Hamu Privacy Policy
In short: Hamu reads your EPUB and PDF books and explains words with an AI model that runs on your phone. Your books, your reading progress and the passages you read never leave your device. Hamu has no account, no ads and no subscription, and we do not sell or share your data for advertising.
This policy explains what data the Hamu app ("Hamu", "we", "us") handles, why, and the choices you have. It applies only to the Hamu Android app.
1. Data that stays on your device
The following is stored only on your phone, in Hamu's private app storage. We never receive it:
- Books you import (EPUB and PDF files) and the text extracted from them
- Your reading progress and reading settings (font, theme, text size)
- The words you look up and the AI meanings shown for them
- A local error log you can view in Settings → Problem report
The AI meanings are generated on your phone by an open-source model (Meta Llama 3.2 1B). The sentence and word you look up are processed on the device and are not sent to any server.
Removing a book in Hamu deletes it and its data. Uninstalling Hamu deletes everything Hamu stored on your phone. Hamu does not back up your data to the cloud.
2. When Hamu uses the internet
Hamu works offline for reading and AI meanings. It connects to the internet only in these cases:
| What | What is sent | Sent to |
|---|---|---|
| Downloading the AI model (once, about 800 MB) | A standard download request. As with any download, the server sees your IP address. | Hugging Face, or our backup copy on Cloudflare R2 |
| Pictures for a word (optional) | The single word you looked up, to check whether pictures exist and to show them when you tap Image. No other text from your book. | Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) |
| Crash reports and performance timings (optional) | See section 3 | Google Firebase |
| Read-aloud voices | Handled by your phone's own text-to-speech engine, which may download voices. Hamu does not send your book text to us. | Your phone's speech engine provider (for example Google) |
You can stop picture lookups completely by turning off Show image button in Hamu's Settings.
3. Crash reports and performance timings
To find and fix bugs, Hamu uses Google Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Performance Monitoring. When something goes wrong, or to measure speed, Hamu may send:
- Crash and error details: the type of error and the stack trace (which part of the app failed)
- Device information: phone model, Android version, app version, available memory and similar technical details
- A random installation identifier created by Firebase, which is not linked to your name, email or Google account
- Speed timings, such as how long the app took to start, load the AI model or produce a meaning
These reports never include your books, the text you read, the words you look up or the meanings shown. Before an error message leaves your phone, Hamu removes quoted text, file names and web addresses that could contain them.
Your choice: turn this off at any time in Settings → Send crash reports. When it is off, nothing is sent to Firebase.
Google processes this data on our behalf under the Firebase privacy and security terms. Crashlytics keeps crash reports for 90 days.
4. Reporting an AI meaning
If an AI meaning is wrong or offensive, you can tap the flag on it. Hamu then opens your own email app with the word, the meaning shown and your chosen reason filled in. Nothing is sent unless you send that email yourself. If you do, we receive your email address and what you wrote, and use them only to review the report and, if needed, reply to you. You can ask us to delete your emails at any time.
5. What we do not do
- We do not require an account or collect your name, email address, phone number or contacts
- We do not collect your location
- We do not show ads or use advertising identifiers
- We do not sell your data or share it with data brokers or advertisers
- We do not read or upload your books
6. Who we share data with
Only the service providers named above, and only for the purposes described:
- Google Firebase: crash reports and performance timings (if enabled)
- Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia): single looked-up words, for pictures (if enabled)
- Hugging Face and Cloudflare: serving the one-time AI model download
We may also disclose information if the law requires it.
7. Security
All of Hamu's internet connections use encryption (HTTPS). Your books and reading data stay in Hamu's private storage on your phone, which other apps cannot read. The downloaded AI model is checked against a known fingerprint before it is used.
8. Children
Hamu is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
9. Your rights and choices
- Turn off crash reports and picture lookups in Settings at any time
- Delete your books and reading data by removing books or uninstalling Hamu
- Ask us any question about your data, or ask us to delete emails you sent us, by writing to the address below
Because crash reports are not linked to your identity, we cannot match them to you, but they are deleted automatically after the retention period above.
10. Changes to this policy
If Hamu starts handling data differently (for example, if a future version shows ads), we will update this page and the effective date before that version is released, and describe the change in the app's release notes.
11. Contact
Developer: Manohar, India
Email: manoharapps.support@gmail.com