Privacy Policy

Last updated 17 October 2026

This policy covers the Helicon app for iPhone and iPad, and this website.

What we collect

Helicon has no account and no server of ours. It has no advertising, and it does not use the advertising identifier. We cannot see your books, your notes, your highlights or your pins.

Usage analytics

The App Store version of Helicon counts how it is used, so we can tell which features help readers. It sends this through PostHog, an analytics service, to a project that only Helicon uses:

• Usage events: a book was added or opened, and its format (PDF, EPUB or scanned); a pin was saved, and its kind (typed, ink or figure); speed reading started, and its pace and style; a Review answer (got it or not yet); a Markdown export.
• Your answers to the first-launch questions, if you give them: what you read, what you want from Helicon, the pace you measured, and how you found Helicon. Each answer is one of the choices on the screen.
• Your email, only if you type it: on this website's Join the beta form, or on the app's last first-launch question. It joins your app answers to your beta sign-up, and PostHog then keeps your events under that email. We use it to know who tests Helicon and write to you only about Helicon.

Each event carries the app's version and an id that PostHog makes on your device. Without an email, nothing ties it to you: there is no name and no account, your IP address is not kept, and the advertising identifier is never read. With an email, your events and answers are linked to that email. None of it is used for tracking, and none of it is sold or shared for advertising. Never sent: book titles, file names, and the text of your notes, highlights or pins.

This website sets no cookies. It counts each page visit, and each tap on the TestFlight link, through PostHog. Each count carries the website you came from and your country, region and city, which Cloudflare reads from your IP address. The address itself is not kept, and no id lasts past the visit.

The App Store privacy label declares this as Usage Data (Product Interaction), Identifiers (Device ID) and Contact Info (Email Address), linked to you, and not used for tracking. PostHog keeps the data in the United States. To delete your email and what is linked to it, write to the address at the end of this page.

Where your reading is kept

• Books, pins, highlights, ink, margin notes, photos and voice notes in notes, and your Review schedule: on your device. When iCloud is on, they are also in your own iCloud Drive, so your iPhone and iPad show the same library. You can turn sync off on Books.
• Your iCloud is your Apple Account, under Apple's terms. We have no access to it.

What the app asks to use

• The microphone, only when you tap Record in a margin note. The recording stays with that note.
• A photo you pick with the system photo picker. Helicon gets only the photo you pick, not your library.

Crash reports

iOS writes crash and hang reports to a file inside the app. Nothing is uploaded. You can send a report yourself from Settings, About, with the share sheet, to wherever you choose.

Links and flashcards

A link inside a book opens in your browser, as a link in Mail does. Earlier test builds could turn a pin into a flashcard with OpenAI, using your own OpenAI key. Then the pin's text and your sentence about it went to api.openai.com under your own agreement with OpenAI, and never to us. That feature is off and has no switch in the App Store version, so the App Store privacy label also declares Other User Content for it, not linked to you and not used for tracking.

Children

Helicon is rated 4+. Its analytics are the same for everyone: they never hold a name, an age or anything you wrote.

Changes

If what Helicon keeps or sends ever changes, this page changes in the same release, and the date at the top moves with it.

Contact

Email: contact+helicon@skailex.com. Help with the app is on the support page.