Effective date: May 5, 2026
Shadow Work ("Shadow Work", the "App", "we", "us", or "our") is operated by AppMerge. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect information when you use the Shadow Work mobile application, widgets, AI features, subscriptions, and related services.
If you have questions or privacy requests, contact us at support@appmerge.net.
Shadow Work is a self-reflection, journaling, dream interpretation, mood tracking, Jungian archetype, compatibility, and AI reflection app. The App is designed for personal insight and self-discovery. It is not a medical, psychological, psychiatric, therapeutic, diagnostic, crisis, or emergency service.
Do not use Shadow Work as a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, treatment, therapy, counseling, or emergency support. If you may be in danger, may harm yourself or someone else, or need urgent help, contact local emergency services or a qualified professional immediately.
Shadow Work creates an app account so your entries, AI history, and profile can be saved and restored. The App may generate a private app account identifier, generated email-like credential, user ID, display name, authentication token, device identifier, device installation identifier, app version, bundle identifier, platform, and language preference.
When you use the App, you may provide or generate:
Journal entries, titles, tags, moods, and mood intensity.
Shadow work answers, prompts, reflections, trigger maps, hidden patterns, and follow-up questions.
Dream descriptions, dream logs, symbols, AI interpretations, and integration prompts.
Shadow Hotline chat threads, messages, and AI replies.
Jungian archetype test answers, archetype profile, traits, shadow edges, and depth level.
Compatibility inputs, names or nicknames you enter, relationship context, archetypes, notes, and AI reports.
Growth tasks, completion state, streak information, and cycle progress.
Because these are free-form reflection features, you may choose to enter personal or sensitive information. Please avoid entering information you do not want processed by the App or its service providers.
If you purchase a subscription or premium access, the App may receive subscription status, entitlement status, product identifiers, purchase history, renewal status, expiration status, restore-purchase status, and subscription management links. Payments are processed by Apple App Store or Google Play, not directly by us. We do not receive your full payment card number.
We may collect product interaction data such as app opens, screen views, button taps, onboarding flow, paywall interaction, feature use, experiment assignment, remote configuration values, subscription conversion events, purchase events, and Apple Search Ads or install attribution data where available. We use this to understand performance, improve the product, measure marketing, test paywall and onboarding variants, and maintain premium access.
If you allow notifications, we may collect and store push notification tokens, APNs tokens, Firebase Cloud Messaging tokens, notification permission status, notification message IDs, delivery/open context, notification title/body where applicable, and notification data keys. We use this to send reflective reminders, insight drops, and app-related notifications.
We use diagnostics tools to understand crashes and stability issues. This may include crash traces, stack traces, installation identifiers, app version, build mode, operating system, device model, device state, logs, performance data, and technical error details.
If you contact us, we may collect your email address, message content, screenshots, device information you provide, and any details needed to respond to your request.
We use information to:
Provide journaling, mood tracking, dream interpretation, Shadow Hotline, archetype, compatibility, growth, widget, and AI reflection features.
Save and sync your entries, AI outputs, reports, and chat history.
Authenticate your app account and protect access to your saved data.
Personalize prompts, insights, archetype profiles, growth cycles, and app experience.
Process subscriptions, premium access, restore purchases, entitlement checks, and paywall experiments.
Send notifications if you grant permission.
Monitor reliability, diagnose crashes, debug errors, and improve app quality.
Measure product usage, marketing performance, and conversion.
Prevent abuse, enforce our Terms, and comply with legal obligations.
Shadow Work uses AI services, including Google Gemini, to generate dream interpretations, shadow reflections, hotline replies, archetype insights, and compatibility analysis.
Before your personal text is sent for AI processing, the App displays an in-app consent notice that explains what data is sent, who receives it, and how it is used. If you do not agree, the App does not send your personal text to the AI service and the AI feature will not run. You can change this choice in Settings.
When you agree and use AI features, the App may send the following information to our secure backend: the text you enter in AI features, such as journal responses, dream descriptions, Shadow Hotline questions, Jungian archetype answers, compatibility names or nicknames, relationship context, notes, app language, and a pseudonymous user ID. Our backend forwards the AI prompt and relevant context to Google Gemini to generate the requested response.
This information is used only to provide the AI feature you request, such as a reflection, dream interpretation, archetype result, compatibility report, or hotline reply. AI outputs can be incomplete, inaccurate, emotionally intense, or unsuitable for your situation. You are responsible for how you interpret and use AI-generated content.
Do not submit sensitive, confidential, medical, emergency, financial, legal, or third-party information unless you understand that it may be processed by AI services to provide the feature.
Some information is stored locally on your device, including onboarding state, saved entries, cached chat threads, dream logs, growth tasks, profile data, push tokens, device ID, generated backend credentials, and widget snapshot data.
On iOS, the widget may store a small snapshot such as the latest prompt, archetype label, mood label, streak text, and task count using the app group shared storage so the widget can display current app information.
We may use third-party services to operate the App:
PocketBase and our backend infrastructure for authentication, app accounts, saved entries, reports, and feature data.
Gemini and Google AI services for AI-generated reflections and interpretations.
Firebase Crashlytics for crash reporting and stability diagnostics.
Firebase Analytics for product analytics.
Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification service for notifications.
AppActor for subscriptions, entitlements, offerings, remote configuration, experiments, purchase sync, restore purchases, and attribution.
Apple App Store and Google Play for purchases, subscriptions, billing, refunds, and payment processing.
These providers may process information according to their own terms and privacy policies.
We may share information:
With service providers that help us operate the App, process AI requests, manage subscriptions, deliver notifications, provide analytics, and diagnose crashes.
With Apple or Google for purchase processing, subscription management, billing, refunds, and platform compliance.
If required by law, legal process, safety, security, fraud prevention, or to protect rights.
In connection with a business transfer such as a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets.
We do not sell your journal entries, dream logs, hotline chats, or reflection content.
We keep information for as long as needed to provide the App, maintain your account, support subscriptions, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our Terms, and maintain security.
Journal entries, dream logs, hotline chats, archetype profiles, compatibility reports, and growth history may remain saved until deleted by you where deletion is available, removed through a support request, or no longer needed for the App.
Crash and diagnostic providers may retain diagnostic data according to their own retention practices. Subscription and purchase records may be retained as required by Apple, Google, AppActor, tax, accounting, fraud prevention, and legal requirements.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, export, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal information.
You can:
Stop using the App at any time.
Disable notifications in your device settings.
Manage or cancel subscriptions through Apple App Store or Google Play.
Restore purchases in the App where available.
Delete local app data by deleting the App from your device.
Contact support@appmerge.net to ask privacy questions or request deletion of information we can reasonably associate with your app account.
We may need to verify your request before acting on it. Some information may be retained where required for security, fraud prevention, legal, accounting, billing, or dispute purposes.
We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect information. However, no mobile app, network, server, or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
Please protect your device, avoid sharing sensitive information unnecessarily, and do not use the App for emergencies or highly confidential situations.
Information may be processed and stored in countries other than where you live. Data protection laws may vary by country. By using the App, you understand that information may be transferred to and processed in locations where we and our service providers operate.
Shadow Work is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact support@appmerge.net and we will take appropriate steps.
If your jurisdiction requires a higher minimum age for this type of service, you may use the App only if you meet that age requirement.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the effective date and may provide additional notice where required. Your continued use of the App after changes means the updated Privacy Policy applies.
App: Shadow Work
Operator: AppMerge
Email: support@appmerge.net