Privacy policy

You keep full copyright. We claim no rights to your writing, and we use it only to store it, sync it and give it back to you.

Your writing is encrypted in transit (HTTPS only) and at rest on our servers. On your device it is protected by the device's own encryption, not by the app, so set a screen lock on your phone, or turn on device encryption on a computer.

Some things on your device can send text elsewhere, and they are not part of the app:

• Read-aloud can use an online voice, which sends the text being read to that voice's service. The app warns you first and offers an on-device voice instead.
• Your phone's keyboard, dictation and predictive text belong to your phone. Its maker may send what you type or say to its own servers; check your phone's settings if that matters to you.
• Spell check is your browser's own, and the app sends nothing for it. Some browsers offer an optional cloud spell check, such as Chrome's Enhanced spell check, which sends what you type to the browser's maker. To keep it on your device, choose the basic spell check in your browser's language settings (in Chrome: Settings, Languages, Spell check), or turn off Check spelling in Settings, Writing.

Your account. Your email address, which is how you sign in. Accounts are by invitation, so we create your account from the address you gave us, and our sign-in service emails you the invitation.

Your books and everything in them. Manuscripts, plans, outlines, notes, pictures, snapshots, progress and settings you choose to sync. We keep them so the app works on every device you use and so a lost phone loses nothing.

Reader links. If you share a chapter with a reader, we keep the link, what it shows and the notes readers leave on it, including the name you gave each reader.

Reminders. If you turn on reminders, we keep the address your browser gives us for notifications. Reminders carry no text from your books.

Support requests. What you send through the support, feedback or invitation forms: the kind of request, the subject, the message, your email address if you give it, and the page you were on. A request sent from inside the app also carries your account id and email, and technical details (diagnostics) only if you turn them on after seeing exactly what is sent. Diagnostics never include your text, titles or names.

Short-lived safety records. To stop floods of form posts, we count requests from each internet address. We never store the address itself: we store a keyed scramble of it mixed with the current hour, so it changes every hour, in a count that expires within 2 hours. The I'm interested button keeps no personal data at all; it uses the same kind of keyed scramble, for at most 2 hours, so one visitor counts once. Reader links count visits the same way: they store a keyed scramble of the reader's internet address (the key is ours alone, so it can't be turned back into the address), in a count that expires within 20 minutes. A reader keeps what they have already read, even after you revoke the link.

Server logs. When something fails, our server logs the kind of error, never your text. Logs are deleted after 14 days.

We keep no advertising profiles, and we use no cookies for tracking. What the app keeps on your device is listed on the storage and cookies page.

The app stores your data on your device and on Amazon Web Services in the United States. The service is offered only in the United States for now.

• Us. We look at your records only to run the service, fix a fault, answer a request you made, or when the law requires it.
• Amazon Web Services hosts the app, its database, its files and its sign-in, and sends the invitation email.
• Google runs the mailbox that receives email you send us.
• Anthropic provides the AI assistant we use for support and development, as described below.
• Your browser's notification service (for example Google's, Apple's, Mozilla's or Microsoft's) delivers reminders, only if you turn them on.
• Readers you share a link with see what that link shows.

We don't sell or share your personal information for advertising, and nobody else gets it unless the law requires it.

We use Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic, to help us answer support requests and to build and fix the app.

• What it may see: a support request you send us, the diagnostics attached to it if you included them, and the records of your account only when a fault can't be fixed without them.
• Development and tests use local test data, not writers' books.
• Its terms: we use Anthropic's current Claude plan with training on our conversations turned off. Anthropic doesn't use those conversations for training, and keeps them for 30 days, longer only if one is flagged for breaking Anthropic's usage policy.
• No data processing agreement: we have not signed one with Anthropic.

If you'd rather AI tools didn't see your request, say so in it, and we'll try to respect this when working on your support request.

The app itself never writes, rewrites or suggests text for you.

• Your books and account: until you delete them, or your account.
• Archived books: until you choose Delete forever. Deleting a book moves it to the archive first, so nothing is lost by accident.
• Copies of exports on our server: one day; the copy you downloaded stays with you.
• Support requests: two years (invitation requests, one year). Deleting your account deletes the requests you sent from inside the app. A request sent from the website's forms isn't tied to your account, so deleting your account doesn't remove it; ask us and we'll delete it.
• Safety counts: they expire within 2 hours (reader-link counts within 20 minutes), and the database then clears them automatically, usually within a few days.
• Server logs: 14 days.
• Backups: our database keeps a rolling backup for 35 days, so anything deleted leaves the backups within 35 days.

Settings, Your data, Delete account purges everything 21 days after you ask (see The waiting period below). During those 21 days nothing is purged and your account is read-only; signing in lets you keep it. Nothing is purged before then unless you choose Delete now, which purges at once, or the service closes.

The purge removes your books, pictures, exports, settings, reader links and the support requests you sent from inside the app, then your sign-in account.

Some things deletion can't reach at once, or at all:

• The waiting period. Your account waits 21 days before it is purged, and you can keep it by signing in. The purge runs in our nightly cleanup, so it starts within a day after the 21 days end.
• Backups. Our database keeps a rolling backup for 35 days, so your records leave the backups within 35 days of the purge. Pictures and server copies of exports aren't in those backups; they go with the purge.
• Server logs are deleted after 14 days. They record the kind of error, never your text.
• Emails. Copies of emails we sent or received, such as a support reply or your invitation, are kept in our email account.
• A deletion marker. For about a day after the purge we keep a record that the account was deleted, with its id and none of your words, so a device still signed in can't bring your books back.
• Exports you downloaded stay with you; we can't delete them.
• Records the law requires us to keep (for example billing records, if subscriptions are ever sold), kept only as long as required.
• Anything you already shared. The purge ends your reader links, but what readers already read or copied, and copies you sent elsewhere, stay with those who received them.
• Support requests sent from the website's forms are kept as above unless you ask us to delete them.

For readers in the EU and UK: the GDPR asks us to answer a request to erase your data within one month. Delete account answers it at once and finishes the purge 21 days later, inside that month, and Delete now purges at once. Backups follow within 35 days of the purge. If you ask us by email instead, we answer within one month.

If we ever close the service, we promise:

• at least 90 days' notice, in the app and by email;
• at least 21 days of read-only access before the end, in which Download everything and every export keep working;
• exports free while the service is running;
• Delete account keeps working while the service is read-only, with the caveats above;
• deletion of every account's data after the final date.

Wherever you live, you can:

• get a copy of your data: Settings, Your data, Download everything;
• delete your data: delete a book, empty the archive, or delete your account;
• correct your email address or object to how we use your data: ask us;
• complain to your data protection authority.

We use your data to provide the service you asked for (our contract with you), to keep it safe and answer you (our legitimate interests), and, for reminders and diagnostics, with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

California residents: we don't sell or share personal information as California law defines those words, and we don't use sensitive information to infer anything about you.

To ask about any of this, write to us, and put "privacy" in the subject. We answer within one month.

Path of Prose is for people aged 16 or older. We don't knowingly keep data about anyone younger; if you think we do, tell us and we'll delete it.

When this policy changes, we change the Updated date at the top of the page.

ARNIK LLC, 5477 N Saddle Stone Dr, Eagle Mountain, UT 84005, United States. Email arnikllc+pathofprose@gmail.com.