huh Privacy Policy
huh is a podcast player that helps you understand podcasts in another language. This policy explains what data the huh iOS app and its server handle, why, and for how long. We do not sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps and websites.
What stays on your iPhone
- Speech recognition. Subtitles are generated on your iPhone with Apple's on-device speech recognition. Audio is not sent to us or to anyone else for transcription.
- Your library. The podcasts and episodes you add, your listening progress, downloaded audio and subtitles are stored on your device. Deleting the app deletes them.
What our server processes
- An anonymous account. To apply free limits and Pro access, the app creates an anonymous account. It is tied to an app-generated device identifier or to your App Store purchase record (App Transaction), which we store only in hashed form. We do not ask for your name, email address or phone number.
- Subscriptions. When you subscribe, we receive the App Store transaction information signed by Apple (product, purchase and expiry dates, transaction IDs) to confirm your Pro access. Payment is handled entirely by Apple; we never see your payment details.
- Usage counts. We count how many HUH? explanations, Bilingual minutes and episodes each account uses, so the free limits work.
- Podcast links and audio. When you add a show, its public RSS feed may be read through our server. Episode audio is streamed through our server from the publisher, and short clips are prepared there for on-device speech recognition. Show titles and descriptions are checked automatically to keep prohibited content out of the service.
- Sentences you ask about. When you tap HUH? or use Bilingual subtitles, the sentence text (with the show and episode title for context) is sent to our server to produce a translation and explanation. Explanations are cached so the same sentence does not need to be processed again; the cache does not record which account asked.
- Web lookups. For some explanations we run a short web search on names or terms from the sentence. Only the search phrase is sent, never your account.
- Feedback you send. If you use "Report a problem", we receive your note, the app's diagnostic log, the app version and your device model and iOS version.
- App events. The app sends anonymous product and performance events (for example, that onboarding was shown, or how quickly playback resumed after a seek) with a random per-launch session ID. These never contain subtitles, sentences or audio.
- Server logs. Like any web service, our server records requests, including IP addresses, to keep the service running and secure.
Service providers
We share data only with the providers needed to run these features:
- DeepSeek and Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (Qwen) generate translations and explanations from sentence text and show metadata.
- Serper runs the web searches used for background context.
- Apple processes App Store purchases and powers podcast search and charts.
- Podcast publishers and their hosts receive requests for feeds and audio, as with any podcast app.
Our server is located in Hong Kong. Model providers may process data in mainland China or Hong Kong.
How long we keep data
- Account, subscription and usage records: while your account is in use.
- Feedback reports: up to 30 days.
- Web server access logs: up to 14 days.
Your choices
- You can use huh without creating a profile or sharing personal contact details.
- You can clear downloaded audio and subtitles in the app under My HUH → Local cache, or delete the app to remove all local data.
- To ask what data is linked to your anonymous account or to have it deleted, email us. Because the account is anonymous, include the app's diagnostic log from "Report a problem" or your App Store order ID so we can find it.
Children
huh is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update this page and its effective date.
Questions or requests: huh.support@gmail.com