Privacy policy

Cutline is made by Sydcup OÜ, a company registered in Estonia (“Sydcup”, “we”, “us”). Sydcup is the controller responsible for the data described here. Our full company details are at the end of this policy.

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

The short version

• Your recordings never leave your device. Cutline records, transcribes, edits and exports on your iPhone or iPad. We never receive your audio, your video or your transcripts.
• There’s no account. Nothing ties what you make in Cutline to your name or email address.
• Google Firebase gives us anonymous usage statistics and crash reports, and delivers the occasional in-app notice. Usage statistics and crash reports are your choice: they’re off until you allow them, and you can switch them on or off at any time in Settings → Privacy. None of it includes your recordings, your transcripts or the names of your files and projects.
• Purchases go through Apple. We never see your payment details.

What stays on your device

Everything you make in Cutline stays on your iPhone or iPad:

• recordings and the media you import,
• transcripts, edits, versions and exports,
• your projects, tags, search and settings.

Transcription runs on your device, using Apple’s on-device speech recognition or a Whisper speech model stored on your device. Reframing uses Apple’s on-device Vision framework. None of it is uploaded. Cutline has no server that could receive it, and it doesn’t sync or back up your projects to us or anyone else.

Services the app uses

Cutline uses a small number of outside services. Here is each one, what it receives, and what you can do about it.

Firebase Analytics (Google)

• What is sent: which features are used, how long exports take, which screens are opened, and basic device information — device model, iOS version, app version, country and language. Never your audio, video, transcript text, search queries, or the names of your files, projects or versions.
• Identifier: a random app-instance identifier that Firebase creates on your device. No user ID, no advertising identifier, and Google Signals is not used.
• Linked to you? No. It isn’t connected to your name, email address or Apple Account.
• How long it’s kept: event-level data is kept for no longer than 14 months, then deleted. Reports built from it are aggregated.
• Your choice: controlled by Share usage data in Settings → Privacy. Off until you allow it. Turning it off stops collection and resets the analytics identifier on your device.

More: Privacy and security in Firebase and Google’s privacy policy.

Firebase Crashlytics (Google)

• What is sent: when Cutline crashes, a crash report — where in the code it happened, the state of the app at that moment, device model, iOS version, app version, free disk space and memory. Never your audio, video, transcript text, or file, project or version names.
• Identifier: a random installation identifier that Crashlytics creates on your device.
• Linked to you? No.
• How long it’s kept: 90 days, then deleted.
• Your choice: controlled by Share crash reports in Settings → Privacy, separately from usage data. Off until you allow it.

More: Privacy and security in Firebase and Google’s privacy policy.

Firebase Remote Config (Google)

• What it’s for: delivering the occasional in-app notice — for example, news about an update or a known problem.
• What is sent: when Cutline checks for a notice, at most twice a day: a Firebase installation identifier, the app version, the iOS version, and your device’s language and region. Nothing about your recordings, transcripts or how you use the app.
• Identifier: a random Firebase installation identifier created on your device.
• Linked to you? No.
• How long it’s kept: Google keeps the installation identifier only while it’s in use, as described in Firebase’s privacy information.
• Your choice: this isn’t covered by the switches in Settings → Privacy, because it’s how important notices reach you. If Cutline can’t reach Firebase — offline, for example — it shows the notice built into the app instead, if there is one.

More: Privacy and security in Firebase and Google’s privacy policy.

RevenueCat (purchases)

• What is sent: the App Store record of your Cutline Pro purchase — which plan, when it started, when it renews or ends, and whether it’s a trial — along with the app version and your country’s App Store storefront.
• Identifier: an anonymous identifier that RevenueCat creates. We don’t give RevenueCat your name, email address or Apple Account.
• Linked to you? No — only to that anonymous identifier.
• How long it’s kept: for as long as needed to keep your purchase working and restorable, and as long as financial-record rules require.
• Your choice: this is needed to sell and restore Cutline Pro, so it isn’t covered by the switches in Settings → Privacy. If you never buy or restore Cutline Pro, nothing about a purchase is sent.

More: RevenueCat’s privacy policy.

