Privacy Policy
Last updated: 28 September 2026
Vichar ("the app", "we", "our") is developed by an independent developer. This policy explains, plainly, what data the app touches and what happens to it. Vichar is built around one rule: audio never leaves your device. Everything below follows from that.
1. Recordings and transcripts
When you arm the alarm, Vichar records sound on your device. That audio is written only to your phone's local storage. It is never uploaded to any server, ours or anyone else's, at any subscription tier. Transcription of that audio into text also happens entirely on-device, using your phone's own operating-system speech recognition. We never see, receive, or store a copy of your recordings or transcripts.
You can delete a night's audio, its transcript, or your entire recording history at any time from within the app. Deleting the app removes everything Vichar has stored on your device.
2. Optional AI interpretation ("Bring your own key")
Vichar can optionally send the text of a transcript — never audio — to an AI provider you choose (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or Groq) to generate a reading. This feature is off by default and only activates once you paste in your own API key for that provider.
- Your API key is stored using your device's secure credential storage (the platform keychain). We do not transmit it to our own servers, because we do not operate a server that sees it — requests go directly from your device to the provider you chose.
- Only the transcript text relevant to your request is sent, along with the minimum context needed to generate a reading. Timestamps sent are clock times only, never full dates, so a provider cannot correlate requests across nights.
- What that AI provider does with the text you send it is governed by their privacy policy, not ours — please review the policy of whichever provider you choose to use.
- If you never add a key, this feature does nothing and sends nothing anywhere.
3. Subscription and payment
Vichar's subscription is processed through the Apple App Store or Google Play, and subscription status is managed using RevenueCat, a third-party subscription infrastructure provider. RevenueCat receives a device identifier and purchase/entitlement information necessary to verify your subscription — it does not receive your recordings, transcripts, or AI provider keys. See RevenueCat's privacy policy for details on their handling of this data.
We do not receive or store your payment card details. Those are handled entirely by Apple or Google.
4. Crash reporting
Vichar uses Firebase Crashlytics to help us find and fix bugs. If the app crashes, a crash report is sent that includes technical diagnostic information (device model, OS version, and the code location of the crash). Before anything is sent, this report passes through a redaction step that strips it of transcript text, AI provider keys, and other content — only the technical shape of the crash is reported, never what you said in your sleep.
5. What we don't do
- We don't require an account, a sign-up, or an email address to use Vichar.
- We don't sell, rent, or share your data with advertisers.
- We don't run any analytics or tracking beyond the crash reporting described above.
- We don't use your recordings or transcripts to train any AI model, ours or anyone else's.
6. Children's privacy
Vichar is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from children under that age.
7. Your choices
You can, at any time and entirely within the app: delete individual nights, delete recorded audio while keeping a transcript, clear an AI provider key, or delete the app to remove all local data. Because nothing is stored on a server we control, there is no separate "delete my data" request to make of us for your recordings or transcripts — removing them from your device removes them, full stop.
8. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the "last updated" date above will change with it. Material changes will be reflected in the app's release notes.
9. Contact
Questions about this policy or how Vichar handles data can be sent to smvodela@yahoo.com.