Privacy Policy

How NotchBook handles your information, in plain terms and then at length.

NotchBook is a mobile application provided by ButterflyRay Limited, also trading as ButterflyRay ("ButterflyRay", "we", "us" or "our"). The App is distributed on the Apple App Store and on Google Play. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you use the App, how we use and share it, and the choices and rights you have.

This Privacy Policy applies to the App and the related cloud services we provide. It does not apply to third-party services that have their own privacy policies. By using the App, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the App.

1. Who We Are

ButterflyRay Limited, a company registered in New Zealand, is the controller responsible for your personal information under this Policy. If you have any questions, you can contact us at support@butterflyray.com.

2. Information We Collect

Information you provide to us.

• Account information: an account is required to use the App. You can create one with an email address and password (the password is stored in encrypted form by our authentication provider, never in plain text), or sign in with Google or with Apple. If you sign in with Google or Apple, that provider tells us your email address and a unique identifier for your account, and may tell us your name; with Apple you can choose to hide your email address, in which case we receive an Apple relay address instead. You may also provide a display name and a profile picture.
• Your content: the habits you create and the days you mark them complete, your habit counts, targets, schedules and streaks; your task lists and the tasks on them, including titles, notes, due dates and completion state; the timers you create or customise, including their names, phases and durations; and your journal entries, including their titles, text, dates, any mood or tags you attach, and any photos or voice recording you add to them; and the results of any AI features you use.
• Photos and images: the images you choose to upload — your profile picture, and, with NotchBook Pro, photos attached to tasks and journal entries. We use your device's photo picker or camera and receive only the images you select — we do not browse or index your photo library. A photograph may carry metadata written by the camera, such as the date, the device and sometimes the location where it was taken. When an upload arrives, our servers replace it with a re-encoded copy that leaves that metadata out, usually within seconds. Uploaded images are stored under your account in Firebase Cloud Storage.
• Voice recordings: with NotchBook Pro you can record a voice note of up to 90 seconds on a journal entry. The App uses your device's microphone only while you are recording, after you have given the App permission to use it. The recording is uploaded and stored under your account in Firebase Cloud Storage, like a photo. Voice recordings are not sent to our AI provider, and we do not transcribe or analyse them.
• Profile and preferences: settings you choose in the App, including notification and reminder preferences, and your answers about marketing emails and AI features. We keep a record of each of those two answers — what you chose, which version of the wording you were shown, and when — so we can show that we asked.
• Communications: information you provide when you contact us for support or feedback, including your email address and the contents of your message.

Information collected automatically.

• Log and diagnostic data: when you use the App, and particularly if an error occurs, we and our third-party providers may collect data such as your device Internet Protocol ("IP") address, device model and name, operating system version, app version and configuration, and the date and time of your use, together with related statistics.
• Usage and analytics data: information about how you interact with the App — which screens are opened, which features are used, and how often — collected through Google Analytics for Firebase to help us understand and improve the App. It is linked to the identifier of your NotchBook account and to an identifier for the App on your device. This is measured at the level of features and events. It does not include the text of your journal entries, the names of your habits, or the contents of your tasks.
• Crash data: diagnostic information generated if the App crashes, collected through Firebase Crashlytics, so we can find and fix the fault. Crash reports carry the identifier of your NotchBook account and none of your content.

Purchase information. NotchBook Pro is offered as an auto-renewing subscription. When you subscribe, payment is processed by the Apple App Store or Google Play under their terms. We do not receive or store your payment card details. We use RevenueCat to manage and verify purchases and subscriptions; it knows your purchases by the identifier of your NotchBook account, and we may receive confirmation of your purchase, your subscription status and its renewal or expiry dates.

What we do not collect. NotchBook does not contain advertising and does not use advertising identifiers. We do not collect your contacts, your precise location or your health records; we do not access your photo library beyond the individual images you choose to upload; and we do not read data from other apps on your device.

