Privacy Policy

Effective November 7, 2026

Rune is an iPhone travel translator run by Mogen Cheng (“we”). This policy explains what Rune collects, where it goes, how long it’s kept and how to remove it.

What we collect

Your account

You sign in with Apple or Google. Apple gives us an identifier for your account and, if you choose to share them, your name and email address, which can be a private relay address. Google gives us an identifier for your account, your email address and whether Google has verified it. It doesn’t give us your name, and we don’t keep any Google sign-in token. You can also set a display name. We keep a scrambled (hashed) copy of the token that keeps you signed in. Signing in with Apple and with Google makes separate accounts, even with the same email address, and deleting one doesn’t touch the other.

Your profile

You can add a name, a photo and a one-line bio to your page in Rune. We store them on our servers, and they’re private unless you make a Rune public, which also makes a small public page, as explained under Public Runes. Rune crops the photo on your phone and uploads a small square copy, about 512 pixels wide. We remove any location or other details it carries and keep it in private storage, and Rune shows that copy only to you. Your profile isn’t sent to our outside AI service. You can change or remove any of it.

Age answers from earlier versions

Rune doesn’t ask your age. Earlier versions asked you to confirm it, without asking for your birthday. If you answered then, we still store that answer and when you gave it, until you delete your account. We don’t use it for anything.

Saving to your Book

A new conversation or photo isn’t saved to your account until you tap Save to Book. Until then, we don’t store its words, photo or audio on our servers. Translating it still sends your speech, photos and text to our outside AI services, through our servers where needed, because that’s how it translates.

If you leave with something unsaved, Rune asks once whether to save or discard it. Discarding removes Rune’s copy from your phone, including any recording. It can’t be brought back. It doesn’t recall what our outside services already received to translate it, and we keep a usage record of it, with counts and no words.

If Rune closes unexpectedly during an unsaved conversation, the copy on your phone stays, and your Book asks you to save or discard it the next time you open Rune. An unsaved photo isn’t kept, so it’s gone. If your phone is lost or reset, anything unsaved is gone too.

Summaries, Ask, personal notes, Flag a Translation and Make Public work only after you save.

Speech and recordings

When you use Talk, audio goes straight from your phone to our outside speech service, which turns it into text and translates it as people speak. This can include the voices of people around you.

Save Audio is off by default, so we don’t keep your audio on our servers unless you turn it on. If you turn it on in the You tab > Audio, Rune also uploads a copy of the audio to private storage so you can play it back. If you turn it off again, a recording already under way finishes uploading. Audio already saved stays until you delete it.

To save audio, Rune first writes the recording to your phone. For a new conversation, it uploads only after you tap Save to Book, and Discard deletes it. The copy on your phone is removed after it uploads, or when you delete the conversation, use Delete All Data or delete your account. Occasionally Rune records with Save Audio off, if a recording starts before your settings load. The app then sends that recording to our servers, which discard it instead of keeping it.

Transcripts, translations and questions

When you save a conversation, we store what was said, its translations, summaries, action items, titles, speaker names and the questions you ask with Ask, along with their answers. To check a translation or write a summary or answer, Rune sends the relevant text to our outside AI service, including recent lines from the conversation for context.

You can also add a personal note to any Rune in your Book, up to 2000 characters. We store it with the conversation, and Search can find it. It’s never sent to our outside AI service, and it’s deleted when you delete the Rune, use Delete All Data or delete your account.

Photos

When you take or choose a photo to translate, your phone reads the text in it. Rune then sends a reduced copy of the photo and that text to our outside AI service.

Once a photo with text finishes translating, you can tap Save to Book to keep it. If you don’t, it isn’t saved. You can delete any saved photo later. Photos with no text can’t be saved.

For a saved photo, we store the reduced copy, the text found in it and where that text sits, the translations, a title and summary written by our AI service, and the place if there is one. While you’re on the result, the photo stays in your phone’s temporary storage, and it’s removed when you leave. If you chose the photo, that’s a copy Rune made, and the original stays in your library. If you save while offline, the photo waits on your phone until it can upload. Photos can show people or personal details, so take care with what you translate.

Photo details

Photos can hold details about how they were taken, known as EXIF. When a photo you take goes into your Book, we may keep its details in a private record on your account: the date and time, camera and lens settings, any serial numbers, owner’s name or unique photo ID the camera recorded, and, if you’ve allowed location, the exact coordinates your phone reports around that moment. We keep them for a trip map we’re planning, which doesn’t exist yet. Until it does, we don’t use them for anything else.

These details are never public. They aren’t in Explore, public pages or public copies, they don’t go to our outside AI service, and they aren’t used for ads. We take them out of photo files before storing or sending them. Photo files stored before this change are sent without them too.

We keep them until you delete the Rune, use Delete All Data or delete your account. Removing a photo’s place with Fix Place also removes its coordinates. Export Everything includes them. To stop Rune keeping coordinates, turn off location access in iOS Settings.

Location

Location is optional, and Rune works without it. If you allow it, Rune uses it only while you’re using the app, and reads it only when a photo you just took goes into your Book, to add the place and, as explained under Photo details, to keep its coordinates. For a photo you choose, Rune doesn’t read your phone’s location or the location saved in the photo, and the photo’s location and other details aren’t sent.

