Pianyu

Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 6, 2026

Your photos and words stay on your own device. Only your voice leaves it — to be turned into text.

1. Scope

This policy explains how the Pianyu web app (pianyubook.com and any later domain) handles your information. Our WeChat Mini Program and mobile app are separate products with their own storage rules, published on their own pages.

2. What we process

Photos

Read and laid out on your own device only. We never upload them to our servers.

Text you type

Themes, book titles, names, places and body text are stored in your browser's local storage.

Voice

When you hold the mic, your recording is converted to audio data, sent to our server, then passed to a speech recognition service that returns text. We do not keep the original audio.

Server logs

Request time, IP address and path, used only for security and troubleshooting, retained no longer than 30 days.

Payment

Purchases are processed by PayPal. We never see or store your card details — we only receive whether an order was paid, plus an order ID.

Feedback

What you write on the Feedback page, any contact detail you choose to leave (email is optional), the page and interface language you were on, plus the country and browser version our server detects automatically, is stored in our Cloudflare database. It is used only to improve the product and to reply to you. We do not store your raw IP address.

Sign-in email and index

You can sign in with an email address — no password. We send a one-time link, and opening it signs you in. Once signed in we store your email address, when you signed in, and an index: which books and stories you have, roughly when each was kept, and whether it has been put into a book yet. That index contains no photos and no body text. It exists for two reasons only: to recognise you when you sign in on another device, and to send you a single reminder if something of yours looks unfinished.

3. What we don't do

  • No ad tracking, and no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs. We count page visits with our own counter, running on our own Cloudflare database: no cookies, no advertising identifiers, no cross-site tracking, and no stored IP address — an IP is hashed with a daily-changing salt only to tell whether two visits on the same day came from the same person, and that link expires the next day.
  • No access to contacts, no precise location, no advertising identifiers.
  • We never use your photos, text or voice to train models or for any secondary purpose.
  • We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising (CCPA / CPRA).

    • 4. Where your data lives

    Web (this site): photos you add are kept as original files in your browser's own database (IndexedDB); titles, names, places and body text sit in browser local storage. All of it lives inside this one browser on this one device — open the site on another device or in a different browser and it won't be there; clearing your browser's site data erases everything, permanently. Photos are never uploaded to our servers.

    Voice: audio is prepared inside your browser and relayed through our API to the recognition service. We do not keep the recording.

    Speech recognition: processed by Alibaba Cloud (Alibaba Cloud Computing Co., Ltd.), with servers in mainland China.

    Hosting and API relay: Cloudflare, Inc., global edge network.

    Cloud backup: none for photos or text. To keep a copy elsewhere, use “Library backup” at the bottom of the archive and export the whole library to a file on your own disk. If you are signed in, only the index described above is synced to our servers — never your photos or your writing.

    This website does not use WeChat Cloud Development. Our WeChat Mini Program (mainland China only) is a separate product; its storage rules do not apply here.

    5. International transfers

    Our speech recognition provider is located in mainland China. If you use voice from outside China, your audio is transferred to and processed in mainland China.

    If you would rather not have data cross borders, simply type instead of speaking — every other feature works exactly the same.

    6. Retention

  • Local data: until you delete a book or clear your browser's site data.
  • Voice: discarded once transcribed; audio is not retained.
  • Server logs: at most 30 days.
  • Feedback: kept until you ask us to delete it.
  • Account and index: kept while the account exists. Signing out only clears the session on that device — the account stays. To delete the account and its index entirely, email us and we will do it within three business days.

    • 7. Your rights

    Access: everything is on your device and visible to you at any time.

    Delete: removing a book deletes it locally; clearing site data removes everything and cannot be undone.

    Export: use the Data Export page to take your content with you.

    Withdraw consent: just stop using voice input. To have our records removed, email us.

    Email: we write to you for exactly two reasons — the one-time link when you ask to sign in, and a reminder when something you left is still unfinished and you have been away for a while. No promotions, no campaign blasts, no bulk mail. Every reminder carries an unsubscribe link at the bottom; one click stops them for good, needs no sign-in, and does not affect your library.

    8. Children

    This service is not directed to children under 13 (or 16 where local law sets a higher age). We do not knowingly collect their data — if you believe we have, contact us and we will delete it.

    9. Changes

    When this policy changes we will post a new date on this page. Material changes will be announced in the app.

    10. Contact

    Email: [email protected]

    We reply within 7 business days.