ReadBridge — Privacy Policy

This policy explains how ReadBridge — an AI-powered English reading assistant for iOS and Android — collects, uses and protects personal data.

ReadBridge is operated by Lemniscia, based in Ireland. Lemniscia is the data controller for the processing described below. For any privacy question or request, contact [email protected].

1. Summary

In short

• An account is optional. Reading, word explanations, saved words and all on-device features work anonymously.
• Without an account, nothing you read is uploaded. Documents you import, paste or scan stay on your device.
• Signing in enables cloud sync of your library, saved words and reading progress. On the Pro plan this includes the text of documents you have saved — see §3b. Cloud copies can be deleted at any time.
• AI explanations are generated in the cloud. When you request one, the selected text is sent to our backend and to Google Gemini.
• We do not sell personal data and do not use it for advertising.

2. Using ReadBridge without an account

ReadBridge is anonymous-first. If you never sign in:

• We do not collect your name or email address.
• Nothing you read, import, paste or scan leaves your device.
• A random installation identifier (a UUID generated on your device) is used for crash reporting, word-data update checks, fair-use limits and keeping study statistics separate between devices. It is not linked to your identity.
• Cloud sync, multi-device restore and purchases are unavailable until you sign in.

3. Information we collect and why

3a. Account information (only if you sign in)

Collected through our authentication provider, Supabase:

• Your email address (email sign-in), or
• A provider account identifier and basic profile from Sign in with Google (Android) or Sign in with Apple (iOS).

Purpose: to create your account and enable cloud sync, restore and purchases. Legal basis: performance of a contract.

3b. Content you create, and cloud sync

Everything you create in ReadBridge is stored locally on your device first. If — and only if — you are signed in, the following is also synced to our cloud (Supabase database and private, access-controlled storage) so it can be restored after a reinstall or on a new device.

Synced for every signed-in user:

• Word books and saved words, including language, star ratings and review schedule.
• Reading progress and bookmarks — which document, how far through it you are, and the positions you bookmarked.
• Study statistics — how many words you marked as mastered per day.
• Profile personalisation — nickname, an optional one-line status, and an optional avatar image (uploaded photo or AI-generated picture).
• Saved "Today's Read" articles — these are our own published articles, so only the fact that you saved one is stored, together with your progress in it.

Synced for ReadBridge Pro subscribers:

• The text of the documents in your library — books and articles you imported, pasted, scanned or generated in the app. It is held in a private, per-account storage area so your library can be restored on another device. It is not published, not shared with other users, and not used to train any AI model.
• AI-generated reads and quizzes you create in the app.
• Your personal dictionary of refined word explanations.

Control and limits:

• Cloud sync runs only while you are signed in. Signing out stops it.
• You can delete any cloud copy at any time from Cloud Sync in the Me tab, or by deleting the document in your library — the deletion is applied to the cloud copy as well, and is retried if you were offline at the time.
• We store a hash of each document's text so the same book saved on two of your devices is stored once. Each account has a storage limit; when it is exceeded, the least recently read items are removed.
• Documents you open but do not save — for example a "Today's Read" article you only browse — are never uploaded.

Purpose: to provide the app's features and to sync and restore your data across your devices. Legal basis: performance of a contract; consent for optional features.

3c. AI processing of text

To generate word explanations, grammar notes, pronunciations, passage rewrites, generated reads and avatars, the app sends the relevant text — for example the word or sentence you tapped, or your selected learning words — to our backend (Supabase Edge Functions), which forwards it to Google Gemini.

• We log aggregate usage metrics (counts and token amounts per feature per day, associated with your account or with "anonymous") to manage AI costs and enforce fair-use limits. These metrics do not store the text you submitted.
• Private contextual look-ups are not written to our shared caches.
• Text is sent only when you request an explanation or generate something. It is never sent automatically while you read, and never during file import.

Purpose: to provide AI explanations and generation, and to manage service costs and fair-use limits. Legal basis: performance of a contract; legitimate interests in operating and protecting the service.

3c-2. Spoken audio (text-to-speech)

When you tap the speaker icon on an English word or sentence, the audio usually comes from your device's own speech engine or from audio already saved on your phone — in both cases nothing leaves your device.

If we do not yet have a recording of that word or sentence, the text is sent to our backend (Supabase Edge Functions), which forwards it to Google Cloud Text-to-Speech to produce the audio. As with AI explanations, this happens only when you ask to hear something — never automatically while you read.

• Single English words are shared: each word's recording is stored once and reused for everyone, and contains no information about who asked for it.
• Sentences you ask to hear are stored under an address derived from the text itself, so the recording can only be found by someone who already has that exact sentence. There is no list of them and they are not linked to your account.
• We record no audio from you. The microphone is never used.
• We log the same aggregate usage metrics as §3c (counts per feature per day) to manage costs; these do not store the text.

