Privacy Policy

Native document library on iPhone, iPad and Mac

When you choose a file, shared text, or a link to save, Terms Agent keeps a copy in its local library. Supported files include PDF, plain text, RTF and HTML. The library records the document title, source address if provided, saved date, file type and size, favorites, collection labels and the source document identifier for derived copies. PDF reading position, page bookmarks and the identifier of the last opened PDF are also saved. A shared website link saves its address; it does not automatically download the website. Opening that link visits the website in your browser.

On iOS, the main app, Share extension and Widgets extension share an app-group container. The Safari extension does not share this document container. On Mac, the document library is kept in the app’s sandbox. These native libraries are separate from each other and from the browser extension’s Saved and Cards collections. There is no automatic cross-device library sync. The app marks its library and scan-draft directories as excluded from operating-system backups; export any copies you want to keep elsewhere. Source files and exports outside the library remain subject to their own storage provider and backup settings.

The app reads files you select or share; it does not request access to unrelated folders, your contacts, microphone or photo library. On iOS, saved document and draft files use file protection that restricts access while the device is locked. The Mac app uses its sandbox. These protections do not replace your device’s security or protect copies you deliberately export.

PDF search, page tools, annotations, typed text, signatures and form filling operate on your device. Saving an edited PDF to the library creates a separate copy, retaining the original. Form values, annotations and signatures can be part of that saved or exported PDF. A document password is used to unlock the PDF for the current session and is not saved by Terms Agent. A new PDF copy may not retain the original password protection; the app warns before making such a copy.

Delete removes the chosen library copy and its reading state, and refreshes the widget summary. It does not remove the original imported file, separately saved edited copies, browser Saved or Cards data, or exports already handed to another app. Saved documents remain until you delete them or remove the app’s data. Do not rely on uninstalling a Mac app to erase its support data; remove documents in the library first.

Camera scans and draft recovery

Camera access is requested when you start scanning on a supported iPhone or iPad. Apple’s document scanner provides capture, page-corner adjustment and appearance controls. After you finish capture, Terms Agent prepares the PDF on your device and keeps a recovery draft until you save it to the library or explicitly discard it. That draft contains the scanned PDF plus a session identifier, status, timestamps and known page count. The app remembers your scan-quality preference locally.

An unfinished iOS camera session is not a saved scan. If the app is closed before the system scanner returns its pages, those unfinished pages cannot be recovered. A completed recovery draft can be reopened when available. The app does not continue camera capture in the background or promise uninterrupted processing after you leave it.

On Mac, choosing Scan uses Apple’s Continuity Camera to receive a scan or photo from a compatible nearby iPhone or iPad. Apple’s device pairing and transfer requirements apply. Terms Agent keeps the received capture and recovery draft locally on the Mac; it does not upload the capture through a Terms Agent server or synchronize the phone’s Terms Agent library. The app does not change your device accounts, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth settings.

Local document explanations

When you ask for explanations, Terms Agent extracts PDF text and may recognize image text with Apple’s on-device Vision framework. It then uses bundled phrase-matching rules, including the reader’s local analysis code, to identify passages. Document text, recognized text and explanations are not uploaded or synced, sent to an AI service, or used by Terms Agent to train AI models. Analysis results are kept in memory for the open workspace rather than saved as a separate analysis history.

Recognition and explanations can miss wording or context. Analysis is bounded to the first 100 pages, up to 50 image-text recognition attempts and 80,000 characters; a selected-text explanation is limited to 6,000 characters. The app identifies limits and recognized-text sources. This does not add a searchable OCR text layer to the original PDF. Check the original document before relying on a result.

Widgets, Live Activities and shortcuts

The iOS library widget uses saved-document, PDF and favorite counts plus a document identifier for its Continue reading link. The snapshot contains no document names, page text, annotations or form values. Counts may be visible where you place the widget, subject to your device’s privacy settings.

Scan Live Activities show operational status, timestamps, a session identifier and a known page count when available. They do not include document names, images or recognized wording. Live Activities can appear on the Lock Screen or Dynamic Island according to your system settings; they do not keep the camera running in the background. Quick actions, widgets, Shortcuts and Action button shortcuts open the relevant app workflow. They do not silently scan or share documents. Remove widgets or manage Live Activities in your device settings if you do not want these surfaces displayed.

