Privacy
What Plainword Prep and this site collect, and what they never will.
Your practice sessions are processed for the session only and never stored, unless you choose to share them, and here is exactly what that means.
The beta form
The site collects only what you send in the Mac beta form: your email, where you are with the exam, your exam month and year if you give them, the state where you will be licensed, your Mac and macOS version, how you are studying now, anything you write in the free text box, and whether you want to hear when PsychTerms is live. We ask for no name, no phone number and no practice.
The form is handled by Formspree. It keeps a copy in its dashboard and sends one to Vishnu's inbox. Nobody else receives it. Both copies are deleted when the beta ends, or sooner if you ask. We use your email only to send you the beta build and to answer you.
Please do not describe a real client in the form.
This site
The beta form is the only thing on this site that sends anything. The site has no cookies, no analytics and no trackers. Its fonts and images come from this site, not from anyone else.
The Mac app
The Mac app is not out yet. The sections below are how it handles your practice sessions, from Plainword Prep's data spec, version 0.4.
On your Mac
The microphone, the transcription and the client's voice all run on your Mac. Audio never leaves it and is not kept. The session itself (the transcript, the intake, your note and edits, the tutor's debrief and your answers, and the client's state) is kept on your Mac, encrypted, for as long as you keep it.
During a session
While a session runs, some of its text goes to our server: each of your turns, so the client can reply, and later the transcript and your note, for the note comparison and the tutor's debrief. Our server holds a session's text only while it works on it and keeps nothing once the session ends. After 30 minutes idle, a session ends on its own.
The client model runs at Together, which hosts it. Zero retention is on for our account there: it stores no prompts and no replies, and does not train on them. Together keeps usage records only: how much text went through, which model, and when. That setting is checked before every release.
What leaves your Mac, by the choice you make
| Thing | Keep it on my device | Share my practice sessions |
|---|---|---|
| Audio of your voice | Never leaves. Not kept at all. | Never leaves. Not kept at all. |
| Your turns, during the session | Sent to the client model for that reply. Not stored. | Sent to the client model for that reply. Not stored. |
| Transcripts, intake, the client's state | Never | Yes, unless you mark the session private |
| Your note and your edits | Never | Yes, unless private |
| The tutor's debrief and your answers to it | Never | Yes, unless private |
| Logbook counts and trends | Yes, to your account | Yes, to your account |
| Entries read | The count only | The count only |
| Reference lookups, and pauses for Reference mid-session | A number per day, and a count. Never the terms. | A number per day, and a count. Never the terms. |
| Teacher links and assignments | Ids and dates only | Ids and dates only |
A test in the app checks that no free text leaves outside the sharing choice.
Each request a session sends, where it goes, and what is kept
| When | Sent from your Mac | To | Kept after the reply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Each thing you say or type | your turn as text, after the mask (below), and where the clock is | our server. For this session only, it holds the client's context: a recap of the earlier sections plus the last few turns, word for word. It passes them to the client model at Together. | Our server: nothing once the session ends, no exception. Sharing, if you chose it, uploads from your Mac only; our server keeps nothing for it. Together: nothing. Zero retention is on for our account: "Store prompts and model responses" is set to No, and training on our data is set to No. Together keeps usage records only: how much text went through, which model, and when. |
| The session starts | which case, which session of the journey, and a pointer to the earlier session played on this Mac | our server | the session's state, until the session ends. A pause for Reference keeps it. After 30 minutes idle, the session ends as if the clock ran out, so nothing is held for long. |
| The session ends | the session's id | our server, which sends back what the case planted, at the end and never earlier | nothing new |
| You compare your note | your note and the transcript lines behind it, both masked | our server | nothing |
| The tutor's debrief | the masked transcript, the intake, your masked note, and this session's counts | the tutor, on our server | nothing. Your answers to "What were you weighing?" stay on your Mac. |
| You ask the tutor about a topic | your question, the entry on screen, and the drill | the tutor, on our server | nothing |
- No audio is in any request.
- Each request carries a fixed list of fields, and nothing beyond it.
- The app keeps a send log of every call: which kind, when, and the names of the fields, never what was in them. The "What has left this Mac" table in the app's Account page reads from it.
- The client model is an open-weight model, which means its weights are public. It does not come from any lab whose models we use to check our own work. Today it is Inkling, hosted by Together. If the host changes, its no-retention terms go in our written record before the first call.
- Zero retention is a setting on our account at Together, and someone could switch it back. It is checked before every release.
The mask
On every turn, before anything leaves, the Mac hides phone numbers, emails, street addresses, and any name that is not in the case. The transcript and note sent for the debrief and the note comparison are masked the same way. The unmasked text stays on your Mac.
The mask is a help, not a promise. It does not catch numbers spoken as words, such as "five five five, one two one two". Please never describe a real client in a practice session.
Your account, if you make one
An account is optional. It holds your email, a password hash, your logbook, your teacher links, your price choice and renewal date, and the payment company's reference for your purchase. Card details stay with the payment company.
Without an account, your purchase gives your Mac its own token. We keep no email with it, and the logbook stays on your Mac.
The logbook
Your logbook (counts and trends, never your words) syncs to your account so you can see it on any device. Every field is a number, a yes or no, a date, or an id from a fixed list. There is no grade. Once a day you read, the app also sends two counts: entries read and Reference lookups. Which entries and which terms never leave your Mac.
If you choose to share
Sharing is the $19 choice, and you can switch it either way at any time. It reads:
Share my practice sessions (the transcript, my note edits and the tutor's debrief, never audio) to improve Plainword; they are stored under a random ID, not my email; I can keep any session private, and I can stop at any time, after which my shared sessions are deleted within 30 days, though models already trained on them are not retrained.
A finished session waits 24 hours on your Mac before it uploads, so you can still mark it private. A check on your Mac asks you first if a session looks like it mentions a real person; it will miss things. Shared sessions are used to make the client and the tutor better. They are never sold, never given to anyone else, and never published as text. A separate record links your account to the random ID, and it is read only to delete your sessions or to show you your own shared list.
Teachers
You can give a teacher a link to see your logbook numbers, never your sessions, and revoke it at any time. A teacher can assign you a case from our library; only that assignment's counts go back.
Logs and backups
Server access logs (address, time and route, never content) are kept for 14 days, then deleted. Backups expire within 30 days. The app keeps its own send log on your Mac: every call, when, and the names of the fields, never what was in them.
Contact
Write to vishnu@plainword.health with any question about this page. Last updated 18 October 2026.