Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2026-08-02
This Privacy Policy explains how saffadigital ("we", "us"), the data controller, processes personal data when you use the What Would the Stoics Do app and website (the "App"). We comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Finnish Data Protection Act (Tietosuojalaki 1050/2018). For users in Brazil, see the LGPD section (§13).
1. Who we are (data controller)
- Controller: saffadigital (private trader (toiminimi), Business ID 2538095-1), registered in Finland (EU)
- Privacy contact: privacy@whatwouldthestoicsdo.com. A postal address is available on request.
We are not legally required to appoint a Data Protection Officer, but you can reach us about any privacy matter at the contact above.
2. Accounts and how the App is structured
Using the App involves three different kinds of data handling. It helps to understand them up front:
- Your account. You create an account with an email address and a password so your subscription, usage limits, and community activity travel with you across devices. This is necessary to provide the service you sign up for.
- Your chats and journal stay on your device. The conversations you have with the Stoic mentor and your journal entries are stored only on your own device, not on our servers. To answer a question we send the text (and, if you use voice, the audio) to our AI provider to generate a reply, but we do not retain that content ourselves (see §5).
- The community is server-side and anonymous. If you choose to share an answer, comment, vote, or report content in the community, that user-generated content is stored on our servers under a pseudonym and an internal account id, not under your real name (see §4).
3. What we process, why, and on what legal basis
| Data | Why | Legal basis (GDPR Art. 6) |
|---|---|---|
| Account email and password (password stored only as a secure hash) | To create and secure your account and provide the service | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Internal account id (a random identifier, not your name) | To link your subscription, usage, and community activity to your account | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Question text / voice audio you submit | To generate and return an answer (sent to our AI provider, not stored by us) | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Community content (shared answers, comments, votes, reports, chosen pseudonym, notifications) | To operate the anonymous community feature you opt into | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)); moderation and abuse handling on Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Per-user usage counters (question counts, token/spend metering) | To operate quotas, billing limits, and prevent runaway use | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) and legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Subscription / purchase status (from Apple, Google, or RevenueCat) | To unlock paid features | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Advertising identifiers & ad-interaction data (free tier only, where you consent) | To show ads that fund the free tier | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), collected via our consent banner |
| Diagnostics / crash data (via self-hosted Bugsink) | To fix bugs and improve stability | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Email and message you send us | To respond to your enquiry | Legitimate interests / steps prior to a contract |
We do not ask for, or intentionally collect, special-category data (health, religion, etc.). Please do not include such data in community posts or in messages to us. Anything you write in the AI chat or journal stays on your device per §2.
4. The community feature (server-side, anonymous)
The community is optional. If you use it, the following is stored on our servers (EU hosting, see §8) and keyed to your internal account id, under a pseudonym you choose rather than your real name:
- answers you choose to share, and any comments you post;
- votes and reactions you give;
- reports you file on other content, and reports filed on your content;
- notifications generated for you (for example, when someone replies to you).
Other users see only your pseudonym and what you post, never your email. You can delete individual posts in the App, and deleting your account removes your community content (see §11).
5. AI processing (Anthropic / OpenAI)
To answer your questions we use two AI providers, both based in the United States (see §12 on transfers):
- Anthropic (Claude models) generates the mentor's written replies. Your question text is sent to Anthropic to produce the answer and is not retained by us; it is returned to your device and stored only there.
- OpenAI provides voice features: Whisper transcribes your spoken input to text, and text-to-speech synthesises the mentor's reply as audio. The relevant text or audio is sent to OpenAI to perform these tasks and is not retained by us.
These providers process the content under their own terms and data processing agreements, and may retain it for a limited period for security and abuse monitoring. We do not use your chats to build profiles of you.
6. Advertising and tracking (free tier)
The free tier is supported by advertising (e.g. Google AdMob). Ad networks may use device and usage identifiers to deliver and measure ads. We only enable this with your consent, which you give or refuse through the consent banner shown in the App, and which you can change at any time in Settings. The paid tier shows no ads and no ad-network tracking, so choosing it is one way to opt out entirely.
7. Who we share data with (processors / recipients)
We use carefully selected providers who act on our instructions under data processing agreements:
- Anthropic (US): AI answer generation. Transfers safeguarded by SCCs / EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
- OpenAI (US): Whisper speech-to-text and text-to-speech voice synthesis. Transfers safeguarded by SCCs / EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
- RevenueCat (US): subscription and in-app purchase entitlement management. Transfers safeguarded by SCCs / EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
- Clever Cloud (EU, France): application hosting, compute, and the Postgres database that holds accounts, usage counters, and community content.
