Engrossed: Privacy Policy
For the app on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Last updated 1 November 2026
The short version. Engrossed does not collect anything. It has no account system and no servers of its own. Your library, your reading history and your place in your books are never sent to us or to anyone else. If you use Engrossed on an Apple Watch, your iPhone copies them to that watch, and nowhere else.
The only network activity in the app is Apple's own App Store, used to offer and restore the one-time purchase, and ElevenLabs, but only if you choose to add your own ElevenLabs key for read aloud.
What is stored, and where
Everything Engrossed keeps is stored only on your own devices, inside the app's own folder:
- The books you import, as PDF or EPUB. Engrossed copies each one into its own storage so it can read it later. The original file on your device is not modified or moved.
- The text it extracts from them, cached so that reopening a long book is fast.
- Your place in each book, along with how long you have spent reading and the few words that were on screen when you stopped.
- Your reading preferences, such as text size, theme and how much text is shown at a time.
- An ElevenLabs API key, only if you add one. It is kept in your device's keychain and is never synced to iCloud. If you use the Apple Watch app, your iPhone also gives the key to your watch, which keeps it in its own keychain.
None of this is transmitted anywhere, apart from that key, which goes only to ElevenLabs as described below, and what your iPhone shares with your own Apple Watch. It is not backed up to any service operated by us, because there is no such service. If you have iCloud Backup turned on, your device's own backup may include this data, which is handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy, not ours.
Deleting the app from a device removes all of it from that device. The one exception is an ElevenLabs key: the system keychain can keep it after the app is gone, so use Remove key in Settings first if you want it deleted. On an iPhone, Remove key also removes the key from your Apple Watch.
Your Apple Watch
The Apple Watch app reads your books aloud. If you install it on a watch paired with your iPhone, your iPhone sends that watch:
- A copy of the text of the books on your shelf, up to the 40 you read most recently, and never the bundled guide. Only the words that are read aloud and the chapter titles: not the PDF or EPUB file, and no pictures.
- Each book's title and author, your place in it, how far through it you are and when you last read it.
- Your read-aloud settings, which voice and how fast.
- Your ElevenLabs key, if you have added one. The watch keeps it in its own keychain.
The watch sends back your place in each book, how long you have listened to it on the watch, and which copies it holds, so the two devices stay in step.
All of this goes over the connection Apple provides between an iPhone and its paired Apple Watch. It goes to your watch and nowhere else: not to us, and not to any server of ours. Remove a book from your shelf and its copy is deleted from the watch. With an ElevenLabs voice on, the watch sends the sentences it reads to ElevenLabs itself, as described below.
Optional ElevenLabs voices
Read aloud normally uses your device's own built-in voice, and nothing leaves your device. If you want, you can paste in your own ElevenLabs API key to use ElevenLabs voices instead.
Only then, and only while an ElevenLabs voice is reading, the few sentences being read are sent to ElevenLabs over an encrypted connection, together with your key, so that ElevenLabs can turn them into speech. To avoid a pause, the next few sentences are sent a moment before they are read. On an Apple Watch, the watch sends them itself, and sends up to three of these passages ahead instead of one, so they are ready to play. Nothing else is sent: not the rest of the book, not your place in it, and nothing about you.
That text is handled by ElevenLabs under your own agreement with them and their privacy policy, not ours. We never see it. Remove the key in Settings and nothing more is sent.
What is not collected
No personal information. No email address, name or contact details. No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, usage statistics, advertising identifiers or location. No cookies. No tracking of any kind, and no third-party SDKs that could do any of it.
Purchases
If you buy the one-time unlock, the transaction is handled entirely by Apple. We never see your payment details. Apple tells the app only whether the purchase exists. Apple's handling of that transaction is covered by Apple's own privacy policy.
Children
Engrossed is suitable for all ages and collects nothing from anyone, including children under 13.
Changes
If this policy ever changes, the date at the top changes with it.
Contact
Questions about privacy: parduckids@gmail.com