Smart Rant privacy

The short version

Your archive is private to your account. Nothing is social or public.
We don't show ads, and we never sell your recordings, transcripts or anything derived from them.
Burn recordings are never uploaded and never kept. Private moments are always kept out of patterns, recurring subjects, insights, Ask and resurfacing. Private reaches OpenAI only for transcription, and only when you separately allow Private transcription.
Nothing is uploaded or sent for transcription until you turn on cloud processing. Normal recordings are then processed by OpenAI for transcription and analysis; OpenAI does not train on API data by default.
You can remove cloud audio, turn cloud processing off, export everything, or delete your account.
We don't use session replay, and our analytics never include what you said.

What we store

Recordings

When you finish a Normal or Private recording, it is saved on your device first (on iPhone, or in your browser when you record on the web). Only after you have turned on cloud processing is the audio file uploaded to private object storage under your account, never a public bucket. A Private recording is uploaded only if you allow Private transcription or keep a synced audio backup; with both off it stays on your device. Uploads and playback use short-lived signed links scoped to your account, no other account can reach your files, and the service checks the size and type of every upload. You can remove the cloud audio for any moment while keeping its transcript.

Transcripts and derived information

We store the transcript of each uploaded moment in versions: the original machine transcript, any corrections you make (which create a new version rather than erasing the old one), and a readable view with punctuation and paragraphs added. We also store information derived from it: a title and short preview, labels such as tone, people and topics you mention, recurring subjects that connect related moments, and the modules, Ask answers and Relive stories built from your history. That derived information comes only from Normal moments: a Private moment keeps just its transcript as heard (and any corrections you make), with no readable view, generated title, tone or other model output. We treat derived information as your data, just like the recording itself.

Support messages

If you use the Help & feedback form, we receive the email address, category and message you submit so we can respond and improve the product. Please do not paste recordings or transcripts into support. The public website is hosted by Vercel. Support form submissions are delivered to Netlify Forms, which processes the form fields and ordinary anti-abuse information needed to accept the message.

Account and settings

We store an internal account identifier linked to your sign-in, your time zone, preferences (including when you allowed cloud processing), subscription status and monthly usage counts. Your email address and sign-in method (for example Sign in with Apple, Google or an email code) are held by our authentication provider, Clerk, and read when you open Account. Clerk also processes the technical session and security information needed to authenticate and protect accounts, such as IP address, device or browser characteristics and approximate location derived from IP address.

Who processes your content

OpenAI

Only after you turn on cloud processing, and to transcribe Normal recordings and analyze your history (for example connecting recurring subjects, composing You modules and answering Ask questions), the relevant audio or text is sent to the OpenAI API. Private moments reach OpenAI only for transcription, and only when you separately allow Private transcription: their audio is sent to be transcribed, and nothing else is ever sent or done with a Private moment's words. A Private transcript made on your iPhone is never sent to OpenAI. We send only what each step needs: a single recording for transcription, a single transcript for labeling, a bounded set of relevant excerpts when answering a question, and the words of a search of two or more words so your Archive can find moments by meaning (searches aren't saved to your account), never your whole archive. Our requests set store: false so responses are not stored for later retrieval, and OpenAI does not use API data to train its models by default. OpenAI may retain API inputs and outputs for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring on text endpoints, as described in OpenAI's API data usage policies.

Infrastructure

Your archive database runs on Neon Postgres in the United States (AWS US East). Audio and exports are kept in Neon's private object storage in the same region, never in a public bucket. Sign-in is handled by Clerk, which verifies your identity; our service maps that verified sign-in to an internal account and never trusts an account identifier sent by an app or browser. Subscriptions are purchased directly through Apple's App Store using StoreKit. Our service receives Apple-signed transaction and subscription-status information so it can grant the right access; it never receives your card number or other App Store payment details.

Normal, Private and Burn

Normal moments are uploaded, transcribed and can become evidence for recurring subjects, You modules, Ask answers and Relive stories.
Private moments are excluded from semantic indexing, recurring subjects, people, patterns, related moments, You modules, Ask, Relive and resurfacing. Without Private transcription their words stay on your device, and their audio syncs only as a backup (for storage and playback) when you keep a synced audio backup. With Private transcription on, OpenAI transcribes them and nothing more. Switching a moment to Private removes it from intelligence right away; processing that already happened while it was Normal isn't undone.
Burn recordings never reach our servers or OpenAI. They are not added to your archive and are not used for your history.

Your controls

Cloud processing. Off until you allow it. While it's off, new recordings are not uploaded or sent for transcription or analysis, and features that depend on it pause.
Private transcription. Off until you allow it separately. Turning it off stops new Private transcription; transcripts already made stay until you delete those moments.
Synced audio backup. Decides whether we keep the original audio after processing. With it off, audio is still uploaded when cloud processing needs it, then removed once it's transcribed, or as soon as it can't be (for example when your monthly transcription minutes are used up, or after a failed transcription). Audio kept earlier stays until you remove it from a moment, which you can do anytime.
Delete a moment. Deleting a moment removes its audio, transcript and every module, answer or story that cited it.
Export. Request a JSON export of your data from Account. When it's ready you get a private, time-limited download link.
Delete your account. Deleting your account signs you out and starts a cleanup process that removes your recordings, transcripts, derived data, exports and sign-in account. The process is retried until it completes. Copies held by processors, such as OpenAI's abuse-monitoring retention described above, expire on their own schedules.

Your privacy choices

These controls are available to every Smart Rant account regardless of where you live. You can turn cloud processing off, keep Private moments out of intelligence, remove cloud audio, export your account data, delete individual moments, or permanently delete your account from Account/Settings. If a law where you live gives you additional access, correction, deletion, portability or objection rights, contact us and we will handle the request under that law.

Analytics, logs and cookies

Signed-in Smart Rant product analytics are content-free: event names such as “recording completed”, “screen viewed” or “audio played” with coarse properties such as the product surface or a duration range. They never include transcripts, audio, search words, Ask questions or answers, names, subject labels, email addresses or other journal content. These first-party events are stored with your Smart Rant account, deleted with it, and never used for advertising.

Public marketing pages do not currently load a third-party analytics script. There is no session replay and Smart Rant does not use advertising or cross-site tracking.

Operational logs record identifiers, timing and error categories rather than what you said. One exception: words sent in a URL-based search request may appear in short-lived infrastructure request logs; they are not written to the analytics system. The website also uses cookies or local storage needed for authentication and your chosen public light/dark appearance.

Notifications and email

Smart Rant notifications are off by default and are requested only when you explicitly enable Moment-ready alerts in Settings. These are local, content-safe reminders: lock-screen text never includes your recording, transcript, people, topics, Ask questions, or inferred insights. Turning them off removes pending Smart Rant reminders. We do not use notifications for advertising at launch.

Smart Rant does not run a marketing or lifecycle-email program at launch. Email is used only for account authentication and, when you contact support, to reply to the address you provide. Support messages are kept only as long as reasonably needed to respond, operate and improve the service, resolve disputes, prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit. Every request is checked against your verified sign-in, database access is restricted to your own rows, audio storage is private and scoped to your account, and server credentials never ship to the app or website. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting your data we will notify you as required by law.

Not a medical service

Smart Rant is not therapy and does not diagnose anything. Observations describe what you said in your recordings.

Changes and contact

If we materially change how your content is handled, we'll update this page and tell you in the app before the change applies. See also the Terms.

Need help or want to send feedback? Contact Smart Rant.