Privacy policy

Last updated: 18 September 2026

This policy describes how Listen handles information when you use its iPhone and Mac apps, Safari extension, and getlisten.co website. For privacy questions or requests, contact hello@getlisten.co.

Information we process

• Account information: your account identifier, email address and authentication information. Apple sign-in may supply an email or relay address. Guest listening uses a guest identifier.
• Reading and narration: the article links, titles and text you choose to save or listen to, generated audio, summaries, reading positions and narration timing information. Saved reading is associated with your account so it can sync between devices.
• Usage and subscription information: narrated word counts, allowance periods, and Apple or Polar customer, checkout and transaction identifiers, product, payment, renewal and entitlement status. Apple or Polar processes your payment; Listen does not receive your card or bank account details.
• Technical and support information: service requests, errors, network information such as IP addresses processed by hosting providers, and information you send when asking for help.

How we use it

We use this information to authenticate you, turn your selected text into audio or a summary, sync your library and reading position, apply your listening allowance, verify subscriptions, prevent fraud and misuse, maintain the service, and respond to support requests.

Listen uses Meta for website advertising measurement and offers optional iPhone ad measurement as described below.

Website ad measurement

When configured, the Meta Pixel and server-side Conversions API measure visits to getlisten.co and clicks to download Listen for Mac, and confirmed paid website purchases, including product, amount, currency and an order identifier for deduplication. A download click does not confirm installation. Verified website payments can be reported from our server even if you do not return to the confirmation page. With website ad measurement enabled, we retain your measurement-cookie identifiers and browser user agent with the checkout for this purpose. Server and browser copies of the same purchase use the same order identifier to prevent double counting. Meta can receive the page URL, browser, device and network information, and cookie identifiers, and may combine this with information from its services to measure and improve our ads. We do not supply your email, sign-in codes, account details or reading content as event parameters, and automatic event configuration is disabled.

You can turn website ad measurement off below. We also respect Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track browser preferences. Your choice is saved in this browser; account and download features continue to work.

Website ad measurement preferences

Internal product measurement

Cloudflare hosts our private product analytics. We count public website page views and estimate visitors using a random first-party browser cookie lasting up to one year. We store a hash of this identifier, the calendar date and the public page path, without query strings. Multiple devices, blocked measurement or clearing cookies can affect the visitor estimate. We do not send visitor events when Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track is enabled. We count requests to start a Mac installer download and use a first-party cookie lasting up to ten minutes to group repeated requests. We do not count download requests when the browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track. These counts do not prove a completed installation.

The apps report first opening, completed onboarding, and platform use to Supabase using a random installation identifier, app version, date, and whether the installation is new or existing. Signed-in apps also report article-open results, listening starts and completions, playback failures, allowance limits, Safari setup choices, and subscription-screen and checkout steps. These events include your Listen account identifier, an event identifier, time, platform and app version, and a category such as sample, example, article or pasted text. We use them to understand where setup or listening fails and whether people return. Article text, titles and URLs are not included. The signed-in website reports account readiness and subscription-screen and checkout steps to the same first-party service; those website events respect Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track. These detailed product events are not sent to Meta. First opening is recorded before sign-in or onboarding. A guest session validates the request; after sign-in, we associate platform use with your Listen account to distinguish accounts from installations and understand use across iPhone and Mac. Older Mac versions also report a first-open count to Cloudflare, where the installation identifier is hashed. We do not include reading content, article URLs, a hardware fingerprint or your email in these product events. Failed events can retry while retaining their original occurrence time. Only Listen administrators can access platform, account and subscription reporting. First-party measurement is separate from Meta advertising measurement.

iPhone ad measurement

Listen registers the first app opening with Apple’s privacy-preserving install attribution before sign-in or onboarding. For eligible ad-driven installs, Apple sends delayed attribution reports to the advertising network without user- or device-specific identifiers. This does not require tracking permission and does not count downloads that are never opened.

Where ad measurement is enabled, Listen asks for permission through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt before starting the Meta SDK. If you allow tracking, Meta receives first-open, app activation, completed onboarding and verified subscription purchase events through its SDK or our server, including the product, amount and currency and a transaction identifier for deduplication, along with advertising identifiers and device, app and network information. We use these events to measure and improve Listen advertising. Meta may link them with information from its services for advertising measurement and optimisation.

Listen does not include article text, article URLs, your email address or your Listen account identifier in these advertising events. Automatic app-event logging is disabled. Declining tracking does not limit Listen’s reading features. You can change permission in iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. The app updates our server with your current choice when it next connects, and pending advertising events are suppressed after permission is withdrawn. Verified renewals can be reported by our server while measurement remains enabled.

Services that help run Listen

• OpenAI: receives the text needed for AI narration and summaries. Generated narration may also be processed for caption timing.
• Supabase: provides authentication, application services, database storage and storage for generated audio.
• Resend: delivers account sign-in and verification emails.
• Cloudflare: serves the website and handles associated network requests.
• Apple: provides Sign in with Apple, app distribution and subscription billing.
• Polar: handles website checkout, payments, subscription management and receipts. We send your Listen account identifier and email to link a purchase to your account, and receive payment and subscription updates. Payment details are entered directly into Polar’s checkout.
• Meta: provides website advertising measurement and optional iPhone advertising measurement after tracking permission. See Meta’s privacy policy for its data practices and controls.

These services process information under their own applicable terms and privacy policies. Processing may take place outside your country. Listen sends the content you choose for its features; it does not send your entire browser history as part of narration.

Website visits and device storage

The website stores an account session in tab-scoped browser storage when you sign in. It stores your website ad measurement preference in local storage. When website ad measurement is enabled, Meta may set advertising measurement cookies, including _fbp and _fbc. The apps store settings, account sessions, saved reading and playback state on your device as needed. Visiting a third-party page inside Listen connects to that website, which may use its own cookies and collect data under its own policy.

Retention and deletion

Account and saved-library information is retained to provide your account and sync features. Generated narration is stored to support playback and reuse. Listen does not currently promise a fixed automatic expiry for all generated audio.

Deleting your account from the app removes its account records and stored narration through the service’s deletion flow. Some subscription ownership, fraud-prevention, technical log or backup records may remain where needed for security, service operation or legal obligations. Apple and Polar maintain their own purchase records. Local copies on other devices or backups may also remain until those copies are removed or updated.

Your choices

You choose which articles to play or bookmark and which websites the Safari extension can access. You can remove saved articles, change Safari extension permissions in Settings, sign out, or delete your account. Contact hello@getlisten.co to request access, correction or deletion of personal information or to raise a privacy concern. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

Children and changes to this policy

Listen is not designed specifically for children. Article content depends on the websites you choose to access. We may update this policy as the service changes; the date above identifies the latest revision.