TONEWICK · CHINESE, ILLUMINATED
Your reading text belongs to you
Ordinary reading in ToneWick happens in your browser. You do not need an account, and importing or reading a document does not upload it to ToneWick. If you choose Open article with a web address, that address is sent to ToneWick’s server so it can fetch the page for you; see Opening an article from its address.
Updated October 7, 2026. This page describes the service at tonewick.com.
What stays in your browser
Chinese text analysis, dictionary lookup, display-script conversion and PDF text extraction run locally. Saved books, settings, vocabulary and attached audio use this browser profile’s storage. Libraries are not synchronized between devices and are not encrypted. Other people using the same profile may access them. Private browsing, storage eviction or clearing site data can remove them.
Export a backup from Text tools to keep your library. Backups contain text, settings and vocabulary, and exclude audio files. Imported PDF bytes and opening passwords are not sent to the voice service.
Opening an article from its address
When you paste a web address into Import and choose Open article, your browser sends that address to tonewick.com. Our server requests that one page from its website, with an honest ToneWick user agent and no cookies or sign-in, and passes it straight back to your browser, which extracts the headline and story. The page and the address are not stored or logged. To limit misuse, the server keeps a short-lived count of requests per visitor, using a salted, hourly-rotating fingerprint of your IP address that cannot be turned back into the address. Only public web pages can be opened; private network addresses are refused. The website you open sees a request from ToneWick’s server, not from you.
Website requests and tracking
ToneWick has no analytics, advertising trackers or third-party font requests. Fonts, dictionary assets, scripts and starter recordings are served from this website. Like other websites, loading it sends ordinary connection information, including your IP address and requested URLs, to the hosting service. Hosting access and security logs are separate from your browser’s library. This page does not promise that infrastructure keeps no logs.
Listening and optional voice processing
- Starter recordings: downloading a public story recording does not upload your own reading text.
- Attached audio: your supplied recording and timings play locally.
- Device voices: a voice marked “network” may send text to its browser or operating-system provider. ToneWick requests consent before using it. The platform’s “local” label is not independently audited.
- Prepare natural narration: explicitly allow the page text; no account or access code is required. Only the reviewed page text and narration settings are sent to ToneWick’s authenticated voice service. Its worker performs speech generation offline after the models are installed, without a speech-provider API.
When you create audio, a secure, HttpOnly, same-site cookie keeps the narration requests private to your browser for up to one day. It contains a random token; the server stores its hash, expiry and a random browser identifier. It is not an account or analytics identifier. Usage limits use a keyed hash of your IP address, retained for up to 24 hours; session-creation counters expire after one hour. These counters contain no reading text or plain IP addresses. Shared networks share an allowance. No reading text is sent merely by opening the voice panel.
Generated audio is temporary in the current tab. ToneWick requests deletion of the server copy after download where possible; temporary results also expire under the service’s retention policy. Logical deletion does not erase hosting snapshots or backups. Do not send material you are not comfortable having processed by that service.
Optional English passage translation
Starter English is included locally. For imported text, selecting Translate this text and accepting the explanation lets ToneWick send the current passage and up to three upcoming passages to its own server. This permission lasts for the current text in this tab. No Google, Claude or Codex account is used. The installed Chinese-to-English model runs offline on the server; it sees short sentences or parts of longer sentences, without the surrounding document.
Requests and results expire after 10 minutes and are removed by the queue’s regular cleanup. The browser also requests deletion immediately after delivery or cancellation. Results are cached on this device, up to 500 passages, when remembering is enabled. The translation dialog offers Clear saved translations; erasing all reader data clears them too. Translation caches are not included in library backups. Hosting snapshots and access logs are separate from this temporary queue.
Abuse limits use a keyed hash of the connecting IP address, retained for up to 24 hours. The application does not retain the plain IP or text in usage counters. A tab has a random request token to protect its temporary results; it is not an account or analytics identifier. Shared networks share a free allowance. Machine translation can mistranslate names, idioms and implied context.
Names and idioms
CC-CEDICT expression lookup and Jieba name hints run in your browser. No news article is uploaded for this analysis. Possible names are visibly distinguished from dictionary entries; corrections stay with the local document and are included in its backup. A name hint does not verify someone’s identity.
Remove data
Use Text tools → Erase all ToneWick / Lantern data from this browser to remove the reader’s local data. Export a backup first if you want to keep it. Local deletion does not erase a separately downloaded backup or an infrastructure backup. Browser settings can also clear site data for tonewick.com.
AI practice stories
AI story generation is disabled on this deployment. Selecting or saving vocabulary remains local. Any future enabled story service would require its own disclosure and consent before text is sent.
Contact by email
Email hello@tonewick.com for questions or privacy requests. The link opens your email app; it does not attach or upload your reading library. Messages you choose to send are handled through Zoho Mail and may be retained for correspondence. Include only the information you want to share.