Kara Tarot Privacy Policy

Effective date: 14 October 2026
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Version française : karatarot.com/fr/privacy

This policy explains how the Kara Tarot app for iPhone and its Home Screen widget (together, the "app") handle personal information. It covers what we process and why, who receives it, how long it is kept, and what choices and rights you have. Our Terms of Use are at karatarot.com/terms.

1. Privacy at a glance

• No sign-up. You never give us a name, email address or phone number to use the app. The app uses a random anonymous ID instead.
• Your readings stay with you. Your questions, readings, journal and saved audio are stored on your iPhone and, if you turn on iCloud sync, in your own private iCloud. We can't see them.
• Personal readings use AI, only with your permission. When you ask for a personal reading, the app sends your question, the topic you chose and the cards you drew through our server to Anthropic (Claude), the AI writing service, which writes the interpretation. When you play a reading in Kara's voice, the interpretation text goes through our server to ElevenLabs, the AI voice service, which creates the audio. This happens only after you agree on a consent screen. Our server does not keep your question, your reading or the audio.
• No ads, no tracking, no selling. We don't show ads or use Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA). We don't track you across other companies' apps or websites, and we don't sell your personal information or share it for advertising.
• You're in control. You can withdraw your consent to AI processing, turn off analytics and crash reports, and use Delete my data in the app at any time.

2. Who is responsible for your information

Kara Tarot is developed and operated by Yaroslav Salimov, an individual developer based in Ukraine ("we", "us", "our"). We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy. That means we decide why and how it is processed.

• Email: support@karatarot.com

Privacy Officer. Yaroslav Salimov is responsible for our compliance with privacy laws. This includes acting as the "person in charge of the protection of personal information" under Quebec law. Contact: Privacy Officer, support@karatarot.com.

Apple, Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Google and Cloudflare are separate companies. Section 6 explains what each of them receives and links to their privacy policies.

3. What we process, how we get it, and why

3.1 Your readings, journal and audio: on your device and in your iCloud

As you use the app, it saves the following on your iPhone:

• the questions you ask, the topics you choose and the cards you draw;
• interpretations, journal entries and notes;
• audio of your voiced readings;
• journal statistics (Premium), such as your most frequent cards; these are calculated on your device;
• your settings, such as reversed cards and your reminder time.

If you turn on iCloud sync, the app also stores this data in your private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit), under your iCloud account and Apple's terms. As the developer, we cannot access your private iCloud data. You can turn iCloud sync on or off in Settings › Privacy in the app.

We don't receive any of this data, except what is sent when you ask for a personal or voiced reading (sections 3.2 and 3.3).

Please note: if iCloud sync is off and you lose your iPhone or delete the app, this data cannot be recovered. We don't have a copy.

3.2 Personal readings written by AI

You can ask for a personal reading after you agree on the AI consent screen. This includes your one free gift reading. The app then sends our server:

• the text of your question;
• the topic you chose;
• the spread and the cards you drew, with their positions and whether they are reversed;
• your anonymous ID and an App Check token (see section 3.5);
• for your gift reading only, a DeviceCheck token (see section 3.5).

Our server first checks that the request comes from the genuine app. It also checks that you have Premium or an unused gift reading, and that you haven't reached your daily limit. It then sends your question, topic, spread and cards to Anthropic's Claude API, which writes the interpretation.

Our server adds a digital signature to the interpretation. Later, when you ask for the voiced version, the signature lets us confirm that the text came from our service. The server then sends the interpretation to the app and updates your usage counter.

• Our server handles your question and the interpretation only in memory, to complete the request, and does not store them.
• Our server logs never include the text of your question or interpretation.
• Anthropic receives the request from our server, not from your device, so it doesn't get your IP address or device identifiers. We don't send it your anonymous ID or any other identifier either.

Please leave out names, contact details and other information that could identify you or other people. If your question contains sensitive information, such as details about your health, relationships or beliefs, it is processed as described here and only to create your reading.

Safety check. If your question shows signs that you may be in crisis, the app shows a supportive message with crisis resources instead of a reading. Signs of crisis include thoughts of suicide or self-harm. The AI model makes this check as part of the same request: when it finds such signs, it returns no reading, and the app shows the support message. The app doesn't save the question in your journal, and the reading isn't counted. Our server logs note only that a support message was shown, without your question, and are deleted after 30 days. We don't use this for anything else.

3.3 Kara's voice for your reading

When you tap to hear a personal reading in Kara's voice, the app sends our server the signed interpretation text and your anonymous ID. Our server:

1. checks the signature and your voiced-reading allowance;
2. sends the interpretation text to ElevenLabs, which generates the audio;
3. deletes that generation from our ElevenLabs history, usually within a few seconds and before the audio reaches you;
4. sends the audio to the app without storing it.

