Privacy Policy
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The Strobe app works without accounts, analytics, or a server of its own. Your documents are processed on your device, and optional iCloud Sync uses your own iCloud account. This website uses analytics as described below.
App Data Collection
The Strobe app does not collect personal data, require accounts, or track your activity. The developer never receives your documents or your reading activity.
On-Device Storage
Imported documents, reading progress, and settings are stored in the app’s private storage on your device. Documents are processed on your device, and Strobe has no server of its own.
For its reading statistics, Strobe also keeps a history of your reading sessions: which document, when you read, for how long, and how many words, with and without the voice. It stays in the same storage and is never sent to the developer.
iCloud Sync
If you turn on iCloud Sync, Strobe stores your library (the text, titles, and chapters of your documents), your reading positions and speeds, and your reading history in your private iCloud database, so they appear on your other devices signed in to the same Apple Account. Apple stores this data under its iCloud terms, and the developer cannot access it. Display and timing settings are not synced.
Sync is on by default for new installations. If you used Strobe before sync was added, it asks before turning sync on. You can turn it off at any time in Settings, and your documents stay on your device either way.
Read Aloud
Read Aloud is completely optional and turned off by default. If you decide to use it, Strobe will ask your permission before downloading about 162 MB of files needed for speech. You can start the download by tapping the speaker button in the reader or by going to Settings ▸ Read Aloud. Nothing is downloaded without your permission. Read Aloud currently supports English documents and works on devices with around 4 GB of memory or more, including all Macs.
The files are downloaded securely from Hugging Face (huggingface.co). They include the Kokoro-82M speech model, its voices, and an English pronunciation dictionary. These are data files, not executable software. Once you’ve approved the download, Strobe may download files again if something goes wrong, a voice is missing, or an app update brings a newer version of the model.
When you download these files, Hugging Face can see your IP address and basic request information, just like any website you visit. You can read more in Hugging Face’s privacy policy. Strobe doesn’t send your account information, device identifiers, documents, or usage data with these downloads. Hugging Face also doesn’t share any information with Strobe’s developer.
Once the files are downloaded, everything happens on your device. Your documents are never sent anywhere to be read aloud, and the generated audio never leaves your device. Nothing is recorded or saved as an audio file. The voices are AI-generated and included with the model, so there’s no voice recording or cloning involved.
The downloaded files stay in Strobe’s own storage on your device and aren’t included in backups. You can delete them whenever you like in Settings ▸ Read Aloud.
While the voice reads, the document’s title and cover appear in Now Playing, which shows on the Lock Screen, in Control Center, and on connected devices such as headphones and car displays.
Sharing, Siri, and Widgets
When you share a web page from Safari to Strobe, the text is read from the page on your device. For a link shared from another app, Strobe loads the page directly from its website to find the article. Siri, Shortcuts, and the Continue Reading widget read your library on your device.
No Analytics in the App
The native Strobe app does not use analytics or tracking services.
Website Analytics and Session Replays
The strobefast.app website uses analytics hosted at stats.abdeen.industries to understand visits and improve the site. Heatmaps collect click positions and scroll depth. Sampled session replays record the website’s page content and interactions so we can review how visitors navigate it. These features apply to the website, not to documents or reading activity inside the Strobe app.
The website recorder is configured to mask form input values. Public page text can appear in recordings. Recording rates and session length are limited by the website’s recorder settings.
Contact
If you have any questions about this policy, reach out at contact@strobefast.app.