Privacy Policy
Last updated 12 October 2026
In short
- Your books stay on your device. We never collect your files, or the titles and authors of what you read.
- You don’t need an account. There is no advertising and no tracking across other companies’ apps and websites.
- Features that need our server — preparing a chapter for the voice, the live voice and illustrations — send it the chapter’s text only to process it. We don’t keep it.
- To improve Laterna, we count a few app events tied to a random installation ID. In the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland we do so only with your permission, and anywhere you can turn it off in Settings.
Who we are
Laterna is made by Vadym Shcherbakov, an independent developer, who is responsible for the data described here (its “controller” under the GDPR). Write to support@readlaterna.com with any question about this policy or your data.
What stays on your device
The books you add (Laterna works with its own copy, and your original file is never changed), your library, reading positions, notes, the words you mark as misread, your settings, and the audio and illustrations prepared for your books. The app keeps them on your device, and we have no access to them. Deleting Laterna deletes them. Like any app’s data, they may be included in your device’s backup to iCloud or a computer.
What leaves your device, and why
Reading itself never needs our server. These features do.
Preparing a chapter for the voice
The standard voice speaks on your device, but it reads phonetic transcription rather than letters. Before it reads a chapter for the first time, the app sends the chapter’s text and its language to our server, which returns the transcription. This happens once per chapter. The text is used only to answer the request and is neither stored nor logged.
The live voice
When you listen with the live voice, including the ten-second try, the app sends our server the chapter’s sentences and language; an identifier of the book computed from the contents of its file, not its title or author; an identifier of the chapter; the random installation ID; and, if you subscribe, the signed subscription record from the App Store, so that we can check it. The sentences are deleted as soon as the audio is ready, and the audio is kept only until your device downloads it — at most one hour. The hours and tries you have used are recorded against your installation ID and subscription.
Illustrations
To illustrate a chapter, the app sends its text to our server, which asks OpenAI’s language model to find the key scenes and describe the characters. Our server then sends short descriptions of the chosen scenes to OpenAI’s image model, which draws them. The pictures return to your device and are kept there. Our server keeps neither the text, nor the descriptions, nor the pictures.
Purchases
Payments are handled by Apple: we never see your payment details or your Apple Account. When you buy a subscription or a pack, the app sends us the signed purchase record from the App Store, so that we can verify it and credit your hours or illustrations. We keep the transaction identifiers, the product, the date, the price and currency, the App Store country, and a ledger of what was credited and used. They are linked to your installation ID and your purchases, not to your name.
Usage statistics
With your permission (see below), the app sends a short list of events: the app opened; a book added, with its format and language (Russian, Ukrainian, English or other); a book opened, from the catalogue or your own; listening started and each chapter listened to, with the voice; the daily listening limit reached; the subscription offer shown, and where; a purchase, and of what; the subscription status the App Store reports; illustrations turned on; the live voice tried; a word marked as misread, with only the kind of mark. Each batch also carries the random installation ID, the versions of the app and of iOS, and the device’s language and region as short codes.
Events never contain titles, authors, text or places in a book. We use them only to understand how Laterna is used and what to improve, and we don’t combine them with data from elsewhere.
In the EU, the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland — and when your device doesn’t tell the app its region — nothing is counted until you tap “Allow” on the card “Help make Laterna better?”. In other countries counting is on from the start. Anywhere, you can turn it off in Settings → “Help improve Laterna”; turning it off also discards the events not yet sent.
Technical data
Like any internet service, our server and our network provider receive your device’s IP address and technical details of each request, such as its time and size. We use them only to deliver responses, keep the service running and protect it from abuse — not to identify you.
Messages to support
If you write to us, we receive your email address and what you send, and use them only to reply.
What we never collect
Your book files; the titles, authors or covers of your books; what you read and how far you got; your notes and the text you highlight; your name, contacts, photos or location; the advertising identifier. We don’t sell data, don’t show ads and don’t track you across other companies’ apps and websites.
Who processes data for us
| Provider | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Modal Labs | Runs our server and the live-voice synthesis | USA |
| OpenAI | Finds the scenes and draws the illustrations | USA |
| Neon | Our database: purchases, the ledger of hours and illustrations, usage statistics | Germany |
| Cloudflare | Our domain, the network in front of our server and this website, forwarding of support email | Global network |
| Our email provider | The mailbox where support messages arrive | — |
They handle data only to provide their services to us. OpenAI doesn’t use data sent through its API to train its models, and keeps it for at most 30 days to detect abuse. Apple processes App Store payments as an independent controller, under Apple’s privacy policy.
When data of people in the EU, the EEA, the UK or Switzerland is processed in the USA, the transfer relies on safeguards recognised by the GDPR: the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework where the provider takes part in it, and otherwise the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
Legal bases
For people in the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, we rely on:
- performing our agreement with you — for the features you ask for (preparing chapters, the live voice, illustrations) and for your purchases;
- your consent — for usage statistics; you can withdraw it at any time in Settings;
- our legitimate interests — for technical data, to keep the service running and secure, and for answering your messages.
How long we keep data
- Chapter text and scene descriptions — only while the request is processed.
- Live-voice audio — until your device downloads it, at most one hour.
- Purchase records and the ledger — as long as they are needed to provide what you paid for and to handle refunds.
- Usage statistics — as long as they help us understand how Laterna is used; we delete what we no longer need.
- Technical data — briefly, for running the service and its security.
- Support messages — as long as needed to help you.
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct or delete it, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable form; and you can withdraw your consent at any time. Write to support@readlaterna.com, and we’ll reply within one month. We don’t ask who you are, so what our server keeps is linked only to a random installation ID and to your purchases; to find your data, we may ask for something that identifies it, such as the order ID from your App Store receipt.
You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority of the country where you live or work.
Children
Laterna is an app for a general audience and isn’t directed at children. We don’t knowingly collect personal data from children; if you believe a child has sent us personal data, write to us and we’ll delete it.
Security
All connections between the app and our server are encrypted, and only the developer has access to our systems. We never store what you read — the most sensitive part of a reader’s data.
Changes
When we change how Laterna handles data — for example, when we add signing in or sync between devices — we’ll update this page before the change is released and change the date at the top.