Overview
Lekhanam is a local macOS application. We do not collect, transmit, or store any of your personal data or writing. Everything you create stays on your Mac. There is no account, no sign-in, and no server that receives your content.
This Privacy Policy explains in full what data Lekhanam accesses, why, and how. It also covers one optional scenario — Google Analytics on this website — where data handling involves a third-party service outside of our control. Lekhanam's on-device AI never involves any third party.
This policy applies to:
- The Lekhanam macOS desktop application
- This marketing website (lekhanam.app)
If you have any questions not covered here, contact us at support@lekhanam.app.
Data we collect
The table below lists every category of data that Lekhanam may access, why, and whether it ever leaves your device.
| Data type | Purpose | Leaves your device? |
|---|---|---|
| Your book content (text, chapters, notes, character profiles) | Saved to disk so you can continue writing across sessions | Never |
| Cover images and gallery photos you import | Stored locally alongside your book files | Never |
| Writing statistics (word counts, goals, session data) | Displayed in the Dashboard; stored locally in JSON files | Never |
| App preferences and settings | Persist your UI choices (dark mode, format, etc.) | Never |
| Microphone audio (if you use dictation) | Transcribed locally by Vosk and Whisper.cpp — audio is never recorded to disk | Never |
| AI prompts sent to the on-device model (Lekha AI 2B or Qwen 2.5) | Processed entirely on your Mac via the local llama.cpp runtime; not logged | Never |
| Website analytics (lekhanam.app only, if enabled) | Aggregate page views to understand site usage — never tied to app content | Yes, to Google (optional) |
We do not collect: names, email addresses, IP addresses, device identifiers, crash reports, usage telemetry, or any other personal information through the Lekhanam app.
How data is used
Your writing data
Your writing is used for one purpose only: displaying it back to you inside the app. Lekhanam reads your files from disk when you open a book and writes them back when you save. No part of our software reads, analyses, indexes, or transmits your content for any other purpose.
Microphone access
If you use the dictation feature, macOS will prompt you to grant microphone permission. Audio is streamed in real time to two local speech-recognition engines:
- Vosk — a WebAssembly model that runs inside the app's renderer process and produces live partial transcriptions.
- Whisper.cpp — a local binary that processes the final audio segment after you stop speaking and produces a high-accuracy transcript.
Neither engine sends audio or transcription data to a remote server. Audio is held in memory only for as long as needed to produce the transcript and is then discarded.
AI writing assistance (on-device model)
When you use Lekhanam's built-in AI — whether the default Lekha AI 2B model or any Qwen 2.5 variant — the prompts you send (your chapter summary, selected text, and scene beats) are passed to a process running entirely on your Mac via the local llama.cpp runtime. The model output is returned to the app and displayed. Nothing is logged, stored beyond the session, or sent off-device.
Your writing & local storage
All Lekhanam data is stored in ~/Documents/Lekhanam/ on your Mac. You own these files entirely. You can back them up, move them, open them in a text editor, or delete them at any time without needing to ask us.
The folder structure is:
~/Documents/Lekhanam/books.json— index of all your books~/Documents/Lekhanam/books/{bookId}/— per-book folder containing metadata, chapters, characters, and cover assets~/Documents/Lekhanam/models/— AI model weights you have downloaded
Lekhanam does not use iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or any other sync service unless you independently configure your Documents folder to sync with one. In that case, your cloud provider's privacy policy applies to anything they store.
Deleting your data
To remove all data stored by Lekhanam, delete the ~/Documents/Lekhanam/ folder from your Mac. Uninstalling the app does not delete this folder automatically; you must remove it manually if you want your data erased.
On-device AI
Every AI model in Lekhanam — including the default Lekha AI 2B and all Qwen 2.5 variants — runs entirely on your Mac. No prompts, no writing, and no telemetry are ever sent to Lekhanam, Apple, or any third party. Internet is used only for the initial one-time model download.
Lekhanam's AI features are powered by open-weight language models that run locally on your Mac's Metal GPU via the open-source llama.cpp runtime. We do not operate any AI server, and Lekhanam does not integrate with cloud AI providers.
Model catalog
The unified model catalog inside the app lets you download and switch between:
- Lekha AI 2B (~1.5 GB) — Lekhanam's default model, tuned for long-form writing.
