Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Tapioca is made by Rainforest Apps (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the Tapioca app for iPhone (called Reps before version 1.0.1), its widgets, and this website. If you have a question about it, email tapioca@rainforest-apps.com.

2. What stays on your iPhone

These are stored on your device and never sent to us:

• Your library: decks, cards, pictures, review history, stats, streaks and settings.
• Photos you use for AI card writing. The words are recognised on your iPhone, and the picture itself never leaves it.
• Reminders. They’re scheduled on the device from your own due cards.
• Siri, Spotlight and Shortcuts actions, handled by iOS on the device.

Files you import. A file you import from Anki, Quizlet, CSV or another app is read on your iPhone, and the cards are made there. A short sample of the text Tapioca read is sent for the check described in section 5, and the text of the list itself if that check says it was read wrongly. Pictures and audio inside an Anki package never leave the device.

iCloud backup. Tapioca keeps a copy of your library in your own iCloud Drive, so a new phone can restore it. Apple stores it under your Apple Account and Apple’s privacy policy. We can’t read it. You can turn this off on the Backup page in the Profile tab.

Exports (CSV or backup files) go wherever you choose to save them.

3. What we process

To run the subscription, AI card writing and the import check, a small amount of information is handled off the device.

An anonymous install ID

When Tapioca launches, it creates a random identifier on our server (hosted by Supabase). It contains no name, email, phone number or device identifier. We use it to know whether an install has Tapioca Pro and to apply the monthly AI allowance. The same ID is given to RevenueCat, which manages subscription status for us.

Purchases

Payments are handled entirely by Apple. We never see your card details or Apple Account. Apple and RevenueCat process purchase information, such as the product, transaction dates and subscription status, linked to the anonymous ID above. RevenueCat also receives basic technical information needed to validate purchases, such as the app version, iOS version and App Store country. RevenueCat tells our server when your subscription starts, renews or ends, and we store whether Pro is active and until when, and the amount of each payment, refund or renewal, so we can see which ads pay for themselves.

Which ad brought you (Apple Ads)

The first time Tapioca opens, it asks Apple’s AdServices framework whether the download came from an Apple Ads search ad. Apple answers with the campaign, ad group and keyword, or says no ad was involved, and we store that answer with the anonymous ID. RevenueCat receives the same answer. This uses Apple’s privacy-preserving attribution: it doesn’t use your device’s advertising identifier, doesn’t track you across apps or websites, and doesn’t need your permission to track. We use it only to measure which of our own ads work.

AI usage totals

For each anonymous ID, we record per month how many AI requests were made, how many tokens they used and what they cost. This lets us enforce the fair-use allowance. It contains none of your content.

Usage analytics

To learn where new users get stuck, Tapioca records which screens of the first run and of the Tapioca Pro offer are reached, and how a purchase or restore ends: completed, cancelled or failed, and which plan. Each event carries the anonymous ID, the app version and the time. It includes nothing you type or study, no deck or card content, and no device model, iOS version or language.

These events are sent to PostHog, which stores them for us in the United States. No IP address is stored with them and no location is worked out from it. We use them only to improve Tapioca. They aren’t used for ads or tracking, aren’t combined with data from other companies, and aren’t sold.

Server logs

Like any online service, our hosting provider keeps standard request logs for a limited time, such as the time of a request, the function called, the response status and your IP address. We use them only to keep the service secure and to fix problems.

Catalogue downloads

Picture packs for the ready-made decks are hosted and delivered by Apple through the App Store. We don’t receive information about those downloads.

4. AI card writing

AI card writing is optional. Before anything is sent for the first time, Tapioca asks for your permission and explains exactly what happens.

What is sent. What you chose for that request: a topic, text you paste, the words recognised in a photo, or a PDF. If you’re adding to an existing deck, the fronts of the cards already in it are sent too, so nothing is written twice. Importing a file sends a short sample of it as well, and its text if the check says it was read wrongly, as described in the next section. Nothing else in your library is sent.

Where it goes. Your request goes to our server, which passes it to Anthropic’s Claude to write the cards and streams them back to your iPhone.

What is kept. We don’t store the content you send or the cards that come back. We keep only the usage totals described above. Under its commercial terms, Anthropic doesn’t use this content to train its models, and deletes it within 30 days. It may keep it for up to two years if its safety systems flag a request as violating its Usage Policy. See Anthropic’s privacy centre.

