Aloud — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-07-06

Aloud is an audiobook player for audiobooks you already own. It is built around a simple principle: your files and your listening data stay on your device. Aloud has no developer servers, no user accounts of its own, no advertising, and no analytics or tracking SDKs.

Who we are

Aloud is developed by Sergio Piedrahita. Contact: dev-team@aloud-app.com.

What data Aloud accesses

• Audio files on your device — folders you explicitly grant through Android's system folder picker (Storage Access Framework). Aloud reads these files to list your books, read embedded chapter/title/author tags and cover art, and play audio.
• Google Drive (optional) — if you connect a Google account, Aloud requests the drive.readonly permission and your basic Google account info (name, email address, profile picture) to identify the connected account. Aloud uses Drive access solely to list the audiobook folders you select inside the app, read file metadata (names, sizes, types), stream audio content for playback, and read embedded tags and cover art from those audio files. Aloud never modifies, creates, shares, or deletes anything in your Drive.
• Microphone (optional) — only when you record a voice note on a bookmark. Recordings are stored on your device and are never uploaded anywhere.

Where your data is processed and stored

All processing happens on your device. Audiobook audio streams directly from Google's servers to your device; it never passes through any server operated by us — none exist. Aloud stores, locally on your device only: your library index and book metadata, playback positions and bookmarks, downloaded cover images, voice notes, read-along transcripts generated on-device, and any audio you explicitly make available offline. Speech-to-text for the read-along feature runs entirely on-device (Whisper); your audio is never sent to a cloud service for transcription.

What Aloud shares with third parties

Nothing that identifies you or your account. To show covers, ratings, and reviews, Aloud queries public book-catalog services (Apple iTunes Search, Open Library, Google Books, LibraryThing, Hardcover, Audnexus, The New York Times Books API) using only book title and author text derived from your files' names or embedded tags. These requests contain no account identity, no file contents, and no information about your Google account. The optional free-classics catalog streams public-domain audiobooks from LibriVox via the Internet Archive (archive.org).

Google user data — Limited Use disclosure

Aloud's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically: Google Drive data is used only to provide Aloud's user-facing audiobook-playback features; it is never sold, never used for advertising, never used to train AI models, and never transferred to third parties except as necessary to provide those user-facing features (the title/author catalog queries described above), for security purposes, or to comply with applicable law. No human reads your Drive data.

Your controls

• Disconnect Google Drive at any time from Aloud's Sources screen — this removes the stored credentials from your device.
• Revoke Aloud's access independently at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
• Revoke folder access for on-device folders from the Sources screen.
• Delete all local data by clearing Aloud's storage in Android settings or uninstalling the app. Aloud keeps no copy anywhere else.

Data retention

Because everything lives on your device, retention is under your control: data persists until you delete it, clear the app's storage, or uninstall. Google OAuth tokens are stored in Android's encrypted storage on your device and are deleted when you disconnect the account.

Children

Aloud is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

If Aloud's data practices change, this page will be updated and the "Last updated" date revised before the change takes effect.