The app saves the audio on your iPhone, and in your iCloud if sync is on. We don't store any audio on our servers. ElevenLabs receives the text from our server, not from your device, and receives no identifier for you. Your interpretation may refer to what you asked about.

3.4 Your anonymous ID, Premium status and allowances

We use Firebase Authentication (Google) to give your installation of the app a random anonymous ID. We never ask for your name, email or phone number. Our database (Google Cloud Firestore) keeps the following, linked to that ID:

• your Premium status and its expiry date;
• identifiers of your App Store purchases: your subscription's original transaction ID and the transaction IDs of any packs you bought. The app sends us each purchase as Apple signed it, and Apple notifies our server about renewals, cancellations and refunds (section 3.6). We check Apple's signature, keep only these identifiers and their dates, and don't store the rest of the record, such as the price or the App Store country. This keeps your allowance tied to your Apple subscription, even if you reinstall the app, and makes sure each pack is counted once.
• counters, such as personal readings used today, voiced readings used and left in your current billing period, and the balance of any voiced-reading packs you bought;
• technical timestamps, for example when a counter was last updated.

3.5 Keeping the service secure and preventing abuse

• App Attest and App Check. Every request to our server includes a token from Firebase App Check (Google). App Check uses Apple's App Attest to confirm that the request comes from a genuine copy of Kara Tarot on a genuine Apple device. App Attest relies on a cryptographic key created on your device. It doesn't give us a device identifier. According to Google, App Check doesn't keep the attestation data. It keeps tokens no longer than they are valid (up to 7 days), or up to 30 days when replay protection is used.
• One gift reading per device. We use Apple's DeviceCheck to make sure each iPhone gets the free gift reading only once. DeviceCheck lets us store two bits of information per device, which Apple keeps for our developer account. We use them to record that the gift reading has been used. We don't receive a device identifier, and we don't link this record to your anonymous ID. The record stays after you reinstall the app or use Delete my data. That is how the once-per-device rule works.
• Rate limits and logs. Our server limits how often requests can be made. It also keeps technical logs, for example the time and type of each request, the result or error code, your anonymous ID and IP address. Logs never contain the text of your questions or readings, and they are deleted after 30 days.

3.6 Purchases and subscriptions

Apple processes all purchases through the App Store. Apple handles your payment details. We never receive your name, Apple Account email, card number or billing address.

When you buy Premium or a pack of voiced readings, the app sends our server the purchase as Apple signed it. Apple also sends our server notifications (App Store Server Notifications) when your subscription starts, renews, changes, ends or is refunded. We use them to keep your Premium status and allowances up to date, and we keep only what section 3.4 lists. In App Store Connect, Apple shows us sales and subscription reports that don't identify you.

3.7 Analytics and crash reports

We use Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics to understand how the app is used and to fix problems.

• Analytics collects:

  • usage events, for example app opens, screens viewed and features used, such as starting a reading or playing audio;
  • events recorded automatically, such as first launch, session start, app and system updates, and in-app purchases with the product, price, currency and whether it was a trial;
  • device and app details, such as device model, iOS version, app version and language;
  • your approximate country or region, worked out from your IP address;
  • a random app-instance ID that Firebase creates for your installation of the app. We have turned off the collection of Apple's identifier for vendor (IDFV), so Analytics doesn't collect a device identifier.
• Crashlytics collects crash reports: the technical trace of the error, the state of the device at the time (such as model, iOS version, free memory and disk space), the app version and installation identifiers.

We never send the text of your questions, interpretations, journal entries or audio to Analytics or Crashlytics. We don't use Analytics for advertising:

• the app doesn't access the IDFA;
• we don't link Analytics to Google advertising products;
• Google signals and ad personalization are turned off.

We look at this data in aggregate to improve the app. We don't use it to make decisions about you or to build a profile of you.

Your choice. Analytics and crash reports start switched on, except on iPhones whose region is set to Canada, where they start switched off. You can turn them off at any time with Share analytics & crash reports in Settings › Privacy. When this is off, the app stops sending analytics events and crash reports. Data that was already sent is deleted on the schedule in section 8.

3.8 Morning reminders

If you have Premium and allow notifications, the app schedules your morning reminder on your iPhone as a local notification. Your reminder time stays on your device. We don't collect push notification tokens, and no notification data is sent to us. If your Premium ends, reminders are switched off.

3.9 Sharing a reading

When you share a reading card, for example to Instagram Stories or TikTok, the app creates an image on your device. It then opens the iOS share sheet, and you choose where to send the image. We don't receive the image or what you share. Analytics may record that a share happened, but never its content. The app or service you share to handles the image under its own privacy policy.

