Privacy Policy

1. Controller

Arematics UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Luise-Rinser-Str. 5
90513 Zirndorf, Germany
Email: contact@arematics.com

Further details are in the imprint.

2. The short version

• Full Circle needs no user account and no sign-up.
• Without Full Circle Plus the app sends no data to Arematics. All AI features then run with Apple Intelligence directly on your device.
• With Plus you can switch on the cloud buddy. Only then – and only during a conversation – does an Arematics server in the EU process an excerpt of your entries and pass it to an AI model operated in the EU. None of it is stored (section 6).
• The app contains no analytics, tracking or advertising services.

3. What data the app processes

Full Circle only stores what you create in the app yourself or what the buddy generates from it for you:

• Daily entries: goals, ratings, counters, your daily mood, texts, drawings and photos you add, and the up to three things you pick under "What counts today?"
• Voice notes and conversations with the buddy – only the recognised text is stored, not the audio recording
• Your template (the fields you track every day), your goals and the Apple Health links you set up
• Thoughts and study material (flashcards, quiz questions, review dates)
• Reflections, entries and suggestions the buddy generates, and the buddy memory: a short summary of your themes and resolutions that the buddy updates after conversations and that you can delete in Settings

This data lives in the app's local database on your iPhone.

4. iCloud sync

If you are signed in to iCloud on your iPhone with iCloud Drive enabled, Full Circle syncs your data via iCloud (CloudKit) into the private database of your Apple account; the template and the buddy memory are synced through the iCloud key-value store. Your entries are then available on all devices using the same Apple ID and survive a reinstall.

Only you can access this private database – Arematics cannot. The iCloud service is provided by Apple Inc., or Apple Distribution International Ltd. for users in the EU, under Apple's privacy policy. So that changes reach your other devices promptly, iCloud uses silent push notifications via Apple's push service. You can turn sync off at any time in iOS Settings under [your name] → iCloud → Full Circle.

5. Features that use Apple services on the device

Speech recognition

Voice notes are turned into text by iOS speech recognition entirely on the device. The microphone is active only while you record; the audio is discarded after transcription. You can revoke the permission in iOS Settings.

Apple Intelligence (on-device buddy)

Without Plus – or with the cloud buddy left off – the on-device language model of Apple Intelligence generates the buddy's answers, reflections, weekly and monthly feedback and suggestions for new trackers. Your entries do not leave your device for this. The feature requires a device with Apple Intelligence.

Apple Health

You can link individual template fields to Apple Health (e.g. "Worked out" to your workouts, "In bed before 11 pm" to sleep analysis, steps, water, mindful minutes). The app then reads only the data types you grant when linking, exclusively on the device, and proposes a value for the day that you confirm or dismiss. Only that field value (e.g. a checkmark) is stored, not the Health data itself. Health data is never sent to Arematics or to the cloud buddy and is not used for advertising or any other purpose. You can revoke access at any time under Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices → Full Circle.

Mood: If you turn it on, the app saves your daily mood to Apple Health as a "state of mind" and picks up a mood you logged elsewhere, e.g. on your Apple Watch. What does you good (Plus): If you allow it, the app reads sleep, steps and workouts of the last 90 days and compares them with your mood on the device. Health data does not leave the device for this either.

Calendar and Reminders

For "What counts today?" the app can – if you allow access – read today's appointments and due reminders on the device. If you tick a reminder in Full Circle, it is ticked in the Reminders app too. Only what you pick (title and time) is stored with your day. Calendar and reminder data is not sent to Arematics or to the cloud buddy. You can revoke access in iOS Settings under Privacy & Security → Calendars or Reminders.

Notifications

If you enable reminders in Settings ("What counts today?" in the morning, evening, weekly look back on Sunday), the app asks for notification permission and schedules local notifications on your device. No server is involved.

Widgets, Live Activity, Siri and Shortcuts

The widget shows your daily progress from a small snapshot (completed goals, streak) that the app keeps in its protected area on the device. "What counts today" appears as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island; it is created on the device without a push server. Siri shortcuts such as "Check in with Full Circle" only open the app; "Note a thought in Full Circle" saves the dictated text as a thought directly on the device.

Sharing from other apps

With "Share → Full Circle" you hand text, links or photos to the app. The extension only places them in the app's protected area on your device; the app files them as a thought or moment the next time it opens. None of it goes to a server. Only if you explicitly choose "Make it something to learn" for a longer text does Apple Intelligence turn it into flashcards on the device.

Journaling suggestions

Through the iOS journaling suggestions you can add moments (e.g. photos, workouts, places, music) to an entry. iOS shows you the suggestions; Full Circle receives only the content you explicitly pick. The app never sees the other suggestions.

Photos

When adding photos the app uses the iOS photo picker. The app only receives the pictures you select, not your library.

Apple Music

When you add a song to an entry or play it, the app looks the title up in the Apple Music catalogue (MusicKit or Apple's iTunes Search; song title, artist and your store country are transmitted) and uses the iOS music player. Apple processes these requests under its privacy policy; Arematics receives nothing. You can revoke the "Media & Apple Music" permission in iOS Settings.

