HanziGlass Privacy Policy

What this policy covers

This policy covers the HanziGlass macOS application, its account service, and the public download website. It explains the information used to provide reading and account features. Other applications and macOS have their own privacy practices.

Your reading stays on your Mac

Selected Chinese text, recognized window text, pinyin, and English translations are processed on your Mac using Apple frameworks. HanziGlass does not upload this reading content or window images to its account service, sell reading content, or send reading content for model training.

Selection reading uses macOS Accessibility permission. The optional active-window mode uses Screen & System Audio Recording permission to take temporary images of the active window. These images can include portions covered by other windows. HanziGlass does not record audio or video, write these images to files, or save desktop readings to translation history.

Reading content and window translation caches are transient. Closing the reader or stopping the mode clears application references to that content. Reading stops on sleep, display sleep, and user-session deactivation. This does not promise erasure of operating-system memory, framework caches, or system diagnostics.

Turn the window mode off before opening sensitive content or sharing your screen. Secure-input checks are an additional safeguard, not complete sensitive-field detection. Other screen-recording software can capture visible reading panels. Copy controls place content on the system clipboard only when you choose Copy.

Account information and why we use it

An account is required to use the reader. Amazon Cognito handles registration, email verification, password recovery, and sign-in. Your password is entered on Cognito’s hosted sign-in page; the Mac app does not collect or store your password.

The account service holds your email, account identifier, verification and enabled status, and account membership or administrator role. We use this information to authenticate you, provide account recovery, manage access, and protect the service. Authorized administrators can view account-directory information and enable or suspend regular accounts.

The Mac app stores a refresh credential in this Mac’s Keychain and keeps short-lived access credentials in memory. These credentials authorize account requests. Small reading preferences are stored locally and are not synchronized to your account.

Service providers and connection information

Amazon Web Services provides account authentication, the account API, and website hosting or delivery. The configured account service runs in AWS US East (Ohio), United States. Providers process the information needed to deliver and protect these services, including connection details such as IP addresses and request times.

HanziGlass does not include advertising or analytics SDKs, and its static website does not add marketing cookies or visitor tracking scripts. The hosted sign-in provider may use browser session cookies for authentication. Signing out of the Mac app removes its local credential and attempts to revoke that session.

Apple may provide language-resource downloads and operating-system services under Apple’s own privacy practices. Reading text is translated locally by HanziGlass.

Application updates

HanziGlass uses Sparkle to check for application updates on the HanziGlass website and to download, verify, install, and relaunch a newer version. Automatic checks are enabled by default and can be turned off in Settings. You can also choose Check for Updates from the app menu without signing in.

Update requests disclose connection information, such as an IP address and the app version in its user agent, to the website hosting provider. They do not include account credentials, reading text, or window images. Sparkle system profiling is disabled. Updates are authenticated using an update-signing key before extraction; macOS permissions and security approval remain controlled by macOS.

Retention and account deletion

Your account profile remains in the authentication service until you delete it. In HanziGlass, open Your Account, choose Delete Account, confirm your email, and complete a fresh browser sign-in for that same account. A successful deletion permanently removes the account profile, email, credentials held by the account service, and account membership. The deleted account cannot be restored.

HanziGlass confirms deletion only after the authentication service reports success. It then clears the local account and attempts to remove this Mac’s stored credential. A local-cleanup failure is reported separately. If a connection fails after the request is sent, the app reports that deletion could not be confirmed; sign in to check whether the account still exists before retrying.

Deletion is different from signing out or suspending an account. Deletion does not erase local reading preferences, copies you placed on the clipboard or saved elsewhere, other apps’ data, or provider operational and security records. Those records follow their configured retention and provider requirements; they are not a saved copy of your reading content.

Your choices and privacy requests

You control when to invoke selection reading or enable active-window reading. Press Control–Option–P or use the menu to stop window reading. You can revoke Accessibility or Screen & System Audio Recording access in macOS System Settings → Privacy & Security.

You may delete your account in the app. If you cannot sign in, contact the privacy contact listed with this policy for deletion help. You can also request help with account access, correction, a copy of your account information, or questions about these practices. We may need to verify your identity before handling a request. Do not send passwords, sign-in credentials, verification codes, or private screen captures.

Changes to this policy

If these practices change, the policy will be updated with a new effective date. The app includes an offline copy for its release; the website may contain a newer version. Review the policy when updating HanziGlass.