Sharing, exporting and printing documents

The native apps offer system share, export and print controls for the item you choose. A temporary copy may be created to hand the document to the system; the app attempts to remove that copy when the share flow finishes or is cancelled. Temporary files left after an interrupted process remain subject to operating-system cleanup. Selecting a destination such as Mail, Files, AirDrop or a printer can pass your document, including its form entries or annotations, to that destination under its own settings and policies. Terms Agent does not choose a recipient or automatically send mail. Review the destination and document before completing the system action.

Files you export to a cloud-backed folder may be uploaded by that storage service. Removing a library item or recovery draft does not recall copies already shared, printed or exported. Keep sensitive documents only on destinations you intend to use.

Safari reading on iPhone and iPad

On iPhone and iPad, opening the Safari extension reads the current website’s text, title, address and selected wording to produce topic explanations on your device. Page wording and results stay in the open popup’s memory and are discarded when it closes; they are not saved, uploaded or synced. This extension does not retrieve linked policies or provide the desktop Saved and Cards collections. The cookie-notice preference is stored locally in Safari, and Safari manages website permissions.

Browser reading features

The following sections describe the desktop browser reader where those features are available. Browser extension data is separate from the native document library.

Reading a page

When you open Terms Agent on a page, it reads the page text, address, headings, and policy links to find documents and explain matching passages. The site card shows the website and document being read. Analysis uses phrase matching on your device. Policy text and explanations are not uploaded or synced, sent to an AI service, or used by Terms Agent to train AI models. This version does not save decisions or create receipts.

When you open the reader, it also requests up to three directly linked HTML policies from the same origin, without cookies or referrers. These requests have page-size and time limits and do not follow redirects or crawl further links. The website receives ordinary network information, including your IP address. Linked policy text and results stay in the open reader’s memory, are reused during that reader session, and are discarded when it closes, unless you explicitly save a passage as described below. Unread documents remain available as links.

Passages you choose to save

Ordinary reading and Explain selected text do not save policy wording. When you choose Save passage, Save selected text or Save displayed text, Terms Agent keeps that wording with its source page title, address and saved date in extension storage in your browser profile. Saving displayed text keeps the text shown in the source reading panel; the panel identifies when it shows a shortened source. The local Saved page opens only when you choose it. Saved passages remain available after the reader, tab or browser session closes, until you remove them. The Saved collection can also keep a readable page snapshot when you choose Save page. It may retain available author, site name and publication date, your access date, and a browser-session identifier and label for grouping saved items. It keeps readable text, not an original page file or linked documents. At most 50 saved pages or passages of up to 250,000 characters each can be kept, within a 1,000,000-character total. Terms Agent does not upload or sync saved passages.

On the Saved page, Remove deletes an individual passage. Clear all deletes the saved collection after an inline confirmation. These actions delete saved passages from this browser profile only; they preserve settings, temporary reading context, older extension data and browser history.

Cards in the desktop browser reader

Where Cards is available and enabled, you can preview an agreement from a chosen PDF, HTML or text file, pasted wording, a Saved item or a Terms Agent JSON backup. Files are read locally. HTML is treated as text and PDFs use the bundled PDF.js reader; imported scripts and linked page resources are not loaded. The Cards collection saves extracted text rather than the original PDF or HTML file, its images or layout.

Choosing Save or Import retains the document text, title, source address if supplied, filename where available, format, source date and language when available, saved date, warnings and capture or retrieval details. Your card names group those documents. No card numbers, credentials or transaction history are requested. Do not include private account details you do not want retained. Limits are 25 cards, eight documents per card, 250,000 characters per document and 1,000,000 characters total. Imported files are limited to 10 MiB and PDFs to 100 pages.

A deliberate Review in Cards action can stage readable page wording and source details in temporary extension session storage for a preview. At most four captures are retained. A preview is valid for 30 minutes; expired captures are deleted on their next access or when another capture is staged, and older captures are removed as new ones arrive. Saving or discarding a preview removes that staged capture. Clearing the browser or extension session storage removes remaining captures. They do not enter the saved Cards collection until you save them.

Choosing Review link requests browser permission for the selected HTTPS site before retrieving that public HTML, text or PDF document directly. The site receives the request, your IP address and ordinary browser network information. Requests omit sign-in cookies and referrers, do not follow redirects and are limited to 10 MiB and 45 seconds. Merely prefilling a link does not retrieve it. Website permission can remain until removed in your browser settings. Terms Agent does not proxy the file through its servers.

