Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 27, 2026

Glass reads sensitive documents — tax notices, leases, medical leaflets. So privacy is not a feature here. It is the deal. This page explains that deal in plain words. Glass is operated by GlassRead, a sole proprietorship registered in Ontario, Canada, and we handle personal information in line with Canada’s privacy law, PIPEDA.

The short version

Your documents: pasted documents are deleted automatically after 72 hours. We do not sell them or use them to train anything. If you have GlassRead Plus, a copy of the document’s text also goes into your private personal memory until you erase it — explained below. We keep a short record of each reading — its title line, about 240 characters of its opening words, when you read it, what kind of document it is, any deadline Glass found in it, the amount it asks for and the next step, and your own “done” mark — and that is on by default.

Your reading: Your personal reading stays on your device and in your session. We never show it to anyone but you.

Analytics: what institutions see is aggregate-only — which clause confused readers, never which reader.

Our own measurement: no cookies, no fingerprinting, no tracking across sites. We count a step (a page opened, a paste, a checkout) and the kind of document — nothing more. We honor Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control.

Documents you paste

When you paste a document, Glass uses it for one thing: to explain it to you. It is stored under a random id, not under your name, and it is deleted automatically after 72 hours. The timer is ours, not yours: closing the page or signing out does not delete it any sooner, and we would rather tell you that than let you believe otherwise. If you want a document gone before the 72 hours are up, write to us at hello@glassread.com and we will delete it.

When you open a book from an EPUB file of your own (up to 4 MB), the file is sent once to GlassRead’s server to be read, held in memory only while it is read, and never kept.

The browser extension

GlassRead also comes as a browser extension. It reads only the page you ask it to read: when you turn it on for an article or a document, it sends that page’s text to GlassRead’s service to make your explanation — the same as a document you paste, and read by the same Google Gemini models described below. It does not read your other tabs, your history, or any page you have not asked it to explain. That page’s text is deleted automatically after 72 hours, and we never use it to train AI models.

After you read, names in the article may be looked up on Wikipedia to show context. The name is sent from your browser straight to Wikipedia (and any picture is loaded from Wikimedia), not through GlassRead, so Wikipedia sees it the way it sees any visitor’s lookup. Nothing is looked up until you have read.

Personal memory for Plus members

If you are an active GlassRead Plus member, the documents you read in GlassRead also feed your personal memory: a copy of the document’s text, split into pieces, is kept in your private personal memory, under your own account, so Glass can connect a new document to what you have read before — “the story so far”. This covers every way a document gets into GlassRead, not only pasting: a document you paste, a file you open, a photo you take of a letter, and a link you share in all feed it the same way. (Pages you read with the browser extension do not — the extension makes your explanation and stops there.) This memory is yours alone: it is never shown to anyone else, never shared with institutions, and never used to train AI models. Unlike the pasted document itself, which deletes after 72 hours, this memory stays until you erase it. You can erase it yourself, whenever you like: open Account, and under Reading open “Private memory” and tap “Wipe my memory”. If that ever does not work for you, write to us at hello@glassread.com and we will erase it for you.

How AI reads your document

Glass uses Google’s Gemini models to read and explain your document. To produce your explanation, the text you paste is sent to Google’s API solely to generate your result. Google’s API terms exclude this data from training their models. We do not use your uploaded documents to train AI models. Google may process this data outside Canada (for example, in the United States), where different privacy laws may apply.

Your account and your readings

You can use Glass with an account — sign in with Google, or with an email and password. If you create one, we store your email address to run your account: to sign you in, to send you a receipt when you buy something, and to send you important messages about your account or the service. We never sell your email, and we do not use it for advertising. We share it only with our payment processor, Stripe, so it can process your payment and send your receipt. We also save a short record of each reading, so you can recognize it in your history under “Your readings”. Here is everything that record holds: the document’s title line; its opening words (about 240 characters) — an excerpt of the letter itself, not an explanation of it; the date and time you read it; what kind of document it is (a tax notice, a lease, a medical leaflet); the deadline Glass found in it, if it found one, and whether Glass thinks something still needs doing; the amount the letter asks for and the next step, if Glass found them; your own “done” mark, if you set one; and the random id the document was filed under, so “Open” can reopen it during the 72 hours before the document deletes — after that the id opens nothing. A reading made with the browser extension keeps the article’s web address in place of that id, because there is no stored document to reopen. That is the whole record: it never holds the letter itself, which still deletes after 72 hours. The deadline is the part that outlives the document, and the amount and the next step stay with it — a reading you can still find by name after three days keeps the date the letter printed, so the reminder does not vanish before the day it is about. It clears itself two weeks after that date, without you asking, and the amount and the next step go with it. With no deadline, the amount and the next step delete after 72 hours, with the document. This is on by default. GlassRead’s built-in tools arrive turned on; we do not ask you to go and enable one, and we would rather say so here than have you find out later. Keeping it is yours to switch off — open Account, then Reading — and once it is off nothing is saved at all. You can also remove a single reading, or clear them all, at any time.

