Psalm — Privacy Policy

What the app sends

Nothing. Psalm makes no network requests. There is no account to create, nothing to sign in to, nothing to sync, and no Norvela server for anything to be sent to. The Bible text, the readings, the search and the dictation all run on your device, which is why the app works the same in airplane mode.

That sentence is about what the app does, and it is written that way deliberately. Psalm is built on the same shared framework as our other apps, and that framework contains networking code for features Psalm does not have. Psalm never calls it, so no request is ever made — but we would rather tell you it is in there than make a claim about the binary that an inspection would contradict.

What the app stores, and where

Everything below is kept on your device, in Psalm's own container — in Apple's SwiftData for the things you make, and in the standard iOS preferences store for your settings. There is no account, no profile and no copy anywhere else.

• Anything you write. Your journal entries, as you typed or dictated them.
• The mood you tapped on a reading, if you tapped one. You never have to.
• Which readings you have marked read — which is what your streak is counted from.
• Your settings: the translation, the prayer pattern, your reminder times, and whether past readings are mixed back in.
• An unfinished note for one of today's readings, so leaving the app mid-sentence does not lose it. It is discarded when the day changes.

That is the whole list. There is no contact list, no location, no photo access, no health data and no advertising identifier, because none of it is asked for and none of it would have anywhere to go.

Dictation

You can talk instead of typing. Psalm uses Apple's Speech framework with requiresOnDeviceRecognition set to true: your voice is turned into text on your device and is not sent to Apple or to anyone else. The recording itself is not kept — it is discarded as you speak, and the note it becomes is yours to keep or delete.

The microphone is on only while you are dictating, and off the moment you stop. Where a language has no on-device model, Psalm hides dictation rather than sending your voice away to be transcribed.

Reminders

The daily reminders are local notifications, scheduled on your device by iOS. Nothing is sent anywhere to schedule one, and nothing is sent when one arrives. There is no push service involved and no token for one.

Reminders are off until you turn them on, and you can turn them off again in Settings at any time.

Deleting what you wrote

A deleted journal entry is not destroyed straight away. It moves to Recently Deleted, where it is kept for 30 days and then removed permanently. That window exists because a note written once and deleted by mistake cannot be written again.

You do not have to wait for it. In Settings → Recently Deleted you can put an entry back, delete a single entry for good, or empty the list in one action.

Removing everything

Settings → Privacy → Delete My Data removes everything you have made: every journal entry, including anything sitting in Recently Deleted, and every record of a reading you marked read. Your settings are left as they are, and the Bible text stays, because it is part of the app rather than something of yours.

Or delete the app. iOS removes its container and everything described on this page goes with it. There is no copy anywhere else, because there is nowhere else.

Analytics, tracking and advertising

No analytics of any kind are collected. There is no usage tracking, no advertising, no advertising identifier, no third-party SDK, and no crash reporter that transmits anything. Psalm does not track you across apps or websites, and nothing about you is sold or shared, because nothing about you is gathered.

There is no analytics switch in Settings either. One was drafted and taken out, because a switch offering to share usage data implies that some is being collected.

If you have Apple's Share iPhone Analytics turned on in iOS Settings, Apple may share crash reports with developers. That is a setting you control, between you and Apple, and you can turn it off at any time.

What the privacy manifest declares

Every app on the App Store ships a privacy manifest, which Apple checks at submission. Psalm's says the same thing this page does, and it is short enough to state in full:

• NSPrivacyTracking is false, and no tracking domains are listed.
• NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypes is empty. No data type is collected.
• Two API reasons are declared, and only two: UserDefaults (CA92.1), for storing your settings, and DiskSpace (E174.1).

The Bible text

Four translations ship inside the app, and all four are in the public domain: the King James Version, the World English Bible (Updated), the American Standard Version and Young's Literal Translation. No permission is needed to read, quote or share any of them.

They are files on your device. Nothing is fetched to read a passage, nothing is reported about which passage you read, and switching translation changes only the words on the page.

Children

Psalm collects nothing from anybody, whatever their age. There is no account, no profile, no messaging, no advertising and no content from other people — so there is nothing about a younger reader for us to hold, and nothing for anyone else to reach.

What we hold about you

Nothing. Norvela LLC has no record of you, because the app never sends one. There is nothing on our side to access, correct, export or erase, and nothing has ever been sold or shared.

Everything the app holds is on your device, where you control it directly: you can read it, export it as a text file from the journal, and delete any of it or all of it. If you would like that stated in writing for your own records, write to us and we will send it.

Changes to this policy

If the app ever starts doing something this page does not describe, this page changes first and the date at the top changes with it. A version of Psalm that sent anything anywhere would be a deliberate product decision, and it would be written here before it shipped.

Contact

Norvela LLC, Alabama, United States. Write to support@norvela.app and a person will answer.