1. Overview

This Privacy Policy describes how SimLife ("SimLife", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, and shares information when you use the SimLife mobile application for iOS and Android (the "App") and this website. By using SimLife, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

The short version: we collect only what the App needs to work. We never sell your personal information, and we never use your content to train AI models. You need an account to use SimLife, and you can permanently delete your account and data at any time from Settings.

2. Information we collect

Account information

Sign-in. You need an account to use SimLife. You can sign in with Google or Apple or, where the App offers it, with an email address and password. From Google we receive your name, email address, and profile picture. From Apple we receive the name and email address you choose to share, and you can use Apple's "Hide My Email" relay so we never see your real address. If you sign up with email, we store your name, your email address, and a hashed form of your password that cannot be read back.
Account identifier. Your account has a random identifier. The App keeps it in secure storage on your device (iOS Keychain or Android encrypted storage) to link your data to your account. It is not derived from hardware identifiers. We do not collect your IMEI or phone number, and we do not use your device's advertising ID.

Content you create

Prompts and generated content. Text, questions, chat messages, notes, emails, code, translations, story ideas, documents (such as PDFs you upload to Study Companion), and other content you submit to the AI skills, plus the responses generated for you, so the App can show your history across devices.
Sensitive content you choose to share. Some skills work with personal categories of data, and we treat them with extra care. They are processed and stored only if you choose to use the relevant skill:
- AI Journal: your journal entries, moods, reflections, and any photos you attach.
- Calorie Tracker: food logs and meal photos, nutrition goals, water intake, and weight, exercise, and fasting entries.
- Faith Companion: your selected faith tradition, devotionals, and saved verses. By selecting a tradition you explicitly consent to us processing this information to personalize the feature.
Kids Stories. The first name, age group, and personality traits you enter for a story's hero and up to two siblings, and up to three reference photos you choose to add. Section 9 explains how we handle this information.
Images. Photos you attach to chats or skills, photos you take with the camera (for example, of a meal or a homework problem), pictures for custom characters, and barcodes you scan.
Voice input. When you tap the microphone, audio is recorded only while it is active and sent to our speech-to-text provider. We do not keep this audio. Only the resulting text is kept.
Recordings you save. In Kids Stories you can record your own voice reading a chapter aloud, and in Note Taker you can import an audio file to turn into a note. These recordings are uploaded and saved with the story or note so you can play them again. They are kept until you delete the story or note, or your account. You can also delete a chapter recording on its own in Kids Stories.
Feedback and reports. Messages you send through the in-app feedback form, with the rating, category, and platform, and any report you file about a character or message, including a copy of the reported text.

Information collected automatically

Usage records. For each AI request we record technical metadata (which skill, AI model used, token counts, and computed cost) tied to your account, for free-credit accounting, fair-use enforcement, and abuse prevention.
Analytics events. We use PostHog (hosted in the EU) for product analytics. It records events we define, such as "app opened", "skill opened", or "paywall viewed", and the app lifecycle events the PostHog SDK sends on its own (app installed, updated, opened, and moved to the background). Events carry device information such as model, operating system version, language, time zone, and app version, and are linked to your account identifier once you are signed in. PostHog also records an approximate location (country and city) derived from your IP address. We do not use autocapture, session recording, or advertising analytics.
Your analytics choice. If your device's region is set to a country in the EU, EEA, or UK, analytics stay off until you agree. Elsewhere they are on by default. You can turn them off at any time in the App via Settings › Privacy & Data › Share usage analytics. When analytics are off, PostHog receives no events, so no approximate location is recorded either. Crash reporting and link attribution, described below, are not controlled by this setting.
Link attribution (ChottuLink). When the App starts, the ChottuLink SDK checks whether you installed SimLife from a creator's link, so we can measure which creator links bring new users and credit that creator. To match an install to a link, ChottuLink may process technical information such as your IP address, device details, and, on Android, the Google Play install referrer. After you create an account, we send ChottuLink your account identifier and a "signup" event, and we store the creator code and campaign, if any, on your account. This happens whether or not analytics are turned on. We do not use ChottuLink to advertise to you.
Crash and error data. We use Sentry to receive crash reports and error diagnostics from the App and our servers: the error message, stack trace, app version, device and operating system details, a short trail of recent app activity (which can include the addresses of network requests), and your account identifier. Sentry's "send default personal data" option is disabled. Crash reporting is always on because it keeps the App stable.
Push notification tokens and time zone. If you allow notifications, we store your device's push token with your account so we can send reminders and updates. You can turn notifications off in the App's settings or your device settings at any time. Each time you open the App we also save your device's time zone to your account, so reminders arrive at a suitable local time.
Server logs. Our API servers, hosted on Vercel, log each request with your account identifier, the feature used, and technical details such as timing and errors, so we can run and secure the service.

