Privacy policy
Hearth is a reading and listening app for books, comics and audiobooks that you put on your phone yourself. This policy explains what the app does with data. Last updated: 12 October 2026.
What stays on your phone
Your books, comics, audiobooks, reading positions, bookmarks, notes, pronunciation rules and settings are stored only on your device, in the app's private storage. The app has no accounts and no server of its own. Nothing you read or listen to is sent anywhere.
Internet access
The app connects to the internet for these things only:
- Downloading the optional Kokoro voice pack (about 110 MB) when you ask for it in Settings. The files are served from the developer's GitHub repository, with Hugging Face as a fallback. The download server sees your IP address, as any download does.
- Downloading a free classic when you pick one from the "Free classics" shelf. The books are served from the same GitHub repository, with standardebooks.org as a fallback.
- Showing advertisements (see below).
- Completing a purchase of Hearth Premium through Google Play (see below).
Purchases
Hearth Premium is a one-time purchase made through Google Play. Google handles the payment and knows what you bought; the app only receives confirmation from Google Play that the purchase exists, which it uses to unlock the features. The app never sees your payment details. Google's handling of purchase data is described in Google Play's terms and privacy policy. A purchase is tied to your Google account and is restored by the app on any phone signed in to it.
Advertising
The app shows one small banner advertisement on the library screen for about thirty seconds every five minutes. Advertisements are served by Google AdMob. To do that, the Google Mobile Ads SDK may collect your device's advertising identifier, IP address, general location derived from it, and information about your device and the app, and may use it to measure ads and, where you have consented, personalise them. Google's handling of this data is described at https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland you are asked for consent before any personalised advertising, and you can change your choice from the consent form shown by the app. You can also reset or delete your advertising identifier in your phone's Google settings.
Backups and debug logs
Backups are created only when you choose to, and are written to a location you pick. The "Share debug log" button in Settings prepares a file containing the app's own recent log lines and crash reports, and only sends it where you choose to share it. Neither happens automatically.
Permissions
- Notifications: for the playback controls and the progress of voice pack downloads and offline audio generation.
- Foreground services: to keep narration playing and downloads running when the app is in the background.
- Internet: for the voice pack and classics downloads, advertisements and Google Play purchases.
The app does not request access to your contacts, location, camera or microphone.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Changes and contact
This policy is published at https://hearthreader.com/privacy and a copy is included in the app under Settings. If it changes, the new version will be published at the same address with a new date. Questions can be sent to the developer at the contact address shown on the app's store listing.