Privacy Policy

Journalcast ("we," "our," or "us") provides guided audio journaling through our mobile application (the "App"). Members can also sign in with the same account on the web at app.journalcast.app (the "Web App"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect and how we use it.

Information We Collect

We may collect:

• Account information (such as your email address)
• If you ask for the app link on our website: your email address, the page you were on, and any campaign details in the page address (see Emails We Send)
• Basic usage data (such as sessions started and completed)
• Device and diagnostic data (such as device type and crash logs)
• If you install the App after seeing one of our ads: install and device data used to measure our advertising (see Measuring Our Ads)

Journalcast does not store or access your handwritten journal entries.

How We Use Information

We use this information to:

• Operate and improve the App
• Understand usage and performance
• Measure which of our ads lead to installs
• Communicate with you for support or important updates
• Send account emails and, unless you opt out, occasional product emails (see Emails We Send)
• Email the app link, new blog posts and occasional notes about Journalcast to people who ask for them on our website

Website and Web App Analytics

This website and the Web App use Google Analytics, in the same way, to count visits and see which pages people read. What it stores depends on where you are. Outside the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google Analytics sets first-party cookies on your device (_ga and _ga_ followed by our measurement ID) containing a random identifier, which it uses to count visits and sessions. Google keeps them for two years by default. It collects the pages you view, the page that referred you, your approximate location (derived from your IP address), and your device and browser type. In the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google’s consent mode is set to denied, so it writes no cookie and stores no identifier on your device, and only cookieless measurement pings are sent; because nothing is stored, we cannot tell whether two visits are the same person. For everyone, Google receives your IP address to deliver the measurement and processes it in the United States. We do not use it for advertising, and Google Signals and ad personalization are switched off. The Web App does not tell Google Analytics who you are: it sends no account identifier, email address or name, and it removes sign-in details from the page addresses it reports. To stop the measurement entirely, use Google’s opt-out add-on or any tracker blocker — the site and the Web App work the same either way. This section is about the website and the Web App; the App does not use Google Analytics.

Measuring Our Ads

We advertise Journalcast, including on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. To measure which ads lead to installs, the App uses an attribution provider, Tenjin, and Apple's SKAdNetwork. When you open the App, Tenjin receives that it was installed and opened, plus your device's operating system version, the App version, a random identifier Apple assigns to all of our apps on your device (the identifier for vendors) and your IP address, which any internet request carries. As you use the App, we also send a coarse signal, a single number from Apple's privacy-preserving system, when you complete your first session, start a free trial or subscribe. Tenjin and the ad network can also receive Apple's own install report for the ad. Our subscription provider, RevenueCat, also shares your subscription events with Tenjin, such as starting a free trial, subscribing or renewing, together with a random identifier Tenjin assigns to the App on your device, so that we can see which ads lead to subscriptions.

We use this only to measure our advertising: which ads lead to installs, and which of those people go on to try Journalcast. We never send Tenjin anything you write or any journal content, your name, your email address or your account details. In the App, we do not ask for permission to track you across other companies' apps and websites, your device's advertising identifier is not available to us, because we never ask for that permission, and we do not use this data to build advertising profiles. Tenjin's own privacy policy is at tenjin.com/privacy. You can ask us to delete the data we hold about you, or to stop this measurement for your device, by contacting us at support@darndest.co.

The Meta Pixel on Our Website

For visitors in the United States, our website (journalcast.app) uses the Meta Pixel, a script from Meta Platforms, to measure and improve our ads on Facebook and Instagram. It reports two things: that a page was viewed, and that someone asked for the free month on our free-month page. Meta receives the usual technical data that any request carries, such as your IP address, your browser and device type, the page you are on, and the identifiers in cookies it sets, such as _fbp. Meta may use that data under its own policies, including to match visits to its users and to measure and improve ads. It is the same for you whether or not you have a Facebook or Instagram account.

We do not send Meta your email address, the offer code, or any other personal details, and nothing about what you write or record. The pixel is switched off for visitors outside the United States, and the App does not use it. The Web App does not use it either.

We honor Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as your request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, including California’s “do not sell or share” right, and we do not load the pixel for you. You can also stop it by using a tracker blocker or blocking cookies in your browser, and you can manage how Meta uses data for ads in your Meta ad preferences and ad settings at facebook.com/adpreferences. Meta’s own policy is at facebook.com/privacy/policy.

Cookies Needed to Sign In

When you sign in to the Web App, it sets strictly necessary first-party cookies (their names begin with “sb-”) that hold your sign-in session so you stay signed in. They are set when you sign in, or when you start signing in with Apple or Google (a temporary one covers that step and is removed when it completes), removed when you sign out, and otherwise expire after at most 400 days. We use them for nothing else: not for analytics and not for advertising. The Web App cannot work without them, so they are set wherever you are and are separate from the analytics settings above. The website itself does not sign you in and sets no sign-in cookies.

Protecting Sign-In From Abuse

To stop automated attempts to guess passwords, the Web App counts sign-in attempts in a rate-limiting store run for us by our service provider Upstash. It keys those counts on your IP address (for an IPv6 address, its network prefix), and on a one-way hash of the email address being signed in to and of your sign-in session token, never on the email address or token itself. Each count is kept only for the length of the limiting window, at most ten minutes, and is used for nothing else.