Purchase information

If you subscribe to SimLife Pro, Apple or Google handles the payment. RevenueCat receives the purchase from the store and passes your subscription status to us. For this, RevenueCat and we process your account identifier, purchase and transaction IDs, the product, the price and currency, the store, and your store country. We never receive or store your card number, bank details, or billing address.

3. How we use information

To generate AI responses to your prompts and stream them to your device.
To transcribe your voice input and imported audio, and to choose a matching voice language when your device reads text aloud.
To save your sessions, versions, favorites, and history so you can return to them.
To grant, renew, or end access to paid features based on your subscription status, and to track free-credit usage.
To send push notifications you have opted into, such as streak reminders.
To measure which creator links bring new users, and to pay creators the commission they earn on subscriptions.
To monitor service health, fix crashes, prevent abuse, and improve the product.
To respond when you contact us.

We do not sell your personal information, we do not show third-party advertising, and we do not use your content to train AI models.

4. AI processing & providers

SimLife is an AI app. To answer you, what you submit must be processed by AI providers acting as our data processors. Depending on the skill, that includes your prompts, chat history, attached images and documents, and the details the skill needs to personalize its answer. For example: your journal entries and moods in AI Journal, your faith tradition in Faith Companion, your food logs in Calorie Tracker, and the hero's name, age group, siblings, and any reference photos in Kids Stories. Depending on configuration, the providers are:

Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service: primary text generation and image understanding, and image generation, including FLUX.2-pro on Azure for Kids Stories and Recipe Finder illustrations.
OpenAI: alternative text and image generation, and content moderation when enabled.
Google (Gemini): alternative text generation.
Deepgram: speech-to-text for voice input and imported audio.
Groq: backup speech-to-text (Whisper) when Deepgram is unavailable, and language detection. When you ask the App to read text aloud, the first 300 characters are sent to Groq to identify the language so a matching voice is used. That text is not stored.

Reading aloud itself happens on your device, using its built-in text-to-speech voices. We send AI providers only what is needed to fulfil your request, and they process it to provide their service to us under their API terms. We do not use your content to train AI models.

We only use providers whose terms require them to protect your data with safeguards at least as strong as those described in this policy, to keep it confidential and secure, and to process it only to provide their service to us. The same applies to the service providers in section 5.

AI transparency. All content in SimLife's tools and chats, including text, summaries, stories, and images, is generated by artificial intelligence, not by a human, and is not individually reviewed by a person before you see it. AI can be inaccurate or inappropriate; please use judgment and verify anything important. SimLife is not a substitute for professional medical, legal, or financial advice.

5. Service providers

In addition to the AI providers above, we rely on these services:

Convex: our backend database and file storage, where your account, sessions, generated content, photos, documents, and saved recordings live.
Vercel: hosts our API servers. Its request logs include your account identifier and the feature used.
RevenueCat: relays subscription status between the app stores and our backend.
Apple App Store / Google Play: payment processing for subscriptions.
Google and Apple: sign-in, if you choose to use them.
PostHog (EU): product analytics, including approximate location derived from your IP address.
Sentry: crash and error reporting.
ChottuLink: link attribution and deferred deep links, for measuring which creator links bring new users. It is not used to advertise to you.
Expo: push notification delivery, through Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android and Apple Push Notification service on iOS.

Some skills also look things up in public content databases. These requests contain only your search terms or the scanned barcode, never your name or account identifier. Requests sent directly from your device also reveal your IP address to that service, as any internet request does.

OMDb: movie and TV information for Movie Finder.
Jikan (MyAnimeList) and AniList: anime information for Anime Finder.
Open Library: book metadata for Book Summary.
USDA FoodData Central and Open Food Facts: nutrition data for barcode scans in Calorie Tracker.

6. Device permissions

Microphone: only while you use voice input or speaking practice, or record your own narration in Kids Stories.
Camera: only when you choose to scan a food barcode or take a photo inside the App.
Photo library: only to attach images you select, and to save story illustrations to your photos when you ask.
Notifications: only if you grant permission; used for reminders and streaks.

You can revoke any permission at any time in your device settings. The rest of the App keeps working.

7. Data retention

We keep your account and content while your account exists, so your history is there when you come back.

