Privacy Policy

1. No account or login is required

You never have to create an account, provide an email address, phone number, or any other personal identifier to use Jing Journal. Everything works anonymously.

2. Data stored locally on your device (SwiftData)

Almost all of your data stays on your own iPhone or iPad and never leaves it:

• Your questions and topics
• The hexagrams you receive
• Your personalized AI-generated insights
• Your journal entries and intentions
• App preferences and settings
• Bookmarked/favorited readings

This data is stored securely using Apple’s SwiftData framework on your device.

3. Optional iCloud sync (still private)

If you turn on iCloud sync in the app settings, your local data is encrypted and synced through your personal iCloud account so you can access it on other devices signed in with the same Apple ID. This sync is end-to-end encrypted by Apple. Jing Journal has no access to the encryption keys and cannot read your data.

4. Minimal server-side data (Firestore – only for credit balance)

The only piece of data we store on our servers (Google Firebase/Firestore) is:

• A randomly generated anonymous UUID (unique device identifier)
• The number of remaining credits you have purchased

This UUID contains no personal information and cannot be linked to you. It is used solely to let you keep your credit balance if you reinstall the app or switch devices (as long as you haven’t turned on iCloud sync, which would make server storage unnecessary).

We do not store your questions, journal entries, or AI responses on our servers.

5. AI-generated insights (Google Gemini via Vertex AI)

When you tap “Consult the Oracle” and have credits:

• Your exact question text (and our system prompt) is sent temporarily to Google’s Vertex AI (Gemini model) to generate the personalized insight.
• Google processes the request in real time and returns the response to your device.
• Google has publicly committed that data sent to Gemini through Vertex AI is not used to train or improve their models (see their customer data processing terms).

For full details, please see Google’s Vertex AI privacy notice:
https://docs.cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/vertex-ai-zero-data-retention

We do not retain your question or the AI response on our servers after the response is delivered to your device.

6. Crash and analytics data (Firebase Crashlytics)

We use Firebase Crashlytics to collect anonymous crash reports and basic performance data. This helps us make the app more stable. Crashlytics collects:

• Technical information about crashes (stack traces, device model, iOS version, etc.)
• No personal content, questions, or journal entries are ever included.

7. In-app purchases

Purchases of credit packs are processed through the Apple App Store. We only receive anonymized purchase receipts from Apple (no payment details, no name, no email).

8. We do NOT:

• Sell your data
• Share your data with third parties for marketing or advertising
• Use your questions or journal entries for training any AI models
• Display third-party ads or trackers

9. Children’s privacy

Jing Journal is rated 4+ and does not knowingly collect any personal information from children. Because no login or personal identifiers are required, the app fully complies with COPPA.

10. Data deletion and your rights

• All of your personal content lives on your device or in your private iCloud. Deleting the app or turning off iCloud sync deletes everything.
• If you want us to delete the anonymous UUID and credit balance stored in our Firestore database, simply open the app → Settings → “Delete my server data”. We will permanently delete it within 30 days.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes inside the app and on this website.

12. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, please reach out using our contact form.