Version 2026-08-09
Privacy Policy
This policy is a draft. It has not been reviewed by a lawyer. Everything in it is an accurate description of what the service actually does — it is written from the code, not from a template — but it will be reviewed before Runo takes anyone's money.
Who is responsible
Runo is run by an individual developer in Finland, who is the data controller. No company exists yet; when one does, this section changes and the version below changes with it. Contact: [email protected].
What Runo stores
- Your account — the username you chose, a hash of your password (never the password), your plan, and when the account was created. We do not ask for your email address, your name, or your date of birth, and we have no way to contact you inside the product.
- The text you bring — the documents you upload, split into chapters.
- The audio we make from it, and the caption files that go with it.
- How you listen — your position in each book, your bookmarks and their notes, and which voice you last used.
- Usage — a record of narration produced, so your monthly allowance can be enforced.
- Sessions — a hash of your login cookie, so you stay signed in. Sessions expire after 30 days.
- Which version of these documents you accepted, and when.
We do not use analytics, advertising, or third-party trackers. There are no cookies except the one that signs you in, which is why there is no cookie banner: there is nothing to consent to.
Your browser also remembers display settings — the light or dark theme, where the player sits and how big it is, and your reading text size. These stay on your own machine and are never sent to us.
Why we are allowed to hold it
Almost all of it is necessary to perform the contract you enter into by using Runo — we cannot narrate a book we are not allowed to store. Error reports and the usage ledger rest on our legitimate interest in keeping the service working and in not being billed for computing nobody asked for.
Some of what you upload may reveal things about you — what you read can imply beliefs, health or sexuality. We do not analyse it, profile you, or use it for anything but making your audio. Your library is visible to you and to nobody else, including other users.
Who else touches it
Runo uses a small number of processors. This list is complete.
| Who | What for | What they see | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | The server and database | Everything | Helsinki, Finland |
| Cloudflare R2 | Storing audio and backups | Your audio, and database backups | Western Europe |
| Modal | Running the narration model | Chapter text, in transit, while it is being narrated | United States |
| Sentry | Error reports, when enabled | Crash details, with URLs and identifying values stripped | European Union |
Text you narrate is processed in the United States. The GPU that generates the speech runs there; the text is sent, narrated, and not retained by us on that machine. This is the one transfer outside the EU, and we would rather it were not — pinning the region is not available on the plan Runo currently uses. If that matters to you, it is the thing in this document to weigh.
How long
- Your books and audio — until you delete them, or delete your account.
- Sessions — 30 days, or until you sign out.
- Imported source files — a fetched work is cached for 7 days so a second import of the same thing does not download it again, then discarded.
- Database backups — taken nightly and rotated. A deleted account can survive in a backup for a short period before the backup itself is rotated out.
- The usage ledger — deleted with your account.
Your rights
You can exercise the two that matter most without asking anyone:
- Get a copy — your account page has an export button that hands you everything we hold about you as a JSON file, immediately. Audio is not in it because it is already downloadable and would be gigabytes; the export lists what exists.
- Be erased — your account page has a delete button. It removes your account, your books, your audio (including from our storage provider), your listening history and your usage record. It is immediate and it cannot be undone.
You also have the right to correct inaccurate data, to object to or restrict processing, and to complain to a supervisory authority. In Finland that is the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman (tietosuoja.fi); you may also complain to the authority where you live.
Security
Passwords are hashed with scrypt. The site is served over HTTPS. Your audio is served through short-lived links that check you own it first. Runo is a small service run by one person: it is built carefully, and it is not audited by anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, the version changes and you will be asked to accept the new one. We record which version each account accepted, and when.