Aoeu - Privacy Policy

Aoeu does not collect any data, from anyone, ever.
That's the whole policy, but here's what it means concretely and why we can say it so plainly.

No network connections
Aoeu makes no network connections of its own. There is no analytics library, no crash reporter that phones home, no update checker, no license server, no advertising, and no telemetry. This isn't a configuration you can turn off — the capability simply isn't built into the app. Aoeu works fully offline and always has. The one exception is opt-in and yours: the optional iCloud sync described below, which — only while you have it turned on — lets Apple's own CloudKit framework carry your progress between your Macs through your own iCloud account. Nothing is transmitted anywhere while it's off, and off is the default.

The optional "Keep in menu bar when Aoeu is closed" setting registers Aoeu as a macOS login item (visible anytime in System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items) so it can launch at login — that's a launch mechanism, not a data-collection one, and changes nothing else in this page: no data leaves your Mac whether that setting is on or off.

No accounts, no sign-in
There is no account system. Aoeu doesn't know who you are, doesn't ask for an email address, and has no way to associate anything it stores with your identity beyond "the person using this Mac."

What Aoeu stores, and where
Aoeu tracks your course progress, per-key and letter-pair typing statistics, speed-test history, and a small number of preferences (like your chosen keyboard layout mode). All of it is stored locally on your Mac, inside the app's own sandboxed storage — never on any server of ours and, unless you opt into the iCloud sync described below, never in the cloud, never anywhere Aoeu's own process can't reach directly on your own disk. If you turn on the optional Settings ▸ Sync with iCloud (off by default), that same progress data is additionally stored in your own private iCloud database — readable only through your Apple Account, hosted by Apple, and still collecting nothing for us: the developer has no server, no console access to your private database, and no way to see any of it.

You can see and control this data yourself:
Export your full progress at any time (File ▸ Export Progress…) to a file you choose and control.
Reset your progress to a clean slate at any time, without reinstalling.
Uninstall the app normally to remove its data along with it, the same as any other well-behaved Mac app.

What the App Store's privacy "nutrition label" says
Apple requires every app to declare, in a standard format, what data categories it collects. Aoeu's declaration is "Data Not Collected" across every category Apple asks about — not because we've minimized collection, but because there is no collection mechanism in the app at all. Aoeu's privacy manifest additionally documents the two categories of Apple system API it reads for entirely on-device purposes (reading your saved app preferences, and measuring elapsed time during typing drills) — neither transmits anything anywhere; both stay local.

Changes to this policy
If Aoeu ever changes in a way that would make this policy inaccurate, this page will be updated before that version ships, and the change will be described plainly — exactly as this page did when version 1.7 added the optional, off-by-default iCloud sync described above.

Contact
Questions about this policy: aoeu@pwarn.info