Your coordinates go to Apple’s geocoding service to find the place, and may also go to our servers, where we keep them with that photo. We also receive the place, such as “Naha, Okinawa”, plus any name you type. Rune reads it when you tap Save to Book, so the place can be a little off if you’ve walked on since taking the photo. You can add, edit or remove it with Fix Place, and you can turn off location access in iOS Settings at any time.

Copies on your phone

So nothing is lost if your connection drops, Rune keeps some things in its own storage on your phone: an encrypted copy of each unsaved conversation, an encrypted copy of a saved conversation until it reaches our servers, any saved photo waiting to upload, and recordings as described above. Rune doesn’t add its own encryption to recordings or waiting photos. Images of saved photos you’ve viewed, and files you export or download, can also stay in your phone’s temporary cache until iOS clears it. A cached copy of your profile photo may stay on your phone for a while, including after you change or remove it or delete your account.

A saved conversation’s encrypted copy is removed once it reaches our servers, or when you delete the conversation, use Delete All Data or delete your account. After you delete a conversation, Rune keeps only its ID on your phone, so it isn’t sent again. An unsaved conversation’s copy and recording are removed when you discard it, use Delete All Data or delete your account. A waiting photo is removed once it uploads or if you delete your account. Your phone’s backups, such as iCloud Backup, can include all of these, and deleting something in Rune doesn’t remove it from a backup already made.

Stamps

Stamps mark things like your first Rune or reaching 100 Runes. We work them out on our servers by counting your own Runes, and we store which stamps you’ve earned and when. That record holds no conversations, photos or place names, and nobody else can see it. Stamps you’ve earned stay if you delete a Rune, and are removed when you use Delete All Data or delete your account.

Settings and reports

We store your preferences so they follow your account. If you report a bad translation, we store the line, its translation and any note you add.

Usage records

For each translation, summary, question, photo and stretch of audio, we record the type of action, the AI model, the amount of text or audio, and the time. These records don’t contain what was said. We use them to run Rune and understand what it costs, and if you turn on Show Costs in the You tab > Data & Privacy, you can see what each conversation cost Rune to run.

Technical data

Like any online service, our hosting provider handles your IP address and keeps request logs. We use your IP address to limit abuse of sign-in, signup, the ad list and ad counts, stored only as a scrambled value in a counter that’s deleted within minutes. The service that delivers app updates sees the details it needs to send you the right update.

This website

This website has no analytics or advertising tools. Our hosting provider handles your visit the same way it handles the app’s requests. Rune doesn’t track you across other companies’ apps or websites, so it doesn’t respond differently to Do Not Track signals.

If you join the early access list, we store your email address, which form you used and when you joined. We use your email only to tell you about trying Rune, and we’ll remove it if you ask us.

How we use it

We use your data to translate and summarize what you ask, to keep your Book across devices, to sign you in, to keep Rune secure and limit abuse, to understand costs and fix problems, and to answer you when you contact us.

We don’t use your conversations, photos, questions, location or Book for ads, we don’t sell your data, and we don’t train AI models on it. We look at your content only when that’s needed to run or fix Rune, to act on your request, to review a Rune you chose to make public or something someone reported, or because the law requires it.

Public Runes

Everything in Rune is private unless you make it public, one photo Rune at a time. No setting does this for you, and conversations can’t be made public.

What’s public

When you make a Rune public, we make a separate copy. It has the photo, rebuilt without its location or other details and with any tape you added burned in; its title; the words on the sign and their translations, except anything under tape; the month; and the city, if the photo has one, unless you leave it off. It never includes the exact place, the name of the place or its coordinates, though the photo and its words can still show where you were, so take care what you share. If you later remove the place or change its city with Fix Place, the city comes off the public copy. Translations are labeled as made by AI.

Your first public Rune also makes a small public page with your name, and your photo and bio if you have them. The page hides again when nothing of yours is public.

What stays private

Your original photo, your other Runes, personal notes, conversations, audio, transcripts, summaries, questions you asked with Ask, the exact time, the exact place, photo details such as the exact location, your email, any earlier age answer and your account details.

Who can see it

Other people using Rune can see it in Explore and on your page, and can browse Explore by city. Explore shows the newest public Runes first, and doesn’t use your location to choose them. If the newest city in your Book has public Runes, your phone can suggest it as a chip, and that city leaves your phone only if you tap it.

Checks on public Runes

A Rune you make public goes up right away, and so does your public page, unless our automatic check flags it or can’t finish. Then it waits until a person has checked it. A person doesn’t look at every Rune first. For that check, we send the public copy of the photo, its words and its city to our outside AI service, only for a Rune you chose to make public, and your public name, bio and photo when your public page changes.

People can report a public Rune, and two separate reports hide it for everyone until a person has looked. We can take anything down afterwards.

Reports and blocks

If you report something, we store what you reported, your reason, any note you add and that it came from your account, and a person looks at it. The person you reported isn’t told who you are. If you block someone, we store that, you won’t see each other in Explore, and they aren’t told.

