Handwritten JournalPrivacy policy
Last updated 2 September 2026
Handwritten Journal does not collect any data. The app has no user accounts, no servers and no networking code. It contains no analytics, crash-reporting or advertising software of any kind. Everything your child writes stays on your iPad.
This website is the same: it sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads nothing from third parties.
1. What the app stores on your iPad
The app keeps the following on the device it is installed on, and nowhere else:
- Profiles — a name, an optional photo, an optional four-digit PIN (stored only as a salted hash, never as the digits) and writing settings such as the typeface and size.
- Journal entries — the words your child spoke or typed, the pen strokes they wrote, accuracy scores, points, and the date and time of each entry.
- Practice — which letters were traced on the practice sheet on which day, and the points that earned.
All of it is written to storage on your iPad and protected by iOS file protection. None of it is transmitted anywhere by the app.
2. Speech recognition
Speech is converted to text using Apple's on-device speech recognition. The app requests on-device recognition specifically, so the audio is not sent to Apple's servers for this purpose. The app does not record audio and keeps no audio files: the microphone feeds the recogniser and nothing else.
3. Permissions
The app asks for permissions only when a feature needs them, explains why in plain language first, and works without each of them:
| Permission | Used for | If you decline |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone and speech recognition | Turning what your child says into words to trace | The words can be typed instead |
| Camera | Taking a profile photo, only when you tap Take Photo | Choose a photo from the library, or use the initial-letter avatar |
| Photos | Choosing a profile photo through the system picker, which needs no permission prompt | Use the initial-letter avatar |
4. Sharing
The only way information leaves your iPad is when an adult exports a page or the journal as a PDF and shares it through the system share sheet. What happens to that file afterwards is governed by whichever app or service you send it to.
5. Deleting
Deleting an entry deletes its writing and its scores. Deleting a profile deletes everything belonging to that profile. Deleting the app removes all of it. Because nothing is held anywhere else, there is nothing to request from us and nothing for us to erase.
6. Children
Handwritten Journal is designed for children, used with a grown-up. Because it collects nothing and transmits nothing, it does not knowingly or unknowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age. There is no account to create, no sign-in and no way to contact anyone from inside the app.
7. Purchases
This version of the app is free and has no in-app purchases. If purchases are offered in a future version, Apple would process the payment through the App Store; we would receive no personal information about you. This policy would be updated before any such change.
8. This website
This website is a set of static pages. It sets no cookies, uses no analytics, and loads no scripts, fonts, images or embeds from third parties. There are no forms. The company that hosts the site may keep standard server logs (such as the requesting address, the time and the page requested) for security and reliability, as any web host does; we do not use them to identify visitors.
If you email us, we keep your message for as long as we need it to reply and to keep a record of the conversation.
9. Changes to this policy
If the app ever changes in a way that affects this policy — for example, if a feature that needs a server were added — the policy will be updated here, with the date at the top, before that version is released.
10. Contact
Questions about privacy: hello@handwrittenjournal.app.