Privacy Policy

Who we are

Tipword is made and sold by Dasun Tharanga, an independent developer (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the Tipword app for Mac and the website at tipword.app.

Questions about privacy? Email support@tipword.app.

What the app does on your Mac

Reading the screen. With the Accessibility permission, Tipword reads the word under your pointer. With the optional Screen Recording permission, it can also read words inside images and PDFs using text recognition that runs on your Mac. Nothing it reads is saved, except the translations described below.

Saved translations. Words you translate and their translations are cached on your Mac so the same word isn’t translated twice. They never leave your Mac. You can clear them any time in Settings › General › Saved translations.

Where translations happen

On your Mac, with Apple. On macOS 15 or later, about 20 languages are translated by Apple’s built-in Translation framework on your Mac. Apple may download language models to your Mac the first time you use a language. This is covered by Apple’s privacy policy.

With your own Google key. For languages Apple doesn’t translate, you can add your own Google Cloud Translation API key. When you do, the word you point at and your chosen language are sent from your Mac directly to Google, using your key. We never receive them. Google’s terms and privacy policy apply, and any costs are between you and Google. Your key is stored in your Mac’s Keychain.

Your license

When you activate Tipword, the app sends your license key, an identifier for your Mac and your Mac’s name to our licensing provider, Polar. The app checks the license with Polar from time to time. We use this only to confirm your license and to keep it to 3 Macs.

You can see and remove your Macs in the customer portal.

Updates

Tipword checks tipword.app for new versions. Like any web request, this includes your IP address and the app’s version. It doesn’t include any information about you or what you read.

Buying Tipword

Purchases are handled by Polar (polar.sh), which acts as the merchant of record. Polar processes your payment, calculates tax and sends your receipt. We receive your name, email address, country and order details. We never see your card details. Polar’s privacy policy applies to the checkout.

The website

tipword.app is a static website hosted on Cloudflare. Cloudflare processes requests (including your IP address) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse, and may keep short-lived logs for that purpose.

Google tag. The website uses the Google tag to measure how our Google Ads perform, for example whether a visit from an ad leads to a purchase. Google may receive your IP address, browser details and the pages you visit, and may set cookies. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, ad cookies are off by default. You can manage ad personalization at myadaccount.google.com. Google’s privacy policy applies. The Tipword app itself contains no Google tag.

What we never do

• We don’t sell or rent your information.
• The app never shows ads or tracks what you do.
• We don’t build profiles or read your translations.

How long we keep information

We keep purchase and license records for as long as your license exists and as long as the law requires for tax and accounting. Server logs are kept only briefly.

Your choices and rights

You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it, by emailing support@tipword.app. Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, the UK or California), you may have further rights under local law, and you can complain to your data protection authority.

Children

Tipword isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update it here and change the date at the top. For important changes, we’ll also mention it in the app’s release notes.