Sula Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible for your data#

Jack Steelberg, Arizona, USA, is responsible for your personal data under this policy (the "controller" under European data protection law). You can reach us at our support address — Support email opens with the App Store launch.

2. What we collect#

2.1 What you tell Sula#

This is the heart of the app:

• Text you type and words you speak (turned into text, see section 5).
• Photos you take or choose inside Sula's own camera to ask Sula about.
• Text you paste in from another AI assistant, and files you choose to import.
• Your answers in the morning briefing (for example, a time you pick).
• What Sula works out from all of this: events and tasks on your day, threads and topics, notes, the people and places you mention, summaries, and the knowledge base written during the nightly read.

All of this is stored on your iPhone (section 3). It is sent to our AI providers only as described in section 4.

2.2 Account information#

Signing in is optional for saving what you say. Sula's AI runs through our server, which recognizes people signed in with Apple, so replies, answers and sorting need Sign in with Apple.

• Sign in with Apple: Apple gives Sula a private identifier for you and, if you choose to share them, your name and email address. Apple lets you hide your real email behind a private relay address. Your name stays on your phone. To sign you in to our server, Sula sends it Apple's sign-in token, which carries that identifier and your email address; the server checks it and does not keep your name or email.
• Email account: an account you make inside Sula, kept on your iPhone only: your name, email address and a password. The password is stored as a salted hash in the iPhone Keychain, never in readable form, and none of it is sent to us.

We use this to know which account a request comes from, and to delete your data if you ask. Your plan is tied to your Apple Account by Apple, not to your Sula account. We do not send marketing email.

2.3 Subscription information#

Payments are handled entirely by Apple. We never see your card or bank details. Apple tells Sula, on your phone, which plan you have and whether it is active, so it can unlock your plan. This check happens on your phone; your plan is not sent to our server.

2.4 Usage counts#

Plans include a monthly number of AI replies and answers. Sula counts how many you have used on your phone. Our server also counts how many AI requests each account makes in a day, keeps that count for 48 hours, and uses it only to stop abuse. These are numbers, not the content of what you asked.

2.5 Technical information#

Like any internet service, our server and our providers see your device's IP address and the time of a request when your phone connects. We use this only to deliver the request and protect the service from abuse. We do not use it to identify you, track you, or build a profile of you.

If you have chosen in your iPhone settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may share anonymous crash reports with us. We use them only to fix bugs.

2.6 What we do not collect#

We do not collect advertising identifiers, browsing history, audio recordings, your Photos library, your contacts list (Sula reads only names and birthdays, and only once you connect Birthdays), your precise location, or analytics about how you use the app. Sula contains no advertising or analytics software from other companies.

3. What stays on your phone#

The following is stored only on your iPhone, inside Sula's private storage, which iOS keeps separate from other apps and protects with the encryption tied to your passcode:

• Everything you've said or typed, your threads, topics, notes and timeline.
• Your morning briefings, the summaries and knowledge base from the nightly read, and the stories of your year.
• The people and places Sula remembers.
• Sleep hours read from Apple Health, events read from your calendars, and birthdays read from your contacts. (What of these goes to the AI is in sections 4 and 5.)
• Your email account, if you make one in Sula. Its password is kept in the iPhone Keychain as a salted hash.

Your Photos library is never copied into Sula. Sula reads your Favorites album in place to show photos on your days and in answers.

Like other app data, your Sula data may be included in your own iPhone backups (to iCloud or a computer), depending on your backup settings. Those backups are controlled by you and Apple.

Sync. We are building optional account sync so your Sula can move between devices. It is not available yet. Before it launches, we will update this policy and ask you before turning it on. When it exists, synced copies will be stored with our hosting provider, encrypted in transit and at rest.

4. AI providers and what they receive#

Sula uses two AI providers. Both are used through their commercial APIs. Under their API terms, they do not use your data to train their models. They may keep requests for a limited period for safety and abuse monitoring, as set out in their own terms, and then delete them.

4.1 You choose first#

Before anything is sent to an AI provider, Sula shows a screen that names the providers and asks for your permission. If you choose "Not now", Sula still saves everything you say on your phone, and AI features stay off. You can change your mind at any time in Settings → AI.

