Penvy

Privacy policy

Last updated 28 October 2026

What Penvy stores, why, and for how long. In short: your texts are turned into handwriting and then thrown away. They are never stored.

Your texts

When you convert text on this website, with the shortcut on your iPhone or iPad, or by sharing it to Penvy on Android, the text is sent to our server, turned into handwriting (an image, a PDF page or a notebook file) and discarded right after. It is never stored or logged. For your account we only count how many texts Penvy wrote and how many characters they had, and how much of your daily limit each one used (see Fair-use limits).

For notebook files, the language setting your browser or device sends is used to set the notebook's language. It isn't stored.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, because converting your text is the service you asked for.

Your account

We keep this until you delete your account. You only need a username and a password to use Penvy. We don't ask for your name or email address, so we can't contact you or reset a forgotten password. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

That's also why an account nobody has used for 2 years is deleted automatically, with its sessions and connected shortcuts: a forgotten account couldn't be deleted any other way. We can't warn you first. Using Penvy while signed in or running the shortcut once is enough to keep your account.

How you heard about Penvy

Right after you create an account, Penvy asks once how you heard about it: one of a few places (like TikTok, Reddit or a friend), or "Other" with up to 50 characters of your own. Answering is optional; if you skip it or close the question, we only store that you skipped it. Please don't write personal details into "Other". We store the answer with your account and use it only to count, on a page only we can see, how many accounts came from each place and how many of them keep using Penvy. It isn't shared with anyone or used for ads. It stays until you delete your account and is part of the data you can download. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is knowing where to tell people about Penvy, without tracking anyone.

Your own handwriting

If you write your own handwriting on the website, we store your samples: every letter you wrote as pen strokes (their path, their thickness, and the pen pressure where your pen reports it), the languages you picked, how many versions you wrote, the letters you join, and the paper and pen you wrote with. We also store the sentence you write once in your usual way, as strokes, and what we measure from it: how large you write in running text, the space between your letters and words, and how your lines tilt and wander. For the style pickers we keep one short sample line written with your samples. Each screen is saved when you tap Next, so you can stop and continue later. The exact pen positions your device reports are turned into these strokes and then discarded. The word you write to test whether you join letters is checked and not stored. If you write on a sheet in your notes app and upload it, the file is read on our server and discarded right away: only the strokes in the sheet's boxes are kept, never the file or anything else in it.

We use your samples only to write your texts in your handwriting. We don't use them to identify you or anyone else, and nobody else can write with them.

Unfinished writing is deleted after 30 days without a new letter. Your finished handwriting stays until you delete it or your account, and goes with an account nobody has used for 2 years. It's part of the data you can download. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Signing in

To keep you signed in, we store a hash of a random session ID and when it expires. Your browser keeps the ID in one cookie (see In your browser). A session ends after 12 hours, or after 30 days if you choose "Keep me signed in", and is deleted when you sign out. Expired sessions are deleted every day. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Your connected shortcuts

When you connect the shortcut on your iPhone or iPad, it gets an access key. We store only a hash of the key, the type of device, how you start Penvy, when it was connected and last used, and how many texts it wrote. This stays until you disconnect the shortcut or delete your account. A key that is never used is deleted after 7 days.

The shortcut saves the key in the file penvy-key.txt in the Shortcuts folder of your iCloud Drive. We have no access to that file; Apple's privacy policy applies to iCloud. Each time you run the shortcut, it sends the copied text and the key to our server. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Your key works only on devices you allowed, at most 2, so a copy of it doesn't work for anyone else. For that, the shortcut also sends which version of it you have, the type of device (iPad or iPhone) and a fingerprint it makes on your device from the device's name and model. The name itself never leaves your device, and we store the fingerprint only as a keyed hash that can't be turned back. For every device we store that hash, the type of device, whether you allowed it, the shortcut version it runs, which of our addresses it uses, and when it was first and last seen. You see them under Connected shortcuts and can remove them there. A device that asked and wasn't allowed is deleted after 7 days. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR for running the shortcut, and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR for the device check: our legitimate interest is keeping each account's free limit for the person it belongs to.

Notes and surveys in the shortcut

At the end of a run the shortcut can show a short note from us (a new version, a new address, how much of your daily limit is left) or ask a few questions. We store how often each note or survey was shown to your account or device, so it doesn't come back more often than planned. Answering a survey is optional: tap "Not now" or close it. If you tap "Not now", we only count that for the survey, to see how many people skip it; it may still be asked again later. If you answer, we store your answers with your account and look at them on a page only we can see, together with how often the people who answered use Penvy, never with a username. Please don't write personal details into typed answers. Your answers aren't shared with anyone or used for ads. They are part of the data you can download, and they go when you delete your account or we delete the survey. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is improving Penvy and finding out whether a paid plan would make sense.

