Privacy · Tempo Reader

Tempo Reader on Android

Tempo reads, speaks and stores your documents on your phone. It goes online for two things only: to fetch a web page when you paste its address, and for Google's ML Kit, which reads photos and scans on your phone without sending your pictures or their text. ML Kit sends Google diagnostics, including an ID for this installation and device details. Tempo has no account, no analytics and no server of its own.

What Tempo keeps on your phone

• Your documents, the text lifted out of them, and the photos you take of pages. Google's ML Kit reads the photos on your phone.
• Your library, your place in every document, and your settings.
• The speech. Tempo reads aloud with the voices installed on your device; nothing is sent away to be spoken.

What leaves your device

• Google Play, when you subscribe or restore a purchase. Google takes the payment; Tempo never sees your card or your Google account.
• The web page you ask for, when you import one by pasting a link. Tempo fetches that one address to get the text. Apart from Google Play and Google's ML Kit, it is the only request the app makes.
• Google's ML Kit diagnostics, after it reads a photo or a scan. The next section lists them.

What ML Kit sends Google

• When it sends: nothing until Tempo reads a photo or a scan. After one, ML Kit sends two small batches, the first within about a minute and the second up to about a day later, usually while Tempo isn't in use.
• An ID for this installation. It stays the same each time you open Tempo, changes if you clear Tempo's data or reinstall it, and does not move to a new phone.
• Device details: model, manufacturer, Android build, country, carrier, network type, language and region, and time zone.
• Details of the reading: the app and ML Kit versions, the image's format, size and dimensions, and how long recognition took.

It does not send your pictures or their text. Google's ML Kit terms say both stay on the phone, and our own network tests found neither in what ML Kit sent.

Google offers no switch to turn these diagnostics off. If you never read a photo or a scan, ML Kit sends nothing.

These diagnostics go to Google, not to us. Tempo's Google Play listing declares them in its Data safety section, as diagnostics and device or other IDs.

Tempo shows this once, at the photo and camera tiles: "Photos are read on your phone by Google's ML Kit, which sends Google diagnostics, including an ID for this installation."

What Tempo doesn't do

• No account. Tempo never asks for your name, your email or a password.
• Tempo has no analytics, tracking, advertising or crash reporting of its own. Google's ML Kit does send Google diagnostics after it reads a photo.
• No ad or analytics companies. The only other companies in the path are Google Play, for the subscription and crash reports, and Google's ML Kit, for reading photos.
• Your documents don't reach the developer. Google's ML Kit sends Google diagnostics, including an ID for this installation and device details.
• Google Play gives us anonymous crash reports and order records for purchases.

Camera and photos

Tempo asks for no camera or storage permission. It opens your phone's own camera when you photograph a page, and Android's photo picker when you choose a picture. The image is read on your phone and kept with the document it became.

Moving to a new phone

Android's device transfer moves your library, figures, reading positions and settings to the new phone. ML Kit's ID does not go with them. Tempo stays out of Google's cloud backup.

Deleting

Tempo keeps your documents on your phone until you delete them or the app.

Delete a document in the app and it goes, with its text and your place in it. Delete the app and everything it stored goes with it.

Who makes it

Tempo Reader is sold on Google Play by Cianflone Technologies Inc. Tempo is made by CIAV Group of Companies.

Privacy questions: info@ciav.ca

Terms of Use for Android