4.2 Anthropic (Claude)#

Anthropic's Claude writes Sula's replies and answers. It receives:

• When you talk to Sula in a conversation: your message, plus what Sula knows that helps it reply: earlier messages, what you've said recently, notes and summaries, the people and places you mention, and your open tasks and upcoming events. Once connected, those events include your calendar's events and your contacts' birthdays, and the day's weather and the name of your town can be included too.
• When you pull down to ask a question: your question, plus the memories Sula finds relevant on your phone. These can include text from past conversations, notes, event titles and times (including your calendar's events, once connected), and names and birthdays (including your contacts' birthdays, once connected). For photo answers, the photo itself is never uploaded; at most, text about a photo (such as when and where it was taken) can be included so Sula can pick the right ones.
• When you send a photo from Sula's camera: on Sula Plus and Max, that photo, so Sula can read it in its reply.
• During the nightly read: the text of the day's conversations and notes, parts of your knowledge base, and your tasks and events for the coming week (including calendar events and birthdays, once connected), so it can write your summaries and morning briefing. This runs on your phone overnight while it charges, or when you first open Sula that day.

4.3 Google (Gemini)#

Google's Gemini organizes each message you send: it decides whether something is an event, a task, a note or a new thread, and where it belongs. To file it correctly, it receives the text of that message, any photo you took or chose with it in Sula's camera (so the date on a flyer can go on your day), the names and short summaries of your topics and threads, the last few messages in that thread, your open tasks and events for the next two months (including calendar events and birthdays, once connected), and the current date and time.

4.4 How requests travel#

AI requests pass through Sula's own server, which is hosted on Cloudflare. The server holds our access keys to the AI providers, checks that a request comes from a signed-in account (Sign in with Apple), and keeps the daily count in section 2.4. It passes your request on and does not store what you said.

4.5 What the AI providers never receive#

Your Photos library, your sleep data (unless you turn on the separate switch in section 6), anything from your contacts other than names and birthdays, your precise location, audio recordings, or your account password.

5. Permissions, one by one#

iOS asks for each permission the first time Sula needs it, and you can change any of them later in the iPhone Settings app. Each connection in Sula is off until you switch it on in Settings → Connections.

• Microphone and Speech Recognition. Sula listens only while you press the microphone. Your words are turned into text by Apple's speech recognition, on your device where supported, or otherwise by Apple under Apple's privacy policy. Sula does not store or upload your audio. The resulting text is treated like anything you type.
• Camera. Used only when you open Sula's camera. Photos you send go to Google so Sula can file what's on them and, on Sula Plus and Max, to Anthropic so Sula can read them in its reply. They are kept in that conversation on your phone.
• Photos. Sula reads only your Favorites album, on your phone, to show your best photos on your days and in answers. Photos are never uploaded. The only exception is a photo you take or choose in Sula's own camera to ask about it.
• Health (sleep). Read only. See section 6.
• Calendar. Sula reads your own calendars to show your events on Today and Timeline and keep them in step with your day in Sula. It never writes to your calendars. Events are read on your phone. When AI is on, the titles and times of your upcoming events go along with requests to the AI (sections 4.2 and 4.3), passing through our server, which does not keep them.
• Contacts. Sula reads only names and birthdays from your contacts, to show birthdays in Coming up. They are read on your phone. When AI is on, upcoming birthdays (a name and a date) go along with requests to the AI like your other upcoming events (sections 4.2 and 4.3). Nothing else from your contacts leaves your phone.
• Location (Weather). Sula uses your approximate location only for the weather. Before it leaves your phone, the location is rounded to about 1 kilometer and sent to Open-Meteo, a weather service, to get the forecast. The name of your town is looked up with Apple Maps. When AI is on, the day's forecast and that town name can be included in what is sent to Anthropic, so a reply can mention the weather. Sula never tracks your location in the background.
• Notifications. Used for reminders you set by talking to Sula (for example, "remind me at 5") and to let you know your morning briefing is ready. These are created on your phone.
• Background processing. Lets the nightly read run overnight while your phone charges. It sends the day's text to Anthropic as described in section 4.2, only if you have agreed to AI.

6. Health data#

If you connect Sleep, Sula reads how long you slept from Apple Health. We hold this data to a higher standard:

• Sula only reads sleep. It never writes anything to Apple Health.
• Sleep hours are read and stored on your phone and shown on Today and Timeline.
• Sleep data is not sent to any AI provider unless you turn on a separate switch, "Let AI see your sleep" in Settings → AI. That switch is off by default. If you turn it on, your sleep hours (as text, such as "slept 6 h 40 min") are included in what is sent to Anthropic to describe your day, and you can turn it off again at any time.
• Health data is never used for advertising, marketing or data mining, never sold, and never shared with data brokers or anyone else.
• Health data is not stored on our server.