Remove document or Remove card asks for confirmation and deletes the selected local data. Removing the last document removes its empty card. Export can download full text and attribution in a Markdown report, a CSV comparison or a JSON backup according to your chosen scope. JSON import merges valid entries without replacing the existing collection. These actions do not automatically email or share the files. Disabling Cards hides the workspace and clears its temporary preview but preserves saved agreements. Deleting Cards data preserves Saved pages and passages, preferences, and copies exported elsewhere.

Output you choose

Copy selected writes the passages you select, with their source attribution, to your clipboard. If clipboard access is unavailable, the Saved page offers text you can copy manually. Email selected passes the selected output to your configured email application through a mailto link. It does not set a recipient or send an email. Output that is too large for an email link can be copied instead.

Your operating system, clipboard tools and email application handle exported copies under their own settings and policies. Removing passages or clearing the saved collection in Terms Agent does not remove copies already exported elsewhere. Opening a saved source link is ordinary browser navigation to that website.

Preferences on your device

“Topics to show first” in Welcome and Settings lets you pin topics so matching explanations appear first. Payments and renewals, Who gets your data, and AI training start selected when no topic preferences have been saved. You can unpin any or all of them. Existing saved selections are preserved.

Pins only change the order of explanations. Selecting a topic, including AI training, does not give a website consent or change how it uses your data. Topic changes are saved on this device and are not shared with websites or synced between devices.

Your optional cookie-notice preference stays in your browser. Safari follows your system appearance; Chrome also stores appearance preferences locally. Completing Welcome saves the completion time and extension version locally. The selected citation format and whether Cards is enabled are also local browser preferences. These settings remain until changed or the extension’s local data is removed.

Temporary reading context

Policy addresses, document titles, related links, reading status, language, and known policy dates are kept temporarily in browser session storage to support navigation. These policy lists contain no policy text, expire from use after 24 hours, and are removed when their tab or browser session ends. To support a source-page handoff, Terms Agent also temporarily keeps the source address, requested destination, verified destination when available, navigation status and timestamps. Navigation requests and this handoff context expire from use after five minutes and are removed when their tab or browser session ends. Unrelated navigation clears the handoff context.

To return you to the same place after viewing a source, Terms Agent temporarily keeps the document address, expanded topics, source indexes, open sections, scroll position and a limited keyboard-focus identifier in browser session storage. These reading positions contain no policy or selected text and are not uploaded or synced. Positions are scoped to each tab and document, limited to eight documents per tab, ignored after 30 minutes, and removed when their tab or browser session ends. This temporary metadata is separate from passages you explicitly save.

Optional cookie-notice hiding

You can enable “Hide cookie notices” in Welcome or Settings. This feature is off by default. Your browser asks for access to HTTP and HTTPS websites so Terms Agent can detect and hide common notices locally while you browse. It does not transmit banner content or browsing history, accept or reject cookies, or block advertisements or tracking.

Turning the feature off stops notice hiding and restores notices it hid on open pages. Website permission remains granted until you remove it in your browser’s extension settings. Revoking that permission also stops notice hiding.

Connections and information use

The native apps and current browser reader do not contact a Terms Agent server for analysis or library storage. They have no account sign-in or built-in analytics or telemetry. If you use a TestFlight beta, Apple can collect beta feedback, usage information and crash reports under its TestFlight terms and privacy practices; that is separate from app document analysis. Opening a policy, the Privacy Policy, or a support link navigates your browser to that website, which receives ordinary network information, including your IP address, under its own practices. Information you choose to send through support is handled through that support service.

We use information to provide the features described here. We do not sell it or use it for advertising or unrelated profiling. Our use of Chrome API data follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including Limited Use requirements.

Your control

You can change pinned topics in Welcome or Settings and change notice hiding in Settings. Chrome also provides appearance controls; Safari follows the system appearance. Data saved by older versions, including decisions, source excerpts, and remembered website choices, stays in your browser but is no longer used by the reader. If present, you can delete old decisions and remembered choices together under “Data from older versions” in Settings. Your current topic, appearance, and cookie-notice preferences are kept. Removing the extension clears its local data according to your browser’s behaviour.

Questions or older accounts?

Contact termsagent@gmail.com for support or privacy questions. If you used an earlier account-enabled version, deleting local data does not erase previously synced server data; contact support to request deletion.

We’ll update this policy when our data practices change.

Previous account-enabled policy

Archived policy for versions 0.12.2 and 0.12.3

Archived policy for the earlier 0.12.4 browser reader