Your control. You can withdraw permission at any time in Profile › Settings, under Writing cards with AI. Tapioca will then ask again before sending anything. Please avoid sending sensitive personal information, or other people’s personal information, for card writing.

5. Importing a file

When you import a file or paste a list, Tapioca reads it on your iPhone and makes the cards there. Files come in every shape, so Tapioca also checks its work: a short sample of the text it read is sent to our server and on to Anthropic, which says whether the cards came out right. If they didn’t, Tapioca sends the text of the list so the layout can be worked out there and the corrected cards sent back to your iPhone.

What is sent. A short sample of the text Tapioca read, enough to show the layout — and, only when that check says the list was read wrongly, the text of the list itself. Pictures and audio from Anki packages never leave your iPhone, and neither does the rest of your library.

It’s an extra, not a requirement. Importing works with no network connection at all. The check uses the same permission as AI card writing, so until you’ve given that permission nothing from an import is sent, and the import still happens.

What is kept. We keep none of it. Anthropic deletes it within 30 days and doesn’t use it to train its models, on the terms described in section 4.

6. Service providers

We share information only with the companies that help run Tapioca, only for the purposes below, and under their own privacy commitments.

We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety and security of our users or the service. If Rainforest Apps is ever involved in a merger or sale, this policy would continue to apply to information transferred.

7. What we don’t do

• We don’t show ads or track you across apps or websites.
• We don’t put third-party analytics or crash-reporting code in the app. The usage analytics in section 3 are sent by Tapioca’s own code, and only what is described there.
• We don’t sell or rent your personal information, or share it for targeted advertising.
• We don’t ask for your name, email or contacts, or for access to your location.

8. How long we keep data

• Anonymous ID, subscription status, payment amounts, Apple Ads attribution and AI usage totals: until you use Erase all data in the app, or ask us to delete them.
• Usage analytics: kept in PostHog while we need them to improve the first run and the offer, or until you ask us to delete them.
• AI content and import samples: not stored by us. Anthropic keeps them as described in section 4.
• Server logs: kept for a short period by our hosting provider, then deleted automatically.
• Purchase records: kept by Apple and RevenueCat as required for billing, tax and legal purposes.

9. Your choices and rights

• Erase everything. Profile › Settings › Erase all data deletes your library on your iPhone, and deletes your anonymous ID from our server along with its subscription status and AI usage. Usage analytics not yet sent are discarded; those already sent stay under the old ID, which is then linked to nothing, and we’ll delete them if you ask. If you’re offline, the server deletion happens next time you’re connected. Your subscription itself belongs to your Apple Account and isn’t affected.
• Withdraw AI permission at any time, as described in section 4. Importing and everything else keep working without it.
• Export your cards or a full backup at any time.
• Turn off iCloud backup on the Backup page. You can delete existing backups from your iCloud storage settings.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or port your personal information, to object to or restrict its processing, and to withdraw consent. That includes residents of California and other US states, and of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. To make a request, email tapioca@rainforest-apps.com. Because we don’t know who you are, we may need your help to find the data that relates to you. We won’t discriminate against you for exercising your rights. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.

If the GDPR or UK GDPR applies to you, our legal bases are:

• Performance of our contract with you: running the app and your subscription.
• Your consent: AI card writing.
• Our legitimate interests: keeping the service secure, enforcing fair use, and improving the first run and the offer with usage analytics.

10. Children

Tapioca is not directed to children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has sent us personal information, contact us and we’ll delete it.

11. Security and international transfers

Data sent between the app and our server is encrypted in transit. Our database can’t be reached directly from the app, and only our server functions can read or write it. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect the information we handle.

Rainforest Apps and our providers are based in the United States, so your information may be processed there. Where the law requires it, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers, such as the standard contractual clauses our providers offer.

12. This website

This website uses no cookies, analytics or tracking. Our host, Netlify, keeps standard server logs, such as IP address, browser type and pages requested, to deliver and secure the site.

13. Changes and contact

We’ll update this policy when Tapioca changes how it handles data, and change the effective date above. Where a change is significant, we’ll also let you know in the app. Questions or requests: tapioca@rainforest-apps.com.

Rainforest Apps, United States.