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Privacy
Last updated: April 29, 2026
Short version
The text you ask Aloud to read never leaves your Mac. Reading happens entirely on-device, using macOS's built-in speech engine. Our servers store your email and subscription status — nothing else.
What stays on your Mac
- Every character you read with Aloud. Aloud passes selected text to macOS's
AVSpeechSynthesizer, which speaks it locally on your Mac. No part of it is uploaded.
- Your sign-in token (JWT) in the macOS Keychain (encrypted by macOS).
- Voice + speed preferences in
NSUserDefaults.
What our servers know
- Your email address — to sign you in and email subscription receipts.
- Your password (hashed) — stored as a one-way bcrypt hash; we never see the plaintext.
- Your Stripe customer ID and subscription status — so the app can verify you're a paying customer.
- Stripe's invoice records for tax compliance.
What our servers do NOT know
- Anything you've read aloud. Not a single character. Not the URL of the website, not the title of the PDF, not the contents of the email.
- Which voice you picked or what speed you used.
- How often you press the hotkey.
What Aloud does not do
- No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting.
- No third-party trackers on the marketing site or in the app.
- No background sync of personal data.
Permissions Aloud requests
- Accessibility — used only to copy the text you currently have selected into the clipboard so it can be passed to the on-device speech engine. Aloud does not record your screen, log keystrokes, or read text you haven't explicitly selected and triggered.
Payment processing
Subscriptions are processed by Stripe. Stripe receives standard checkout data (your email, billing details, card information) and processes it under their privacy policy. We never see your full card number.
Email
Magic-link sign-in emails are sent via Resend. The subject and body of those emails contain only the sign-in link.
Data retention & deletion
Cancel your subscription via Settings → Account → Manage subscription, or via any Stripe receipt. You can also email us to request deletion of your account record; we'll remove your email and subscription metadata within 7 days.
Contact
Questions: hannes.hennerbichler@gmail.com