3.10 When you contact us

If you email us, we receive your email address, your message and anything you choose to include. We use this to reply to you and to keep records of support requests. Please don't send us your questions or readings unless you need to.

3.11 Asking your question by voice

You can type your question or say it aloud. If you use your voice, iOS first asks your permission to use the microphone and speech recognition. The microphone is used only while you are speaking. Apple's speech recognition turns your speech into text on your iPhone. The audio isn't sent to Apple or to us, and the app doesn't save it. We receive only the resulting text, and only when you ask for a personal reading (section 3.2).

3.12 Our website

Our website, karatarot.com, only hosts this policy, our Terms of Use and support information. It doesn't use cookies, analytics or content from other websites. Our hosting provider, Google Firebase Hosting, processes your IP address to deliver the pages. Cloudflare provides the website's domain name service and forwards emails sent to our support address.

3.13 What we don't collect

We don't collect:

• your name, email address, phone number or postal address (unless you email us);
• your GPS or other precise location;
• recordings of your voice;
• your contacts, photos or Health data;
• Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA).

We don't use App Tracking Transparency because we don't track you. We don't buy data about you from other companies.

4. Legal bases for processing

Some privacy laws, including the law of Ukraine, where we are based, require a "legal basis" for each use of personal information. Ours are:

Canada. We rely on your consent:

• your express consent for personal readings, given on the AI consent screen;
• your implied consent for the other processing in this policy that is needed to provide and secure the app;
• your express consent for analytics and crash reports: on iPhones set to the Canada region they stay off until you turn them on, and you can turn them off again at any time (section 9).

You can withdraw consent at any time (section 9), subject to legal or contractual restrictions. If you do, some features may stop working.

5. AI, automated processing and the safety check

• An AI model (Claude, made by Anthropic) writes your personal interpretation automatically, based on your question, topic and cards. No person reviews your question or interpretation before you see it, and we can't see them afterwards.
• Kara is a fictional character. Her voice is synthetic and is generated by ElevenLabs. It is not the voice of a real person reading your cards.
• The safety check in section 3.2 is automated. Its only effect is to show you crisis resources instead of a reading. It doesn't create a profile or affect your account, and we don't use it for anything else. If you think it was triggered by mistake, you can rephrase your question or contact us. You can also tell us your view of the result, and a person will look at it.
• We don't make any decision about you based solely on automated processing that has legal or similarly significant effects on you.

6. Who receives your information

We share personal information only with the providers below, and only as this policy describes. These providers process it on our behalf as service providers ("processors") under data processing terms. Those terms require them to protect the information and to use it only to provide their services to us. We share data only with providers that give it the same or equal protection as this policy. Apple provides the App Store and iCloud to you under your own agreement with Apple.

AI training.

• Under Anthropic's commercial terms, Anthropic may not use the content we send to train its models.
• In our ElevenLabs account, we have turned off the setting that lets ElevenLabs use our content to improve its models. Under this setting and ElevenLabs' terms, ElevenLabs doesn't use the text we send to train its models.
• We don't use your content to train AI models either.

Other disclosures. We may also disclose personal information:

• if the law requires it, for example in response to a valid court order;
• to protect the rights, safety and security of our users, the public or us;
• to a buyer or successor if the app is sold or transferred. If that happens, we will tell you, and the new owner will have to honor this policy.

We don't sell personal information. We also don't share it for cross-context behavioral advertising (targeted advertising).

7. International transfers

Our providers store and process personal information mainly in the United States. Anthropic processes your questions only in the United States, because we set our requests to US-only processing. Google Analytics and Crashlytics are global services, so they may also process data in other countries.

We are based in Ukraine and open our service dashboards (Firebase, Google Cloud and App Store Connect) from there. Those dashboards show anonymous IDs, counters, purchase records, crash reports and aggregated statistics, never your questions or readings.

This means your information is processed outside your province or state, outside Canada and outside Quebec. While it is in another country, it is subject to that country's laws. Courts, law enforcement and national security authorities there may be able to access it. We protect it through contracts with our providers.

8. How long we keep information

We may keep information longer only if we need it to comply with the law, resolve a dispute or enforce our Terms.

9. Your choices and controls in the app

• Withdraw your AI consent. Turn off AI personal readings in Settings › Privacy. We will then stop sending your questions to Anthropic and readings to ElevenLabs. New personal and voiced readings won't be available until you turn it back on. Data already sent is handled as described in section 8.

• Delete my data (Settings › Privacy › Delete my data). This permanently deletes:

  • the app's data on this iPhone;
  • the app's data in your iCloud, which also removes it from your other devices that use the same iCloud account;
  • your anonymous ID on our server and its link to your subscription.

