Mirrors the iOS app legal document

Word by Word Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-06-09

1. Introduction

Word by Word is a personal vocabulary notebook. This policy explains what data the app stores, what reaches our backend, how local Apple framework features work, and what choices you have.

Our default posture is local-first: saving a word should work even when the network does not.

2. What stays on your device

The following data is stored locally on your device:

• Notebook content. Saved words, your translations, source language, created date, optional source text, notes, practice sentences, recall state, and dictionary details already fetched for the word.
• Local search and grouping data. Apple Natural Language embeddings run on-device for semantic search and saved-word vectors. Word by Word does not send text to Apple servers for this local embedding work.
• Widget data. The Today widget reads a small Today's Word snapshot, the active learning language, a widget-scoped anonymous device identifier, and short-lived audio playback state from the app's shared App Group container. If the widget does not have today's word yet, it can ask the Word by Word backend for one word for the active language. The widget does not open the local notebook database directly.
• Keychain items. A random per-device identifier, anonymous profile token, and optional Apple session token are stored in the iOS Keychain with this-device-only, non-synchronizable attributes.

Story Practice keeps its draft answer and current screen state on your device while you use it, but story generation and answer review are server-backed features. The app sends Story Practice requests only to the Word by Word backend, not directly to a model provider.

Speech playback uses Apple's local speech system. Word by Word does not upload audio for pronunciation.

Photos you attach to a saved word stay on your device, and Word by Word can run on-device text recognition (Apple Vision) to read text from an attached photo. Scan Review can also use Apple Translation on-device to translate the recognized text inside the crop guide. The photo image is not uploaded to our backend.

3. What reaches our backend

Word by Word calls the Word by Word backend for server-backed features:

• Dictionary lookup, search, and suggestions. Requests can include the word or query you typed, source and target language, a device identifier for rate limiting, and, for in-app Today's Word, a local duplicate-exclusion list built from saved words and lemmas. The Today widget can request one backend-suggested word for the active language using its widget-scoped anonymous device identifier.
• Related words and suggestions. Requests can include a saved word or lemma plus language settings so the backend can query the self-hosted dictionary index.
• Story Practice. When you start a story session, the app sends five selected notebook words, their English translations, source language, target language, and inferred difficulty to our backend. When you ask for review, the app sends the generated story, its reference English translation, and the English understanding you typed. Story text is capped at 300 characters, learner answers are capped at 500 characters, and story generation is limited to three story generations per device per day. Story Practice does not send notes, source text, photos, the full notebook, or unrelated saved words.
• Anonymous device bootstrap. The backend stores a random device UUID and a hash of the anonymous profile token. The raw profile token is stored on your device, not in plaintext on the server.
• Sign in with Apple. If you sign in, the app sends Apple's identity token to our backend. We verify it using Apple's public keys, store Apple's stable sub identifier, and issue a Word by Word session token. We do not request your name or email from Apple.
• Sync. If you are signed in, Word by Word pushes saved notebook fields to the backend so your words can be backed up. This can include saved words, your translations, source language, notes, source text, a reference to any photo you attached (the photo image itself stays on your device and is not uploaded), practice sentences, dictionary fallback text, lemma, Wiktionary translation, examples, part of speech, IPA, definition, forms, senses, cluster, enrichment status, and the identifier of the device the word was saved on.
• Account deletion. Delete account requests use the session token to delete server-side account data tied to that account.

Backend and hosting logs may include technical records needed to run and protect the service, such as route name, timestamp, request status, request timing, IP address, user agent, device identifier, account identifier, and rate-limit events.

4. What we do not collect

We do not collect:

• Your email address
• Your name
• Your phone number
• Your precise or approximate location
• Your contacts
• Third-party analytics, advertising identifiers, or product usage tracking for marketing
• Custom in-app diagnostics beyond default iOS crash reporting you opt into at the system level

We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or use your saved words to train a model.

5. Third-party processing and dictionary sources

Word by Word does not use third-party analytics services. User-submitted words, translations, notes, searches, source text, and photos are not sent to third-party AI services at runtime. The exception is optional Story Practice: our backend uses Google Gemini to generate a short story from the five selected notebook words and translations, and to review the generated story, reference translation, and English answer you type. The iOS app does not call Google Gemini directly.

Jina embeddings are generated only during backend ingest using public/open dictionary data. User submissions are not sent to Jina at runtime.

Dictionary data is derived from Wiktionary, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and GFDL. Structured data is processed using Kaikki/Wiktextract. Example sentences may come from Tatoeba. These sources provide dictionary content; they do not receive your saved notebook content from Word by Word.

Apple system frameworks used by the app include Keychain, Natural Language, Vision (on-device text recognition), Translation (on-device translation), AVSpeechSynthesizer, and Sign in with Apple. The local framework features described in this policy run on your device for Word by Word's app behavior.

6. How long we keep data

• Local notebook data. Kept on your device until you delete individual words, use Settings > Delete all words, delete your account, or remove the app data through iOS.
• Keychain identifiers and tokens. Kept in the iOS Keychain until Word by Word clears the relevant token or iOS removes it. iOS Keychain items can survive app uninstall/reinstall on the same device; they are marked this-device-only and do not sync through iCloud Keychain.
• Synced account data. Kept until you delete your account via Settings > Delete account or exercise your deletion rights by contacting us.
• Anonymous backend records. Device bootstrap rows, profile-token hashes, and technical records are kept as needed to operate, rate-limit, debug, and protect the service.
• Operational logs. Kept only as technical records needed to operate and protect the service, then deleted or de-identified on our operational schedule.

When you delete your account, we do not use deleted account data to restore your words later.

7. Your rights (GDPR Articles 15-22)

Where GDPR applies, you have the right to:

• Access the data we hold about you (Article 15).
• Rectify inaccurate data (Article 16).
• Erase your data (Article 17, also called the right to be forgotten).
• Restrict processing in certain circumstances (Article 18).
• Data portability: receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format (Article 20).
• Object to processing (Article 21).

To exercise the right to erasure for a signed-in account, use Settings > Delete account in the app. For any other right, email us at hello@wordbyword.se and we will respond within 30 days.

8. Deletion controls

Settings > Delete all words removes saved notebook words from this device. It does not delete a signed-in server backup.

Settings > Delete account removes:

• Your Word by Word account record on our active backend
• Synced words tied to that account
• Authentication events tied to that account
• Backend operational rows tied to that account or attributed device where the app can identify them
• The local words on the device where you run deletion
• The local Apple session token and anonymous profile token

After deletion, if you sign in again with the same Apple ID, you start fresh. Previously deleted words do not return. A local per-device UUID may remain in the iOS Keychain according to Apple system behavior, but it is not linked to the deleted Apple-backed account on our active server records.

9. Children

Word by Word is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has signed in, contact us and we will delete the account immediately.

10. Updates to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the "Last updated" date and may announce important changes in the app. Routine clarifications may be made without an in-app announcement.

11. Contact

For privacy questions, data access requests, or anything else covered by this policy:

hello@wordbyword.se

This mailbox is monitored on working days.

12. Effective date

2026-06-09

This is the version of the policy in effect from the date above until we publish an update.

Word by Word - a personal vocabulary notebook. Privacy questions: hello@wordbyword.se.