Vela Privacy Policy

Sail your inner world

Effective Date: February 19, 2026 Last Updated: February 19, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Vela ("we", "our", or "us") collects, uses, stores, and protects your personal information when you use the Vela journal application ("App"). By using Vela, you agree to the terms described in this policy. Please read it carefully.

Table of Contents

1. Who We Are

2. Information We Collect

3. How We Use Your Information

4. AI Processing & Your Journal Data

5. Data Sharing & Third Parties

6. Data Storage & Security

7. Data Retention

8. Your Rights & Choices

9. Children's Privacy

10. Push Notifications

11. In-App Purchases & Subscriptions

12. Changes to This Policy

13. Contact Us

1. Who We Are

Vela is a personal journaling application designed to help users reflect on their emotions, track their mood, and gain self-awareness through AI-powered insights. The App is developed and operated as an independent mobile application available on Android and iOS.

For any privacy-related inquiries, you may contact us at the email address provided in Section 13 of this policy.

Vela is a journaling app. Your journal entries are personal and deeply private. We treat them with the highest level of care and discretion.

2. Information We Collect

We collect only the information necessary to provide you with the Vela service. We do not sell your data. We do not use your data for advertising. Below is a complete list of what we collect and why.

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

Data Type

Purpose

Name

Used to personalise your in-app greeting and journal experience.

Email Address

Used for account creation, authentication, and password reset communications.

Journal Entries

The text content you write in the app. Stored securely and used only to display your entries to you and (for premium users) to generate AI mood tags and weekly insights.

Mood Selections

The mood you select when saving an entry (e.g. Happy, Calm, Anxious). Used for mood tracking, charts, and AI insights.

Profile Photo

Optional. Only if you choose to upload one. Used only for display purposes within the app.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

Data Type

Purpose

Device Information

Device type, operating system version, and app version. Used for bug fixing and compatibility.

Usage Data

Features used, session duration, and navigation patterns within the app. Used to improve the app experience.

Crash Reports

Anonymised crash logs collected when the app encounters an error. Used solely for debugging.

Streak & Activity Data

Your journaling streak count, last entry date, and monthly entry count. Used to power the streak feature and free tier limits.

2.3 Information from Third-Party Services

Data Type

Purpose

Google Sign-In

If you choose to sign in with Google, we receive your name and email address from Google. We do not receive your Google password.

RevenueCat

Subscription status, purchase history, and entitlement information. Used to manage your Premium access. RevenueCat does not share payment card details with us.

Firebase

Authentication tokens and Firestore document IDs used to identify your account securely.

We do NOT collect: your location, your contacts, your photos (unless you upload a profile picture), your browsing history, or any biometric data.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect exclusively to provide, maintain, and improve the Vela service. Specifically:

• Provide the App Service — Display your journal entries, mood history, streak count, and stats back to you.

• Account Authentication — Verify your identity when you sign in and protect your account from unauthorised access.

• AI Mood Tagging (Premium) — Send your journal entry text to our AI provider to generate a short emotional insight tag. See Section 4 for full details.

• Weekly AI Insights (Premium) — Process your week's entries through our AI provider every Monday to generate a personalised emotional summary. See Section 4 for full details.

• Subscription Management — Verify your subscription status via RevenueCat to grant or restrict access to Premium features.

• Push Notifications — Send your opted-in daily reminder notification. See Section 10.

• Customer Support — Respond to your support enquiries and resolve issues with your account.

• App Improvement — Analyse anonymised, aggregated usage patterns to improve features and fix bugs. Individual entry content is never used for this purpose.

• Legal Compliance — Comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes where required.

We never use your journal content for advertising, marketing profiling, training AI models, or sale to third parties.

4. AI Processing & Your Journal Data

This section is important. Vela uses Artificial Intelligence to provide mood tagging and weekly insight features for Premium subscribers. We want to be completely transparent about how this works.