Voice. Voice input audio is sent for transcription and not kept. Recordings you save (Kids Stories narration and audio imported into Note Taker) are kept until you delete the recording, the story or note it belongs to, or your account.
Items you delete in the App. Food, weight, exercise, and fasting logs, health profiles, symptom diary entries, chapter recordings, saved story heroes and siblings, and study decks and quizzes are erased from our servers straight away. Chats, journal entries, notes, stories, health sessions, recipes, and email, grammar, translator, code, book, movie, anime, and tutor sessions are permanently removed within 25 hours, together with their messages, versions, chapters, illustrations, recordings, and files. Deleting an item also deletes any chat you had about it, within 25 hours. One exception: deleting a tutor session keeps its speaking, quiz, and writing results until you delete your account.
When you delete your account. We permanently erase your account profile; all content and history in every skill, including characters you created; health, nutrition, weight, water, exercise, and fasting data; uploaded and generated photos, audio, and other files; subscription records stored on our side; feedback, usage, and activity logs; your push token; tutor translation cache entries built from your messages; and your sign-in credentials and sessions. Your data is deleted within minutes of your request.
What we keep without your identity. If a purchase came through a creator's link, we keep the commission record (the amount and the store transaction ID) for financial and tax compliance. Your account identifier is removed from it, although the transaction ID could still be matched to the purchase through Google Play, Apple, or RevenueCat. For reports you filed, we keep the reason and which character or message was reported, without your identity or the details you typed. The text of a reported chat message is deleted, while the text of a reported public character is kept for moderation. When we receive an app store subscription event that we cannot match to an account, we keep its identifiers for at most 30 days so a missed purchase can be restored, then delete them. For events that arrive after your account is deleted (your store subscription keeps running until you cancel it), the identifiers are removed as soon as the event arrives.
Service providers and backups. Deleting your account does not automatically delete data already held by our service providers, such as RevenueCat's customer record, PostHog analytics, Sentry crash reports, ChottuLink attribution data, or requests processed by our AI providers. That data expires under each provider's retention settings, and you can email us to ask for it to be deleted sooner. Standard infrastructure backups and logs expire on our providers' schedules.

8. Deleting your data

In the App: go to Settings and tap Delete Account, then type DELETE to confirm. You are signed out straight away, and your account and data are deleted within minutes, as described in section 7. While your account is being deleted, it cannot be signed in to. After that, you can use the same email address or Google or Apple account to create a new account.
By email: if you no longer have the App, email simlifedevs@gmail.com and we will complete the deletion within 30 days.
Individual items: you can delete individual chats, sessions, journal entries, meals, notes, stories, and recordings inside the App without deleting your account. Deleted items are permanently removed from our servers, straight away or within 25 hours, as described in section 7.
Data held by service providers: to ask for data held by RevenueCat, PostHog, Sentry, or ChottuLink to be deleted, email us.

Deleting your account does not cancel an active subscription. Please manage subscriptions separately in your Apple or Google account settings.

9. Children's privacy

SimLife is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The Kids Stories skill is designed for parents and guardians. The account, the subscription, and all controls belong to the adult.

To personalize a story, a parent can enter a child's first name, age group, and personality traits, the same details for up to two siblings, and up to three reference photos. The names, traits, and photos are sent to our AI providers to write the story; the photos are not sent to the image generator. The parent can also record their own voice reading a chapter. All of this is stored with the parent's account. Saved hero and sibling profiles and chapter recordings can be deleted individually in Kids Stories. Deleting a story removes it, its photos, its illustrations, and its voice recordings within 25 hours, and everything is erased when the parent deletes the account. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

10. Security

All data is transmitted over HTTPS/TLS. Account identifiers are stored using platform secure storage (Keychain on iOS, encrypted storage on Android). Backend data is stored with Convex behind access controls, and internal logging automatically redacts secrets and credentials. No system is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we design for the minimum data necessary.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live (including under the GDPR and CCPA/CPRA), you may have the right to access, correct, export, restrict, or delete your personal data, to object to processing, and to withdraw consent. For example, for the Faith Companion's processing of your selected tradition, you may simply stop using the skill or delete your account. You can opt out of product analytics, including the approximate location PostHog derives from your IP address, at any time in the App via Settings › Privacy & Data › Share usage analytics. To exercise any right, email simlifedevs@gmail.com. We respond within 30 days. We do not discriminate against you for exercising your rights, and we do not "sell" or "share" personal information as defined by the CCPA.

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), California residents have the right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of their personal information. SimLife does not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is no such sale or sharing for you to opt out of. You can still opt out of optional product analytics at any time in the App via Settings › Privacy & Data › Share usage analytics. To request a copy of your data or its deletion, email simlifedevs@gmail.com; we respond within 30 days. The same rights extend to residents of other regions with comparable laws (for example, the EU/EEA, UK, Brazil, and Canada).

12. International transfers

Our service providers process data on servers that may be located outside your country, including in the United States and the European Union. Where required, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses offered by our providers.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as SimLife evolves. Material changes will be announced in the App or on this page, and the "Last updated" date above always reflects the current revision. Continued use of SimLife after a change means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact

Questions, data requests, or complaints? Email simlifedevs@gmail.com. A real person reads every message.