Privacy Policy

The short version

• There is no account and no sign-up. We never learn your name or email unless you write to us.
• Your entries, summaries, streak, photos, dreams and terrarium are stored on your device.
• We operate no server and hold no copy of your journal.
• To write a reflection or recap, a finished entry may be sent — automatically, or when you or a later recap asks for one — to Google's Gemini through Firebase AI Logic.
• Photos never leave your phone, unless you choose to include them in a backup or export you create and share yourself.
• Anonymous usage analytics and crash reports tell us how the app is doing. They never contain what you wrote.

What the app handles

"Your device" above includes your phone's own backup — iCloud on iOS, or Android's backup to your Google Account — if you have that turned on. That's a copy your phone's operating system makes and controls, not us; we have no access to it and no way to affect it.

Where your entries go

Mind Terrarium turns what you record, tap or type into a short written reflection. It does that by sending the entry to Google's Gemini models through Firebase AI Logic. There is no Mind Terrarium server in the middle — the request goes straight from your phone to Google.

A voice or check-in entry is sent the moment you finish it. A written entry isn't sent right away, but it can still leave your phone later — if you request a reflection for it, or if a weekly or monthly recap ends up covering that day.

For a single check-in, voice or written entry, this is what's sent:

• the audio file of that recording, or the text of that check-in or written entry;
• the one-paragraph summaries of your last few days, so the reflection can refer back to them;
• a short list of "flags" — significant things from recent days the app is still tracking, such as a hard Monday or a big win.

We don't attach your name, email, photos, or a Mind Terrarium identifier to what's sent — though of course anything you choose to write in an entry is sent as part of that entry's text. Google processes the request, returns the transcript and reflection, and its handling of that data is governed by Google's own terms for Firebase AI Logic and the Google Cloud service behind it.

A weekly or monthly recap sends more than a single entry does, so it can be specific instead of generic:

• the actual wording of what you wrote or said on each day in the period, not just its summary;
• any dreams you've logged that week;
• some statistics the app works out about your mood and activities across the period, including the wording of any custom tags you've created.

Once a voice recording has been transcribed successfully, the app deletes the audio file from your device. The transcript stays so you can read back what you said, and may be sent again as context for a future entry or recap.

Firebase AI Monitoring, a feature Google provides alongside Firebase AI Logic, is on for this app so we can see performance figures like latency and error rates. We have turned off its logging of prompt and response content, so the words you write or say and the reflection that comes back are not stored there.

What stays on your phone

Everything else. Entries, transcripts, reflections, recaps, dreams, your streak, your stardust balance, which species you own and where you've placed them, and any photos you attach are all stored in the app's own storage on the device. None of it is backed up to us, because there is nowhere for it to go.

A consequence worth knowing: if you delete the app without backing up first, that data is gone. It may be included in your phone's own backup (iCloud or Google backup) depending on your settings, but that is your device's backup, not ours.

You can also build your own backup or export from inside the app — a single file of your entries, photos and terrarium, or a readable text export of your journal. That file is created on your device; whatever you go on to do with it, such as saving it to cloud storage or sending it to yourself, is outside the app and up to you.

Analytics, crash reports and app integrity

The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase to record which screens are opened and which steps of the check-in people finish or abandon. Events carry only coarse, non-identifying details — for example whether a note was written and roughly how long it was, never the note itself. Firebase assigns an app instance identifier, which we do not link to any other information about you.

The app uses Firebase Crashlytics to help find and fix bugs. If the app crashes, or hits certain unexpected errors, Crashlytics automatically collects a stack trace, the app version, and device and OS details, tagged with a random installation identifier rather than anything that identifies you. It never receives your journal content.

The app also uses Firebase App Check. Before it can talk to Google's AI service it asks Apple's App Attest or Google's Play Integrity for a token proving the request came from a genuine, unmodified copy of the app. This exists to stop other people running up our bill on Google's service; it does not identify you.

Permissions

• Microphone — only while you are recording a voice entry, and only if you use voice mode. The tap-based check-in never touches it.
• Photo library — only when you choose to attach a photo to a day. The app receives the photos you pick and nothing else.

You can refuse or revoke either one in your phone's settings; the rest of the app keeps working.

Who else is involved

• Google — Firebase AI Logic and the Gemini models write the reflections; Firebase Analytics, Crashlytics and App Check are described above. Firebase privacy information.
• RevenueCat — handles the Terrarium Pass subscription. It receives which plan was bought and an anonymous identifier for your install, so the app can tell whether a pass is active. Because there are no accounts, it never receives a name, an email, or any part of your journal.
• Expo — the app checks for over-the-air updates. That request tells Expo's servers which app version and platform is asking, so it can hand back the right update. It contains none of your journal.
• Apple and Google — as the app stores you download from, they have their own relationship with you that we are not part of.

We do not sell or share your information, and there are no advertising networks in the app.

Where processing happens. Mind Terrarium is made in Canada. Google handles the AI requests on its own infrastructure, which may sit outside Canada, so an entry sent for a reflection may be processed in another country and be subject to the laws there.

Keeping and deleting

Data on your device is kept until you remove it. You can clear it by deleting individual entries in the app, by resetting the app's data, or by uninstalling the app entirely. Because we hold no copy, we cannot delete anything for you — and we cannot restore anything either.

Analytics and crash records held by Google are retained under the Firebase project's own retention settings. Data sent to Google's AI service is retained under Google's own terms.

Age requirement

Mind Terrarium is for adults only. You must be 18 or older to use it, a requirement that comes from Google's terms for the generative AI service the app is built on. The app is not directed at children or teenagers, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

If someone under 18 has been using the app anyway, what it stores is on that device — deleting the entries, or uninstalling, removes them. What that cannot undo is anything already sent to Google to have a reflection written; that is covered by Google's terms rather than ours, as described above. And because the usage analytics are not tied to a person, there is no way for us to trace them back to one individual even if asked.

Your rights

Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct, export or delete personal information a company holds about you. In practice, for Mind Terrarium:

• Access and export — your journal is already on your device, in the app.
• Deletion — delete entries in the app, or uninstall it.
• Analytics — the identifier Firebase assigns is generated fresh when you install the app; uninstalling it stops collection and retires that identifier for good.

If you need something we can only do on our side, write to us at the address below.

This website

This site is served by Firebase Hosting, which keeps standard server request logs. There are no cookies, no analytics scripts and no trackers on these pages, and the typeface is served from this domain rather than a font CDN.

Changes to this policy

If the app starts doing something materially different with your information, this page will be updated and the date at the top will change. Significant changes will also be called out in the app.

Contact

Mind Terrarium is made by Will Sutherland, an independent developer based in Canada, publishing under the name Chilly Dawg Studios. Questions about this policy or about your data can go to support@mind-terrarium.com.