Privacy Policy for ARC
Effective Date: January 24, 2025
Introduction
ARC (powered by LUMARA) is a narrative intelligence companion that helps you understand your developmental journey through journaling and reflection. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information.
Our Core Principle: Your story is yours. We've built ARC with privacy as a foundational architecture, not an afterthought.
What Information We Collect
Information You Provide
- Account Information: Email address for authentication
- Journal Entries: Your conversations, reflections, and journal entries
- Payment Information: Processed securely by Stripe (we never see your credit card details)
- Profile Information: Optional information like your name, preferences, and settings
Automatically Collected Information
- Usage Analytics: How you use the app (optional, anonymized)
- Device Information: Device type, operating system version (for technical support)
- Error Reports: Crash logs and diagnostic information to improve app stability
How We Use Your Information
Local-First Processing
- Your journal entries are processed on your device first
- Phase detection and narrative analysis happen locally
- Your raw journal content is never sent to our servers unmodified
Cloud AI Processing (Privacy-Preserving)
When advanced AI capabilities are needed:
- PRISM sanitization removes personal identifiers (names, locations, dates, specific details)
- Only semantic abstractions are sent to frontier AI models (GPT-4, Claude, Gemini)
- These models see patterns and themes, never your actual words
- Example: They see "User discussing relationship transition, emotional intensity: high" not "I broke up with Sarah yesterday"
Service Provision
- Provide narrative intelligence and phase detection
- Sync your data across your devices (encrypted)
- Process subscription payments
- Send important service notifications
Product Improvement
- Analyze aggregated, anonymized usage patterns
- Improve phase detection algorithms
- Fix bugs and crashes
- Develop new features
How We Protect Your Information
Security Measures
- End-to-end encryption for data sync
- Local storage as primary data location
- Secure authentication via Firebase Auth
- Payment security via Stripe (PCI DSS compliant)
- Regular security audits and updates
What We Don't Do
- ❌ We don't sell your data to third parties
- ❌ We don't use your journal content to train AI models
- ❌ We don't share your personal information for advertising
- ❌ We don't track you across other apps or websites
- ❌ We don't read your journal entries (they're processed algorithmically)
Data Sharing and Third Parties
Service Providers We Use
- Stripe: Payment processing (they never see your journal content)
- Firebase: Authentication and optional cloud backup (Google Cloud infrastructure)
- AI Providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google): Receive only sanitized, depersonalized semantic queries
Legal Requirements
We may disclose information if required by law, but will notify you unless legally prohibited.
Your Rights and Choices
Access and Control
- View your data: Access all your journal entries and account information in the app
- Export your data: Download your complete journal in standard formats
- Delete your data: Permanently delete your account and all associated data
- Opt out of analytics: Disable usage tracking in Settings
Data Retention
- Your journal entries are retained as long as your account is active
- Deleted entries are permanently removed within 30 days
- If you delete your account, all data is permanently deleted within 30 days
- Backup copies are deleted within 90 days
Children's Privacy
ARC is not intended for users under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. We'll notify you of significant changes via email or in-app notification. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.
International Users
ARC is operated in the United States. If you're using ARC from outside the US, your information may be transferred to and processed in the US.
Contact Us
Questions about this Privacy Policy or your data?
Effective Date: January 24, 2025
Last Updated: January 24, 2025