Your conversations live on your phone. We do not read them, and we build no feature whose purpose is reading them.
Only text leaves the device — encrypted: the line being translated, and, when Loquela suggests replies, the last few lines of the conversation you are in, so a suggestion fits it. If you ask for a summary of a conversation, that conversation is sent too — only then, and only if you ask. Your voice, and the voices around you, are processed on the phone and never uploaded.
You can delete everything, in the app, yourself. Deleting removes what we hold first, then the encrypted safe copy. If that last part takes longer, the app says so — and we finish it.
Loquela is an iOS app made by Bits@Work Ltd, a New Zealand company. For anything in this policy, write to . We treat everything it handles as sensitive by default, under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and, where it applies, the GDPR.
The heart of Loquela never leaves the phone or iPad it runs on:
Speech is handled on the device by Apple's built-in recognition and voices: what people say around you is turned into text on the phone, and your replies are spoken by the phone. No audio recording is ever sent to us.
One thing needs the internet: translation. When a line needs translating, that line is sent over an encrypted connection to our servers, and on to the specialist services that do the translating. When Loquela suggests replies, the last few lines of the conversation you are in go with the request — a suggestion has to fit what was just said — together with the two language codes and the name of the board you are on, such as the doctor or the shop, so the reply suits the room. Nothing else about you goes with it.
We do not store or log the content of those requests, and the text is not used to train the models behind them. Those services may keep a copy briefly — typically no more than 30 days — for their own abuse monitoring, and may process it outside New Zealand. We do not name them here, because which service handles a given sentence can change without notice; if you need to know, ask us and we will tell you.
One other thing can leave, and only when you ask for it. After a conversation somewhere other than home, Loquela can offer to look through what was said and find what is worth remembering. If you accept, that conversation is sent the same way, to the same provider, under the same terms — and what comes back is a short list of headings, each shown with the actual lines it was made from, so you can see what it is based on. Nothing is sent unless you tap yes. The feature is off until you switch it on, and it cannot be switched on unless the app lock is on first.
Each install also generates a random identifier for itself — a number, not a name. It travels with translation requests so we can count the free translations that install has used. A subscription is not matched to it: what you bought belongs to your household — a separate number the app makes for itself on first launch and keeps in your iCloud Keychain, so it travels with your Apple Account rather than with one phone. It is not derived from your phone, your Apple Account or anything about you, and it is not used for advertising or shared with anyone.
When there is no connection, nothing is sent — Loquela keeps listening, speaking and showing your phrases, and translation resumes when the connection does.
Loquela has nothing to sign up for. There is no account to create, and we never ask for your name, your email address or a password — because we do not want them and have nowhere to put them.
Instead, the app makes an anonymous identifier for itself the first time it runs and keeps it on your device. It is a random number. It is not derived from you, your device or anything you have ever typed, and it is never used for advertising. Against that number we store:
What we hold, and the safe copies, are stored on managed cloud infrastructure — currently Microsoft Azure — and may be held outside New Zealand. Wherever they are held, they are encrypted at rest and covered by the safeguards below.
We do not read your backups; our safeguards are operational and audited — least-privilege access, an audit trail on every maintenance action, and encryption at rest. This is a promise we keep, stated honestly: we do not, rather than a claim that we technically could not.
Subscriptions are bought through Apple. Apple handles the payment; we never see your card details.
If you ask Apple for a refund, Apple may ask us how much was used. We answer only if you have switched that permission on — it is a row in the app under Privacy, copy & erasing, off until you turn it on. What we send is counts: how much of the subscription was used, and how long it was held. Never anything you said, and never anything you typed. Leave the row off and we say nothing at all.
Inside the app, under Privacy, copy & erasing, there is a row that says Delete what is kept for me. Deletion is real and immediate, in that order: the record we hold goes first, then any translations you have left, then the encrypted safe copy. If that last step does not finish, the app tells you plainly — everything is deleted, one part is taking longer, and we finish it; there is nothing more for you to do. What is on your device stays there: your phrases, your card and your conversations were never ours to delete.
Records of what was purchased are kept, because we have to be able to account for money that changed hands and because a refund can arrive afterwards. What we remove is the link between those records and you. Apple’s signed receipt is kept exactly as Apple signed it — altering it would destroy the proof — so it still carries an internal identifier. Deleting does not cancel an Apple subscription; the app points you to Apple’s subscription settings for that.
Conversations are saved only on your device, and we do not store what is sent to us. They are kept for as long as you keep the app — nothing expires them. Removing the app removes them with it. Settings has a control that deletes every conversation on the device at once, and it is always available. If you switch on summaries, Where I’ve been also lists your conversations away from home as a room and a date, and you can delete them one at a time, or several together, from there. Neither shows you what was said.
We hold very little about you: which devices you have used, what you bought, anything you have written to us, and — if you switched on the safe copy — one encrypted file we cannot open. Not your conversations; those stay on your device. You can ask us for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it — write to and quote the number shown in the app under Help. You can also raise it with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (New Zealand) or your local data protection authority.
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the app will tell you before the change applies to you. The current version always lives at this page.