Taking it back

Make Private removes a Rune from Explore and your page, and deletes the public copy right away. Your Book keeps the original. Deleting the Rune, Delete All Data and Delete Account do the same. If we take a Rune down, its copy stays private so you can ask for another look, until you make it private or delete it. Screenshots, and copies people already saved, are out of our reach.

Official accounts

Accounts with “Official” in their name are run by us. Their posts use openly licensed photos from public sources, not anyone’s Book, and no one’s data from Rune. We keep each photo’s source, license and credit, including the photographer’s name as published with it, for as long as the post is up and afterward so we can answer questions about it. Reporting or blocking an official account works the same as for anyone else.

Ads

The Explore feed may show labeled ads from businesses. A person approves each one, and each is labeled Sponsored and has a way to report it. Rune shows no ads in your Book, your own Runes, a Rune’s page or a public page. Ads must be suitable for all ages, and they aren’t targeted by age.

Your phone downloads one list of ads, with no account or device ID, and picks from it using the languages you use in Rune, so nothing about you is sent to choose them. Rune doesn’t use what you said, photographed or asked, where you’ve been, or your profile or stamps.

Rune counts how many times each ad is shown and tapped in total, not who saw or tapped it. Those counts are sent with no account or device ID, though our hosting provider’s request logs handle them like any other request. Advertisers get nothing about you, and at most those totals.

If you tap an ad, it opens the business’s link outside Rune. That business then sees your visit as it would any other, and its own privacy policy applies. If you use a discount code from an ad, the business can tell you came from Rune.

Who receives your data

We share data with these companies only so they can provide these services. We confirm that they provide the same or equal protection of your data as this policy describes. We may also disclose data if the law requires it.

Your permission for third-party AI

Rune asks for your permission before it first sends your data to outside AI services. You can withdraw that permission at any time in the You tab > Data & Privacy. Rune’s translation features can’t work without these services, so they stop working if you do. You can also turn off microphone, camera or location access in iOS Settings.

Recording other people

Talk captures the voices of people near you, and if you turn on Save Audio, Rune keeps a copy. Tell people before you record them. Laws differ by place, and some require everyone’s consent before a conversation is recorded. You’re responsible for following the rules where you are. If you’re not sure, leave Save Audio off and ask first.

If you’ve been recorded by someone using Rune and want that removed, ask them to delete it, or contact us.

How long we keep it

• Conversations, photos and places: until you delete them or your account. Archiving doesn’t delete anything.
• Saved audio: if you turn on Save Audio, until you delete it. Keep Recordings in the You tab > Audio can remove it automatically after 30, 90 or 365 days.
• Unsaved Runes: on your phone only, until you save or discard them.
• Usage records: these stay when you delete or discard a conversation, and are removed when you delete your account.
• Sign-in sessions: removed when they expire, when you sign out or when you delete your account.
• Your profile: until you change or remove it, or delete your account.
• Earlier age answers: until you delete your account.
• Stamps: until you use Delete All Data or delete your account.
• Public copies: until you make them private, or delete the Rune, all your data or your account.
• Reports and blocks: until the Rune or the account involved is deleted, or you unblock someone. We keep a record of review decisions, with no words or pictures in it, and we haven’t set a date to delete it.
• Photo details: until you delete the Rune, use Delete All Data or delete your account. Removing a photo’s place also removes its coordinates.
• Early access emails: until you ask us to remove them.
• Copies on your phone: as explained under Copies on your phone.
• Outside companies: as described above under “Who receives your data”.

When you delete something, we remove it from our database and file storage right away. If backups exist, it may stay in them for a limited time until they’re overwritten. Copies on your phone work differently.

Your choices

• Change or remove your profile: You tab > your profile > Edit. Delete All Data keeps your profile and removes your stamps. Delete Account removes both, along with any earlier age answer.
• Delete one item: from your Book.
• Turn audio saving on or off: You tab > Audio > Save Audio.
• Get a copy of your data: You tab > Data & Privacy > Export Everything. This includes any photo details.
• Delete all your data: You tab > Data & Privacy > Delete All Data.
• Delete your account: You tab > Account > Delete Account. This removes your account, profile, profile photo, any earlier age answer, stamps, conversations, recordings, photos, summaries and usage records from our servers for good. If you signed in with Google, you can also remove Rune’s access in your Google Account’s settings. Some copies can stay on your phone for a while, as explained under Copies on your phone.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or move your data, or to object to how it’s used. To use them, use the controls above or contact us.

Security

Rune sends data over encrypted connections, keeps saved audio and photos in private storage, and stores only a scrambled copy of sign-in tokens. Rune isn’t end-to-end encrypted: the services above have to read your data to do their work. No system is perfectly secure.

Children

Rune isn’t meant for anyone under 13, and it doesn’t ask your age. If you think someone under 13 has given us data, contact us and we’ll delete it.

Where data is processed

Our server code runs in the United States. Our storage and the companies above may process data in other countries, so your data may be handled outside the country where you live.

Changes

If we change this policy, we’ll update this page and its date, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.

Contact

Mogen Cheng
runetranslateapp@gmail.com

Use this address for privacy questions and for help with Rune.