3. How We Use Information

We use the information described above to:

• create and manage your account and authenticate you;
• provide the App's core features — tracking habits and streaks, keeping your task lists, running timers and storing your journal;
• back up your data and synchronise it across the devices you sign in on;
• store the images and voice recordings you upload and show or play them back to you in the App, including generating resized copies of images so they load quickly;
• produce the AI results you ask for from a photo or from journal entries you choose, as described in Section 4;
• prepare a downloadable copy of your data when you ask for one;
• send the reminders and notifications you have asked for;
• process subscriptions and in-app purchases, and give you access to the features they unlock;
• operate, maintain, secure and improve the App, and diagnose and fix problems;
• send you marketing emails where you have opted in (you can opt out at any time);
• communicate with you about support requests and important changes; and
• comply with our legal obligations and enforce our terms.

Neither we nor our AI provider use your content to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models, and we do not use it for advertising or profiling.

Where the law requires a legal basis to process your personal information (for example in the EEA or UK), we rely on performance of our agreement with you, your consent (for example for marketing emails and notifications), your explicit consent for AI features — which you can withdraw at any time — our legitimate interests in operating and improving the App, and compliance with legal obligations.

4. Your Journal, Habits, Tasks and Photos

We recognise that a journal is the most personal thing in the App, and that habits, tasks and the photos you attach to an entry can also reveal a great deal about your life. This section says exactly how they are handled.

• On your device first. Once you have signed in, the App works offline: your habits, tasks, timers and journal entries are written to your phone or tablet and are usable with no connection.
• And in our backend, so it can be backed up and synced. Cloud backup and sync is included with every account, so your content is also stored in Google Firebase services operated on our behalf. It travels over an encrypted SSL/TLS connection and is encrypted at rest, and access is restricted by security rules so that your data is readable only through your own authenticated account. Anything not yet synced — changes made offline — stays on your device until it can upload, which also means we cannot recover it if the device is lost first.
• Photos and recordings are stored under your account. Your profile picture, and — with NotchBook Pro — the photos you attach to tasks and journal entries and the voice recordings on journal entries, are uploaded to Firebase Cloud Storage over an encrypted SSL/TLS connection and encrypted at rest. They are served through private, unguessable links that the App requests only for your own signed-in account; they are not listed or published anywhere. Deleting a photo or a recording, or the task or entry it belongs to, deletes the stored file.
• It is not end-to-end encrypted. We hold the keys to the storage, which means our systems — and a small number of authorised personnel, for support and maintenance — have the technical ability to access your content. This is what makes it possible for us to restore your data if you lose your device. We access it only where necessary to operate the service, to respond to a support request you have made, to investigate abuse or a security incident, or where the law requires it.
• AI features are opt-in, and run only when you ask. NotchBook Pro includes features that use artificial intelligence, such as suggesting a task title from a photo or working with journal entries you choose. AI features are only for people who are 18 or older, because our AI provider's terms require it. The first time you use one, the App explains what will be sent and asks for your permission and for you to confirm that you are 18 or older; nothing is sent before you agree, and nothing is sent in the background. When you use one, we send only what that request needs to Google's Gemini API: for a photo, a re-encoded copy with its location and other camera metadata removed; for your journal, the titles, text, dates, moods and tags of the entries in the period you choose — never their photos or voice recordings. We use Gemini as a paid service, under terms in which Google acts on our instructions and does not use what we send to train or improve its models; Google keeps requests for a limited period solely to detect abuse and meet legal obligations. Where we keep a result for you to come back to, it is stored under your account, is never public, and is deleted with the content it was produced from or with your account. AI results are generated automatically and can be wrong; they are not advice. You can withdraw your permission at any time with the "AI features" switch in Settings, after which nothing more is sent.
• It is never public. NotchBook has no social features, no feed and no public profiles. Nothing you write or upload is published, shown to other users, or indexed by search engines. The one thing you can share is the download link to a copy of your data: anyone you give it to can download that copy until the link stops working, so share it only with people and places you trust.
• Sensitive content is your choice. Because journal entries, habits and photographs may reveal information some laws treat as sensitive — health, beliefs, and so on — please only record and upload what you are comfortable storing under the terms described here.

5. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We share information only as follows:

• Service providers. We use trusted third parties to operate the App on our behalf, including for authentication, cloud database and storage, analytics, crash reporting, AI features, and purchase and subscription management. These providers may access your information only to perform tasks for us and are obligated not to use it for their own purposes. Our providers are Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Analytics and Crashlytics; the Gemini API, for AI features you choose to use; and on Android, Google Play Services), RevenueCat, and — if you sign in with them — Google and Apple as sign-in providers.
• Payment processing. Purchases are handled by Apple or Google as described in Section 2.
• Legal and safety. We may disclose information where required by law, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, safety and security of ButterflyRay, our users or the public.
• Business transfers. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

6. Third-Party Services

The App uses third-party services that may collect information used to identify you. Their handling of your information is governed by their own privacy policies:

• Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore and Cloud Storage
• Google Analytics for Firebase
• Firebase Crashlytics
• Google Gemini API (AI features, only when you use them)
• Google Play Services (Android)
• RevenueCat (purchase and subscription management)
• Sign in with Google (if you use it)
• Apple (Sign in with Apple, if you use it, and App Store purchases)

The App may also contain links to sites that we do not operate. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those sites, and we encourage you to review their privacy policies.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The App itself does not use browser cookies. Third-party libraries used by the App may use device identifiers or similar technologies to operate their services, as described in their policies above. This website uses no cookies and no third-party trackers.

8. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the App. When you delete your account (using "Delete account" in Settings), we delete your content, your profile, the images and recordings you have uploaded and any copy of your data you have prepared from our backend, and then the account itself. When you delete specific content, we delete it and any files that belong to it. Backups may retain deleted data for a limited period before they are rotated out. Some records are held by our providers rather than in our backend, and are not removed when you delete your account: RevenueCat keeps the record of your purchases, Google Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics keep usage and crash data under their own retention periods, and Apple and Google keep their own records of purchases made through their stores. A result we keep from an AI feature is deleted with the content it was produced from; what was sent to our AI provider is kept by them only as Section 4 describes. A downloadable copy of your data is deleted automatically about a week after it is prepared, and its download link stops working then. We may retain information for longer where we need it to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes or enforce our agreements.

Content that has not been synced — changes made offline — is not held by us at all: it lives only on your device, and uninstalling the App removes it.

9. Data Security

We use commercially reasonable measures to protect your personal information. Data moving between the App and our backend travels over encrypted SSL/TLS connections; your journal entries, your other content and the images and recordings you upload are encrypted at rest by our cloud provider; security rules scope your synced content to your own authenticated account; and the images and recordings you upload are served only through private, unguessable links that the App requests for your account and never displays, as Section 4 describes. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and choosing a strong, unique password, and for keeping your own copies of anything you would be sorry to lose, including the originals of any photographs you upload.

10. International Data Transfers

We are based in New Zealand, and our service providers (including Google) process and store your information in other countries, in particular the United States, where our backend and AI provider operate. Where the law requires safeguards for such transfers, we rely on our providers' data processing terms, including standard contractual clauses.

11. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, update, delete or obtain a copy of your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent. Within the App you can:

• review and edit any habit, task, timer or journal entry, remove a photo or recording you have uploaded, or delete any of them individually;
• delete your account and its associated data using "Delete account" in Settings;
• with NotchBook Pro, download a copy of your data from Settings; without it, ask us at support@butterflyray.com and we will prepare one for you;
• withdraw your permission for AI features with the "AI features" switch in Settings, after which nothing more is sent to our AI provider;
• turn notifications and reminders on or off;
• opt out of marketing emails by turning off that setting or using the unsubscribe link in any such email; and
• manage or cancel subscriptions through your Apple App Store or Google Play account settings.

To exercise any other right, contact us at support@butterflyray.com. We will respond as required by applicable law. If you are in the EEA or UK, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. If you are a New Zealand resident, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. If you are a California resident, you have rights under the CCPA/CPRA, including the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them; we do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under that law.

12. Children's Privacy

The App's content is rated for general audiences and contains no age-restricted material. This content rating is separate from the requirements below, which apply because the App collects personal information and offers online and paid features.

An account is required to use the App, and account creation and the features that involve personal information — including cloud sync and backup, photo uploads, AI features and in-app purchases — are not intended for children under 13. AI features are available only to people who are 18 or older, as described in Section 4. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will delete it from our servers. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@butterflyray.com so that we can take appropriate action.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the effective date above, and we will give notice in the App of any material change. You are advised to review this page periodically. Your continued use of the App after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Policy.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at support@butterflyray.com.