Norn Privacy Policy
Effective October 18, 2026
Norn is a writing app for the Mac, made by Woven Strand Software, LLC (“we”). This policy explains what happens to your information when you use Norn.
The short version: your writing is yours. We don’t collect it, see it, or sell it. Norn has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party services.
What Norn stores, and where
On your Mac. Your books, your Writer’s Kit, your settings, and Norn’s own backups (snapshots) are stored on your Mac, inside Norn’s own app folder. If you choose a different folder for book snapshots in Norn ▸ Settings ▸ Snapshots, they are stored there instead. We have no access to any of them.
In your iCloud, if sync is on. Norn can sync your books and Writer’s Kit between your Macs using iCloud. You turn sync on yourself on your first Mac. On another Mac signed in to the same Apple Account, Norn then turns sync on by itself and tells you, unless you have turned it off on that Mac. The synced copy goes to your own private iCloud database, under your Apple Account. We cannot read it, and it doesn’t count as data we collect. Apple stores it under Apple’s terms and privacy policy.
Everything you write is encrypted before it is sent to iCloud. iCloud can see how many entries a book has and when they changed, but not what they say.
Images you add to a book are stored in your iCloud without end-to-end encryption.
To tell your Macs apart, Norn stores each Mac’s name (as set in System Settings) with your synced data.
To tell which Apple Account a book belongs to, Norn keeps on your Mac the identifier iCloud gives your account for Norn. It is not your name or your email address.
You can turn sync off at any time in Norn ▸ Settings ▸ iCloud. A Mac you turn it off on stays off.
Files you choose. When you export a book or open a file, Norn reads or writes only the files and folders you pick.
What we collect
Nothing. Norn doesn’t send your information to us or to anyone else. It has no analytics, no tracking, no advertising, and no third-party code that collects data. Its only network traffic is to Apple’s iCloud: to sync when sync is on, and, when Norn starts with sync off on a Mac where you haven’t turned it off, to check whether your Apple Account already syncs Norn. That check only reads; it sends nothing of yours. The Help menu’s Norn Support and Privacy Policy items open our web pages in your web browser; Norn itself sends nothing.
Crash reports and feedback. If you choose to share crash reports with app developers in your Mac’s settings, or you send feedback through TestFlight, Apple may pass those reports to us. We use them only to fix Norn. They are handled under Apple’s privacy policy.
Messages you send us. If you write to us, we receive your email address and what you write, and use them only to answer you.
Children
Norn isn’t directed at children, and it collects no information from anyone.
Deleting your data
On your Mac: delete your books in Norn (and empty Norn’s Trash). Snapshots of a deleted book are removed after 30 days (you can change that in Norn ▸ Settings ▸ Snapshots), but a book’s “before sync” snapshots are kept until you delete them, and your Writer’s Kit and its snapshots are not removed with a book. To remove everything at once, quit Norn, delete the app, and delete its folder, ~/Library/Containers/com.wovenstrand.Norn, along with any snapshot folder you chose.
In iCloud: turn sync off in Norn on each of your Macs, then delete Norn’s data in System Settings ▸ [your name] ▸ iCloud ▸ Manage ▸ Norn ▸ Delete from iCloud. The copies on your Macs are not deleted.
We hold no copy, so there is nothing for us to delete. To ask anyway, write to us.
Changes to this policy
If Norn ever changes what it stores or sends, we’ll update this policy and its effective date before that version of Norn is released. A change of that kind is shown in the app’s release notes.
Contact
Woven Strand Software, LLC — support@wovenstrand.com