You can stop Sula reading Health at any time: in the Health app, tap your profile, then Apps, then Sula (or in iPhone Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices).

7. Who we share data with#

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it for advertising. Sula has no ads and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.

We share data only with the service providers that make Sula work, and only what each one needs:

Our website is hosted by Vercel. It does not receive any data from the app.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, and then only what is required. If Sula is ever sold or transferred, this policy will continue to apply to your data, and we will tell you before anything changes.

8. Children#

Sula is not for children. You must be at least 13 years old to use it. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact us at our support address — Support email opens with the App Store launch — and we will delete it.

9. Keeping and deleting your data#

• On your phone: your data stays until you delete it. You can tell Sula to "forget that", delete a thread, use Settings → Your data → Erase everything on this phone, or delete the app.
• Your account: kept until you delete it.
• Deleting your account: go to Settings → Your data → Delete my account. This deletes your account and all Sula data on your phone, along with your usage count and any account data on our server (and, once sync exists, your synced copy) within 30 days. If you signed in with Apple, Sula also asks Apple to remove Sula from your Apple Account, or tells you the one step to do it yourself. You can also email us — Support email opens with the App Store launch — from the address on your account and we will do it for you.
• Subscriptions: deleting your account or the app does not cancel an Apple subscription. Cancel it in your Apple ID settings (iPhone Settings → your name → Subscriptions).
• AI providers: keep requests only for the limited period set out in their API terms, then delete them.
• Your backups: copies in your own iPhone backups are under your control.

10. Your rights#

Wherever you live, you can:

• See what Sula knows. Most of it is right there in the app. For account data, email us.
• Correct it. Just tell Sula ("actually, the exam is on Thursday"), or edit it in the app.
• Delete any of it, or all of it (section 9).
• Take a copy of it. Email us and we will help.
• Withdraw consent to AI processing, Health, Photos, Calendar, Contacts or Location at any time, in Sula's settings or your iPhone settings.

We will not treat you differently for using any of these rights.

10.1 European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland#

We process your data on these legal bases:

• Contract: to provide Sula and your plan.
• Consent: to send your content to AI providers, and to read Health, Photos, Calendar, Contacts and Location. You can withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that already happened.
• Legitimate interests: to keep Sula secure and prevent abuse.

You also have the right to restrict or object to processing, and to complain to your local data protection authority. Your data may be processed in the United States by us and our providers; where required, our providers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. If a higher age applies in your country for consenting to data processing (up to 16 in parts of the EU), you must be that age or have a parent's permission to use Sula.

10.2 California and other US states#

In the last 12 months Sula has collected these categories of personal information: identifiers (email address, account identifier, IP address), user content (what you tell Sula, photos you take or choose in Sula's camera, and, if you connect them, your calendar events and your contacts' names and birthdays), approximate location (for weather), and, only if you turn it on, sensitive personal information in the form of sleep data, which we use only to provide the service to you.

We do not sell or share personal information, as those terms are defined in California law, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you. You have the right to know, delete and correct your personal information, and to use an authorized agent. Residents of other states with privacy laws (such as Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Utah and Virginia) have similar rights, including the right to appeal a decision we make about a request.

To make a request, email us — Support email opens with the App Store launch. We will verify it comes from you, usually by replying to the email on your account, and respond within 30 days (or 45 where the law allows).

11. Security#

Everything Sula sends over the internet is encrypted in transit. Data on your phone is kept in Sula's private storage, protected by iOS. Passwords for email accounts made in Sula are kept in the iPhone Keychain as salted hashes. Access to our server and provider accounts is limited and protected by strong authentication. No system is perfectly secure, but we design Sula to keep as little of your data as possible off your phone, which is the strongest protection there is.

12. Changes to this policy#

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top. If a change is significant, such as a new kind of data leaving your phone or a new provider receiving it, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect, and ask again where your permission is needed.

13. Contact#

Questions, requests or concerns:

Jack Steelberg Arizona, USA Support email opens with the App Store launch https://mynd-iphone.vercel.app/privacy