Privacy Policy

Last updated: 21 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Shadow ("Shadow", "we", "us", or "our") handles information when you use the Shadow mobile application (the "App"). Your practice material lives on your phone. A few features need a server to work, and this policy says plainly which ones, what is sent, and what is kept.

Who provides the App. The App is provided by the developer of Shadow ("Shadow", "we", "us", or "our"). App name: Shadow; bundle identifier: shadow.me.Shadow (Android: me.shadow.app). You can reach us any time at the contact address in Section 13.

1. The short version

• There is no account. You do not sign in. We hold no name, no email, no password.
• Your clips, transcripts, saved phrases and your own recordings are stored on your phone, and we keep no copy of them.
• Three things do leave your phone, and only when you use the feature that needs them: text you ask the AI to write or voice, the audio of a clip being transcribed on Android, and anonymous counts of how much the App is used.
• Everything that leaves is tied to a random id the App makes on your phone, not to you. It is not your name, your email, your phone number, or an advertising id.
• We do not sell personal information, and we run no advertising or tracking network.
• Payments are handled by Apple and Google. We never see your card details.

2. What Shadow handles

• Your media and practice content. The audio and video you import or record, the transcripts made from them, your edits, your saved phrases, and the recordings of yourself. These are stored on your phone. A recording of yourself is kept with its clip so you can compare it later, and goes when you delete the clip or the App.
• Practice statistics. Practice time, daily use and streaks, stored on your phone to show progress and to manage the free daily limit.
• A random device id. The App creates it on first launch and keeps it on your phone. Our server uses it to count your free generations and anything you have bought, so that you keep what you paid for. It has no connection to your identity. Delete the App and the id is gone; the next install is a new, unconnected one.
• Purchase status. Apple or Google confirms to us that a purchase is genuine, so the App can unlock what you paid for. We receive the entitlement, never your payment details.
• Anonymous problem reports. When something fails we may receive a short line: what failed, the App version, and the general kind of phone. Never your recordings, your transcripts or your text. You can turn this off in Profile → "Send anonymous error reports".
• Anonymous usage counts. Small numbers against the random device id and a date: how many times the App was opened, how many clips were imported, how many phrases saved, how many generations used, and whether a problem was reported. Numbers only, never content, never a title or a file name.

3. What leaves your phone, and exactly when

Nothing in this section happens in the background. Each one happens only when you use that feature.

• AI writing. When you ask Shadow to turn a phrase or a topic into a dialogue, a monologue or examples, or when you write to the coach, that text is sent through our server to OpenAI, which writes the reply.
• AI voicing. When the finished text is voiced, it is sent through our server to ElevenLabs or OpenAI, which return the audio. If you type your own text to be voiced, that text goes the same way, word for word.
• Transcription. On Android, the audio of the clip you are transcribing is sent through our server to OpenAI to be turned into text; it is sent for that purpose and nothing else. On iPhone, transcription runs on the device and the audio does not leave it.
• Dictation. When you dictate instead of typing, your phone's own speech recognition does the work (Apple on iPhone, Google on Android) under their terms.
• YouTube. If you practise with a YouTube video, it plays in YouTube's ordinary embedded player and its captions come from YouTube.

Our server is a Cloudflare Worker. It passes these requests on and does not store your text, your audio or the results. What it does keep, against the random device id, is small and operational: your generation balance, the anonymous usage counts above (up to 400 days), anonymous problem reports (30 days), and how many characters were voiced (3 days), which is how we pay the voice provider.

4. Device permissions

The App asks for permissions only to provide its features:

• Microphone — to record audio and to record yourself practising.
• Camera — to film a speaker to shadow, or yourself.
• Speech recognition — to turn speech into text, as described in Section 3.
• Photo library — to import videos you choose, and to save your finished video if you ask.
• Notifications — only if you allow them, for an optional daily practice reminder. These are scheduled on your phone; we do not track whether you open them.

You can change these any time in your phone's Settings. Some features will not work without the related permission.

5. How we use information

To provide the App's features; to show your progress and manage the free daily limit; to meter and restore generations and subscriptions; to see how much the App is used in total; and to keep it secure and working. We do not profile you and we do not build an advertising audience.

6. Third-party services and sharing

We do not sell personal information. The App relies on these services, and shares only what is described above:

• Apple and Google — to process purchases and subscriptions, and for the phone's own dictation. They act under their own privacy terms.
• OpenAI — to write AI text, and, on Android, to transcribe clip audio. Processed under OpenAI's API terms, which do not use it to train their models.
• ElevenLabs — to turn text into speech.
• Cloudflare — our server, which passes these requests through.
• YouTube (Google) — the embedded player, when you practise with a YouTube video.
• Platforms you choose — when you share an exported video, that platform's own terms then apply.
• Legal — we may share information if required by law, or to protect rights, safety and the security of the App.

7. Keeping and deleting

Your content stays on your phone until you delete it. Deleting a clip deletes its transcript and the recordings of yourself made against it. Deleting the App removes everything it stored, including the random device id, and with it any balance held against that id.

In Profile there is also a single action that permanently deletes everything the App holds on your phone.

On our server, the records listed in Section 3 hold no personal information and expire on their own, between three and four hundred days depending on the record. If you want them removed sooner, email us from Section 13 and we will help.

8. Children

Shadow is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will remove it.

9. Security

We use reasonable measures to protect information, and keeping your content on your phone is the main safeguard. What travels to our server travels over an encrypted connection. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please keep your phone protected with a passcode or biometrics.

10. International users

Shadow works wherever you are. The services in Section 6 may process information in other countries, including the United States, under their own safeguards.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct or delete your information, or to object to certain processing. Because your content lives on your phone, you can view and delete it directly in the App. For anything held against your device id, contact us.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date and, where appropriate, say so in the App.

13. Contact us

Questions about privacy? Email us at shadowappsupport@gmail.com.