Glisten Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 2026.

Glisten is a podcast-based language learning app. This policy describes what data Glisten handles and how.

What stays on your device

Your subscriptions to podcasts and your listening history
Listening routines, progress, and preferences
Notes and bookmarks you create
Audio downloaded for offline listening

iCloud sync

If you sign in with your Apple ID, Glisten syncs your subscriptions, routines, and progress across your Apple devices via your private iCloud database. This data is associated with your Apple ID and visible only to you. We have no access.

Podcast content

Glisten plays podcasts hosted by their respective publishers. Audio is streamed or downloaded directly from those publishers. Glisten does not relay your listening behaviour to them beyond what is required to play their content.

Transcripts and translation

Some features send text from the app to a service that adds punctuation or translates it. Only the text is sent, along with the two language codes for a translation. No account details are sent with it.

Glisten 3 and later

Glisten sends this text to its own server, the Glisten server, which runs on Fly.io in Amsterdam. The server passes only the text to OpenAI, which does the work in the United States. Your IP address is not passed on. The text can be:

Sentences from a podcast transcript, to add punctuation and, during listening workouts, to translate them
Podcast search terms you enter, to translate them
On Apple Vision Pro, a sentence you tap to translate

On iPhone, iPad, and Mac, a sentence you tap is translated on your device with Apple's built-in translation, and nothing is sent.

Glisten 2

Punctuation works as described above, through the Glisten server and OpenAI. Translation goes directly from the app to DeepL. This covers sentences from a transcript during listening workouts, podcast search terms, and a sentence you tap on the Mac, on Apple Vision Pro, or on iPhone and iPad before iOS 18. On iOS 18 and later, a sentence you tap is translated on your device. Because the app connects to DeepL directly, DeepL also sees your IP address, as any online service does.

What happens to the text

The Glisten server processes the text and returns the result. It does not store the text, apart from rare error logs that our host, Fly.io, keeps for a limited time. To limit how often the app can call it, the server holds your IP address in memory for about a minute and never writes it down. OpenAI does not use the text to train its models, but may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse. DeepL deletes the text once it has been translated and does not use it to train its models.

Glisten asks you once whether you want its newsletter, and you can also sign up in Settings. Signing up is optional, and the app works the same either way.

If you sign up, the email address you type and the language of the app go to the Glisten server, which passes them to Brevo, the email service that sends the newsletter. Brevo then emails you a link, and you join the list only after you open it. Every newsletter has a link to unsubscribe, and you can ask us at [email protected] to delete your address.

The Glisten server does not store your address. So that one address gets at most one confirmation email a day, it holds the address in memory for up to a day and never writes it down. Brevo keeps your address while it is on the list, and we delete it when you ask.

Subscriptions and payments

All paid subscriptions are handled by Apple. Glisten does not see your payment details, billing address, or Apple ID. We receive only the anonymous information Apple shares about active subscription status.

Information we do not collect

Glisten does not include third-party analytics, advertising, or trackers.

Data sharing

We do not sell or rent your personal data. Text sent for punctuation and translation, and an email address you give for the newsletter, go only to the services named above, which process them on our behalf.

Your rights

Disable iCloud sync from System Settings
Delete your account data by uninstalling the app
Unsubscribe from the newsletter with the link in any issue
Cancel paid subscriptions through your Apple ID at any time

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through the app.

Contact

For questions about this policy, contact [email protected].