Privacy Policy
Last updated: 26 August 2026
The short version. You can use Fidel Scribe without giving us your name or email. We don't show ads, we don't track you across other apps or websites, and we never sell your data. The handwriting you draw is used to score that drawing and is then discarded, unless you deliberately flag a result as wrong.
This policy explains what Fidel Scribe ("the app", "we", "us") collects, why, and what control you have. It applies to the Fidel Scribe iPhone app and this website.
1. Using the app without an account
Fidel Scribe opens straight into a guest session. No email, name, or password is required. A guest session creates an anonymous record on our servers, identified only by a random identifier, so your progress survives closing the app. It is not linked to you as a person. If you sign out, that record and its progress are deleted, and a guest session left unused for 30 days is deleted automatically.
2. Information we collect
| What | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | Only if you choose to sign in | To identify your account across devices. If you use Sign in with Apple and pick "Hide My Email", we only ever receive Apple's private relay address — never your real one. |
| First name | Only if you use Sign in with Apple and let it share your name | Apple passes it to us once, on your first sign-in, and you can edit or withhold it on Apple's own screen before that happens. We store it to greet you by name and to suggest a username. We never receive your surname. |
| Username | You choose it | Labels your account inside the app. Pick anything; it doesn't have to be your real name. If you shared your first name with Apple sign-in, that is suggested as the username, and you can change it. |
| Optional survey answers | Onboarding, skippable | Your goal, level, and how you found the app, used to suggest a starting course. |
| Learning progress | As you practise | Letters practised, quiz scores, XP, streaks, achievements, course progress, and your jebena balance — so your progress saves and syncs. |
| Handwriting drawings | When you ask for a check | Scored by our model. See section 3. |
| Purchase status | If you subscribe | Whether a subscription is active. Apple processes the payment; we never see your card details. |
We do not collect your surname, phone number, precise location, contacts, photo library, microphone, health data, or advertising identifiers. The app contains no advertising and no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs.
3. How your handwriting is processed
When you ask the app to check a letter you've written, two things happen:
- On your device. A handwriting recogniser built into the app reads the strokes locally. This runs entirely on your iPhone and the drawing is not transmitted anywhere for this step.
- On our server. An image of the drawing is sent over an encrypted connection to our machine-learning model, which returns which character it thinks you wrote. The model only classifies shapes — it cannot identify you, and the image is processed in memory and not stored.
The one exception: if you tap flag to tell us a result was wrong, that drawing is saved, together with the character you were aiming for, so we can diagnose and improve the model. Flagged images are stored in a private bucket and are not published. Deleting your account deletes them.
4. Legal bases for processing
- Contract — saving your progress and delivering the subscription you bought.
- Legitimate interests — keeping the service secure, preventing abuse of the free allowance, and improving recognition accuracy from flagged drawings.
- Consent — optional survey answers and push notifications, both of which you can decline or withdraw at any time.
5. Who processes data for us
We use a small number of providers, each acting on our instructions under their own security and privacy terms. We do not sell or share your data for advertising.
- Cloud hosting — keeping your account and progress, and storing flagged drawings.
- Model hosting — running the model that scores drawings.
- Subscription management — recording whether a subscription is active.
- App updates — delivering improvements to the app.
- Apple — Sign in with Apple, and all payment processing for subscriptions.
If you would like to know exactly which companies these are, email us and we will tell you.
Some of these providers operate servers in other countries, so your data may be transferred internationally. Where it is, the transfer is covered by the providers' standard contractual clauses or an equivalent safeguard.
6. Notifications
If you allow them, the app sends practice reminders — for example, a nudge if you have not practised by your chosen time. iOS asks your permission first, and you can turn them off at any time in Settings → Notifications or inside the app.
7. Keeping and deleting your data
We keep account and progress data while your account exists. You can delete everything yourself from Profile → Delete account in the app; this removes your profile, progress, and any flagged drawings. You can also email us and we will do it for you. Guest sessions are deleted when you sign out, and a guest session left unused for 30 days is deleted automatically.
8. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict processing, and to withdraw consent. You may also have the right to know about, delete, or correct the personal information we hold, and to opt out of its "sale" or "sharing" — we do neither. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you may complain to your local data protection authority. Exercising any of these rights will never make the app worse for you. To make a request, email the address below.
9. Children
Fidel Scribe is for a general audience and can be used without an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Security
Your data is encrypted in transit, and access is restricted so that one account cannot read another's. No system is perfectly secure, but we take this seriously and fix problems quickly when they are reported.
11. Changes
If this policy changes materially we will update the date above and, where it matters, tell you in the app.
12. Who we are, and how to contact us
Fidel Scribe is published by Kaleb Million Gebrehiwot, who is the data controller for the information described above.
Questions, requests, or concerns: fidelscribe@gmail.com. We aim to reply within two days and to resolve data requests within 30 days.