CycleAffirm Privacy Policy

1. Who this covers

This policy covers the CycleAffirm app for iPhone and Android and the server it talks to. CycleAffirm has two kinds of users:

• People who track their own cycle. Most of this policy is about you.
• Partners and family members who join someone with an invite code to support them. Where something applies to you, we say so.

2. What we collect

Your account

You sign in with Google, or with an email address and a password. Our sign-in service (Firebase Authentication) gives us:

• your email address,
• with Google, your Google account name and profile photo link,
• an account ID.

If you sign up with email, Firebase Authentication keeps your password in a protected (hashed) form. We never see it, and it never reaches our own server. Firebase sends you an email to verify your address, and a reset link if you ask for one. Until your email is verified, nothing you set up is saved to your account and the AI isn't used. A few test accounts we create for app-store reviewers are the only ones let in without a verified email.

We use these to keep your account working. Your email shows inside the app's menu.

What you tell us when you set up

If you're tracking your own cycle, we ask:

• About you: your first name, your birth year, how you heard about us, whether a healthcare professional recommended the app, what you'd like to focus on in the app, and the companion character you pick.
• Your cycle: when your last period started (or an estimate), your usual cycle and period length, and how regular your cycle is.
• Your health:
  • whether you use birth control, and which kind,
  • conditions that may affect your cycle (PCOS, endometriosis, a thyroid condition, PMDD or fibroids),
  • how your cycle affects your mood (for example anxiety or low mood),
  • how it affects your sleep, and how much you usually sleep.
  Most of these questions offer “None”, “Not sure” or “Something else”.
• Your preferences: your goals, how each phase tends to feel for you, and the tone of writing you like.

If you're joining someone as a partner or family member, we ask:

• your first name,
• your relationship to them (family),
• your pronouns (partners),
• a short set of questions about how you like to support them (partners),
• how often you'd like tips from the app (partners),
• your goals (family),
• if you join without a code, their first name and an estimate of their cycle (when their last period started and how regular it is).

Partners and family aren't asked their birth year. They confirm they're 18 or over with one tap before joining, and nothing is saved before that. Setup doesn't ask partners or family for health details. A partner can also choose to do a short daily check-in about how they're doing (see “A partner's daily check-in” below).

We also save your choices before you start: whether you agreed to AI-written lines (and when), and, for partners and family, when they agreed to the rules for notes and replies (see section 5).

Before you sign in, your answers are saved only on your phone, so you can pick up where you left off. Once you finish, they're saved to your account and removed from your phone's temporary storage.

What you add each day

• Check-ins: your moods, a few 1–5 answers (energy, mood, sleep, calm, body, how you feel about yourself) and the time you checked in. We also keep whether a note was flagged as a possible crisis (see section 4), and any earlier wording you replaced, held until the safety check has read it.
• Notes: anything you choose to write, up to 1,000 characters. Notes are optional.
• Ratings: 👍 or 👎 on affirmations.
• Period updates: when you log a new period start, we keep your history of start dates.
• “What I need today”: one of six choices, if you set one.
• What the app learns: over time it builds a short summary for each phase: how you tend to feel, which themes help, the tone that works, and general topics that come up in your notes. The written summaries are private to you. If you share how each phase usually feels, up to four feeling words from them are shared (see section 5).
• Your time zone (for example “Europe/London”), so reminders arrive at the right time.

A partner's daily check-in

If you've joined as a partner, you can check in each day about how you're doing. It's optional, and it's private to you. A check-in holds:

• six 1–5 answers: your energy, your headspace, how heavy your load is, how long your fuse is, how you slept, and how much you're carrying that you haven't said out loud,
• a battery score (0–100) the app works out from those answers,
• up to three situations you pick from a list, if you pick any (for example “Deadline crunch”, “Money on my mind”, “Family stuff” or “Sore or a bit sick”),
• an optional note of up to 280 characters,
• the date, and, if it was shared, the account ID of the person it was shared with and the day it was shared for.

If you're linked and keep “Share my day with…” on, the person you're linked with sees only your energy, your fuse and a rough battery from each check-in (see section 5). Sharing starts on; the check-in card says what's shared before you start, and your first check-in while linked asks whether to keep sharing or keep it to yourself. The battery counts your other four answers only as heavy, middling or light, so no single answer can be worked out from it. Your other answers, your situations and your note are never shared. A check-in saved while you weren't linked, or while sharing was off, is never shared later. Your check-in is saved in your account and kept for 90 days (see section 9). It never goes to our own server or our AI provider. Family members don't have a check-in.

