Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 2026 · Policy version 2026-07

This Privacy Policy explains how Welnova (the “App”), operated by Gokmen Akar (“we”, “us”, or “our”), collects, uses, protects, and shares your information. Welnova is a personal wellness app for tracking mood, nutrition, hydration, menstrual cycle, breathing, journaling, and meditation. We built it to keep you in control of your own data — and to keep the most sensitive parts of it on your phone, where only you can see them.

By using the App you agree to this Policy. If you do not agree, please don’t use the App.

What we collect

We only collect what the App needs to work for you. Here’s every category, and what’s in it.

Account and profile

Your email address, and the name and avatar you choose. You can sign in with an email and password or with Sign in with Apple — if you use Sign in with Apple and hide your email, we only ever receive Apple’s private relay address. That is the whole profile: a first and last name, and the avatar emoji you pick. We never ask for your height, weight, or date of birth.

Wellness entries you create

Mood check-ins (how you feel, your energy, the feelings and causes you tag, and any notes), food and nutrition logs with their macros, water intake, journal entries (your free text), and breathing and meditation sessions.

Menstrual cycle entries

Your cycle and symptom entries, if you use that feature. These stay on your device — see Where your data lives below.

Apple Health data

With your explicit permission, Welnova reads certain metrics from Apple Health — steps, sleep, resting heart rate, heart-rate variability (HRV), exercise minutes, and active energy — and builds wellness scores from them (for example Recovery, Sleep Consistency, and Wellness). All of this stays on your device and is never uploaded to us. You can revoke Health access any time in iOS Settings > Health > Data Access & Devices.

Meal photos (only if you use AI meal scan)

When you scan a meal, the photo is sent for nutrition analysis. See AI features below for exactly what happens to it.

Subscription status

Whether you have Welnova Premium, so we can unlock the right features. Payment itself is handled by Apple — we never see your card details.

When you turn a data-processing permission on or off, we keep a dated record of that choice as proof of what you agreed to.

Diagnostics and usage

We use Google Firebase for two things, handled differently. Crash reports are anonymous, carry no health values, and are sent whether or not you opt in, so we can keep the App stable. Usage analytics are optional and off by default — only if you opt in do we collect coarse, anonymized usage patterns to understand how the App is used. Neither ever contains your actual health values, and you can change your analytics choice any time in Settings.

Guest mode

You can use Welnova as a guest with no account. In guest mode your data stays on your device. If you later create an account, you can claim that local data into it so nothing is lost.

Where your data lives

We split your data by how sensitive it is.

On your device only — it never reaches our servers:

All Apple Health metrics (steps, sleep, heart rate, HRV, exercise, calories) and every score we derive from them (Recovery, Sleep Consistency, Wellness).
Your menstrual cycle and symptom entries.

Earlier versions of Welnova briefly stored cycle data on our servers. We’ve stopped doing that and moved the feature fully on-device. The App no longer reads or writes those old server copies, and we’re working to erase them.

On our servers — hosted with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Singapore, with sign-in handled by Amazon Cognito — so they sync across your devices: your account and profile, mood check-ins, food and water logs, journal entries, breathing and meditation sessions, subscription status, and consent records. This data is sent over encrypted connections and stored on secured infrastructure. No method of storage or transmission is ever completely secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect your information. Because our servers are in Singapore, your data is processed there; where the law requires transfer safeguards, we are putting standard contractual clauses in place for that transfer.

With a small number of trusted providers, each handling only what its service needs:

Apple — Sign in with Apple, Apple Health (on-device), and App Store subscription billing.
OpenAI — analyzes the meal photos you choose to scan (see AI features).
Google Firebase — anonymous crash reporting (always on, no health values) and optional, opt-in usage analytics.
Pixabay — supplies stock imagery in the App; it receives no data about you.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

You control how your data is used through clear switches in Settings > Data & Privacy. Each is off until you turn it on, the App works without any of them, and turning one off stops that processing going forward.

Health data processing — lets Welnova use your Apple Health metrics (which stay on your device) to personalize your wellness and build your scores.
AI wellness insights — lets Welnova turn your own logs into gentle, on-device pattern insights (see AI features).
AI meal photo analysis — lets Welnova send a meal photo to our AI provider to estimate its nutrition.
Share usage data — the separate, opt-in analytics choice described above. (Anonymous crash reporting is always on and is not covered by this switch.)

To withdraw any of these, flip the switch off in Settings. Withdrawal takes effect going forward — it stops the future processing that permission covered. It doesn’t retroactively unwind analysis that already happened, and we keep a record of the consent choice itself as proof. You can also delete your account entirely at any time (see Deleting your data).

AI features

Meal photo analysis. If you use AI meal scan, the photo you capture is sent to our backend and to our AI provider, OpenAI (model gpt-4o), which uses it only to analyze the meal and return nutrition results. We don’t use your photos to build advertising profiles, and we don’t sell them.

Wellness insights. Welnova’s Insights feature notices gentle patterns in your own data — for example, how your recovery score tends to trend on nights you sleep less. These insights are computed entirely on your device from data you’ve logged. Every insight is clearly presented as app-generated and is for general wellbeing only — it is not a diagnosis, not a measurement, and not medical advice.

How long we keep your data

While your account is active, we keep the wellness data you’ve stored with us so it’s there across your devices. Beyond that, our posture is to hold less over time:

Free tier: raw logs (like individual mood, food, water, and journal entries) older than 90 days are permanently deleted from our servers, typically within about 48 hours — not just hidden. Summary artifacts such as streaks and milestones may be kept so your history and progress stay intact.
Premium: your full log history is kept for as long as your subscription and account remain active.
Consent records are kept as long as we need them to prove what you agreed to and when.

Deleting your data

You can permanently delete your account and its data from inside the App at any time (Settings > Account > Delete Account). This cascades across our servers and erases your profile, your synced entries, and your sign-in credentials. Cycle data and Apple Health data live only on your device, so they’re removed when you delete them there or remove the App. We keep consent records as proof of consent, and we may retain limited information where the law requires it.

Your rights, by region

Wherever you are, you can reach us at support@welnova.app and we’ll help. Depending on where you live, you may also have specific rights:

European Union & United Kingdom (GDPR / UK GDPR): access your data; correct it; have it erased; restrict or object to processing; get a portable copy; and withdraw consent at any time. You can also complain to your local data protection authority (the ICO in the UK). We rely on your explicit consent to process health-related data.
Türkiye (KVKK): learn whether we process your data and request information about it, ask us to correct or delete it, object to certain processing, and apply to us and then to the Personal Data Protection Board.
United States, including Washington’s My Health My Data Act: know what consumer health data we collect and how it’s used, access it, ask us to delete it, and withdraw your consent to collect or share it. We do not sell your data.
Gulf (UAE & Saudi PDPL): access your data, ask us to correct or delete it, withdraw consent, and object to processing.

To exercise any of these, email support@welnova.app. We may need to verify your identity before acting.

Children

Welnova isn’t directed to children under 13 (or a higher minimum age where you live, such as 16 in parts of the EU), and we don’t knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has given us data, contact us and we’ll delete it.

Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. We’ll update the “Last updated” date and policy version above and, for significant changes, give notice in the App. Where a change materially affects how we use health-related data, we’ll ask for your consent again rather than assume it.

Contact us

Questions about this Policy or your data? Email us at support@welnova.app.