Privacy Policy

This policy explains what Tides, the voice keyboard and dictation app listed on the App Store as Tides Keyboard, collects, why, who processes it, and how you can delete it. Tides is made by Hangzhou Yuyan Intelligent Co., Ltd (杭州宇言智能有限公司), "we" in this policy, which is responsible for your personal data. Questions go to support.customer@language-ai.cn.

What we collect and why

The keyboard

The Tides keyboard asks for Full Access so it can hand your dictation to the Tides app through a private container on your device. The keyboard itself never connects to the internet. To fit a dictation into what you're writing, Tides reads the text around your cursor in the field you're typing in. It doesn't log or store that text, and it leaves your device only with cloud cleanup you've allowed, as described below. iOS switches to the system keyboard in secure password fields. In fields marked for passwords or one-time codes, Tides sends no surrounding text and learns nothing. To suggest words as you type, the keyboard remembers words you use, on your device only.

Dictation on your device

Tides saves each recording on your device so you can replay it or transcribe it again from History. Recordings are kept for the time you choose in Settings ▸ Privacy & data ▸ Keep recordings (7 days unless you change it), and your dictation history for the time you choose in Keep history. When you fix a dictated word right after dictating, Tides adds your spelling to your Dictionary. Your dictionary, snippets, styles, transforms and notes live on your device unless you turn on sync.

Your account

You don't need an account to dictate. Cloud features and sync need a free Tides account, which you create with Sign in with Apple. We receive an account identifier from Apple and your email address, or the private relay address Apple gives us if you choose to hide your email. We don't ask for your name. Supabase runs authentication for us. We use this information to create your account, sign you in, and link your subscription and synced data to you.

Tides Pro and purchases

You buy Tides Pro through Apple, and we never see your payment details. To unlock Pro on your account, the app sends Apple's signed record of your purchase to our server, which checks it with Apple. We store whether Pro is active, when it ends, which plan you have and Apple's original transaction identifier. Apple also notifies our server when a subscription renews, ends or is refunded.

Cloud transcription (optional)

In Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ Transcription you can choose ElevenLabs or OpenRouter instead of on-device transcription. Tides uses your choice only when you have Tides Pro, are signed in, have allowed cloud processing and are online. Otherwise, and whenever the cloud doesn't answer in time, your dictation is transcribed on your device. A request contains:

• The audio recording of that dictation.
• The languages you've set in Tides.
• Up to 300 words from your Dictionary, so names and terms are spelled the way you spell them.
• Whether Whisper mode is on.

Our server passes each request to the service you chose and keeps no copy of the audio or the transcript. It only counts the seconds of audio you transcribe each day, to enforce daily limits.

• ElevenLabs transcribes the audio with its Scribe speech-to-text model.
• OpenRouter passes the audio to an AI model that transcribes it. That model is currently Qwen, run by Alibaba Cloud. We ask OpenRouter to send requests only to providers that don't keep or train on them.

Each service handles the request under its own privacy policy.

Cloud cleanup (optional)

With Tides Pro, once you've allowed cloud processing, Tides can clean up text with a cloud AI model run by DeepSeek. This applies to dictations, voice edits (your spoken instruction and the text being edited), transforms and note summaries. When the cloud isn't available, cleanup runs on your device instead. A request contains:

• The text to clean up, and your instruction for voice edits.
• Your cleanup level and the writing style you chose, including any custom instructions you wrote for it.
• Words from your Dictionary.
• If Match surrounding text is on, the text around your cursor.

Our server passes each request to DeepSeek and keeps no copy of its content. It only counts cleanup requests per day, to enforce daily limits.

Your choices

Tides asks before its first cloud request, and stays on your device until you allow it. You can change your answer at any time:

• Settings ▸ Privacy & data ▸ Allow cloud processing turns all cloud processing on or off.
• Settings ▸ AI cleanup & styles ▸ Cleanup engine ▸ On-device only keeps everything on your device, including transcription, and stops sync.
• Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ Transcription chooses between on-device transcription, ElevenLabs and OpenRouter.

Library sync (optional)

If you turn on Sync library & notes (Tides Pro and an account needed), we store your dictionary, snippets, styles, transforms and notes on our servers, so they stay the same on your iPhone and iPad. Dictation history and recordings never sync.

Technical and security data

Our servers record when requests are made and by which account, to keep the service running and to stop abuse. They don't log the content of your audio or text.

What we don't do

• We don't log what you type.
• We don't show ads or use advertising identifiers.
• We don't track you across other companies' apps or websites.
• We don't include third-party analytics or crash-reporting SDKs.
• We don't sell your personal data or share it for targeted advertising.
• We don't use your dictations, recordings or notes to train AI models.

Who processes your data

We use these service providers. They process data only to provide their service to us or, for AI models, to answer your request:

We also disclose data when the law requires it, or to protect the safety of people using Tides.

International transfers

Your account and synced data are stored in the United States. Depending on the services you choose, cloud requests can be processed in the United States, Singapore or China. Where data protection law requires it, these transfers rely on safeguards such as the standard contractual clauses in our providers' data processing terms.

How long we keep data

• Your account, Pro status and synced library and notes: until you delete them or delete your account.
• Audio and text sent for cloud transcription or cleanup: not kept by our servers once the request is answered.
• Daily usage counts (seconds transcribed, cleanup requests): until you delete your account.
• Recordings and dictation history on your device: for the times you choose in Settings ▸ Privacy & data.
• Server logs: only as long as needed to keep the service secure and fix problems.

Deleting your data

In Tides, open Settings ▸ Account ▸ Delete Account. This deletes your account and the data linked to it from our servers, including your synced library and notes, your Pro status record and your usage counts. To also stop using Sign in with Apple with Tides, remove it under Sign in with Apple in your Apple Account settings. Settings ▸ Privacy & data ▸ Delete All Local Data removes the recordings, history, notes, library and learned words stored on your device. You can also ask us to delete your data by email.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal data, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to withdraw consent. Email us to use these rights; we'll answer within the time the law sets. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

If you're in the EU, UK or a similar jurisdiction, we process your data on these bases:

• Contract: to provide the service you asked for, including your subscription and sync.
• Legitimate interests: to keep the service secure and prevent abuse.
• Consent: for cloud processing, and for microphone access and keyboard Full Access, which you give in iOS. You can withdraw consent in Tides or in iOS Settings at any time.

If you're in California or another US state with a privacy law: we don't sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we won't treat you differently for using your rights.

Security

Data travels over encrypted connections. On our servers, database rules restrict access to each account's own data, and the keys for our AI providers stay on the server. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data and will tell you about a breach when the law requires it.

Children

Tides isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has given us personal data, email us and we'll delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the effective date at the top.

Contact

Hangzhou Yuyan Intelligent Co., Ltd
Email: support.customer@language-ai.cn