4.1 What AI Features Do

When you save a journal entry (Premium/Trial users only), your entry text and selected mood are sent to our AI processing service via a secure Firebase Cloud Function. The AI generates a short 2–4 word emotional insight tag (e.g. "seeking clarity", "quietly hopeful") which is saved to your account and displayed alongside your entry.

Every Monday, your journal entries from the previous week are collected and sent to the AI service to generate a personalised weekly emotional summary. This summary is saved to your account and displayed on the Insights page.

4.2 Our AI Provider

We use Anthropic's Claude API (claude-haiku model) as our AI processing provider. Your journal content is transmitted to Anthropic's servers solely for the purpose of generating the mood tag or weekly summary. Anthropic processes this data as a data processor on our behalf.

According to Anthropic's API usage policy, API inputs and outputs are not used to train their models by default. Data sent via the API is subject to Anthropic's Privacy Policy. For more information visit: anthropic.com/privacy

4.3 What We Do NOT Do With AI

• We do not store your journal content on Anthropic's servers — only the generated tag/summary is stored in your Vela account.

• We do not use your journal content to train any AI model.

• We do not share your journal content with any AI provider beyond what is necessary to generate the specific feature output.

• Free tier users' journal entries are never sent to any AI service.

• You can opt out of AI features by downgrading to the free tier.

4.4 Opting Out of AI Processing

AI processing only occurs for Premium and Trial users. If you do not wish your journal entries to be processed by AI, you may remain on the free tier or contact us to disable AI features on your account without cancelling your subscription.

5. Data Sharing & Third Parties

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share data only with the following trusted service providers who help us operate the App, and only to the extent necessary:

Google Firebase

firebase.google.com

Authentication, database storage (Firestore), and Cloud Functions. Your account data and journal entries are stored in Firestore. Firebase is operated by Google LLC and is GDPR compliant.

Anthropic (Claude API)

anthropic.com

AI processing for mood tagging and weekly insights (Premium users only). Only entry text and mood label are transmitted. No personally identifiable information is included.

RevenueCat

revenuecat.com

Subscription and in-app purchase management. RevenueCat receives your app user ID and subscription status. They do not receive your journal content.

Google Play / Apple App Store

play.google.com / apple.com

App distribution and payment processing. Payment card details are handled entirely by Google/Apple and are never shared with us.

Firebase Crashlytics

firebase.google.com

Anonymised crash reporting to help us fix bugs. Crash reports do not include journal content.

Legal Disclosure: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, court order, or governmental authority. We will notify you of such requests where legally permitted to do so.

6. Data Storage & Security

6.1 Where Your Data is Stored

Your account information and journal entries are stored in Google Firebase Firestore, which operates on Google Cloud infrastructure. Firebase data centres are located primarily in the United States and the European Union. Data is replicated across multiple regions for reliability.

6.2 Security Measures

• All data transmitted between the App and our servers is encrypted in transit using TLS (Transport Layer Security).

• All data stored in Firebase Firestore is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption.

• Firestore Security Rules ensure that each user can only access their own data — no user can read another user's journal entries.

• AI API calls are made via Firebase Cloud Functions, meaning your API keys and journal data never pass through the client app directly.

• Authentication is handled by Firebase Auth, which supports industry-standard OAuth 2.0 protocols.

• We conduct periodic reviews of our security practices and update them as needed.

6.3 Security Limitations

While we implement strong security measures, no method of electronic storage or transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of your data. In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you in accordance with applicable law.

Your journal entries are private. No Vela team member can read your personal journal content. Access is restricted by technical Firestore security rules, not just policy.

7. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with the Vela service. The following retention periods apply:

Data Type

Retention Period

Journal Entries

Retained indefinitely while your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of account deletion request.

Account Information

Retained while your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of account deletion request.

Mood & Streak Data

Retained while your account is active. Deleted with your account.

Weekly AI Insights

Retained while your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of account deletion request.

Crash Reports

Retained for 90 days for debugging purposes, then automatically deleted.

Subscription Records

Retained for 7 years as required by financial regulations, even after account deletion.