- Bunny CDN (EU): delivery of static assets and content.
- Bugsink (self-hosted, EU): error and crash diagnostics only.
- Google (AdMob) (US): advertising on the free tier, with consent.
- Apple App Store / Google Play: payment processing; they are the seller of record for in-app purchases and handle your payment data directly.
We do not sell your personal data. We may disclose data if required by law.
8. Where your data is hosted
Our servers, database, and content delivery run on EU-based infrastructure (Clever Cloud in France for compute and Postgres, Bunny CDN for static content, self-hosted Bugsink for diagnostics). Personal data leaves the EEA only for the specific AI, voice, subscription, and advertising purposes described above, under the safeguards in §12.
9. How long we keep data
- On-device chats and journal: kept on your device until you delete them, never on our servers.
- Account (email, hashed password, internal id): kept for as long as your account exists; deleted when you delete your account (see §11).
- Per-user usage counters (question counts, spend): kept while your account is active to operate quotas and billing limits, then deleted or aggregated into non-identifying statistics; removed when you delete your account.
- Community content: kept until you delete the individual post or your account; content that has been reported may be retained briefly for moderation and abuse records.
- Purchase / entitlement records: kept as required by tax and accounting law (in Finland, generally up to 6 years).
- Support emails: kept as long as needed to handle your enquiry and a reasonable period after.
10. Security
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data: encryption in transit, passwords stored only as secure hashes, EU-based hosting, minimal data collection, and on-device storage of chats and journal. No method is perfectly secure, but we design the App to collect as little as possible.
11. Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to: access your data; rectify it; erase it; restrict or object to processing; data portability; and to withdraw consent at any time (without affecting prior processing). Several of these are built into the App:
- Access and portability. Use the in-app data export feature to download your account data, usage records, and community content as a JSON file.
- Erasure. Use Delete my account in the App. This removes your account, your usage counters, and your community content from our servers. (Chats and journal already live only on your device, so deleting the App or clearing its data removes those.)
- Consent. Change your advertising/tracking choice at any time in Settings.
For anything else, or to exercise a right that is not self-service, contact privacy@whatwouldthestoicsdo.com; we respond within one month.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Finnish supervisory authority: Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman (Tietosuojavaltuutetun toimisto), tietosuoja.fi.
12. International transfers
Some providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, RevenueCat, Google, Apple) are in the United States or process data outside the EEA. Where they do, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards: the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and/or certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Our core hosting (Clever Cloud, Bunny CDN, Bugsink) is in the EU. You can ask us for details of the safeguards used.
13. Brazil (LGPD)
If you are in Brazil, we process your personal data in accordance with the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD, Law 13.709/2018), and you may contact Brazil's data protection authority, the ANPD (Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados).
- Controller and contact. saffadigital acts as the controller (controlador). Reach us at privacy@whatwouldthestoicsdo.com.
- Legal bases. We rely mainly on execution of a contract (LGPD Art. 7, II and V) to provide the account, chat, and community features, on consent (Art. 7, I) for advertising on the free tier, and on our legitimate interests (Art. 7, IX) for security, abuse prevention, and diagnostics.
- Your rights. Under LGPD Art. 18 you may confirm and access your data, correct it, anonymise, block, or delete unnecessary data, request portability, delete data processed with consent, obtain information on sharing, and withdraw consent. The in-app export and Delete my account features cover most of these.
- Right of regret (7 days, CDC). Because the App is bought online, Brazilian consumers have a 7-day right of regret under Article 49 of the Consumer Defence Code (Código de Defesa do Consumidor) to cancel a purchase made outside a physical store. This is separate from the app stores' own refund policies and from the EU withdrawal right.
- Portuguese translation. A Portuguese-language version of this Policy is provided in the App for your convenience.
14. Data breaches and incidents
We maintain procedures to detect and respond to personal-data breaches. If a breach occurs, we assess the risk to affected individuals and, where the GDPR requires it, notify the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman (Tietosuojavaltuutetun toimisto) without undue delay and within 72 hours of becoming aware of it (GDPR Art. 33). Where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will also notify affected users without undue delay (Art. 34).
15. Children
The App is intended for users aged 16 and over and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under that age. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.
16. Changes
We may update this Policy; we will post the new version with a revised date and, for material changes, notify you in the App.
17. Contact
Questions or requests: privacy@whatwouldthestoicsdo.com (saffadigital, registered in Finland (EU)). A postal address is available on request.
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