Iris is a journaling companion. What you tell it is personal, so this policy says exactly what happens to it. “Iris”, “we” and “us” mean Gest Vantage LLC, Illinois, USA, the company that makes the Iris app for iOS and Android and runs irisjournal.app. We are the controller of your personal data.
Questions, requests and complaints: privacy@irisjournal.app.
The short version
| What we collect | Your account, your setup answers, your conversations and voice transcripts, what Iris remembers, usage counts and your plan |
| Why | To answer you, remember what you asked it to, keep the service running and improve it |
| AI training | Never. No model is trained on what you write or say |
| Selling or ads | We don’t sell your data, share it for advertising, or show ads |
| Who processes it | AI model providers (to write replies), our hosting, analytics, crash-reporting and subscription providers, Apple and Google (sign-in, payments), and our website and email host |
| Analytics | Counts and fixed values only — never what you write or say |
| How long | Until you delete your account |
| Deleting | Settings → Delete account removes everything, for good |
| Age | Adults 18 and over only |
What Iris is
Iris is an AI, not a person. Its replies are generated automatically and can be wrong. Iris is not therapy, medical advice or a crisis service; see our Terms and Safety pages. We make no automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.
What we collect
Your account. Your email address and name as Sign in with Apple or Google gives them to us, the identifier that provider uses for you, and your signed-in sessions. If you use Apple’s private relay address, that is the email we see.
Your setup answers. When you set up Iris you may tell it the name it should call you, how you describe yourself (gender), your age range, what brings you to Iris, how you feel right now, what is taking up space in your life, what tends to come up for you, what helps you recharge, what makes time for yourself difficult, how you would like Iris to respond, and what you would like more of. Every question can be skipped. How you feel right now is kept for at most 24 hours. The rest stays with your account until you delete it, even if you clear Memory.
Your conversations. What you type to Iris and Iris’s replies. When you talk to Iris by voice, we keep a written transcript of the call in your conversation; we do not store the audio. We also keep a short title Iris writes for each conversation, private notes Iris keeps on the older part of a long conversation so it can follow it, and short recaps of recent conversations so it can pick up where you left off. You never see the notes or recaps; they go when the conversation or account is deleted.
Memory. With Memory on, Iris keeps short facts about you that it learns from your conversations or that you ask it to remember — for example the people in your life, your work, routines, goals, and health facts you choose to share. You can see every fact in Memory, delete any of them, clear them all, or turn Memory off. Iris never saves thoughts of self-harm, suicide or crisis episodes as memories, and never saves medication doses, passwords or account numbers.
Usage and plan. How many messages and voice minutes you used each month, and whether you have a free plan, a trial or a subscription. Payments are handled by Apple or Google; we never see your card details.
Reports. If you report a reply, we keep which reply you reported, the reason you picked and when.
Product analytics. We measure how the app is used — for example that a conversation started, how long a call lasted, or which setup step was completed — with fixed values and counts. Analytics never contains what you write or say. Your analytics profile holds your account identifier, email, name, plan, and these setup choices: how you describe yourself, age range, what brings you to Iris, response style and goals, plus only the number of answers you gave to the other questions.
Crash and error reports. When the app or our server fails, the report carries your account identifier, device and app version, and technical details of the error. It never contains your conversations.
Server logs. Our servers may briefly log your IP address and device information to keep the service secure and working.
On your phone only. Reminders, theme and unsent drafts stay on your device, in encrypted storage, and never reach our servers. If you dictate a message, your phone’s own speech recognition (Apple or Google) turns your voice into text, on the device when your phone can.
On our website. irisjournal.app sets no cookies and uses no local storage. We count visits with cookieless analytics, which tell us how many people visit and which pages and buttons they use, without identifying you.
Why we use it, and our legal bases
If you are in the EU, UK or a similar jurisdiction, these are the legal bases we rely on (GDPR Articles 6 and 9):
- To provide Iris — replying to you, keeping your conversations, Memory, limits and your plan. Basis: our contract with you.
- Health-related content — what you share about how you feel and your wellbeing can be health data. We process it only with your explicit consent, which you give on the consent screen when you set up Iris (“Agree and continue”). Basis: explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)).
- Security, abuse prevention and fixing problems — server logs and crash reports. Basis: our legitimate interest in a safe, working service.
- Understanding how Iris is used — product analytics, so we can make it better. Basis: our legitimate interest; analytics never includes what you write or say.
- Billing, tax and legal duties. Basis: legal obligation.
Withdrawing consent. Iris cannot reply without processing what you send it, so you withdraw your consent by deleting your account in Settings → Delete account. To stop Iris carrying details from one conversation to the next, turn Memory off instead.
