Last updated 14 October 2026
Privacy Policy
In short: Picyin doesn't collect anything about you. Your photos, phrases and progress stay on your iPhone. There are no accounts, no analytics, no ads and no tracking.
Picyin is an iPhone app for learning to read Chinese from photos of the signs, menus and labels around you. This policy explains what happens to the information the app uses. "We" means the developer of Picyin.
Your photos and phrases stay on your iPhone
The photos you take or choose, the Chinese read from them, their translations, any edits you make, and your review history and streak are stored only on your iPhone, inside the app. We don't run a server for Picyin, and nothing you put into it is sent to us.
Your iPhone's own backups (to iCloud or a computer) include the app's data, as they do for any app. Those backups are handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy.
What runs on your iPhone
- Reading the text. Picyin finds the Chinese in a photo with Apple's on-device text recognition. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, it can also ask Apple's on-device model to double-check a reading. Both run entirely on your iPhone.
- Translation. English comes from Apple's Translation framework, which translates on your iPhone. The first time, iOS may offer to download Chinese for it; that download comes from Apple.
- Speech. Phrases are read aloud with the Chinese voices built into iOS.
- Readings and meanings come from a copy of the CC-CEDICT dictionary that is part of the app.
Location, if you allow it
With Show Photo Location turned on in Settings, Picyin asks for your location while the camera is open, so it can label the photo with the city you took it in. To find the city's name, your iPhone sends the coordinates to Apple's map service; only the city's name is kept, with the photo, on your iPhone. For photos you choose from your library, the location recorded in the photo is used the same way. You can turn this off at any time in Settings, or deny location access in iOS Settings, and Picyin works the same without it.
Camera and photos
Picyin uses the camera only while the camera screen is open, to take the photos you ask it to. When you pick photos from your library, iOS gives Picyin only the photos you choose; Picyin can't see the rest of your library.
Purchases
Picyin Premium is bought through the App Store. Apple processes the payment; we never receive your name, payment details or Apple Account. The app asks the App Store whether Premium was bought on your Apple Account, so it can unlock it on your devices.
Reminders
If you turn on the daily reminder, Picyin schedules a notification on your iPhone. No information leaves your device to do this.
What we don't do
- We don't collect personal information, or any data from the app.
- We don't use analytics, advertising or tracking of any kind.
- We don't sell or share information, because we don't have any.
Deleting your data
In Picyin, go to Settings › Delete All Data to remove every photo, phrase and review from your iPhone at once. Deleting the app does the same. You can also delete single photos or phrases at any time. Because Picyin keeps no copy anywhere else, deleted data can't be recovered.
Children
Picyin is suitable for all ages and collects no information from anyone, including children.
Changes
If Picyin ever starts handling information differently, this policy will be updated before that change ships, with a new date at the top.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email hello@dylankroft.com.