls.

5. Children’s privacy

ReadAloud is suitable for users of all ages. Because we collect no data, we do not knowingly collect any data from children.

6. Data retention and deletion

We hold no user data to retain or delete — there is no account, no profile, and no reading history anywhere except your own device. The static file host behind the free library (section 1.1) serves files and holds nothing about you beyond ordinary server logs. Deleting the app from your device deletes all associated data.

7. Your rights

Because we do not collect or process personal data, statutory rights such as access, rectification, deletion, restriction, portability, and objection are not applicable to ReadAloud. You retain full control over the data stored on your device.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes take effect when posted at this URL. The “Last updated” date at the top will reflect any changes.

9. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

• Email: [email protected]
• Developer: Heion Technologies
• Jurisdiction: Hong Kong SAR

This policy is provided in English and Traditional Chinese. A Traditional Chinese version is available. In case of conflict between language versions, the English version prevails.