Your reading is yours

What you read, what you tap, and what Glass explains to you stays on your device and in your session. We do not build a profile of you with your name on it, and we never show your reading to an employer, a landlord, an agency, or anyone else.

What institutions see

Publishers and institutions that use Glass see aggregate-only analytics: which clause confused readers, which section people re-read, which terms needed explaining — which clause, never which reader. A feature that cannot sit honestly on one side of this line gets cut.

How we measure our own site

To know whether the site is working — whether a scared person who lands here actually finds the explanation they came for — we keep a small, first-party count of the steps in the journey: a page opened, a document pasted, the explanation shown, a checkout started. It is cookieless and runs on our own infrastructure; no third-party analytics service is involved.

Each measurement carries only two things: the name of the step and the kind of document (for example, a tax notice or an eviction letter). It never includes your document, the text you paste, your name, your email, or anything that could identify you. There are no cookies and no fingerprinting, and we do not track you from one site to another. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, we record nothing at all.

The iPhone app

GlassRead also comes as an iPhone app. It reads a letter on your phone: when you take a photo of one, or open a PDF or a picture, the words are read by your phone, and only the words are sent to GlassRead’s service to make your explanation — the photo itself never leaves your phone. The words are then handled exactly like a document you paste, above.

Your sign-in is kept in the iPhone’s Keychain, on that phone only: it is not copied to another device. On an iPhone you can sign in with Apple. Apple then gives us a name and an email address, or a private relay address if you choose Hide My Email; that address is its own account, and we do not link it to any other. When you delete your account, we also ask Apple to end that Sign in with Apple connection.

The Browse tab opens other people’s websites. The pages you open are listed under “Your pages” on this phone only — the address, the page’s own title and two dates, never the page’s words — and nothing in that list is sent anywhere. When you ask GlassRead to read a page, its text is sent the way the browser extension’s is, described above.

You can also share a PDF, photo, link or text to GlassRead from another app. The share sheet sends nothing: it only leaves the item in a folder that the GlassRead app on the same phone can read, and then opens GlassRead, which reads it like anything else you open.

Listening

When you press Listen, the text being read is sent to GlassRead’s service, which turns it into speech with an online voice service run by Microsoft. We keep the audio for up to 30 days, filed under a fingerprint of the text rather than under your name, so the same passage is not voiced twice. If you are signed out, or you have used up your listening, the read carries on in your device’s own voice instead, and nothing is sent for it.

Purchases through Apple

Outside the United States, the iPhone app sells its plans through Apple’s in-app purchase. Apple takes the payment: we never receive your card, your Apple ID or any payment details. Apple gives our service a signed record of the purchase, and for each one we keep only what we need to run your plan — the transaction ids Apple assigns, which plan and whether it is monthly or annual, when the current period ends, whether it was a test purchase, and whether Apple refunded it — together with a random account token. The token is a code made up only for this: it is how Apple’s renewal and refund notices find your account, without our sending Apple your name or your email.

Deleting your account erases these records. It does not stop an Apple subscription: Apple still bills you until you cancel it in Settings, under your name and then Subscriptions. What Apple holds about you is covered by Apple’s own privacy policy.

Payments

If you buy something on the web, or in the United States from the iPhone app, which opens our web checkout, the payment is handled by Stripe. We receive a confirmation that you paid. We never see or store your full card number. A purchase made through Apple is handled by Apple, as explained above.

Your rights

Under PIPEDA you can ask us to access the personal information we hold about you, correct it, withdraw your consent, or delete your documents and account. To make a request, write to us at hello@glassread.com and we will respond within the time the law allows. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca). Glass is not directed to children.

What we do not do

Questions or requests

Want something deleted, or have a question about this policy? Write to us at hello@glassread.com.