Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible

Avela (“Avela,” “we,” or “us”) is responsible for personal data processed for the service. Privacy questions and requests can be sent to:

2. What Avela is

Avela is a private journal for text, photos, voice transcription, feelings, personal patterns, and gentle reflection. Avela is not a medical device, therapist, diagnostic service, or emergency service.

3. Information we process

4. How information is used

• Save, display, export, and delete the journal you create.
• Transcribe audio after you intentionally submit a recording.
• Generate the reflection or pattern analysis you request.
• Load products, complete purchases, and restore Premium access.
• Protect the service, prevent abuse, and troubleshoot failures.
• Respond to support and privacy requests.

Depending on where you live, these activities rely on performing the service you request, your consent, our legitimate interest in keeping Avela secure and functional, or compliance with a legal obligation. You may withdraw consent at any time for future processing, without affecting processing already completed.

5. Local storage and security

Journal entries and profile data are stored locally in encrypted form using AES-256-GCM. The encryption key is kept in protected device storage such as iOS Keychain or Android Keystore. Selected photos are copied to Avela’s sandboxed documents directory. No security measure is perfect, but Avela uses encryption, data minimization, short-lived backend sessions, and access controls to reduce risk.

6. Personal AI and OpenAI

Personal AI is a Premium feature. When you use it, the minimized data described above is sent through the Avela backend to OpenAI. Your preferred name, email, profile photo, and journal photos are not part of the AI-reflection request.

Avela requests responses with store: false, so response objects are not kept for later retrieval through the Responses API. OpenAI’s current API data controls state that API data is not used to train its models unless the API customer opts in. They also explain that limited content may be retained in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days by default, unless another approved retention control or a legal or safety exception applies. See OpenAI API data controls.

If the AI service is unavailable, Avela still saves your entry and may create a short local reflection instead.

7. Voice transcription

After you stop a recording, Avela sends the audio, app language, and an anonymous short-lived session credential through its backend to OpenAI for transcription. The Avela backend processes audio in memory and does not write it to a journal database or disk. The temporary device recording is deleted after the attempt. The transcript is inserted as editable journal text. OpenAI currently lists its audio transcription endpoint as having no abuse-monitoring or application-state retention; provider practices can change, so the linked data controls remain the authoritative source.

8. Service providers and disclosure

• OpenAI processes text and audio for requested AI and transcription features.
• Adapty loads subscription products and determines Premium access. Avela disables advertising identifier and IP-address collection for Adapty profiles in the SDK configuration.
• Apple processes App Store purchases, billing, and store-account data under its own terms.
• Render and website hosting providers provide infrastructure and may process limited technical logs.

We may also disclose information when required by law, to protect a person from serious harm, to investigate abuse or security incidents, or as part of a business transfer subject to appropriate safeguards. We do not sell journal content or use it for targeted advertising.

9. Retention and deletion

Local journal and profile information remains on your device until you delete it, remove the app, or the operating system removes app data. The current Avela backend does not maintain a journal database. Support correspondence is retained only as long as reasonably needed to resolve the request and meet legal obligations. Providers may keep limited records under their own policies and legal duties.

In Avela, open Settings → Privacy and data to export structured journal data or delete local entries, profile data, and managed photos. You can also contact us for a privacy request.

10. Your choices and rights

You can decline microphone or photo-library permissions, edit a voice transcript before saving, avoid optional AI features, and delete local data. Where applicable law provides these rights, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or portability, and may withdraw consent or complain to the competent data protection authority. We may need reasonable information to verify a request. Email ikkagency13@gmail.com.

11. International processing

Providers may process information in countries other than yours. Where required, we rely on contractual, technical, or other lawful safeguards for cross-border transfers.

12. Adults only

Avela is intended for people aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly offer the service to children. Contact us if you believe a child has provided personal information.

13. Changes and contact

We may update this policy as Avela evolves. The effective date above will change when a new version is posted. For privacy questions, contact ikkagency13@gmail.com. We usually reply within two business days.