Privacy policy

Effective October 28, 2026

Margin is private by default. There is no Margin account, no Margin server, and no analytics, advertising or tracking of Margin's own. (A sermon imported from YouTube shows YouTube's own player, which may show YouTube's ads; see "YouTube" below.)

Core privacy promise

Your sermon audio, transcripts, notes, Scripture references, summaries, and imported files are yours. Margin keeps them on your device. The only time anything leaves it is when you use one of the features under "Network connections", and then it goes only to the service named, on your behalf.

What Margin stores, and where

On your device:

• sermon recordings (in the app's Documents folder)
• a sermon you record on your Apple Watch, kept on the Watch until it has been sent to your iPhone through Apple's connection between your paired Watch and iPhone, then deleted from the Watch
• transcripts, notes, Scripture references, generated insights, and sermon details (in the app's local database)
• copies of that database from before each update of Margin (the five newest, plus the one with the most sermons), so sermons lost in an update can be restored (Settings → Library Backups). They stay on this device, in the app's own storage.
• when iCloud is on: a copy of the library in your own private iCloud database, including recordings unless you turn off "Sync recordings to iCloud" in Settings (see "Apple iCloud" below)
• photos you add as notes, from the camera or your photo library (in the app's local database). Margin keeps a downscaled copy of each and drops its location and other photo metadata; it doesn't keep a link to the original in your library.
• the YouTube link of a sermon you imported from YouTube (with the sermon)
• the link of a podcast episode or audio file you imported (with the sermon)
• your Pocket API key, if you add one (in the iOS Keychain on this device only; it isn't synced through iCloud Keychain or moved to a new device)

Margin doesn't send any of this to a Margin server, because there isn't one.

What Margin does not collect

• account or contact details
• analytics or usage events
• advertising or tracking identifiers
• crash reports or remote logs (crash reports come only from Apple's own opt-in diagnostics, which you control in iOS Settings)
• your sermon audio, transcripts, notes, summaries, Scripture references, or search history

The App Store privacy label

Margin's developer collects nothing. The App Store label still lists what YouTube's embedded player receives when you open a sermon imported from YouTube: how the video is viewed (Usage Data, for YouTube's analytics and the ads it may show) and the rough location YouTube can tell from your device's IP address. YouTube doesn't use them to track you across other companies' apps.

Camera and photos

• Margin uses the camera only when you tap the camera button while taking notes, to save a photo of the screen or stage as a note. Photos you take this way are kept in Margin and aren't added to your photo library.
• Adding a photo after the sermon uses the system photo picker, so Margin sees only the photos you choose and never asks for access to your whole library. Margin reads the photo's capture time to place it at the right moment in the recording.

Tips

Margin is free. If you choose to leave a tip (Settings → Support Margin), Apple processes the payment through the App Store, under Apple's terms. Margin never sees your payment details, and no record of your tip is sent to Margin or anyone else. A tip doesn't unlock anything.

Speech transcription

Both the live transcript preview during recording and the saved transcript are made on your device. Margin never uses a server for speech recognition.

• If your device can't transcribe on-device, Margin doesn't show a live preview or make a saved transcript. The recording is still saved.
• The first time, iOS may download Apple's on-device speech model for your language. That download sends none of your audio or text.

Summaries and Study Notes

• Study Notes and summaries are generated on your device or with Apple's Private Cloud Compute. Private Cloud Compute is Apple's private cloud for Apple Intelligence. Apple designed it so your transcript is used only to generate your notes and isn't stored or made accessible to Apple. Margin's developer never sees it. Margin uses no third-party AI service.
• Margin uses Private Cloud Compute only on iOS 27 or later, when Apple makes it available. Otherwise, or if a request can't be completed, Study Notes and summaries are generated on your device with Apple Intelligence (Foundation Models), on devices that support it, and nothing is sent anywhere.
• If Apple Intelligence isn't available, Margin still records, transcribes, detects Scripture, and searches.

Translation

Margin can translate a sermon's transcript and Study Notes into another language, one sermon at a time, when you ask for it or when you set a rule (Settings → Language → Automatic translations).

• Translations are made on your device with Apple's Translation framework. The text never goes to a Margin server or to any third-party service.
• The first time you translate between two languages, iOS may download Apple's language pack for that pair. That download sends none of your sermon.
• Margin also works out the language a sermon is preached in, on your device, from a few seconds of the recording. The first time a language is heard, iOS may download Apple's speech model for it.
• Every translation you asked for is kept with the sermon (and syncs through your iCloud like the rest of it) so you can switch between languages without translating again. Removing a translation deletes it.
• Your own notes are never translated.

Network connections

Margin connects to these services only, and only for the purpose described.

Bible App and Bible.com (Scripture)

Margin makes no network connection for Scripture and shows no Bible text. When you tap a Scripture reference, Margin asks iOS to open it in the YouVersion Bible App, in the translation you've set there, or on bible.com in Safari if the Bible App isn't installed. The link carries only the reference (for example, John 3:16). YouVersion's own privacy policy applies in the Bible App and on bible.com.

Earlier versions of Margin could show passages in the app through YouVersion's API. The first time this version opens, it removes what that left on your device: your Bible version setting, the installation ID the YouVersion SDK created, and its cached passages.

Pocket (importing your own recordings)

Pocket import is optional and off until you add your own Pocket API key in Settings.

