Privacy policy

Last updated: 5 November 2026 · Applies to Yarn for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, and this website

In short: Yarn turns your voice into text. To do that, your recording and a little nearby text are sent through Yarn's server to OpenAI (to transcribe it) and Anthropic (to tidy it up). Our server keeps your email address, your plan and a log of how much you've used, but not your audio. Your dictionary syncs between your devices, and your dictation history does too, but only if you turn on history sync. We don't sell or share your data for advertising.

Who we are

Yarn is made by an independent developer in Australia ("we"). Contact: hello@yarnvoice.app.

What Yarn sends, and why

Only when you dictate (you press the mic, the bubble, the keyboard's mic, the notification's Dictate button or your shortcut), Yarn sends:

Data	Sent to	Why
The audio recording of what you said	OpenAI	To transcribe it into text.
The transcript	Anthropic (Claude)	To remove filler words, apply your corrections and voice commands, and format it. You can turn this off ("Polish with AI").
Up to 300 characters of text just before your cursor	OpenAI and Anthropic	So the dictation continues your sentence with the right capitals. Never read in password fields. You can turn this off ("Use the text before the cursor").
Your dictionary words (names, places, terms you add)	OpenAI and Anthropic	So names and jargon are spelled correctly.
The name of the app you're typing in	Anthropic	So the tidy-up suits it (e.g. a chat message vs an email).
Your spelling preference (e.g. British English)	OpenAI and Anthropic	To use the right spelling.
Text you've selected, only when you rewrite it by voice	Anthropic	To rewrite it the way you asked ("make this shorter", "translate to Spanish"). You can turn this off ("Rewrite selected text by voice").
The names of your snippets (e.g. "my address"), not their text	Anthropic	So Yarn knows when you ask for one. The snippet's text is added on your device and isn't sent.

These go through Yarn's server, which checks your account, adds our API keys and passes them on. The server doesn't keep your audio or text. Everything is sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Nothing is sent while Yarn is just waiting: the microphone is only used while you're dictating, and your device shows its microphone indicator while it is.

On iPhone, keyboards aren't allowed to use the microphone, so the Yarn app keeps the microphone ready for a while after you start a Yarn session (you choose how long; iPhone shows an orange dot meanwhile). Audio is only kept and sent between the keyboard's mic tap and stop.

Your Yarn account

Yarn's server stores:

Your email address, to sign you in with a one-time code.
Your plan: trial or subscription, when it ends, and promo codes you've redeemed.
A usage log for each dictation: the date and time, the models used, the length of the recording, the number of words processed and the cost. It doesn't contain your audio or text.
Your dictionary (the names and terms you add or Yarn learns), so it's the same on all your devices.
Your snippets (each name and its saved text), so they're the same on all your devices.
Your dictation history, only if you turn on "Sync history across your devices". Each synced dictation's text, the raw transcript, the app it was typed into, and which of your devices it came from. It's off until you turn it on. Turning it off lets you delete it all from our server; deleting a dictation or clearing history removes the text from our server on every device.

Synced history, your dictionary and your snippets are locked to your account: the server only lets your signed-in account read or change them. They're stored encrypted on Supabase's servers. We don't look at them, use them for anything else, or share them.

We use this only to run your account, enforce fair-use limits and understand costs. The server is hosted by Supabase, in Seoul, South Korea. Delete account in Settings removes your account and all of the above straight away.

Payments

Subscriptions bought on this website are handled by Stripe; subscriptions bought in an app are handled by Apple or Google. We never see your card details. We keep a record of your subscription (plan, status and renewal date) to switch Yarn on for your account.

What OpenAI and Anthropic do with it

They process the data to return the transcript and cleaned text. Under their API terms, data sent through their APIs is not used to train their models by default, and may be kept for a limited time (typically up to 30 days) for safety and abuse monitoring. See OpenAI's privacy policy and Anthropic's privacy policy.

What stays on your device

History of your dictations (text, raw transcript, app name, timings). Stored on the device, and also with your account only if you turn on history sync. You can delete items, clear it all, set it to delete after a while, or turn it off.
Settings and dictionary. In Yarn's private storage. Your sign-in is kept in the device's secure storage (Keychain on Apple devices).
A diagnostics log of errors and Yarn's status, which never leaves the device unless you choose to copy or share it.

Accessibility service (Android)

On Android, Yarn's floating mic uses Android's Accessibility service to know when a keyboard is open and to type your dictation into the text box you're in. Yarn uses it only to: show or hide the mic bubble, read up to 300 characters before the cursor in the box you're dictating into (if that setting is on), type the dictated text, and notice when you correct a word Yarn typed so it can learn that spelling. Yarn never reads or types into password fields, never reads other parts of the screen, and never sends anything from the Accessibility service except as described above.

Windows

On Windows, Yarn uses Windows UI Automation to read up to 300 characters before the cursor (if that setting is on) and to notice corrections to words it typed, and pastes your dictation into the app you're using. Your sign-in is protected with Windows Data Protection on your PC.

Accessibility permission (Mac)

On Mac, Yarn uses the Accessibility permission for your dictation shortcut and to type into the app you're using. It reads up to 300 characters before the cursor (if that setting is on) and notices corrections to words it typed, as above.

Keyboards (iPhone and Android)

The Yarn keyboard only sends your dictation as described above. It doesn't record or send anything you type with its keys. On iPhone, "Allow Full Access" is needed only so the keyboard can talk to the Yarn app.

This website

No cookies, analytics or tracking. If you sign in on the account page, your browser keeps you signed in using its own storage for this site, until you sign out.

What we don't do

No advertising, no ad identifiers, no analytics or tracking SDKs.
No selling or sharing of your data with anyone other than the services above (OpenAI, Anthropic, Supabase, and Stripe, Apple or Google for payments).

Children

Yarn isn't directed at children under 13 and we don't knowingly collect their information.

Your choices and rights

You can stop dictation at any time, turn off the polish step, turn off sending the text before the cursor, turn history sync off, delete your history, or uninstall Yarn to remove everything it stores on your device. You can see your plan, usage, synced history and dictionary on the account page. Delete account removes everything our server holds about you; you can also email us to ask what we hold or to delete it. To ask about data held by OpenAI or Anthropic, contact them using the links above. Australian users have rights under the Australian Privacy Principles; contact us with any questions or complaints.

Changes

We'll update this page when Yarn changes how it handles data, and change the date at the top.