  It does not:

  • cancel your subscription. Manage it in Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions.
  • delete your purchase history at Apple;
  • reset this device's gift-reading record;
  • recall data that Anthropic or ElevenLabs keep for the limited periods in section 8;
  • immediately remove analytics and crash data, which expire as described in section 8.

  It also keeps a minimal record linked only to your Apple subscription identifier: your Premium status, voiced readings used in the current billing period and unused pack readings. This way readings you paid for aren't lost, and the monthly allowance can't be reset by deleting data. The app tells you this before you delete.

• iCloud sync. Turn it on or off in Settings › Privacy. You can also delete the app's iCloud data in iOS Settings › [your name] › iCloud.
• Notifications. Turn reminders on or off in the app or in iOS Settings › Notifications.
• Analytics and crash reports. They start switched on, except on iPhones set to the Canada region, where they start switched off. Turn them off, or back on, at any time with Share analytics & crash reports in Settings › Privacy.

10. Your privacy rights

10.1 For everyone

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy;
• correct it;
• delete it.

You can also withdraw your consent and object to our processing. We will answer free of charge. Most of your data is on your device, where you can see and delete it yourself. We can only find data on our server if you give us your anonymous app ID (section 10.5).

10.2 Canada, including Quebec

• Your rights. Under federal law (PIPEDA) and Quebec's private-sector privacy law, you can:

  • access and correct your personal information;
  • withdraw consent;
  • challenge our compliance with our Privacy Officer.

  We will reply within 30 days. We will tell you in writing if we need an extension the law allows.

• Quebec. You can also:

  • ask for the personal information you gave us in a structured, commonly used technological format (data portability);
  • be told about any decision based solely on automated processing, and give us your view of it (see section 5);
  • be told about any technology that can identify, locate or profile you. Kara Tarot doesn't use location technology. Analytics is described in section 3.7, and you can turn it off (section 9).

• Complaints.

  • Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: priv.gc.ca.
  • In Quebec, the Commission d'accès à l'information: cai.gouv.qc.ca.

Une version française de cette politique est disponible à karatarot.com/fr/privacy.

10.3 United States: notice for US residents

Some US state privacy laws may not apply to an app of our size. We still want you to know the following.

Categories of personal information we collect (as named in the California Consumer Privacy Act):

We don't sell personal information and don't share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we haven't done so in the past 12 months. We don't use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you, and we don't knowingly sell or share the information of anyone under 16.

Your rights. Depending on your state, you may have the right to:

• know about and access your personal information;
• correct it;
• delete it;
• get a portable copy;
• opt out of its sale, of targeted advertising and of profiling. We don't do any of these.

We won't discriminate against you for using your rights. You can use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof that the agent is acting for you. We will answer within the time the law requires, generally 45 days.

Appeals. If we decline your request, you can appeal by replying to our decision with "Appeal" in the subject line. We will answer within 60 days. If you are not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general.

10.4 Ukraine and other places

We are based in Ukraine, so Ukraine's Law on Personal Data Protection also applies to how we handle personal information. Under it, you can:

• know what personal information we process, why, and who receives it;
• access it;
• ask us to correct or delete it;
• object to its processing;
• withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing;
• complain to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (ombudsman.gov.ua) or to a court.

The app is offered only in the United States and Canada. If you use it somewhere else and local privacy law gives you more rights, contact us, and we will honor them where they apply.

10.5 How to make a request

Email support@karatarot.com from any address. Because we don't know who you are, please include your anonymous app ID, which you can copy from Settings › Privacy. It is the only way we can find your data on our server. We won't ask for more information than we need to handle your request.

11. Children

Kara Tarot is only for people aged 18 or older. It is not directed to children or teenagers, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has used the app, contact us at support@karatarot.com with the anonymous app ID if possible, and we will delete the related data on our server. Data on the device can be deleted with Delete my data.

12. Security

We protect personal information with technical and organizational measures that suit its sensitivity. These include:

• encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS);
• API keys stored only on our server, in Google Secret Manager, never in the app;
• App Attest and App Check, so only the genuine app can use our server;
• digitally signed interpretations, so our voice service speaks only text that our service created;
• rate limits and spending alerts;
• separate development and production environments;
• two-factor authentication on our provider accounts, with access limited to us;
• not storing your questions, readings or audio on our server at all.

Apple protects your iCloud data. If you turn on Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, eligible data is end-to-end encrypted.

No system is completely secure. If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify you and the authorities where the law requires.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the app, our providers or the law changes. We will post the new version with a new "Last updated" date. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Where the law requires it, we will ask for your consent again.

14. Contact us

Yaroslav Salimov
Privacy Officer
support@karatarot.com