Between you and the people you add

• One-tap replies from the app's preset list (for example “Sending you a big hug”).
• A partner's short daily note, up to 200 characters, in their own words.
• A daily card a partner's app writes for you.
• A partner's energy, fuse and rough battery from each check-in, while “Share my day with…” is on.
• Your energy from today's check-in (1–5), only if you choose to share it with your partners.
• Who linked with which of your invite codes, and when.

Reports you send us

You can report an AI-written line (an affirmation, a phase summary, a partner tip, an SOS or history line), a couple card, a partner's note or one-tap reply, or someone in your list of supporters, using “Report” next to it. A report holds your account ID, the reported text as shown (up to 600 characters, nothing else of yours, never your notes; for someone in your list, their name and relationship as you see them), the account ID of the person it's about (if any), where in the app it was, who wrote the line (our library, the AI or the app) and which AI model and prompt version our server last used, the reason you picked and the time. We store reports to review abuse and fix problems. Nobody can read a report in the app, including you and the person you reported, who isn't told. Reports are deleted when you delete your account, or sooner if you ask us.

Your devices

• A push notification token for each phone you sign in on, so we can deliver notifications from the people you share with.
• A widget code for each phone, if you add the home-screen widget, so it can fetch a partner's note while the app is closed. Our server keeps only a scrambled (hashed) form of it, along with the account IDs of the partners whose notes it may show.
• A “quiet until” time. On a day a note is flagged as a possible crisis, your app sends our server a time (no text) until which partner notes stay off your widget and alerts stay quiet. It's kept for up to 48 hours.

Optional: helping us understand cycles

During setup we ask if you'd like to share some answers to help us learn how each phase feels for different people. This is off unless you say yes.

If you do, we store one record. It holds:

• your role, and for family members, your relationship to them,
• an age range (worked out from your birth year),
• how regular your cycle is and its usual lengths (or, for partners and family, how regular you said theirs is),
• your goals,
• your answers about each phase and tone, and an energy level for each phase,
• the month you joined.

It holds no name, email, account ID or exact dates, and the app can never read it back.

A small marker in your account points to the record. That lets us keep it to one per account and delete it when you delete your account, so it isn't fully anonymous to us. To remove it sooner, contact us (section 15).

What we don't collect

We don't collect:

• your location,
• your contacts, photos or microphone,
• payment details (there are no purchases in the app),
• advertising IDs.

We don't use analytics, advertising or crash-reporting tools in the app.

3. How we use it

• To work out your cycle phase and day, and predict your next period.
• To choose and write daily affirmations that fit your phase and how you feel, and to get more personal each cycle.
• To run partner and family features you turn on: sharing, replies, notes, cards and tips.
• For partners, to run the daily check-in, and to show an energy chart, couple heads-ups and date ideas. The app works out the chart, heads-ups and ideas on each phone from what each of you shares (see section 5). They aren't saved to your account, and none of it is sent to our server or the AI.
• To send reminders you've allowed, and notifications from the people you share with.
• To spot notes that suggest you might need support, and point you to help (section 4).
• To keep the service working and fair. For example, we count AI requests per account to keep within daily limits.
• If you opted in, to learn in aggregate how phases feel for different people (see above).

We don't use your data for advertising or marketing, and we don't sell it.

4. AI and safety screening

Your consent

Before the app's first AI request, it asks you plainly. If you tap “I agree”, your check-ins, moods and notes are sent to Anthropic (USA) through our server to write your affirmations. If you link a partner, their phone also sends your phase, cycle day and the moods you share, to write their tips. A partner or family member is asked the same about their own answers and tips. We save that you agreed and when.

If you tap “Not now”, nothing of yours goes to the AI and the app uses its hand-written lines only. You can withdraw at any time by turning off “AI-written affirmations” in Settings (or “AI-written tips” for partners), or by deleting your account. Once you turn it off, your app stops sending, and a partner's app stops using your details for their tips.

