Legal
Privacy Policy — the Arete app
Last updated 5 September 2026. This is the policy referenced by the App Store and Google Play listings.
Arete keeps everything on your phone. There is no account, no server, no analytics, no advertising, and no third party involved. Nothing you write in it is transmitted anywhere.
What this policy covers
This policy covers the Arete app for iOS and Android
(com.arete.app / com.nilsmanthey.arete.app) and nothing else.
The Arete website at www.arete-app.org is a separate thing with its own policy, because it does collect a little: an email address if you join a list, and an order if you buy something. Those two worlds do not touch. Nothing you enter on the website is ever added to the app, and nothing from inside the app is ever sent to the website or to us. If you never visit the website, this document is the whole story.
What Arete stores on your device
- Journal entries, reflections and how you said you felt
- Daily check-ins, private goals, notes and routines
- Training logs, workouts, nutrition and supplement records
- Heart-rate readings from a ring, if you connect one
- Reminder settings, including the times you chose
- App settings, including the PIN you use to open the app
All of it is written to the app's own storage area on your device, inside the sandbox the operating system gives Arete. It is not uploaded, synced, or backed up to any service run by us — there is no service to run.
What Arete does not do
- No account and no sign-in
- No cloud sync or server-side storage
- No analytics, crash-reporting or attribution SDKs
- No advertising and no tracking across apps or websites
- No third-party fonts, scripts or content delivery networks — the typefaces are shipped inside the app
- No selling or sharing of personal information, because none of it leaves your device
Reminders
Reminders are scheduled by your phone, not by us. There is no push server, no Firebase or APNs delivery, and no device token — nothing about your phone is registered anywhere. Turning a reminder on asks the operating system for notification permission; refusing it leaves the switch off and changes nothing else. The text of a reminder is written into the app and chosen on your device.
Bluetooth
If you connect a ring, Arete uses Bluetooth Low Energy to read heart-rate data from
it. Android requires the “nearby devices” permission for this; Arete declares
it with neverForLocation, meaning it is not used to derive your location.
Readings are stored on the device with the rest of your data. If you never connect a ring,
Arete never uses Bluetooth.
Health and wellbeing information
Journals, training records and supplement notes are personal by nature. Because they stay on the device, their security is your device's security: use a passcode or biometric lock. Arete's PIN screen is a convenience, not encryption.
Arete is not a medical device. Nothing in it is medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and it is not a substitute for a qualified professional.
Device backups
If you use your phone's own backup — iCloud Backup on iOS, or Google's Android Backup — that backup may include Arete's data, in the same way it includes other apps'. Those backups are handled by Apple and Google under their own privacy policies and encryption, not by us. Turning off backup for Arete in your device settings stops this.
Children
Arete is not directed at children and is not intended for use by anyone under 13.
Deleting your data
Delete individual entries inside the app, or remove everything at once by uninstalling Arete or clearing its storage in your device settings. That erases it permanently. There is no copy on a server to request, export, or have deleted, and no way for anyone — including the developer — to recover it.
Your rights
Privacy laws such as the GDPR and CCPA give you rights to access, correct, export and delete personal data held about you. Arete holds none: no personal data is collected, transmitted or processed by the developer. The data is in your hands on your own device, which is where those rights are exercised.
Changes
If a future version of Arete ever collects or transmits anything — for example if optional cloud sync or subscriptions are added — this policy will be updated before that version ships, and the change will be described here with a new date.
Contact
Questions about this policy: privacy@arete-app.org
Help with the app: hello@arete-app.org
The website
This site collects an email address if you hand us one and an order if you buy something. That is covered separately in the website privacy policy, and none of it reaches the app.