Tether
Privacy Policy

Effective June 20, 2026

Tether does not use ads, analytics, tracking, or user accounts. Most app data stays on your phone.

What stays on your device

Saved articles, PDFs, EPUBs, reading progress, stats, notes, and settings are stored on your device.

When data leaves your device

When you add a web article, its URL and page content may be sent to Tether's extraction service so the app can find the readable text.

RSS feed URLs are fetched so Tether can show feed posts in the app.

Feedback

Feedback is optional. If you send it from the app, Tether includes your name, email, message, app version, Android version, and device model.

Tether keeps a small reading log on your device: for each of your last 100 finished pieces, the day, its length, active minutes, whether you read it in Focus or Reader or listened, whether it came from "Got a few minutes?", and your answer to "Was this easier than usual?". It has no titles, links, or text. It leaves your device only if you tick "Include my reading log" when you send feedback. A send that fails is not retried in the background.

Test builds

Test builds go out through a Google group and Google Play's own tester opt-in. Tendril Works doesn't collect your email for it; membership is managed by Google, and you can leave the group at any time.

Deleting data

You can delete local Tether data in the app, or by clearing the app's data or uninstalling it from your device.

To delete feedback or support data that was sent off your device, ask for deletion in the feedback form.