Who processes your data
We share personal data only with companies that process it for us, under contract, to run Iris. Each of them must protect your data at least as well as this policy does and may use it only to provide their service to us.
| Who | What they do for Iris | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| AI model providers, and the gateway that routes requests to them | Write Iris’s replies and run real-time voice | Your conversation so far, the notes and memories Iris uses for context, your setup answers while they are used; for voice, the call’s audio and its context |
| Hosting and database provider (US-hosted) | Runs our servers and stores your data | Everything we store about your account |
| Development hosting | Our development environment | Test data only |
| Product analytics provider (EU-hosted) | Product analytics | The analytics described above — never what you write or say |
| Crash-reporting provider | Crash and error reports | Account identifier, device, technical error details |
| Subscription-management provider | Manages subscriptions | Account identifier, purchases and subscription status |
| Apple, Google | Sign-in, payments, app distribution | What you give them directly; your email and name come to us from them |
| Website and email host | Hosts our website, DNS and email routing | Website visit data without cookies; emails you send us |
For the current list of these companies by name, write to privacy@irisjournal.app.
No AI training. Every request to our AI providers is sent with training on prompts disallowed, and a request that can’t be served on those terms is refused rather than sent to a provider that trains. Voice calls run with storage turned off. Our AI providers may keep data for up to 30 days only to monitor for abuse.
We do not sell personal data, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, show ads, or give it to data brokers. We may disclose data if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety, or as part of a merger or sale of the company — in which case this policy keeps applying to your data.
How long we keep it
- Your account and everything in it — conversations, transcripts, notes, recaps, memories, setup answers, usage and reports — until you delete your account.
- How you feel right now, from setup: at most 24 hours.
- Analytics events stay after you delete your account, but your email and name are removed from them, so nothing ties them to you.
- Backups are deleted on their regular rotation, within 4 weeks.
- Our AI providers’ abuse-monitoring copy: up to 30 days.
- Purchase records that Apple and Google keep for billing and tax, under their own policies.
Deleting your account
In the app: Settings → Delete account. It removes your account, conversations, transcripts, notes, recaps, memories, setup answers and usage, deletes your record at our subscription-management provider, and revokes Iris’s link to your Apple ID. A subscription bought through Apple or Google keeps renewing until you cancel it in the App Store or Google Play — deleting the account does not cancel it.
Can’t open the app? See Delete your account or email privacy@irisjournal.app from the address on your account.
International transfers
We are based in the United States, and some of the companies above process data in the United States. Where data leaves the EU, UK or Switzerland, we rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK addendum, or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (and its UK and Swiss extensions) where the recipient is certified. Our representatives in the EU and UK under Article 27 GDPR will be listed here.
Your rights
Everyone. You can see what Iris remembers in Memory, delete any conversation or memory, and delete your account at any time. You can ask us for a copy of your data or ask a question at privacy@irisjournal.app.
EU, UK and similar laws. You have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, receive it in a portable format, and withdraw consent at any time (which doesn’t affect what we did before). You can complain to your local data protection authority, though we’d like the chance to fix it first.
US state laws. Depending on where you live — including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon and other states — you have the right to know what personal data we collect and how we use it, to access and get a copy of it, to correct it, to delete it, and to opt out of its sale, targeted advertising or profiling. We don’t sell your data, use it for targeted advertising or profile you in ways that produce legal or similarly significant effects. California residents have the right to limit the use of sensitive personal information: we use it only to provide Iris to you, as the law allows. Health data has its own policy for Washington, Nevada and Connecticut residents: the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.
How to ask. Email privacy@irisjournal.app from the email on your account, or tell us how to reach you. We may need to confirm it’s you before we act, and we answer within the time the law gives us (usually 30 or 45 days). You may use an authorized agent where the law allows. If we refuse a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer with “Appeal” in the subject; if we still refuse, we’ll tell you how to contact your state attorney general. We will never treat you differently for using your rights.
Children
Iris is for adults 18 and over. We don’t knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn that a user is under 18, we delete the account and its data. If you think a minor is using Iris, tell us at privacy@irisjournal.app.
Security
Data travels encrypted (TLS). On your phone, setup answers kept before you finish and other private data are held in encrypted storage. On our side, access to production data is limited to the people who need it to run the service. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we’ll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.
Changes
We’ll update this page when what we do changes, and change the date at the top. If a change is material, we’ll tell you in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Gest Vantage LLC, Illinois, USA Privacy: privacy@irisjournal.app Everything else: support@irisjournal.app