What goes to our AI provider

Our AI provider is Anthropic, the maker of Claude. Your phone never talks to Anthropic directly. It talks to our own server, which checks the request and passes on only what's needed, and only while you've agreed.

Depending on what the app is doing, that can include:

• your current phase and cycle day,
• your moods and 1–5 answers,
• today's note. A longer note is sent in parts of up to 300 characters, so all of it gets read, along with any earlier wording you replaced before it was checked.
• a few recent notes and check-ins,
• your ratings, and affirmations you've already seen,
• your phase summaries,
• the time of day you usually open the app,
• labels from your setup answers: goals, how your cycle affects your mood and sleep, any conditions you picked, whether you use hormonal birth control, whether your phase is only an estimate, and the writing tone you prefer.

Your app also sends our server a summary of how you use the app (for example how often you check in, your streak and how often you like affirmations). Our server checks it and passes only the usual time of day on to the AI. It doesn't store it.

If you have a linked partner and you've both agreed, their app also asks the AI for a pair of daily cards. That request includes:

• both your first names,
• their pronouns,
• your phase, cycle day, days until your period and usual cycle length,
• your “what I need today”,
• your moods and how each phase usually feels, only if you share those,
• your preferred writing tone (plain or playful),
• any one-tap reply the partner sent you today,
• the partner's recent cards (which can mention your name), so new ones don't repeat them,
• the partner's own setup answers.

Never sent to the AI:

• your email,
• your account ID,
• your birth year,
• exact dates,
• a partner's daily check-in, or anything the app works out from it.

Flagged notes: each new note is read once by the AI as part of the safety check below, even if your phone has already flagged it. Once a note is flagged, later requests leave it out and only say it was a hard day.

Anthropic handles this data under its terms with us. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, data sent through its API isn't used to train its models, and Anthropic deletes API inputs and outputs within 30 days, unless they're flagged for misuse review or the law requires keeping them longer.

If the AI is unavailable, the app falls back to a built-in library of affirmations.

Safety screening

Every new note is checked two ways:

• by a phrase check on your phone, which works offline,
• by the AI.

If either suggests you might be in crisis, the app shows a support card. It points you to findahelpline.com, which lists free, confidential helplines in your country, and reminds you to call your local emergency number if you're in danger.

That day, your widget hides a partner's notes, and alerts for their replies and notes go quiet. The app is designed not to tell anyone you share with.

The screening is automatic and only changes what you see. It doesn't alert us, your partner, or emergency services. It can miss things, and it can flag things by mistake.

To make this work, the flag is saved with that day's check-in in your account, and your app sends our server a “quiet until” time with no text (see section 2).

A partner's check-in note is checked only by the phrase check on their phone (it never goes to the AI). If it suggests a crisis, the partner's app shows the same support card, hides the couple read, and holds back couple heads-ups and date nudges until 8 the next morning. No separate flag is saved, nothing goes to our server, and nothing about it is shared with the person they support.

Not a medical device

Cycle dates and phases are estimates. CycleAffirm isn't a medical device or birth control, and it isn't medical advice. Don't rely on it for contraception, fertility or diagnosis. Talk to a healthcare professional about your health.

5. Sharing with people you invite

Nobody can see your data unless you invite them. You create an invite code and choose who it's for: a partner, or family and friends. Each code works once, and only within 30 days.

• Before they join, anyone who has one of your unused codes can see your first name, an internal account ID, and how each phase feels (if you shared that). This lasts for 30 days, or until the code is used or you cancel it. You can see and cancel your unused codes in Settings.
• Each time someone links, you're told, and you can see who linked with which code.
• Remove and block (in Settings, or after reporting something they sent) cuts off their access straight away. They can't send you anything or rejoin without a new code from you. It also deletes the check-in days a partner shared with you. Anything already scheduled on their phone clears the next time they open the app.
• Rules for notes and replies: before a partner or family member can send you anything, they agree to be kind: no harassment, threats or sexual content. You can report what they send and remove them.
• What a partner's app works out: from what you share, a linked partner's app shows an energy chart and a short read on the two of you. It shows your energy (from your check-in if you share it, otherwise an estimate worked out from what you already share with partners: your phase and, if you share them, today's moods and how each phase usually feels; the app says which it used) and irritation (only from an “irritable” mood or phase feeling you share yourself, otherwise “No read today”, and always labelled as an estimate). It also shows bonding, an effort split, a “ragebait meter” (in words, never a score), your likely energy over the next two weeks and good days for a date. All of it is worked out on the partner's phone, and nothing new is sent to our server or the AI. On your partner's card in the app, “See more” shows you the same words the partner's app shows about you.
• If you're the partner or family member: the person you joined sees your first name, your relationship, when you linked, and the replies, notes and cards you send. If you're a partner who checks in with “Share my day with…” on, they also see your energy, fuse and a rough battery from each check-in, for up to the last 8 days. They never see your setup answers word for word, your other check-in answers, the situations you pick or your check-in note.

