What Embering knows about you

Almost nothing — and nothing that would let us pick you out. The app works without an account, keeps your reading and your practice on your device, and counts only anonymous events with no identifier attached. Nothing you write is sent to an AI service, or anywhere else. This page is about the few moments where anything at all leaves your phone, so you can decide about those honestly.

Last updated: August 15, 2026

Who we are

Embering is made by Embering LLC, a single-member limited liability company registered in the State of Wyoming, USA, at 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801. Embering LLC is the data controller for the purposes of this policy.

If you have a question about anything here, write to admin@embering.app.

What stays on your device

The following is written to your phone's local storage and never sent anywhere by us:

• The quotation you're served each day, and which voices are in your rotation
• Quotations you save as favourites
• Affirmations you write yourself
• Your Memory Coach progress and the recalls you've completed — including the words you type or speak, which are compared with the original on your phone and sent nowhere
• Your settings — wake time, timer length, reminder preferences, text size

Some of this is also written to a shared storage area on your device so the home-screen widget — and, on iPhone, the lock-screen widget — can display today's quotation. That area is readable only by Embering and its own widget.

If you delete the app, this all goes with it. There is no copy on a server for us to return to you, and none for us to lose.

What leaves your device

1. Dictation — handled by your phone

If you tap the microphone to speak a recall instead of typing it, your speech is transcribed by your phone’s own speech recognition — Apple’s on iPhone, Google’s on Android. Depending on your device and language, either one may process the audio on its servers rather than on the phone. That processing is governed by Apple’s or Google’s privacy policy, not ours — we receive only the resulting text, which is then compared on your phone and never sent anywhere.

Dictation is never automatic. It runs only while you hold the microphone active, and you can decline the microphone permission entirely without losing any other part of the app.

2. Letters

The Letters screen fetches publicly published newsletter posts. It sends no information about you.

3. Claiming Founding Reader, or subscribing

Embering has no account and no sign-up. That leaves one practical problem: if you reinstall the app or move to a new phone, we need some way to know you already hold Founding Reader or a subscription — and we deliberately hold no list of readers to check you against.

The answer is that the App Store or Google Play holds that record, not us. Claiming Founding Reader is a purchase at no cost, and it is the store — keyed to your own Apple or Google account, which we never see — that remembers it. That is why “Restore Purchases” can bring your status back on a new device without you ever telling us who you are.

What that means for your data:

• Payment is handled entirely by Apple or Google. We never see your card details, and there is nothing to pay for Founding Reader in any case.
• Subscription status is managed through RevenueCat, which records an anonymous identifier and what you hold, so it can be restored later. It is not linked to your name or your email.
• If you use Sign in with Apple (iPhone only), we receive only the opaque identifier Apple issues for this app — not your name, and not your real email address unless you choose to share it. It exists to carry your status between your own devices, and is used for nothing else.

Current prices are shown in the app and on your store receipt, not here, so this page can’t go out of date about them.

4. Anonymous counts

We need to know whether Embering actually works — above all, whether the daily quotation leads anyone back to the writing behind it. To measure that we count a small number of events: that a quotation was shown, and that someone opened a “go deeper” link.

These counts carry no identifier of any kind — no account, no device id, no session id, no advertising id, no IP address stored. That is a deliberate design choice, not a promise we're asking you to take on trust: because there is nothing to join events on, they cannot be assembled into a profile, or linked to each other, or traced back to you, by us or by anyone who obtained the data.

What that gives us is a ratio — how often a line leads someone onward — and nothing about any individual reader. That ratio is the only thing we actually need.

Links out of the app may carry a tag identifying Embering as the source, so the author can see that a visit came from the app. It says where the visit came from, not who made it.

What we don't do

• No AI service, and no third party, ever receives what you write
• No profile of you, and no identifier that would make one possible
• No advertising, and no advertising identifier
• No tracking of you across other apps or websites
• No selling or sharing of personal information
• No account required to read your daily quotation

Reminders

Memory Coach reminders are scheduled by the app on your own device. There is no push server, and nothing about your reminders is transmitted. You can turn them off in the Coach settings, or decline the notification permission.

Children

Embering is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Your choices

• Stop dictation — decline or revoke the microphone permission in your phone’s Settings.
• Stop reminders — turn off recall popups in the app, or notifications in your phone’s Settings.
• Erase everything — delete the app.
• Cancel a subscription — manage it in your Apple or Google account settings.

Changes to this policy

If this changes in a way that affects what leaves your device, we'll update this page and the date at the top of it.