Protection against abuse

To slow down password guessing and mass sign-ups, we record failed sign-ins, new accounts, shortcut connections and uploads of a written handwriting sheet. When you try Penvy without an account, we record each conversion the same way. For each, we store the time and a keyed hash of the username, your network or your account ID. Your network is your IP address, or for IPv6 addresses only their first half (the part your internet connection has), so changing addresses within one connection doesn't get around a limit. The hash can't be turned back into the username or address. These records are deleted after 24 to 48 hours. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is keeping accounts safe from unauthorized access and the free service available to everyone.

When you create an account with JavaScript on, your browser solves a small puzzle in the background (a few hundred thousand calculations, about a second) and sends the answer with your sign-up. The puzzle only costs a script that creates many accounts real time. It reads nothing from your device and we store nothing about it.

Fair-use limits

Penvy is free, so every account has a daily limit (a smaller one on its first day). Every image, page, notebook and preview counts, by an estimate of how much server time it takes; PDF pages and editable ink count at least a set share of an image of the same text. We store how much of the current 24-hour window you've used and what it went into, as part of your account; Account → Usage shows it. Without an account you can convert 3 short texts a day. An account created without JavaScript has a smaller limit until it's unlocked with the puzzle above. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, because the limits are part of the free service.

Server logs

For every request, our host records technical data: IP address, time, requested address, browser type and status code. Our own log entries contain your account ID, the number of characters, lines or pages, the file size and how long it took. Never the text. These logs are kept for one hour. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is running Penvy securely and finding errors.

In your browser

Penvy sets one cookie, __Host-hs_session. It contains the random session ID that keeps you signed in. Without "Keep me signed in", it is deleted when you close your browser; with it, after 30 days. The cookie is strictly necessary for the service you asked for, so it needs no consent.

Penvy also uses your browser's storage for things you'd expect it to remember. This stays on your device and is never sent to us:

No tracking, no ads, no analytics tools. Fonts and scripts come from Penvy itself; nothing is loaded from other companies.

Anonymous daily totals

To keep Penvy within its free server time, we count anonymous totals for the whole site, per day: how much server time and data transfer Penvy used, how many requests, images, pages and notebooks, characters, sign-ups, sign-ins and page views there were. They contain no account ID, no IP address and nothing else that points to a person, so they aren't personal data. We keep them for 400 days.

Who else handles your data

Vercel Inc., USA, hosts the website and runs our server code in a data center in the EU. Files like images and fonts are delivered from the Vercel location nearest to you.

Neon (Databricks, Inc., USA) stores the account data in a database in the EU, under its data processing terms. Deleted data can stay in the database's restore history for up to 6 hours; after that it is gone.

Both companies are certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. The European Commission has decided that it protects personal data adequately (Art. 45 GDPR). We don't sell your data or pass it to anyone else.

Your rights

You have the right to access your data (Art. 15 GDPR), to have it corrected (Art. 16) or deleted (Art. 17), to restrict its processing (Art. 18), to receive it in a portable format (Art. 20), and to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21). Penvy doesn't know your name or email address and recognizes you only by your username and password, so you use these rights in your account settings (Art. 11 GDPR). There you can download all stored data as a file, change your username and password, and delete your account. Deleting is immediate and complete.

You can also complain to a data protection authority, for example the one in the EU country where you live (Art. 77 GDPR).

There is no automated decision-making or profiling.

Age

Penvy is for people aged 16 and older. People aged 13 to 15 need their parents' or guardians' permission, which they confirm when they sign up. Penvy isn't for children under 13.

Changes

When Penvy changes, this page changes with it. The date at the top shows the current version.

Create your account

Your settings and your shortcut are saved to it.

Don't use your real name. 3 to 24 letters, digits, dots, hyphens or underscores.
At least 10 characters. There's no email, so we can't reset your password if you forget it. Let your password manager save it.
Forgot your password?

Penvy doesn't know your email, so it can't reset your password. Check your password manager first. If it isn't there, create a new account, pick your settings again and connect your shortcut in Set up.

By creating an account you agree to the Terms. We store your username, a hash of your password, your settings, how many texts Penvy wrote for you and, if you tell us, how you heard about Penvy. No email, and never your texts. Privacy policy