Privacy Policy
The short version: your vault belongs to you. Your photos, item names, stories, and locations are encrypted, never sold, and never used to train models.
1. Plain-language summary
Smart Vault is a household memory app. To do that we need to remember a few things on your behalf — what you saved, where you put it, and when to remind you. Everything else is optional.
- You own your vault. Export it any time, in plain JSON + photos. Delete it any time.
- Photos stay on your device for Visual ID. The on-device fingerprint is a small string we sync — never the photo itself.
- Hidden Vault is sealed. Hidden items are stored in a separate path, never appear in search, family, notifications, or analytics.
- No selling, no ads, no model training. We make money from your subscription. That’s it.
2. What we collect
Three buckets, each with a clear reason:
| Data | Why | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Account identifiers | Sign in, sync your vault across devices, receipts. | |
Vault content | This is the product. Stored in your account, encrypted at rest. | |
Hidden Vault content | Stored at users/{id}/hidden/… Never indexed for search, never in analytics. | |
Visual ID fingerprint | Lets you scan an item to find it. Computed on device. The photo never leaves. | |
Subscription state | To unlock Premium / Family features and process payments. | |
Diagnostic events | To fix bugs and improve performance. | |
Email preferences | To send the calm, opt-out emails you asked for. |
What we don’t collect
- Your contacts, calendar, or health data.
- Your location in the background — only when you tap “Save location” on an item.
- Photos for ML training. On-device Visual ID never uploads images to our servers.
- Audio recordings server-side. Voice memos sync as encrypted blobs only you can read.
3. How we use it
We use your data to operate the product, secure your account, process payments, and send you emails you opted into. We do not use it to profile, sell, or train. Specifically:
- Operate the service: sync your vault, render the dashboard, send reminders.
- Secure your account: detect anomalous sign-ins, rate-limit auth, handle support.
- Improve the product: aggregated, anonymized usage counts (e.g. “X% of users used Visual ID this week”). Hidden items are excluded from every metric.
- Communicate: receipts (always), digest + insights + product updates (each opt-out independently).
6. Retention & deletion
- Active accounts: we keep your vault as long as the account is open.
- Account deletion: 30-day grace period (so a misclick doesn’t lose everything), then permanent deletion within 7 days. Backups age out within 35 days.
- Diagnostic events: 90-day rolling window. Older events are aggregated to anonymous counts only.
- Email logs: 180 days, then deleted. Bounce + complaint records persist (deliverability hygiene).
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, export, correct, or delete your personal data. You can act on most of these from inside the app (Profile → Privacy → Export / Delete). For everything else, email[email protected] and we’ll respond within 30 days.
8. Children
Smart Vault is not directed at children under 13 (or 16 in some jurisdictions). We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors. Family vaults can include children only with the account owner’s acknowledgement and only as read-only or limited contributor roles configured by the parent.
9. International transfers
Our primary database lives in US-East. EU users have data routed via Cloudflare and cached in EU edges, but the system of record sits in the US. We rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses with each subprocessor listed above.
10. Changes to this policy
Material changes (new subprocessors, scope expansions, retention shortenings) are announced 30 days before they take effect via in-app banner and email. Minor clarifications are versioned and dated at the top of this page.
11. Contact
Questions? Write to [email protected]. For everything else, [email protected] will route appropriately.