- Qwen 2.5 Micro (1.5B), Lite (3B), and Standard (7B) — optional alternatives offering different speed/quality trade-offs.
Models are downloaded from the public Hugging Face CDN over HTTPS and cached inside Lekhanam's resources folder. Hugging Face may log the IP address and User-Agent of the download request (standard web-server behaviour). After that first download, the model runs offline forever.
What happens when you run AI
When you trigger AI generation, Lekhanam passes your prompt (chapter summary, selected text, scene beats, and a system prompt describing your chosen writing style) to the llama.cpp process on your Mac. The model output is returned in memory and displayed to you. Nothing is logged, written to disk beyond temporary inference state, or sent anywhere.
Opting out
All AI features in Lekhanam are opt-in and can be disabled at any time. To remove model files and reclaim disk space, open Settings → AI and delete any models you do not use.
Analytics (website only)
The Lekhanam app contains no analytics or telemetry of any kind.
The Lekhanam website (lekhanam.app) may use Google Analytics 4 to collect anonymous, aggregate information about site visits. If enabled, Google Analytics collects:
- Pages visited and time spent on each page
- Referring website (how you found us)
- Browser type, operating system, and approximate country (derived from IP address — the full IP is not stored)
- Whether you are a new or returning visitor
Google Analytics does not collect information about what you write in the app, your name, or your email address. Data is aggregated and cannot be used to identify you personally.
Google uses this data in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics across all websites by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
If we have not yet added Google Analytics to the site, this section does not currently apply.
Third-party services
Lekhanam does not share your data with any third party. The table below lists every third-party service the app or website may interact with, and the nature of that interaction.
| Service | Used by | What it receives | Their privacy policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hugging Face (model CDN) | App — one-time, per downloaded model | HTTPS request for the chosen AI model file. IP address / User-Agent may be logged by Hugging Face as with any web request. | huggingface.co/privacy |
| Google Fonts | Website | Font file requests (IP address may be logged by Google) | policies.google.com/privacy |
| Google Analytics 4 | Website — optional | Aggregate page-view data (if analytics is enabled) | policies.google.com/privacy |
| Netlify | Website hosting | Visitor IP addresses and standard web server logs (Netlify's infrastructure) | netlify.com/privacy |
We do not use any advertising networks, social media tracking pixels, or data brokers.
Children's privacy
Lekhanam is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or under 16 in the European Economic Area). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Because the app does not collect any personal data at all, it does not collect data from children either. However, if you believe a child has provided personal information to us through any channel (e.g. via email contact), please contact us at support@lekhanam.app and we will delete it promptly.
Your rights
Because Lekhanam does not collect personal data about you, most data-protection rights (access, rectification, erasure, portability) are satisfied by the nature of the app: your data is already on your device, under your complete control.
If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or California, you may have additional rights under GDPR, UK GDPR, or the CCPA. These rights apply to personal data we hold about you. Because we hold none, there is typically nothing for us to provide, correct, or delete beyond what you already control locally.
For any privacy-related requests or questions, contact us at support@lekhanam.app. We will respond within 30 days.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
If we make a material change — for example, if we introduce a feature that begins collecting personal data — we will make reasonable efforts to notify you, such as by posting a notice on this website or within the app.
Continued use of Lekhanam after any change is posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
Previous versions of this policy are available on request by emailing support@lekhanam.app.
Contact
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or the way Lekhanam handles data, please contact:
Anish Monci Varghese
Developer, Lekhanam
Email: support@lekhanam.app
We aim to respond to all privacy enquiries within 30 days of receipt.
App Store & In-App Purchases
Lekhanam is distributed through the Mac App Store. When you purchase Lekhanam Pro (Word and ePub export), the transaction is handled entirely by Apple through their App Store billing system. We do not collect, process, or store any payment information.
Apple may collect information related to your purchase as described in Apple's Privacy Policy. We receive only a confirmation that the purchase was completed — no credit card numbers, billing addresses, or Apple ID details.
Transaction restoration (the "Restore Purchases" button) uses Apple's built-in receipt validation. No personal data is transmitted to our servers during this process because we do not operate any servers.