Privacy Policy

Account Information

• KnowItOwl! does not have a sign-in screen and does not request or store your name, email address, phone number, or location
• Apple provides a signed, app-scoped App Transaction. Our backend validates it and derives an opaque identifier used for authentication, cross-device sync, and credit accounting
• The app-scoped identifier is not your Apple ID and cannot be used by us to identify you personally or track you across other apps

Voice Input and Conversations

• When you speak to KnowItOwl!, your voice audio is sent to the KnowItOwl! AI API for transcription, answer generation, and text-to-speech audio generation
• Your typed questions, spoken questions, transcripts, and AI responses are processed only to provide the app experience
• Your questions and the AI responses are stored under your app-scoped identifier to maintain conversation history and enable cross-device sync
• Audio recordings (your voice messages and AI-generated voice responses) are encrypted on your device before being stored under that identifier for playback

Credit and Purchase Information

• Credit balance and transaction history (purchases, free grants, usage) are stored in your account
• We do NOT process or store payment card details — all purchases are handled by Apple through the App Store

Device Information

• Basic device attestation information is used to verify that requests come from legitimate Apple devices (Firebase App Check)
• No personal identifiers, location data, or usage patterns are collected

KnowItOwl! AI API and Google AI Services

KnowItOwl! sends your requests to an authenticated API operated by Sandy Brook DevWorks LLC. The API uses Google Cloud Speech-to-Text, Vertex AI Gemini, Google Search grounding when available, and Cloud Text-to-Speech to transcribe audio, generate concise answers, and generate spoken responses. The following data may be processed each time you ask a question:

• Voice audio recordings — the AAC audio captured when you speak a question (voice input only)
• Text messages — the text you type when using text input
• Conversation history — up to 3 recent messages (questions and answers) to maintain context across a conversation

This data is transmitted over HTTPS and is used solely to generate a transcript, answer, and text-to-speech audio output for your request. Your data is not used to train AI models. Google's handling of this data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and Google Cloud Data Processing Addendum, which provide equivalent data protection to the terms under which Sandy Brook DevWorks LLC operates.

The app obtains your explicit consent before sending AI requests. You may withdraw consent at any time from iPhone Settings > Privacy & Data. Withdrawing consent immediately stops new AI questions on both iPhone and the paired Apple Watch until you allow processing again; it does not delete existing history.

Firebase (Data Infrastructure)

We use Google Firebase services to securely store and sync your data:

• Firebase Auth — provides an authenticated session using a custom token minted after the backend validates Apple's signed App Transaction
• Cloud Firestore — stores your encrypted conversation messages and credit balance
• Firebase Storage — stores encrypted audio recordings for playback
• Cloud Run API — handles AI interactions, identity validation, data deletion, and credit operations through server-side transactions
• Firebase App Check — verifies that requests come from legitimate Apple devices (App Attest on iPhone, DeviceCheck on Apple Watch)
• Privacy-filtered diagnostics — nonfatal operational events may be sent to our authenticated API without conversation text, audio, or personal identifiers; Apple may provide crash and diagnostic reports through TestFlight and App Store services according to your device settings

All Firebase data is stored in Google Cloud infrastructure in a multi-region US deployment (nam5) for high availability (99.999% SLA). Your data is isolated under your authenticated user account and is not accessible to other users.

Apple (Purchases and Settings)

In-app purchases are processed entirely by Apple through the App Store. Apple also supplies the signed, app-scoped App Transaction used to create your session without a login screen. Voice preferences are synced between devices using Apple's iCloud Key-Value Store.

Where Your Data Lives

• Your conversation messages, credit balance, ledger records, and audio recordings are stored in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore and Firebase Storage) under your app-scoped identifier
• Data is stored in Google Cloud infrastructure in a multi-region US deployment for high availability and durability
• Your data is isolated to your account and is not accessible to other users or to Sandy Brook DevWorks staff in the normal course of operations
• Voice preferences are synced via Apple's iCloud Key-Value Store

Data Control

• You can delete individual messages or choose Delete Personal Data in iPhone Settings to erase conversations, stored audio, the profile record, the local encryption key, consent, and the current Firebase Auth user and session
• Credit balances, credit-ledger records, and redeemed StoreKit transaction claims are retained after personal-data deletion. These non-personal commerce records preserve purchased credits and prevent welcome credits or consumable purchases from being granted more than once after deletion or reinstallation
• Because Apple supplies the same app-scoped identity again, the app can automatically create a new session after deletion or reinstallation without asking you to sign in
• Uninstalling the app removes local data from your devices

No Data Harvesting

We want to be unambiguous: your data is never harvested, sold, or shared with data aggregators. It is never used to train AI models. It is never analyzed for advertising or profiling purposes. Your conversations and audio exist in Firebase solely to provide you with the KnowItOwl! service, and for no other reason.