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Privacy Policy

Effective 3 October 2026.

This policy covers the wuDict Android app (com.legbehindneck.wudict) and the wudict program it is built from, on every platform.

Summary

wuDict collects no data about you.

There is no account, no sign-in, no cloud service, no analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting and no third-party SDK. Your dictionaries, your searches and your settings stay on your device.

wuDict runs a web server inside the app, bound to 127.0.0.1, and shows its pages in a WebView. The app connects to the internet only to download something you asked for: lemma data, or a dictionary from a link you provide. See Network requests.

What the app stores, and where

What Where
Dictionary files FOSS build: Internal storage → Dictionaries, a folder you manage. Google Play build: the app's own external files directory
The search indexes built from them The app's own external files directory
Downloaded lemma data The same place
Your settings The same place

Nothing is uploaded.

The app declares allowBackup="false", so none of it is copied into Google's Auto Backup. Uninstalling the app deletes everything in its own directory. You can also clear it at any time from Android's Settings → Apps → wuDict → Storage → Clear storage. In the FOSS build, Internal storage → Dictionaries is yours and is not deleted.

Permissions

Both builds declare:

  • INTERNET: to connect to the wuDict server inside the app on 127.0.0.1, and for the downloads listed under Network requests.
  • FOREGROUND_SERVICE and FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC: granted at install time, with no prompt. They keep indexing or a download running while you use another app.
  • POST_NOTIFICATIONS: the only permission you are asked for, and only the first time a dictionary is indexed. It shows the progress notification for that work. If you decline, everything still works without the notification.

The FOSS build (GitHub, Obtainium) also declares:

  • MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (All files access): to read dictionaries from Internal storage → Dictionaries. READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (Android 12 and older) and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (Android 10 and older) are the older forms of the same access.

The Google Play build declares no storage permission. Dictionaries are imported through Android's system file picker (the Storage Access Framework), which grants access to the one file you choose. The app cannot read, list or scan your storage.

Neither build requests location, contacts, camera, microphone, phone state or device identifiers. The app does not read the clipboard and does not use the Advertising ID.

Network requests

wuDict makes a network request only in these cases:

  • Lemma data. The Lemmatization page reads the language catalogue from raw.githubusercontent.com/wuweidict/lemmas, and installing a language downloads its file from there. The list it read last is kept with the lemma data, and the app contains a copy, so the page shows the languages before the request answers and when it fails.
  • Dictionaries from a link. A link you paste, drop or share into the app, pointing to a dictionary, an archive, a web folder or a Nextcloud share, is downloaded from the server it names.
  • Dictionary content. Dictionaries are authored by third parties. If an article references an image, font or script by an http:// or https:// address instead of bundling it, the WebView requests that address while the article is displayed. This is uncommon: most dictionary files bundle their media.

A tapped external link opens in your browser; wuDict does not follow it.

The server at the other end of each request sees your IP address, as with any web request. wuDict's own requests identify themselves as wudict and carry nothing else about you or your device.

With the network turned off, everything except these downloads works.

Data collected by Google Play

Distributing through Google Play means Google collects information about installs, and receives crash and ANR reports from Android itself, under Google's own privacy policy. We can see that only as aggregate statistics in the Play Console: install counts, device and country breakdowns, stack traces. It is not collected by the app, we cannot connect it to you, and it does not include anything you looked up.

None of this applies to the FOSS build from GitHub.

Children

wuDict is a dictionary reader. It collects no data from anyone, of any age, and contains no advertising and no in-app purchases.

Your rights

Regulations such as the GDPR and the CCPA give you rights to access, correct, export and delete the personal data a service holds about you. We hold none. There is no account to close, no profile to export and no record to delete. Everything the app produces is on your device.

Open source

wuDict is free software under the GPL-3.0-or-later. The source is public, so every statement on this page can be checked.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the effective date at the top changes with it, and the previous text stays in the repository's history. A change to what the app collects would arrive with an app update.

Contact

Questions about this policy: