Privacy Policy

Braele is a guided breathing app, built to be private by design. Braele has no accounts and needs no personal information. It does send usage data to a server we run ourselves, under a random installation identifier rather than your name, so we can see which parts of the app are worth improving. Everything that is collected is listed below.

Nothing that says who you are, unless you choose to give us an email address with a support message. Braele has no user accounts, no sign-up and no login. It never asks for your address or your date of birth, and the name it greets you by, if you give one, stays on your phone.

The app does send usage data:

• a random installation identifier the app generates for itself on first launch, and the anonymous identifier RevenueCat gives the app for purchases (see Purchases). Neither is derived from your device, your Apple ID or any account, neither goes to advertisers, and deleting the app discards the installation identifier for good;
• which screens you open (never the support screens: our server keeps no record of those, from any version of the app) and which features you use, for example that a box breathing session of four cycles was completed with the rain sound, that a reminder was set or that a purchase was started, the reason you pick for breathing (such as easing anxiety or falling asleep), and where a session was started from (the widget, a reminder, Siri, or a link from our website, with the link's campaign tag). Never the content of anything you write, and never your name or photo, which stay on your phone;
• if you answer the optional question in setup, “How did you find Braele?”, your answer (for example Instagram or Facebook, TikTok or a friend). It travels with every usage event from then on, so we can see which places bring people who keep breathing. Skip it and no answer is sent;
• the app version and build, whether it came from the App Store or TestFlight, whether you have Braele Pro, your device model, your iOS version and your language;
• a two-letter country code, for example BA or DE, worked out from your connection by our host. Your IP address is never written down.

Raw usage events are deleted automatically after 180 days. Once an installation has sent nothing for 180 days, for example because the app was deleted, its record (the identifiers and device details above) is deleted too, so everything we hold about an installation is gone from our database 180 days after it last sends anything. Our backups keep it a little longer: the nightly backups stay on our server for 14 days, and an encrypted copy of them at Cloudflare keeps each day's backup for 30 days and one backup a month for up to a year, after which they are deleted. Support messages are the exception: they are kept until you ask us to delete them (see Support messages). Apple's attribution copies (see Ad attribution) point to no installation and no person, and we keep them to measure our ads.

If you write to us from Profile, Support, we receive your message along with the app version, build, device model, iOS version and whether you have Braele Pro, so the report makes sense without a round of questions. An email address is optional, and what we keep with your message depends on whether you leave one.

With an email address, the message is kept apart from the app's usage data. It carries no installation identifier and no RevenueCat identifier, and no usage event records that you wrote, so nothing we keep joins your address to what you do in the app, and we never try to. We reply by email, and the reply also shows in the app: the app keeps a private key for that one conversation on your phone. Delete the app and the key goes with it; our replies still reach you by email.

Without an email address, the message is kept with the app's random installation identifier and its RevenueCat identifier, because the app is the only way our answer can reach you. They also let us see the app's state (its usage events and purchases) when we look into a report. Nothing on such a message says who you are.

Versions of Braele before 2.1.0 still send the installation identifier with a message that has an email address. Our server drops the RevenueCat identifier as soon as such a message arrives, and the installation identifier, together with the usage events that recorded the conversation, once you have seen the closed conversation in the app, 7 days after it closes or after 30 days without activity, whichever comes first.

Each message also reaches our inbox by email, and replies by email are sent through the email service Resend. To have a conversation deleted, ask us: write to support@braele.app from the address you gave, or, for messages without one, ask in the app without an email address. That message carries the installation identifier, so we can delete this installation's messages and, if you want, all of its usage data.

Your preferences (such as chosen ambient sound and haptics setting), your name and photo, your reminder times and your breathing streak are saved only on your device using the operating system's standard local storage, and are deleted if you uninstall the app. They are not sent to us or anyone else; the usage events above only record things like which ambient sound a session used.

If you allow it, Braele can save completed sessions to Apple Health as mindful minutes. This data is written directly to Apple Health on your device and is controlled by you in the Health app. Braele does not read, transmit, or use this data for any other purpose, and never uses it for advertising.

Braele shows no ads, contains no third-party analytics SDK, sets no cookies and reads no advertising identifier, and it never tracks you across other apps or websites. The usage events above are sent only to our own server. They are never sold and never used to build an advertising profile of you. What reaches anyone else is listed on this page: one milestone number through Apple's ad attribution (below), purchase validation with RevenueCat, along with the Apple Ads campaign that brought you, if one did (see Purchases and Ad attribution), and support email through Resend (see Support messages).

When we advertise Braele, we want to know whether an ad brought people who actually breathe with it, without learning who they are. For that the app uses Apple's own ad attribution, SKAdNetwork and AdAttributionKit. As you reach a milestone, the app gives iOS one coarse number for how far you have got, for example that you opened the Pro screen, finished a session, came back another day or bought Pro. Apple passes that number on, aggregated and without identifiers, to the ad network that showed you an ad for Braele, if one did, and sends a copy to us at bavrk.com. No advertising identifier is read and the number carries nothing about who you are, so this is not tracking, and the app never asks for permission to track you.

From version 2.2.0 there is one more piece, for Apple's own ads only. If you installed Braele after tapping an Apple Ads ad in the App Store, the app asks iOS for Apple's attribution token (AdServices) and passes it to RevenueCat (see Purchases). RevenueCat asks Apple about it and stores the answer with its anonymous identifier: that an Apple ad led to the install, and that ad's campaign, ad group, search keyword and country. If no Apple ad brought you, Apple says so and nothing more is stored. The token holds no advertising identifier and nothing about who you are. This is not tracking either, so the app still never asks for permission to track you. We use it only to see which searches bring people who keep breathing with Braele.

braele.app uses Cloudflare Web Analytics for aggregate page views. Our own Hush service also records website visits, registered campaign labels and App Store button clicks under a random browser identifier stored locally. Browser and app identifiers are separate; we do not match a visitor to an app installation or purchase. We do not retain raw query strings, advertising click identifiers or IP addresses. Website usage records follow the retention periods described above. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control disable Hush collection. Apple provides separate aggregate download and purchase reports for campaign links; small counts may be withheld.

Usage data, support messages and the attribution copies sit on a server we rent and administer ourselves, hosted by Hetzner in Finland. Nightly backups of them stay on that server, and an encrypted copy is kept in Cloudflare's R2 storage; it is encrypted before it leaves our server, so Cloudflare cannot read it (how long backups are kept is under Information we collect). Support messages also reach our inbox by email (see Support messages). Nothing is copied to anyone else's analytics platform.

Braele does not request access to your microphone, contacts or location. It asks for your camera or your photo library only if you choose to add a profile photo, and that photo stays on your device. If you enable optional breathing reminders, they are scheduled locally on your device and their times stay there; that a reminder was set, and that a session was opened from one, are usage events like any other.

Breathing sessions work fully offline: the patterns, the voice, the haptics, the orb and your streak all run on your device. When you are online, the app sends the usage data described above, delivers any support message you write, validates optional purchases with the Apple App Store and RevenueCat, and hands a session's timing to a relay we run, so the Live Activity on your Lock Screen keeps pace once the phone locks; the relay keeps only the pattern, its phases and the activity's push token, in memory, until the session ends. Turn the network off and everything except those keeps working.

Braele is a general-audience wellness app and is safe for all ages. The usage data above contains no name, no contact details and nothing else that says who you are, so nothing personal is collected from children either, unless they give an email address in a support message.

Braele offers an optional upgrade, Braele Pro, as a monthly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Payment is handled entirely by the Apple App Store. Braele never receives or stores your payment details.

To unlock Pro reliably (including after a reinstall or on a new phone), the app uses RevenueCat, a purchase-validation service. RevenueCat receives an anonymous, randomly generated identifier and your App Store purchase receipt, never your name, email, or anything else that identifies you personally, and uses it to confirm your purchase and, from version 2.2.0, to record which Apple Ads campaign brought you, if one did (see Ad attribution).

If this policy changes, we will update the date at the top of this page.

Questions? Email support@braele.app.