PodWhale

Privacy Policy

What information PodWhale uses, why, who we share it with and which rights you have. We use as little as we need and we never sell data.

Who we are

PodWhale is an app by Thinkaholic, a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) at Coolsingel 104, 3011 AG Rotterdam, the Netherlands (Chamber of Commerce 65338340, VAT NL002271788B29). Thinkaholic is the controller of the data described in this policy. You can reach us at support@podwhale.app.

What we use and why

Your account. The first time you open the app, it creates an anonymous account without a name or email address. If you sign in with Apple, Google or email, we keep the email address and the name that service passes on. Legal basis: our agreement with you (the app does not work without an account).

What you keep in the app. Your podcast subscriptions, playlists, listening history, where you were in an episode, and your settings, so you can carry on on another device. Legal basis: our agreement with you.

Recommendations. To suggest podcasts and episodes, we look at what you listen to and finish, what you follow and what you like, and at what else listeners of the same podcasts follow and hear on PodWhale. For that last part we only use counts across many listeners, never who listened to what. We also work out topics from the descriptions of episodes you listen to. Those descriptions go to OpenAI, without your name or email address, which turns them into keywords. If you choose Don't recommend this podcast, we keep that with your account. To see which recommendations work best, we count per day how often they are shown, opened and played, without linking that to you. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in making the app personal.

Reading along and subtitles. We make the texts from the public audio of podcasts, with speech recognition by Groq and OpenAI, and translations by Anthropic and OpenAI. No data about you is used for that. The app counts your free minutes per day on your phone. To prevent abuse and keep costs fair, our server keeps per account how much you use these features per day and per month and what that costs, and asks RevenueCat whether you have Plus. To keep the text in step with your copy of an episode (which may have different ads), the app sometimes sends us short pieces of that episode. That is podcast audio, never sound from your microphone. Legal basis: our agreement with you.

PodWhale Plus and purchases. You pay through the App Store or Google Play. We never see your payment details. RevenueCat keeps track for us of whether you have Plus, using the app's account ID, the purchase, the term and the country. Legal basis: our agreement with you and legal record-keeping duties.

Your update. With Plus, when you come back after at least an hour and podcasts you follow have new episodes, PodWhale can write a short update about them with AI. For that, the app sends our server the IDs of up to 16 of those episodes, your app language, your previous update and, per podcast, how many of its episodes you played in the last 30 days. Our server gives an AI model from Anthropic, OpenAI or Groq the names of up to four of those podcasts; for up to three episodes each, the title, length, description and what PodWhale wrote about it; your previous update; and, per podcast, only whether you play it often, now and then or not lately. The model never gets your name, email address or account ID. We do not keep your update on our server: the app keeps the latest one on your phone until you sign out. If our quality checks hold an update back, its text stays in our server logs for 30 days, without your account ID. Your update is on by default. You can switch it off in Account > Plus settings, or under the update itself via Made automatically. Legal basis: our agreement with you.

Notifications. If you turn on notifications about new episodes, we keep your device's push token. Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw in the settings of the app or your phone.

Statistics and stability. We measure how the app is used (for example which screens are opened and whether someone starts a trial) with Firebase Analytics and PostHog (servers in the EU), and we receive crash reports through Firebase Crashlytics. This uses a random ID, not your name or email address. Whether an install, trial or purchase came from one of our own ads, we measure through Google Analytics and Google Ads. On Android, Google also uses your phone's advertising ID for this; you can delete or reset it in Android's settings. On iPhone we do not ask for permission to track you and we do not use the advertising ID. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in improving the app and measuring our ads.

Shared links. If you open a link someone shared with PodWhale on an iPhone, we note an encrypted code of your network address, so the app opens the right episode after you install it. We do not keep your network address itself, and the note disappears after two hours.

Contact and feedback. If you send us a message through the app or by email, we keep that message and your details to answer you. To group similar reports and let you know when what you reported is fixed, Anthropic or OpenAI reads the text of your report, without your name, email address, phone number or links. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in improving the app.

PodWhale shows no ads, sells no data and does not use your data to show you other companies' ads.

Who we share data with

Only with service providers we need to run the app, under a data processing agreement:

Some of these providers process data outside the European Economic Area, mainly in the United States. That happens under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. Beyond that, we only share data when the law requires it.

How long we keep data

Your rights

You may access your data, have it corrected or erased, get a copy in a common format, and object to processing based on our legitimate interest. You can delete your account and its data yourself in the app under Account, or see the page Delete account. For anything else, email support@podwhale.app; we answer within a month. A running subscription is cancelled in the App Store or Google Play: deleting your account does not stop the payments.

If you disagree with how we handle your data, you can file a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl) or with the supervisory authority in your own country.

Children

PodWhale is not meant for children under 13. If you are under 16, ask a parent or guardian for permission before you create an account with an email address or buy anything.

Security

Data travels over the internet encrypted. Access to stored data is restricted per account, and only people who need it for their work can reach the systems. To keep scripts and altered copies of the app away from the paid features, the app shows our server that it is the real PodWhale app (Firebase App Check, with Apple App Attest or Google Play Integrity).

Changes

If this policy changes in a meaningful way, we will say so in the app or on this page before the change takes effect.

Last updated: 31 October 2026.