synesisprivacy policy
This policy covers the Synesis app for phones and the Synesis Studio desktop app. Both are made by Ktisai ("we", "us"). It explains what each app collects, where that data goes, how long it stays there, and how to ask us to delete it.
The short version:
- Your vocabulary, decks, review history, Converse chats, card images and voice recordings live on your device.
- When you use an AI feature, the words and text needed for it are sent to an AI provider (OpenAI, or xAI if you choose Grok with your own key).
- We don't sell your data, show ads, or use analytics or tracking tools.
- Synesis Studio sends nothing to us at all.
The Synesis app
Your account
You sign in with Google (or Apple on iPhone). Sign-in runs through Google Firebase. We receive your name, email address, profile picture and an account ID. The app shows your name and picture on the home and account screens. Your email is visible to us when we manage your Synesis balance. We never send your name or email to an AI provider.
What stays on your device
Your words, decks, flashcard review history, Scripture progress, Converse chats, card images and pronunciation recordings are saved on your phone, not on our servers. Signing out doesn't erase them. Uninstalling the app or clearing its data does. You can export a backup file of your learning data from the Database screen. That file goes wherever you choose to save it.
The app also keeps small settings on your device, like your theme, review reminders and drill filters.
The microphone
Synesis uses the microphone only when you press record to save your own pronunciation of a word on a card. The recording is saved on your device with that card. It leaves your device only if you export a deck to Anki with audio included. Then it is sent to our server so the deck file can be built, and the server doesn't keep it. Synesis has no speech recognition and never listens in the background.
AI features
When you use an AI feature, the app sends only what that feature needs:
- Card images: the Greek word, its English meaning, the style you picked and any extra description you typed. To edit an image, the image itself and your instructions are sent too.
- Converse: your message, recent turns of the conversation, and a list of the words you know so the replies stay at your level. In the Converse tutorial, the English name you type is sent so it can be turned into Greek.
- Parsing help and part-of-speech guesses: the Greek word and the forms you asked for.
These requests go through our server to OpenAI. If you choose a Grok model in Converse with your own key, your Converse messages go to xAI instead. Some part-of-speech and parsing lookups go straight from your device to OpenAI when you use your own key. When you pay with your Synesis balance, we also send OpenAI a scrambled, one-way version of your account ID so it can spot abuse. It can't be turned back into your name or email.
We don't save your Converse messages or AI text replies on our servers. OpenAI and xAI handle what they receive under their own terms. See the OpenAI privacy policy and the xAI privacy policy.
Generated images
When our server makes or edits a card image, it saves a copy of the image in our cloud storage (Vercel Blob), along with a record of the request: the word, its meaning, any description you typed, and your account ID. The app downloads the image from there and keeps its own copy on your device. These files sit at web addresses we don't publish, but anyone who has the exact address can open them. We don't delete them automatically yet. If you want yours removed, email us.
Using your own OpenAI key
If you add your own OpenAI or xAI key, it is saved in your Synesis account in Google Firebase. Only you and our server can read it. Google encrypts this database on its servers. We use your key only to send your own AI requests to that provider. We never write it to logs, image records or anywhere else. To stop using it, switch back to your Synesis balance or replace the key, and email us if you want it erased.
Your Synesis balance
If you use AI features with a Synesis balance, we keep a record of your balance and of each charge: when it happened, which feature and model were used, how many tokens it took, and the cost. We also keep daily usage totals. These records don't include your words, prompts or messages. Synesis doesn't take card payments in the app, so we never see card or bank details there.
The community word catalog
You can choose to submit a card to the shared catalog, or propose a change, vote and comment on others' proposals. That is public to other signed-in Synesis users, together with your account ID (not your name or email). An image you submit is uploaded to our Firebase storage. If a submission is accepted, its image and word become part of the catalog. We may also share accepted catalog cards publicly, for example on social media. Proposals and their comments are deleted 30 days after they are decided. We keep a short summary of each decision, and to write it we send the comment text (without anyone's account ID) to xAI.
Problem reports and screenshots
To make bug reports useful, the app keeps up to five small screenshots of its own screens while you use it. These stay on your phone unless you send a report. They are never taken on the account, Converse or Anki import screens, or while a dialog or a password-style field is open. They are wiped when the app restarts, after 10 minutes in the background, and when you sign out. You can turn this off in Account settings.
Nothing is sent until you open "Report a problem" (or draw two circles on the screen) and tap Submit. A report includes what you typed, the screenshots and images you leave selected, your account ID, and technical details: the screens you just visited, your theme, the app version, your phone's operating system and version, screen size, language, and whether you use your own key. It doesn't include your name or email. Reports are stored in Google Firebase. An unsent draft stays on your phone for up to 72 hours.
Reminders
Review reminders are notifications scheduled on your phone. We don't use push notifications, so no notification token is sent to us.
Synesis Studio (desktop)
Synesis Studio doesn't have an account and doesn't send anything to us.
- Your files: each deck lives in a folder you choose. It holds your word list, the generated images, your recordings and any decks you export. Nothing is uploaded anywhere else.
- The microphone: Studio records only while you hold Space or the record button. Each take is saved as a sound file in your deck folder and is never uploaded.
- Your OpenAI key: you add your own key. Studio saves it only on your computer, encrypted with Windows' built-in data protection.
- OpenAI: to make an image, edit one, or write an image description, Studio sends the Greek word, its meaning, the style and any description you add straight to OpenAI with your key. To edit an image, the image itself is sent too. OpenAI handles this under its own terms.
- Settings: Studio remembers your recent deck folders and which microphone you chose, on your computer only.
Studio has no analytics, tracking or crash reporting.
This website
This site is hosted by Vercel, which keeps standard request logs. It loads fonts from Google Fonts, so Google can see your IP address. The "Beta access" button opens a Google Form, and Google handles what you enter there. Its public pages don't use cookies, analytics or tracking.
What we don't do
- We don't sell or rent your data.
- We don't show ads or use advertising IDs.
- We don't use analytics, tracking or crash-reporting tools.
- We don't use your data to train AI models.
Your choices
- Turn off automatic report screenshots in Account settings.
- Don't submit to the catalog, or send reports, if you'd rather not share that data.
- Remove everything on your device by clearing the app's data or uninstalling it.
- Email synesis@ktisai.com to ask what we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete your account and the data tied to it: your account record and key, balance records, catalog submissions, problem reports and generated images.
Changes
When this policy changes, we update it here and change the date at the top.
Contact
Questions or requests about privacy: synesis@ktisai.com.