Support Communications

Retained for 2 years from the date of the communication.

To request deletion of your account and associated data, please contact us using the details in Section 13. We will process deletion requests within 30 days.

8. Your Rights & Choices

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal data. We respect and honour these rights for all users regardless of jurisdiction.

• Right to Access — You can request a copy of all personal data we hold about you at any time.

• Right to Correction — You can update your name and email address directly within the App settings. For other corrections, contact us.

• Right to Deletion — You can request deletion of your account and all associated data. See Section 7 for retention timelines.

• Right to Data Portability — You can export your journal entries as a PDF at any time from within the App (Premium feature). You can also request a machine-readable export by contacting us.

• Right to Restrict Processing — You can request that we stop processing your data for AI features by contacting us. Your data will remain stored but AI processing will be disabled.

• Right to Object — You may object to certain processing activities. We will honour such requests where legally required to do so.

• Right to Withdraw Consent — Where processing is based on consent (e.g. push notifications), you can withdraw consent at any time through the App settings or your device settings.

• GDPR Rights (EU/UK Users) — EU and UK users have additional rights under GDPR including the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

• CCPA Rights (California Users) — California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, to opt out of sale of personal information (we do not sell data), and to non-discrimination for exercising privacy rights.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email address in Section 13. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Children's Privacy

Vela is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the European Union). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under these ages.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us immediately at the address in Section 13. We will delete such information from our systems within 14 days of receiving a verified request.

If we discover that a child under 13 has created an account, we will promptly delete the account and all associated data.

10. Push Notifications

Vela may send you push notifications to remind you to journal. These notifications are entirely optional and require your explicit permission.

• We request notification permission during onboarding. You may deny this permission without losing access to any app features.

• By default, we schedule a daily reminder at 9:00 PM in your local timezone.

• You can change the reminder time or disable notifications entirely in the App Settings at any time.

• You can also disable notifications through your device's system settings (Android: Settings > Apps > Vela > Notifications; iOS: Settings > Vela > Notifications).

• Notifications contain no personal data — they are generic reminder messages.

• We do not use notifications for marketing or promotional purposes.

11. In-App Purchases & Subscriptions

Vela offers a Premium subscription available as a monthly ($6.99/month) or annual ($49.99/year) plan. All payments are processed securely by Google Play or the Apple App Store. We never have access to your payment card details.

• Subscription management (upgrade, downgrade, cancel) is handled through your Google Play or Apple App Store account.

• Subscription status is synced to Vela via RevenueCat, which assigns an anonymous subscriber ID to your account.

• Cancellation: You may cancel your subscription at any time. Access to Premium features will continue until the end of the current billing period.

• Refunds: Refund requests are handled according to Google Play's or Apple's refund policies. Contact the relevant store for refund assistance.

• Free Trial: New users receive a 14-day free trial with full Premium access. No payment is required during the trial period.

• Your subscription purchase history is retained for 7 years for legal and accounting compliance (see Section 7).

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will notify you in the following ways:

• In-app notification displayed when you next open the App.

• Email notification sent to your registered email address for significant changes.

• The "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy will be revised.

Your continued use of Vela after the effective date of any updated Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree with the updated policy, you should discontinue use of the App and may request deletion of your account.

For minor changes (such as clarifications that do not affect how we process your data), we may update this policy without sending a direct notification.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:

Privacy Enquiries

privacy@velajournalapp.com

General Support

support@velajournalapp.com

Data Deletion Requests

privacy@velajournalapp.com — Subject: Data Deletion Request

Response Time

We aim to respond to all privacy-related requests within 30 days.

When contacting us about a data request, please include: your registered email address, the nature of your request, and any relevant details. We may ask you to verify your identity before processing sensitive requests.

Summary: We collect only what we need. We never sell your data. Your journal entries are private and encrypted. AI features are optional and transparent. You are always in control.

Vela — Sail your inner world Privacy Policy | Effective February 19, 2026