Purpose: to let you hear how words and sentences are pronounced. Legal basis: performance of a contract; legitimate interests in operating the service.

3d. Purchases and subscriptions

Purchases of ReadBridge Pro are processed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). We never receive or store your payment-card details. We store the purchase receipt or token and your entitlement status (plan and expiry) to unlock and validate the purchase.

Purpose: to provide and verify your purchase. Legal basis: performance of a contract; legal obligation (record-keeping).

3e. Support requests

If you contact us through the in-app Help & Feedback feature, we collect:

• The message you write and any screenshots you attach.
• An optional reply email address, if you provide one.
• Device diagnostics (app version, device model, OS version) — only if you leave the consent toggle on.

Purpose: to respond to and resolve your request. Legal basis: consent; legitimate interests in providing support.

3f. Crash and error reporting

ReadBridge uses Sentry to detect crashes and errors. Sentry acts as a processor on our behalf and the data is stored in the European Union data region. When an error occurs we send:

• The technical error and stack trace;
• App version and build number;
• Device model, operating-system version and language;
• The sequence of in-app screens visited before the error;
• The random installation identifier, used only to count affected devices and to link a support request to its related error;
• If you submitted a bug report, the message text you chose to send.

We do not send your name, email address, account identity, IP address, device name, or the content you read or generate. Crash reporting is active only in released versions of the app.

Purpose: to diagnose and fix crashes and errors. Legal basis: legitimate interests in app stability and security. Retention: up to 90 days.

3g. Camera, photos and audio

• Camera and photo library are used for text scanning (OCR) and for choosing or taking an avatar photo. OCR runs on your device; the scanned image is not uploaded for recognition.
• Text-to-speech never records you and never uses the microphone. Playback is either your device's own voices or audio we generated for the text you asked to hear — see §3c-2.

We access these only when you use the relevant feature, subject to the permission prompts your device shows.

4. Processed on your device only

• Reading, pagination and search within your documents.
• Optical character recognition of scanned text and images.
• Text-to-speech playback itself (the audio plays from your device; where the audio comes from is described in §3c-2).
• The offline dictionary, frequency and pronunciation data bundled with the app.
• All of your library and word data, if you never sign in.

5. Third-party processors

These providers act as processors on our behalf, under their own privacy terms and our data-processing arrangements with them.

6. Disclosure

We do not sell personal data and do not use it for third-party advertising. We disclose data only:

• to the processors listed in §5, to operate the app;
• where required by law, or to protect our rights, our users or the public;
• in connection with a business transfer such as a merger or acquisition, subject to this policy.

7. International data transfers

We keep personal data within the EU/EEA where practical — Sentry, for example, is configured to use the EU data region. Where a provider processes data outside the EEA, that transfer is protected by appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

8. Data retention

• Account and synced content: kept while your account is active; deleted within 30 days of account deletion or a deletion request.
• Purchase records: kept as required by accounting and tax law — typically 6 years under Irish law.
• Support submissions: kept for 12 months after resolution, then deleted.
• Crash and diagnostic data: up to 90 days.
• Local data on your device: retained until you delete it or uninstall the app.

9. Deleting your account and your data

There are three routes:

1. Item by item, in the app. Delete a document, a word book or a saved word and it is removed from your device; if it had been synced, the cloud copy is deleted too. Cloud Sync in the Me tab also lets you review and remove what is stored in the cloud.
2. Uninstall the app. This removes everything stored on that device. If you were signed in, synced data remains in the cloud until you delete the account.
3. Delete your account and all cloud data. Email [email protected] from the address associated with your account, or use the in-app Help & Feedback → Contact support form, with the subject "Delete my account". We verify the request; delete your account, synced library, word books, progress, profile and support history; and confirm by email — within 30 days, and normally sooner.

Purchase and billing records are retained after account deletion where we are legally required to keep them (see §8); they are not used for any other purpose. Speech recordings in the shared audio cache (§3c-2) carry no account identifier and no record of who asked for them, so there is nothing in them to identify you or to delete.

Step-by-step instructions: Request data deletion.

10. Your rights

Depending on your location, including under the EU and UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate data;
• have your data erased — see §9;
• restrict or object to certain processing;
• receive your data in a portable format;
• withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these, contact [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority; in Ireland this is the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie).

11. Security

We protect your data with encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), authenticated backend access, private storage buckets, and row-level security on our database so that users can access only their own records.

12. Children's privacy

ReadBridge is not directed at children under the age required by your local law — for example under 13, or under 16 in parts of the EEA. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

When we update this policy, we will revise the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, provide a more prominent notice.

14. Contact

• Data controller: Lemniscia
• Location: Ireland
• Email: [email protected]

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