Privacy Policy

Overview

Edda is designed with privacy as a core principle. Your writing stays on your device. We do not collect, store, or have access to any content you create in Edda.

What We Collect

We collect minimal information necessary to operate the service:

• Email address (for license delivery and support)
• Name (optional, for purchase records)
• Payment information (processed securely by Square, PayPal, or Venmo, and we never see your card details)

What We Don't Collect

• Your notes, documents, or any content created in Edda
• Audio recordings or transcribed text from speech recognition
• Writing prompts you pull from the Skald library or chapter reports you request
• Usage analytics or telemetry
• Location data
• Device identifiers beyond what's needed for licensing

Microphone and Speech Recognition

Edda includes an optional dictation feature that needs microphone access. It is only active while you are dictating, and you can revoke microphone permission at any time in your device settings. No audio and no transcribed text is ever sent to Volsung Technologies.

• Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux): speech is turned into text by a speech recognition model (Whisper) that ships with Edda and runs on your computer. No audio leaves your device, and it works offline.
• iPhone and iPad: Edda uses Apple's speech recognition in on-device mode only, so audio stays on your device. Where your device or language does not support on-device recognition, dictation is not offered.
• Android: Edda uses your device's speech recognition service. If the offline speech pack for your language is installed, recognition happens on the device. If it is not, Android may send the audio to Google's speech service to be transcribed, under Google's privacy policy. To keep dictation on the device, install the offline language pack in your device's speech or Google settings.

The Skald: Writing Assistance

Edda includes the Skald, a deterministic, rule-based writing assistant. The Skald is fully local. It has no model, no network calls, and no telemetry on your writing.

• Writing prompts are served from a bundled library that ships with the app
• Spell check uses a bundled English dictionary; your per-project custom dictionary is saved with the manuscript file
• Style flags and readability scores are computed on your device by classic rules and formulas
• Nothing you write is sent to any server. Not to Volsung Technologies, not to anyone else

No Accounts

Edda has no user accounts. A license key unlocks the app on your device; checking it sends the key and a device identifier to our license server, and nothing else.

If you choose to back up to Google Drive from the desktop app, you sign in with Google in your own browser, only so Google can give Edda permission to keep its own files in your Drive. Edda asks for the narrowest Drive permission (files Edda creates) and your email address, to show which Google account is connected. The permission is stored encrypted on your computer and never sent to us. You can disconnect in Settings or remove Edda from your Google account at any time.

Data Storage

All your writing is stored locally on your device. The optional sync feature writes a copy of each project to a folder you choose or to your own Google Drive; it never passes through our servers, so we cannot read your synced content.

If you set a sync passphrase, every synced copy is encrypted end-to-end on your device (AES-256) before it is written, and only someone with the passphrase can read it. The passphrase stays on your device. Without a passphrase, synced copies are readable by anyone with access to that folder or Drive, as any file you keep there would be.

Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services, each governed by their own privacy policies:

• Square, PayPal, and Venmo: payment processing
• Google Drive (Google): optional backup, only if you connect it

Children's Privacy

Edda is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us so we can promptly delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Continued use of Edda after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

For privacy-related questions, contact us at [email protected].