Emails We Send

We send account emails, such as sign-in codes and password resets, through our service provider Resend. Account emails are always sent, because you need them to use your account.

We also send members a few other emails through our service provider Loops, from a journalcast.app address or a subdomain of it such as mail.journalcast.app: a short welcome series in your first week (a welcome note, a nudge to finish your first session, and a reminder before a free trial renews), and occasional product emails, such as news of a new series or an offer of a free session or series if you haven't listened in a while.

We personalise these emails only from your account and usage data: your first name if we have it, the sessions you've listened to, your trial or renewal date, and your subscription status, which comes from our subscription provider RevenueCat. We never use anything you write. Your journaling stays private: journal content is never used to write, choose or time an email.

Every email other than an account email has a one-tap unsubscribe link. You can also opt out by contacting us at support@darndest.co. We stop within a reasonable time, and no later than 10 business days. Opting out never affects account emails, which are always sent.

If you use Apple's Hide My Email, we email you only through Apple's relay address, never any other address. You can turn off forwarding from that address at any time in your Apple ID settings; that stops all our emails to you, account emails included.

Product emails to members rely on our legitimate interest in telling customers about our own similar service, with an easy opt-out, and we send them only where the law permits it.

Account emails contain no tracking: no tracking pixel and no tracked links. Product emails include a small invisible image (a tracking pixel). When your mail app loads it, Loops records that the email was opened, when, and the IP address and mail app that loaded it, and links in product emails pass through Loops so a click can be recorded. We record whether product emails are opened and which links are clicked, to measure whether the emails help. None of this is ever linked to journal content, and we do not use it for advertising. Some mail apps, including Apple Mail with Mail Privacy Protection, load images automatically or through a proxy, so an open may be recorded even if you didn't read the email. To stop open tracking, turn off remote images in your mail app; the emails work the same either way.

You do not need an account to get the app link or to read the blog. If you leave your email address on our website to be sent the link to download Journalcast and to get new blog posts by email, we collect that address, the page of our website you were on when you submitted it (for example the home page, the download page, or a particular series or session), and any campaign details in that page's address (the source, medium and campaign of the link you followed, known as UTM parameters). We use them to email you the link, new posts from our blog, and occasional short notes about Journalcast, and to see which pages and campaigns lead people to download the app. We do not use them for anything else, and we do not collect them from anyone who does not submit the form.

These emails are sent through our service provider Loops, which stores your email address and those details for us and sends the emails. Loops may record whether an email is opened and which links are clicked, which we use to see whether the emails help. The emails are sent because you asked for them, on the basis of your consent; the form says so when you submit it. If you later become a member, the emails that push the app link stop; the posts keep coming until you unsubscribe.

If you ask for a free month on our free-month page, we also collect your email address there, and we email you a single-use Apple offer code for it. To give each person one code, and to send the same code again if you ask twice, we store a one-way fingerprint of your address (a SHA-256 hash, not the address itself) next to the code we assigned, with the date. The code is redeemed in the App Store under Apple's terms, and we do not learn from Apple who redeemed it. The email with your code is sent through Loops. Asking for a code also puts your address on the same email list as above, which you confirm by ticking a box on the form. The page's offer terms are at journalcast.app/free-month/terms.

You can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link in any of these emails. You can also ask us to delete your address and the details stored with it by contacting us at support@darndest.co, and we will delete them within a reasonable time, and no later than 10 business days. Unsubscribing stops the emails; if you submit the form again later, we will not re-subscribe an address that has unsubscribed.

Refund Requests

If you ask Apple for a refund of a Journalcast purchase, Apple asks us for information to help it decide your request. Our subscription provider, RevenueCat, answers on our behalf and sends Apple a short summary of how you have used Journalcast. We share this only when you request a refund from Apple, and only so that Apple can assess that request.

That summary can include:

• Whether, and to what extent, you have used what you purchased, and how long you have used the App
• How long you have had your account
• The total you have spent on Journalcast purchases and the total refunded to you, each as a range that Apple defines rather than an exact amount
• Your platform, whether your account is active, and whether the purchase was delivered
• Whether we would prefer that the refund be granted or declined. Apple makes the final decision.

We never send Apple your journal content, anything you write, or any audio, and we send nothing about what you wrote or recorded. If you do not request a refund from Apple, none of this is sent.

By using the App and making in-app purchases, you consent to our sharing this information about your usage and consumption of purchased content with Apple when resolving a refund request, as needed to help Apple make an informed refund decision and in accordance with Apple's policies.

Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal information for money. For visitors in the United States, the Meta Pixel on our website (see The Meta Pixel on Our Website) can count as “sharing” for advertising under some state laws, and we turn it off when your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal.

We may share limited data with service providers (such as analytics and ad-measurement tools) or if required by law.

Data Retention

We keep data only as long as necessary to operate the App. You can request deletion at any time.

Your Rights

You may request access to or deletion of your data by contacting us at: support@darndest.co

Children's Privacy

Journalcast is not intended for children under 13.

Changes

We may update this policy. Continued use of the App means you accept any updates.

Contact

Journalcast — support@darndest.co