• Margin talks directly to Pocket (public.heypocketai.com); there's no Margin server in between.
• Margin sends only your API key (to identify you to Pocket) and requests for your recordings.
• Margin lists your recent Pocket recordings (titles and dates) so you can choose, then downloads the transcript of each one you import. Imported sermons are processed and stored on your device like any other.
• Margin never uploads anything to Pocket.
• Your key is kept in the iOS Keychain on this device only; it isn't synced through iCloud Keychain or moved to a new device. Disconnecting Pocket in Settings deletes it.
• Pocket's responses aren't cached on disk, and Margin doesn't keep Pocket's cookies.

YouTube (importing a sermon's transcript)

YouTube import is optional. Margin contacts YouTube only when you paste a video link in Import → Link and tap "Get Transcript".

• Margin talks directly to YouTube (www.youtube.com); there's no Margin server in between.
• What's sent: the video's ID and your preferred language, to ask YouTube for the video's details (title, channel, length, publish date, description and tags) and its captions. Margin reads the sermon's title, preacher and series from those details on your device. As with any connection, YouTube also sees your device's IP address. Google's privacy policy applies to what YouTube receives.
• Margin makes two requests for the video's details at once, the way YouTube's Android and web players ask (the web player's answer carries the publish date), then downloads one caption track. Each carries the same video ID and language. If YouTube turns the request away, Margin shows YouTube's reason and you can paste the transcript instead; it doesn't try again another way.
• What's not sent: your sermon audio, transcripts, notes, or anything else in Margin. You aren't signed in to YouTube, and Margin doesn't keep YouTube's cookies between imports.
• Margin downloads only the captions, as text. It never downloads the video or its audio. The imported transcript is processed and stored on your device like any other.
• If you paste a transcript instead, nothing is sent.
• Watching the video. A sermon imported from YouTube keeps its link and shows the video in YouTube's own embedded player, on the sermon and transcript screens. The player loads from YouTube (www.youtube.com and www.youtube-nocookie.com, YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode) when you open the sermon, before you press play, and talks to YouTube while you watch, as any YouTube player does. YouTube may show its own ads in the player; Margin has none of its own. Margin keeps the player's data only while the sermon is open, so YouTube's cookies aren't kept. Links in the player, such as YouTube's logo, open in Safari or the YouTube app, not in Margin.
• Margin uses YouTube API Services for the embedded player. By watching, you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. See the Google Privacy Policy for how Google handles this data.

Podcasts and audio links (importing an episode)

Podcast import is optional. Margin connects only when you paste a podcast or audio link in Import → Link and tap Continue, and then to download the episode or file you choose to import.

• For an Apple Podcasts link, Margin first asks Apple's podcast directory (itunes.apple.com) for the podcast's feed address. Only the podcast's ID and the country from the link are sent.
• Margin then reads the podcast's feed and downloads the episode's audio straight from the podcast's publisher or its hosting service: the servers the feed or your link names, and any they redirect to, which can include services that count downloads for the publisher. There's no Margin server in between.
• For another web address, Margin asks that address once to see whether it's a podcast feed or an audio file, and stops if it's a web page.
• What's sent: an ordinary request for the feed or file, identifying the app as Margin, as podcast apps do, so the publisher can count the download. As with any connection, those servers see your device's IP address. Margin doesn't keep their cookies, and sends nothing from your library.
• Margin downloads only audio that a podcast feed offers for download, or an audio file at a link you give it. It never imports or keeps video, and it doesn't open YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook or Spotify links to download anything.
• The episode is transcribed on your device and kept like a recording you made, including in your private iCloud database when "Sync recordings to iCloud" is on. Margin keeps the episode's link with the sermon.

Apple iCloud

Margin syncs your library across your devices through your own private iCloud database (Apple's CloudKit), using the Apple Account already signed in on the device.

• What syncs: sermons, transcripts, notes (including ink and photo notes), Scripture references, Study Notes, and your recordings and downloaded episodes. Turn off Settings → iCloud → Sync recordings to iCloud on a device to keep the recordings made on that device off iCloud; everything else still syncs, and recordings from your other devices still arrive.
• There's no sign-in screen and no Margin server. Margin's developer can't access your private iCloud data.
• Apple encrypts iCloud data in transit and on its servers. With Advanced Data Protection turned on, it's end-to-end encrypted. See Apple's About Advanced Data Protection for iCloud.
• Synced data counts toward your iCloud storage. If it's full, new changes wait on your device until there's room; recording is never blocked.
• With iCloud off, or signed out, Margin keeps everything on your device and works fully. Settings shows "iCloud is off".
• Per-device caches (waveforms) don't sync.

Apple Private Cloud Compute

See "Summaries and Study Notes" above.

Deleting your data

• A sermon: open it and choose More (…) → Delete. Its recording, transcript, notes and Study Notes are deleted from this device and, with iCloud on, from your private iCloud database and your other devices.
• Everything on this device: delete Margin. Its recordings, library, library backups, preferences and caches go with it.
• A sermon you delete can remain in one of Margin's library backups on this device until newer backups replace it; the backup that held the most sermons is kept until a larger one replaces it. Margin never restores a sermon you deleted on this device.
• Margin's data in iCloud: in iOS Settings, tap your name → iCloud → Manage Storage (or Storage) → Margin → Delete Data.
• Your Pocket key: Settings → Pocket → Disconnect.
• Margin's developer holds none of your data, so there's nothing to ask us to delete. YouTube and Pocket keep what they receive under their own policies, and so does YouVersion for what you do in the Bible App or on bible.com.

What Margin will never add without updating this policy

• analytics, crash-reporting, or advertising SDKs
• remote logging
• accounts or sign-in
• a Margin backend
• third-party AI services

Questions about this policy: corey@tektonlegacy.com