Your words stay yours

• Reading and translating a page happen on your iPhone or iPad. Your scans are not uploaded to us to be recognized.
• Your documents live on your device and, unless you turn it off, in your own iCloud Drive. We can’t see them.
• Cloud voices are off until you turn them on. Only then does text you play with one leave your device: it goes to Handwrite’s server and to Speechify to make the audio, and we log only how many characters were read.
• You sign in to use Handwrite, with a Handwrite username, Apple or Google. Our account service keeps your name, username and email address.
• There are no ads, no advertising identifiers, no analytics trackers and no data sales.

Handwrite stores your scans, recognized text, original page images and writing on your device. With Store documents in iCloud on (it is on by default when iCloud Drive is available), document packages, including your reading position, are uploaded to your own iCloud Drive using the Apple Account signed in on the device. Apple stores them under its own privacy policy; Handwrite has no access to your iCloud Drive.

Turning off iCloud uploads does not delete copies already in iCloud. Deleting a synced document in Handwrite also removes its iCloud copy.

Text recognition runs on your device, through Apple’s Vision framework or a Handwrite model bundled with the app. Translation uses Apple’s on-device Translation framework; downloading a language pack needs a connection, but your text isn’t sent with it. Spelling uses your device’s dictionary, and grammar checks run on your device, including Apple Intelligence where it’s available. The Share and Safari extensions work on your device too: the Safari extension acts only on the page you use it on, when you tap a button.

Handwrite keeps a local activity database with document details, reading sessions, scan counts and the writing suggestions you accepted or ignored, and a list of words and corrections its spelling help has learned. Both stay on your device; you can review or clear learned words in Settings › Learned words.

By default, Handwrite reads aloud with the voices built into your device, and nothing is sent anywhere.

If you turn on Allow cloud voices in the app, or use the web reader on this site, the text you play with a cloud voice is sent to Handwrite’s server and on to Speechify, our voice provider, to make the audio. The app never sends text while Handwrite is locked. We record the number of characters read so we can count them against your monthly allowance; we don’t keep the text or the audio. The app keeps the audio it has made in a cache on your device, so replaying a sentence doesn’t send it again. Listing the voices and your remaining characters sends no document text.

Speechify processes the text to produce speech under its own terms and privacy policy.

You sign in when you first open Handwrite. Your account lets you use cloud voices and keep your plan on every device. Accounts are kept by our account service, which runs on Amazon Cognito. For a username and password account we store your username, name and email address, and a securely hashed password that we can never read. In the app, your device keeps only sign-in tokens in the Keychain, never your password.

If you sign in with Apple or Google in the app, that provider shows its own sign-in screen and shares your name, an account identifier and your email address (or Apple’s private relay address) with us, and we link it to an account in the same service. Your Handwrite sign-in is separate from the Apple Account used for iCloud.

On this website, signing in sets cookies that keep you signed in (see This website).

Voice plans are bought in the iOS app through the App Store. Apple handles payment; we never see your card or billing details. Each purchase carries your Handwrite account identifier (Apple calls it an app account token) so your plan works wherever you sign in. The app sends us the signed transaction from Apple, which tells us the plan, when it was bought, when it renews and whether it is active, and we use it only to set your monthly character allowance.

While you are signed in, the app registers your device’s push token with Handwrite’s notification service, linked to your account, so our server can send your devices a silent refresh or a notification. The alerts you choose in Settings › Notifications (finished imports, downloads, audio exports and long scans, and a daily reading reminder) are created on your device itself. Alerts appear only if you allow notifications for Handwrite in iOS Settings.

Your settings, such as voice, speed, fonts, palettes, reading controls and languages, sync between your devices through your private iCloud (CloudKit) database, which only you can access, together with your device’s name and model so each device can be told apart. Settings that belong to one device (iCloud storage, cellular, downloads and app lock) stay on it. Your pronunciations sync through iCloud too. Widgets read a snapshot with recent document titles, short excerpts, reading progress and sync status, which may be visible on your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Turning on Require Face ID hides your documents in the app switcher, widgets, Siri, Spotlight and on the Lock Screen while Handwrite is locked.

This site uses only the cookies it needs to work:

• hw_access and hw_refresh keep you signed in. They are secure, http-only cookies that page scripts can’t read.
• hw_user holds your username and display name so the page header can greet you.

There are no analytics, advertising or third-party tracking cookies. Our hosting provider, Amazon Web Services, keeps standard server logs (such as IP address and request time) for security and reliability.

If you contact us, by email or through a contact form on this site, we receive your name, email address, the topic and your message, plus the IP address a form was sent from, and use them only to answer you and to stop abuse.

Handwrite shows no ads and doesn’t track you across apps or websites. We don’t use advertising identifiers, and we don’t sell or share your personal information for advertising.

We share data only with the services that make Handwrite work, and only what each one needs:

• Amazon Web Services: hosts our account service, voice server, notifications and this website.
• Speechify: turns text you play with a cloud voice into audio.
• Apple: iCloud storage and sync, push notifications, Sign in with Apple and App Store purchases.
• Google: only if you choose Continue with Google.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it.

We keep your account details and plan for as long as you have an account. Character counts are kept for the current billing period and a couple of days after, and your plan record until a couple of days after the plan ends. When you delete your account, your sign-in and account details are deleted straight away. Ask us and we’ll also remove your plan record, character counts and push tokens, apart from anything we must keep by law. Documents on your device and in your iCloud are yours to keep or delete.

You can:

• Remove documents from your Library and turn off future iCloud uploads in Settings.
• Leave cloud voices off, or turn them off at any time, so nothing is sent for read-aloud.
• Clear the words Handwrite has learned in Settings › Learned words.
• Sign out in Settings. Your library and activity stay on the device.
• Ask for a copy of your account data, or ask us to correct or delete it. See how to delete your account.

Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA. We’ll honour them when you contact us.

Handwrite is built to be safe for readers of all ages: recognition happens on the device and there are no ads. Creating a Handwrite account and buying plans is meant for people 13 and older, or younger with a parent’s or guardian’s permission. If you believe a child has given us personal information without permission, contact us and we’ll delete it.

If we change how Handwrite handles your data, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. For significant changes we’ll also tell you in the app before they take effect.

Questions about privacy? Email support@handwrites.io or visit Support.