Last updated: 18 April 2026
TL;DR — Rephraser does not send your text anywhere, ever. All rephrasing runs on your own device via Apple MLX (Mac) or llama.cpp (Windows). This page covers the two narrow exceptions: model downloads and anonymous telemetry.
Rephraser can send anonymous usage events to TelemetryDeck, a GDPR-friendly, privacy-focused analytics service. You can toggle this off any time in Settings → Share anonymous usage analytics. It's on by default because the signal helps us prioritise features; it contains no text content.
| Event | When | Fields sent |
|---|---|---|
appLaunched | App starts | OS, anonymous client hash, session id |
rephraseStarted | You press the hotkey | + mode (e.g. "professional") |
rephraseAccepted | You hit Enter | same as above |
rephraseRejected | You hit Escape | same as above |
modelDownloaded | Model fetch completes | + model id (e.g. "qwen2.5-0.5b") |
modeChanged | You pick a mode | + new mode |
The anonymous client hash is a one-way SHA-256 of a random UUID we generate on first launch. It lets us count returning users without identifying them — we couldn't reverse it to find you even if we wanted to.
When you download Rephraser from rephraser.app, we ask for your email. It's stored in a private Google Sheet we use to send the occasional release announcement. Unsubscribe by replying to any email. We don't share it.
The AI model weights live on HuggingFace. When you download a model, a direct connection from your machine to HuggingFace's CDN transfers the file. Rephraser doesn't proxy this — see HuggingFace's own privacy policy for what they log.
Windows ships on much more diverse hardware than Mac, so we'll add crash reporting via Sentry in v0.2. Stack traces only — we strip any text content, file paths, or PII before sending. Gated by the same analytics toggle.
The download site uses GoatCounter — a privacy-first page-view counter that doesn't use cookies, doesn't track individuals, and doesn't send data to Google.
Telemetry is anonymous by design — we can't identify an individual user. For email list removal or any data question, email srivatsan@vatsan.app. We reply within 7 days.
If this policy materially changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top and note the change in the release notes.