6. Companies that help run the app

We use these service providers to run the app. Each of them handles your data on our behalf under its standard terms for business customers.

We may also share information if the law requires it. We may also share it to protect someone's safety. If CycleAffirm is ever sold or transferred, your data would move only under this policy, and we'd tell you before anything about how it's used changes.

7. Lock screens and widgets

Lock screens and home screens can be seen by people nearby, so here's what can appear.

• Your reminders are worded to leave out cycle words and day numbers. A line written from your notes or phase summary shows as a short teaser instead.
• Note alerts say only “You have a new note 💛”. They never include the note or who sent it.
• Reply alerts say “From your people 💛” with the preset reply.
• On a supporter's lock screen, your first name and your “what I need today” can appear.
• Tips for partners and family: if they keep reminders on, they get daily or weekly tips that use your first name and are chosen for your current phase (for example “Energy's coming back for Mia”). They don't name the phase or a day number, but they can hint at how your cycle is going.
• On a partner's lock screen, a daily ping asks them to check in (“Quick check-in?”), write you a note, or both, and can use your first name. The note version can mention up to two of the feeling words you share. On some days it adds a line like “Also: Saturday looks good for a date.”
• Couple heads-ups (partners only) stay off on each phone until that person turns them on (“Couple heads-ups”). Then:
  • on a day you're both running low, each phone can show “Go easy tonight” (on yours, for example, “Low battery on both sides today. Big talks can wait for a better day.”). A partner's heads-up never names you, and yours never names your partner;
  • at most once a week, a “Good day coming up” nudge a day or two before a good day for a date. A partner's version uses your first name and a date idea; yours names nobody;
  • on days your cycle suggests may feel heavier, your morning reminder can say “Today might feel a little heavier. Go gently with yourself. Your line is ready when you are.”
  None of these use cycle words, and heads-ups and date nudges arrive only between 9:00 and 21:30. They're chosen from your cycle and what you both share, so they can hint at how your day is going. On your phone, they stay quiet on a day a note is flagged as a possible crisis. Heads-ups inside the app show whether or not these are on.
• Your home-screen widget, if you add one, shows your phase and cycle day. If “Show partner notes on the widget” is on (it is by default), it also shows a partner's latest note and their name.
• A partner's widget shows your phase and cycle day (only the phase once your period may be late), plus a short tip, often using your name. Family members' widgets never show your cycle.

8. Where your data is stored

Your account data is stored in Google Cloud Firestore in the United States (region us-central1).

Our server runs on Cloudflare's network. It's set to run close to Anthropic's servers, so requests are usually processed in the United States rather than near you. The short-lived data our server keeps (section 9) is stored by Cloudflare in Cloudflare's data centres, usually in the United States.

Anthropic processes AI requests on its own servers. These are mainly in the United States.

If you live outside the United States, your data is transferred there. We rely on our providers' standard data processing terms for these transfers.

Your phone also keeps working copies so the app works offline:

• a cache of your data,
• your settings,
• the widget's contents,
• scheduled reminders.

On Android these are left out of device backups. On iPhone they may be included in your device backups, depending on your settings.

9. How long we keep it

Where a row above says the app deletes older records, it does this quietly in the background whenever the app is opened. Each of these records also carries an expiry date, and all of them are deleted with the account.