6. Full Circle Plus: the cloud buddy

Full Circle Plus is a subscription that lets the buddy hold a real conversation (check-in, weekly talk, "ask your buddy") – also on iPhones without Apple Intelligence. For this the language model does not run on your device but is reached through an Arematics server. The feature is doubly voluntary: it requires the subscription and you have to switch it on explicitly in Settings ("Buddy in the cloud"). While it is off, nothing leaves your device.

What is transmitted

For every conversation the app sends, encrypted (TLS), an excerpt containing exactly what the buddy needs for its reply: your messages in the conversation, the names of your fields and their values for today and the last seven to fourteen days (including your daily mood), your texts and voice notes of those days (shortened), your active goals, the buddy memory and – for "ask your buddy" – older entries matching the question. Not transmitted are photos, drawings, music, Health data, calendar and reminder data, device identifiers or your name; there is no account.

Who processes it

• Arematics runs the server at Hetzner Online GmbH, Gunzenhausen (Germany), as a processor (Art. 28 GDPR). The server verifies your subscription, applies daily limits and forwards the excerpt to the AI model.
• Google Cloud (Vertex AI), Google Ireland Ltd., processes the excerpt with Gemini models in an EU region (Frankfurt or Belgium) on behalf of Arematics. Depending on the request a smaller or a larger model answers; to choose, a small model first estimates how demanding your message is. Under its contract Google does not use the content for training and does not store requests. No transfer to a third country takes place.
• Should we use a model by Anthropic (Anthropic Ireland Ltd.) for individual tasks, we will state it here beforehand. Processing would then happen on servers in the USA on the basis of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the EU standard contractual clauses, likewise without training and without permanent storage.

What is stored

The excerpt and the reply are discarded after the conversation – not kept by Arematics, not by the model provider. The reply and whatever you take over from it are stored only by the app on your device. Per request the server logs only the time, the kind of conversation, the model used, the duration, the number of tokens and whether an error occurred (30 days), without content. Your IP address is technically part of the connection and is kept in connection logs for up to 14 days.

Billing without an account

To check that you have Plus, the app sends the subscription transaction signed by Apple. It contains an anonymous transaction ID, the product and the expiry date – no name, no email address, no payment data. The transaction ID is used only for verification and the usage limits. For the limits the server stores a keyed hash of the transaction ID together with counters (number of requests per day and month) – no content and nothing that relates to you as a person. These counters are deleted when the calendar month ends.

AI answers

The buddy's answers are automatically generated texts. They involve no legally or similarly significant decisions (Art. 22 GDPR) and do not replace medical, psychological or other professional advice. Whatever the buddy wants to write down is shown to you first and confirmed by you.

You can switch the cloud buddy off in Settings at any time; the buddy then answers on the device only again.

7. Purchases through the App Store

Full Circle Plus is a subscription purchased through the App Store. Apple handles payment; Arematics receives no payment data and no personal details, only the anonymous transaction data Apple provides to every app. You can manage and cancel the subscription in iOS Settings under [your name] → Subscriptions. Apple's privacy policy applies to the purchase.

8. Sharing with third parties

Without Plus, Full Circle sends no data to Arematics or any other third party; the only connections are to Apple services (iCloud, Apple Music, App Store), and only when you use the respective feature. With the cloud buddy switched on, the processors named in section 6 are added. Beyond that we do not share data and never sell it.

9. Retention and deletion

• You can delete individual entries, photos, notes, study material and the buddy memory in the app at any time.
• Deleting the app removes all locally stored data.
• Data stored in iCloud can be deleted under Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Storage → Full Circle → Delete Data.
• No content that would need deleting is stored on the servers of Arematics or the model providers; the logs from section 6 expire after 14 and 30 days, the counters for the usage limits when the calendar month ends.

10. Legal bases

Processing on your device takes place to provide the app features you use (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). iCloud sync only happens if you have enabled iCloud on your device; Apple is an independent controller for it. The cloud buddy processes the excerpt of your entries to perform the Plus subscription (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) and on the basis of your explicit consent given when switching the feature on (Art. 6 (1) (a), for health-related statements in your texts Art. 9 (2) (a) GDPR), which you can withdraw in Settings at any time. Verifying the subscription transaction and the daily limits rest on our legitimate interest in providing the service to paying users only and preventing abuse (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). No automated decision-making within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR takes place. We have not appointed a data protection officer.

11. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21), as well as the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77). The authority responsible for us is the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA), Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, Germany. Because Arematics stores no content from the app, we cannot provide or delete your entries – only you can, directly in the app or in iCloud (see section 9). Data portability is provided by the app's export feature (Settings → Backup). For any questions, contact us at the email address above.

12. Children

Full Circle is not directed at children under 16 and does not collect data about users of any age.

13. Changes

If the app's features change – for example another model provider for the cloud buddy – we will update this policy beforehand and describe here which data goes to whom. New features where data leaves your device are only ever enabled by your explicit choice. The current version is always available at this address; the date at the top shows the last update.