Privacy Policy
OhMy! Journal ("OhMy!", "the app", "we", "us") is a personal journal for iPhone and iPad with Ella, an AI companion. This policy explains what the app keeps, what it sends, and why. It is published at ohmyjournal.app/privacy.
The short version: your journal lives on your device and in your own iCloud. We never see your photos or your location. When Ella replies, the text she needs is sent to our server and to our AI provider to write the reply, and it is not stored there.
1. Who we are
OhMy! Journal is provided by [Legal name of the developer] ("we"). For any privacy question or request, write to contact@ohmyjournal.app.
2. Your journal stays with you
- Your moments, photos, people, stories and places are stored on your device and, if iCloud is on, in your private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit). That database belongs to your Apple Account. We cannot access it.
- Without iCloud, everything stays only on your device.
- Face crops and people's photos are made on your device (Apple Vision). Photos never leave your device.
- Location (to place moments on the map) is read and kept on your device. It is never sent to us.
3. What is sent when Ella replies
Ella is an AI. To comment on a moment, write a story or describe a person, the app sends only the text she needs to our server (Google Firebase Cloud Functions), which forwards it to our AI provider (OpenAI) and returns the reply.
| When | What is sent |
|---|---|
| You save a moment | The moment's text, title and date; the names and pronouns of people you tagged; your name and pronoun; titles and dates of a few earlier moments and anniversaries (so Ella can remember); language |
| A story is written or rewritten | The text, title and date of the moments in the story; people's names; whether each moment has a photo (yes/no only); language |
| Ella describes a person | The person's name and pronoun; text (up to 400 characters), title and date of some of their moments; language |
Never sent: photos, faces, location, place names or coordinates.
How this content is handled:
- Our server does not store it. It passes the text to the AI provider and sends the reply back to your device. Server logs keep only technical metadata (task, model, duration, size, errors), never your text.
- Safety check. The moment's text also goes through OpenAI's moderation service, to detect risk and sensitive content before Ella replies.
- OpenAI. OpenAI processes the content to generate the reply. Under OpenAI's API terms, data sent through the API is not used to train its models, and may be kept for a limited time (currently up to 30 days) to monitor abuse, then deleted.
- App authenticity. Requests to our server use Apple App Attest through Firebase App Check, so only the genuine app can call it.
Every request carries an anonymous device identifier (Apple's identifier for vendor), used only to apply usage limits per device. It is not an advertising identifier and does not identify you. Usage limits are counted in the server's memory and are lost when it restarts.
You can hide Ella in Settings. With Ella hidden, nothing is sent for her replies.
4. Subscriptions
Purchases are handled by Apple through the App Store. We never receive your payment details.
If you subscribe to OhMy+, the app sends our server, at most once a day, the original transaction ID of your purchase (a number Apple assigns to the purchase, not linked to your name or account on our side). Our server asks Apple whether the subscription is still valid and returns only the answer. Nothing is stored.
5. Usage analytics
To understand how the app is used and improve it, we use Google Firebase Analytics, configured to collect as little as possible:
- Only counts and categories (for example: "a moment was saved, with 2 photos and 1 person"; "a story was opened"). Never your text, titles, people's names, places or topics.
- No advertising identifier (IDFA), no advertising features, Google Signals off.
- Data is kept for 2 months.
- Firebase assigns an app instance ID to group these events.
6. Notifications
If you allow notifications, the app schedules reminders on your device. To receive messages from us, the device gets a push token from Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and joins general topics (for example, by language). We do not store push tokens, and nothing from your journal is sent to receive a notification.
7. Feedback on Ella
When you tell Ella she got something wrong ("Did I get something wrong?"), only the reason you picked, the type of screen and the kind of reply are sent as an analytics event. The reply itself, your moment and names stay on your device, and that reply is deleted from your device.
8. Tracking and advertising
We do not track you across apps or websites, we do not show ads, and we do not sell or share your data for advertising.
9. Service providers
| Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Apple (iCloud, App Store, App Attest) | Storing your journal in your iCloud, purchases, app authenticity |
| Google Firebase (Cloud Functions, App Check, Analytics, Cloud Messaging) | Our server, request security, usage analytics, push notifications |
| OpenAI | Generating Ella's replies and moderation |
These providers may process data outside your country, including in the United States, under their own safeguards.
10. Legal bases
Where data protection laws such as the GDPR or Brazil's LGPD apply, we process data:
- to provide the app you asked for (Ella's replies, subscriptions);
- for our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and improving it (usage limits, minimal analytics);
- with your consent where required (notifications, location on your device).
11. Your choices and rights
- Delete your journal: delete moments in the app, or delete the app and its data in iCloud (Settings › [your name] › iCloud). Since we don't store your journal, there is nothing else for us to delete.
- Stop Ella: hide her in Settings.
- Analytics: you can ask us to delete analytics data linked to your app instance.
- Rights: depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or port your data, and to object to or restrict processing. Write to contact@ohmyjournal.app. You may also complain to your data protection authority.
12. Children
OhMy! is not directed to children under 13. If you are under the age required by law in your country to consent on your own, use the app only with a parent's or guardian's permission.
13. Ella is not professional help
Ella is an AI, not a person, and cannot replace professional support. If a moment suggests someone may be at risk, the app shows crisis resources. If you are in danger, contact your local emergency number.
14. Changes
If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above and, for important changes, let you know in the app.