10. Your choices and deleting your data

• Sharing: in Settings you can:
  • turn “Share my daily moods” and “Share how each phase usually feels” on or off. Both start off, including when you make your first invite code; you can turn them on right there or later in Settings.
  • turn “Share my energy” on or off. It's for partners only, starts off, and one switch covers all your partners. The app asks you about it on Today, and turning it off removes what's already shared,
  • if you're a partner, turn “Share my day with…” on or off. It starts on. Turning it off removes the energy, fuse and battery you've already shared,
  • if you're a partner, tap “Delete my check-ins” to remove every check-in you've saved, and the energy, fuse and battery the person you're linked with can see,
  • cancel unused invite codes,
  • “Remove and block” anyone you've added: they can't see your phase or send you anything, and they can't rejoin without a new code from you. You can also do this right after reporting something they sent,
  • turn partner notes on the widget on or off.
• Notifications: turn reminders on or off and choose their times in Settings, or in your phone's settings. Partners and family can choose how often they hear from the app, including not at all, and partners can set the time of their daily ping. “Couple heads-ups” turns the lock-screen heads-ups and date nudges on or off (they start off, for partners and the person they support alike).
• AI-written lines: turn “AI-written affirmations” off or on in Settings at any time (see section 4).
• Notes are always optional.
• Signing out removes this phone from your account's notifications, clears the widget, and clears the app's local copies the next time it starts (unless changes are still waiting to upload).
• Deleting your account: Settings → “Delete my account and data”. You'll confirm it's you first (with Google, or your password). Then the app deletes:
  • your check-ins, notes and cycle history,
  • your phase summaries and setup answers,
  • what you share with others, including your shared energy,
  • your invite codes, and the replies, notes, cards and partners' shared check-in days in your account,
  • your devices and your optional research record,
  • your sign-in.
  It also asks our server to delete the reports you sent us, and its short-lived AI copies and widget data for your account. If our server can't be reached, cached AI replies expire within about 20 hours, a partner's note held for your widget within 48 hours, and widget codes stop working within 60 days.
  • If you're a partner or family member, deleting also removes the replies, notes and cards you sent, your daily check-ins (partners) and the energy, fuse and battery shared from them, and unlinks you. The person you supported keeps a record of your first name, your relationship and when you linked, until she deletes it or her account.
  • Usage counters on our server are not deleted straight away (see section 9).
  • Copies on a supporter's phone clear the next time they open the app. A partner's app may also have short-lived AI cards about you cached on our server for about 20 hours.
• Without the app: ask us to delete your account and data at badallalwani@scrolltrace.in (subject “Delete my CycleAffirm data”, from the email you sign in with). We’ll confirm and delete within 30 days.

11. Security

We protect your data in these ways:

• Encrypted connections: all connections between the app, our server and our providers use HTTPS.
• Strict database rules: only you can read your own data, and only the people you add can read what you share with them, checked on every read. Check-ins and the energy shared between partners can't be saved without an expiry date.
• Checked sign-ins: our server accepts only requests carrying a valid sign-in to CycleAffirm: Google, or an email account whose address is verified (plus the app-store reviewers' test accounts).
• Protected keys: our AI key never ships in the app, and widget codes are stored only in hashed form.
• Limits: requests and notifications are rate-limited, and notifications between people carry only the app's preset wording, plus your first name on “what I need” alerts.

People with administrator access to our Firebase and Cloudflare accounts can technically reach stored data. Only the developer has that access, and uses it only to run, secure and support the app, never to browse anyone’s personal data.

No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects you, we'll tell you as the law requires.

12. Children

CycleAffirm is only for people aged 18 and over. Setup asks for your birth year and doesn't offer any year under 18; if you say you're younger, it stops before anything is saved or sent. Partners and family confirm they're 18 or over before joining.

If you believe a child under that age has given us data, contact us and we'll delete it.

We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.

13. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access your data,
• correct it,
• delete it,
• get a copy of it,
• object to or restrict how we use it,
• withdraw consent,
• complain to your data protection authority.

You can correct your cycle details in Settings and delete everything in the app. For anything else, contact us at badallalwani@scrolltrace.in. We'll respond within 30 days.

We process your cycle and wellbeing data because you choose to give it to us for this purpose (your consent). Sending it to our AI provider needs your separate, explicit consent, which you can withdraw in Settings at any time. You can withdraw all consent by deleting your account in Settings. This policy is governed by the laws of India.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll let you know by email to the address you sign in with before it takes effect.

15. Contact us

Badal Lalwani
Email: badallalwani@scrolltrace.in