Hugging Face (speech model downloads)

• What is sent: a standard download request, which includes your IP address. Nothing about your recordings or transcripts.
• When: only when Cutline downloads a Whisper speech model — if you choose high accuracy, or if your device or language needs one. By default the download waits for Wi‑Fi.
• Linked to you? No.
• How long it’s kept: according to Hugging Face’s privacy policy.
• Your choice: Apple’s on-device speech recognition needs no download for the languages it covers.

What the app never collects

• your recordings, imported media or exports,
• transcript text, search queries, or file, project and version names,
• your contacts, location, photos you haven’t chosen to import, or anything from other apps,
• an advertising identifier (IDFA).

Cutline doesn’t track you across apps or websites, so it never shows Apple’s “Allow tracking” prompt. There is no advertising in Cutline.

Turning usage data off

Open Settings → Privacy in Cutline. There are two switches:

• Share usage data — Firebase Analytics.
• Share crash reports — Firebase Crashlytics.

Both start off, wherever you are, until you choose Allow during setup or turn them on here. You can switch either one on or off at any time, and the change takes effect straight away. In-app notices (Firebase Remote Config) and purchase checks (RevenueCat) aren’t covered by these switches.

Purchases

Cutline Pro is sold through the App Store. Apple processes the payment, and we never see your payment details or your Apple Account. To know whether Pro is active, Cutline receives the purchase status from Apple and checks it with RevenueCat (see above). You can restore a purchase in Settings → Cutline Pro → Restore purchases.

Emailing us from the app

Settings → Help → Email us opens your own mail app, addressed to contact@sydcup.com. Cutline fills in only the subject line, with the app version — for example “Cutline 1.0 (142)”. Nothing else is attached. We receive whatever you then choose to write and send, along with your email address.

Settings → Help → Report an issue shows you the diagnostics it would include before you send anything, and you can leave them out. The diagnostics are: device model, iOS version, app version, plan, free disk space, thermal state, the word count and track count of the open project, and recent lines from Cutline’s own activity log. They never include audio, video, transcript text, file names or project names. Reports stay on your device and aren’t sent to us — to reach us, use Email us.

Permissions

• Microphone. Used only while you’re recording in Cutline. Recordings are saved on your device and transcribed there.
• Photos. Cutline reads only the items you choose to import; it doesn’t browse your library. It adds a video to Photos only when you save an export there.

Recording someone may require their consent — in some places, the consent of everyone in the conversation. That’s your responsibility. Cutline can announce out loud when a recording starts; you’ll find the option in Settings.

This website

• Hosting. This site is hosted on Cloudflare, which processes technical data such as IP addresses to deliver it and protect it from abuse.
• Analytics. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies and without tracking you across sites.
• No forms, no cookies. The site has no sign-up or contact forms and sets no cookies. If you email us, we receive your message and email address.

Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

• Usage data and crash reports: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time in Settings → Privacy.
• Purchases and RevenueCat: to provide Cutline Pro under our agreement with you.
• Speech model downloads: to provide the transcription you asked for.
• In-app notices: our legitimate interest in telling you about updates and known problems.
• Website hosting and security, and replying to your emails: our legitimate interest in running the site and answering you.

Where data is processed

Sydcup is based in Estonia, in the European Union. Google (Firebase) and RevenueCat may process data in the United States and other countries. Where personal data leaves the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, these transfers rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent safeguard. Cloudflare serves this website from data centres around the world.

Children

Cutline isn’t directed at children under 13, or under the minimum age in your country, and we don’t knowingly collect data from them.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export personal data about you, to object to or restrict how it’s used, and to withdraw consent. You can also complain to a data protection authority — the one where you live, or our lead authority, the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (aki.ee).

Most of what Cutline handles never reaches us. The usage data and crash reports we receive aren’t linked to you, so we usually can’t find them from your name or email — but switching them off in Settings stops them at the source. For anything else, email us.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update the date at the top of this page. If a change affects what Cutline sends, we’ll update this page before the version of the app that makes the change is released.

Contact

See also our terms of use.

Sydcup OÜ
Sepapaja tn 6, 15551 Tallinn, Harju maakond, Estonia
Registry code: 16301471 · VAT: EE102409208
Email: contact@sydcup.com