Privacy Policy
Last updated 2026-10-16
Lantern is a dictionary. It is designed so that most of what you do never leaves your phone. This page explains what does, and why.
The short version
- You can use everything without an account. Then we hold no data about you at all, apart from any word suggestions or problem reports you choose to send, which are not linked to you.
- If you sign in, we store your email address and the vocabulary you choose to sync.
- We show no advertising and include no advertising or tracking SDKs.
- We never sell or share your data with third parties for their own purposes.
Data that stays on your phone
The dictionary, your searches and search history, the words you open, the widget schedule, and your notes and lists are stored on your device. Search history is never sent to us; you can turn it off or clear it in Settings.
Data we store if you sign in
- Your email address, used only to send you sign-in links and, if needed, to respond to a support request.
- Your vocabulary: saved words, lists, notes, widget playlist and app preferences, so they sync between your devices. Notes are private and visible only to you.
- Learning progress: when you saved or last saw a word, so the widget can resurface the right ones.
This data is stored with Supabase in the United States and protected by row-level access rules, so it can be read only by your own signed-in account. Sign-in emails are delivered through Resend.
Word suggestions
When a word is missing, you can tap “Suggest this word”. Only what you submit is sent: the word you typed, your optional note, whether you use Simplified or Traditional characters, the search mode, and the app and dictionary versions. If you are signed in, the suggestion is linked to your account; if you later delete the account, the link is removed and the suggestion stays anonymous. Suggestions are stored with Supabase, can be read only by us, and are used only to improve the dictionary. Your searches are never sent automatically.
Problem reports
On a word's page you can tap “Report a problem” to tell us something is wrong. Only what you submit is sent: the word and the reading shown, what kind of problem it is, your optional note, whether you use Simplified or Traditional characters, the search mode, and the app and dictionary versions. Reports are linked to your account in the same way as word suggestions, are stored with Supabase, can be read only by us, and are used only to fix the dictionary.
To stop abuse, our server counts how many suggestions and reports arrive from each network. For that it keeps a one-way code made from your IP address, never stored with what you sent, and deletes it within a day.
Voice search and the camera
Voice search uses your device's built-in speech recognition. Depending on your device settings, Apple may process audio on its servers under Apple's privacy policy; we never receive the audio. Any future camera reading feature will process images on your device.
Purchases
Study Pro purchases are processed by Apple or Google. We receive an anonymous subscription status — active or not — and never your payment details. We may use a subscription service (such as RevenueCat) to keep that status consistent across your devices.
Analytics
The app currently includes no analytics software. If we add product analytics in future, they will be limited to anonymous events (such as “a search was made”), never the content of what you looked up, and this page will be updated first.
Your rights
You can delete your account and all synced data at any time from Settings → Account, and you can ask us for a copy of your data or its deletion by email. We honour these requests for everyone, including rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act and the GDPR.
Children
Lantern is a general-audience app and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects you, we will update the date above and note it in the app.