Privacy Policy

Last updated 30 August 2026

Mandarin Forager is a Safari extension and companion app that helps you learn Mandarin vocabulary by substituting Hanzi into English websites you already read. This policy explains what the app does and doesn't do with your data.

The pages you read never leave your device

The extension reads the text of a page in order to choose words to substitute, but it never sends that page's content, its URL, or your browsing history anywhere — not to us, not to any third party, not even to the companion app's own network layer. As a standing architectural rule, the extension itself makes no network calls at all. Page analysis happens entirely on your device, every time.

Your vocabulary syncs across your own devices via iCloud

Your learning data, the words you've encountered, your review history, and words you've added by hand is stored locally and, if you're signed in to iCloud, synced across your own Apple devices using Apple's CloudKit private database. This lets your progress carry over between an iPhone, iPad, or Mac that you own, without you creating a separate account with us.

This data is stored in your own private CloudKit database, tied to your Apple ID. We do not have a server of our own, and we cannot see, access, or export this data. It exists only on your devices and in the private iCloud storage associated with your Apple ID, governed by Apple's privacy policy.

You can permanently delete all of this data, on every synced device at once, from within the app at any time.

Anonymous usage analytics

Mandarin Forager uses PostHog to record anonymous app-usage events — for example, which screens are opened or when a study session starts — so we can understand how the app is used and where it's confusing. These events are tied to a random identifier generated on your own device, never to your name, email, or Apple ID, and we never attempt to link them to your identity. This data is never used to track you across other apps or websites, and it never includes anything about the websites you visit or the content of what you read.

What we don't collect

Beyond the anonymous usage analytics above, Mandarin Forager does not collect crash reports beyond Apple's standard App Store Connect crash reporting, or any other data about how you use the app.

Third parties

The only outside services involved are PostHog (anonymous usage analytics, described above), Apple's own CloudKit, used exactly as described above, and Apple's App Store/StoreKit for any future subscription purchase. We don't use advertising or tracking SDKs of any kind.

Children's privacy

Mandarin Forager is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page. Continued use of the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to hello@mandarinforager.com.