The short version: Sovereign Vault stores your records on your phone. There is no account, no server of ours, and no database we can look at. We do not collect your health information, because the app contains no mechanism by which we could receive it.
The app does use the network, a little. Every connection it makes is listed below, with what it sends and why.
Who we are
Barca Labs, LLC, a limited liability company registered in the State of Kansas, United States. Barca Labs, LLC is the developer and publisher of the mobile application Sovereign Vault ("the app").
For any question about this policy or about your data, contact [email protected].
What the app stores, and where
Sovereign Vault holds three kinds of information: what you enter yourself, what it reads from services you connect it to, and a small amount the app records about its own workings. Nothing else. The complete list:
- A first name, if you give one, so the app can greet you. Nothing else identifies you. There is no account, no email address and no phone number.
- What you take, with doses, units, route, timing and schedule. This may include prescription medication.
- How your protocol has changed over time: what you were taking before, and when it changed.
- Whether you took each dose, skipped it, or took it late, together with any note you write against it.
- Training: what you planned, and what you did.
- Lab results you enter from blood work.
- Body weight and blood pressure, over time.
- Readings the app did not get from you: heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep duration and score, and steps. Where a connected service supplies them, also strain and VO2 max. These come from Apple Health, Health Connect, or a wearable you connect. Note that Apple Health and Health Connect are stores, not devices. What the app reads from them may have come from a watch, a ring, or another app. Weight and blood pressure are never read this way. You enter those yourself.
- Menstrual cycle entries, your own or a partner's. See below.
- Clocks: day counts for things you have stopped. See below.
- Which check-in cards you have been shown, when you dismissed or answered them, and what you answered, including anything you typed. See below.
- A small technical error log. When something goes wrong, it records the type of error and a short description we wrote. It does not record the error's own message. Those messages often contain the exact value that caused the problem, which would put your data in a log. The log never leaves your device, and it is encrypted with everything else.
All of it is written to an encrypted database on your device. None of it is transmitted to us. We operate no server that receives it, and there is no account under which it could be stored.
A few things sit outside that database, in your phone's own secure storage: the Keychain on iOS, and keystore-backed encrypted storage on Android. These are the encryption keys, plus a handful of settings and timestamps. For example, whether biometric unlock is on, whether the vault is set up, and when a prompt was last shown. None of it is health information, and nothing the app stores is unencrypted.
Cycle tracking
The app can track a menstrual cycle on the same timeline as your sleep, training and doses. That way, a week that felt different has some context around it. The cycle can be your own or a partner's, and the two are handled differently.
Your own cycle is recorded and stored like any other entry, and it is included in anything you export.
A partner's cycle means you are recording health information about someone other than yourself. The app deliberately holds as little as it can:
- What is stored: the date their last period started, their average cycle length, their average period length, and any cycle events you log. There is no day-by-day record. Anything that looks like a calendar is worked out on the spot and not saved.
- What is exported: nothing. Not the dates, not the entries, and not even the fact that you track it. An export looks exactly the same whether you track a partner's cycle or not, so nobody you give it to can tell. We thought about adding a note saying the cycle was left out, and decided against it. That note would itself tell a stranger that someone else's reproductive data is on your phone.
- What they have agreed to: nothing, because they have no relationship with us and we hold nothing of theirs. Recording someone else's health information is your decision. It is a decision better made with them than about them. The app says the same thing when you set it up.
- One exception today, being fixed. If you track a partner's cycle, the JSON export currently includes a line saying that cycle was left out. A vault with no cycle tracking has no such line. So for JSON only, the two exports are not yet identical. Markdown and the Brief are not affected. Until the fix reaches everyone, use Markdown or the Brief. This note will come off the page when it does.
Clocks
A Clock counts the days since you stopped something, like alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, sugar or caffeine, or anything you name yourself. You can set a milestone and add a note about what it means to you.
We treat that as sensitive information rather than as a streak counter, because that is what it is. It is encrypted on your device alongside everything else and we never receive it.
How the encryption works
The key that opens the database is made at random on your phone. It is stored only in a locked form, and your PIN is what unlocks it. Biometric unlock, if you turn it on, is a faster way to reach the same key, not a second way in. Supporting key material is held in your phone's secure hardware: the Keychain on iOS, the Keystore on Android. The key never leaves your phone.
We have no copy of any of it. If you lose your phone, we cannot recover your records. If you forget your PIN, we cannot reset it. What you have instead is your recovery code. It opens your vault after a forgotten PIN, and it is the only key to a backup file. This is by design, not an oversight. So save the code somewhere you will still have it in a year, and keep your own copies: a backup, an export, or both.
There is a second and separate reason to keep your own copy. The database engine the app is built on carries a known defect that can, in some circumstances, lose a recently saved entry without warning. There is no fixed version available to us yet. It is described in full on the security page.
The technical details, including the cipher, key derivation and iteration count, are on the security page. Here is what this does and does not protect against:
- Phone backups will not bring your vault back. On iPhone, the vault is left out of iCloud and computer backups. On Android, a Google backup can hold the encrypted vault file, but never a key that opens it. To move to a new phone, use the app's own backup file and your recovery code. Make one before you switch. See the security page.
- An unlocked device in someone else's hands. If a person has your phone and your PIN or biometric, the app will show them your records exactly as it shows you.
- A jailbroken or rooted device. The operating system's secure storage can potentially be defeated where OS protections have been removed.
What we collect
None of your health information, ever. The app has no user accounts and no sign-in. It does not report usage, contains no advertising or analytics software, and there is no server of ours for your records to reach.
One small technical request does leave your phone, and we would rather name it than pretend otherwise. When the app checks for an update, it sends Expo three things: your phone's operating system, our project's ID, and a random token. Expo is the service that delivers our updates. In Expo's own words, none of this is a unique device identifier. The token is not your name or your email, and it is not connected to anything in your vault. Expo does not publish how long they keep it. Their servers are not ours to audit, so we will not guess. The details are below.
On the App Store, Apple's privacy label lists the update check under Identifiers: not linked to you, and not used for tracking. We declare it even though it carries nothing about you or your health, because the token can stay the same between checks. This page and the label say the same thing.
There is one way anything you wrote can reach us, and only if you choose to send it. The app can draft a short check-in message for you to send us from your own phone. It is described below. Unless you send that message, we do not know who you are, that you installed the app, or whether you still use it.
Connections the app makes
Below is every connection Sovereign Vault makes, what it carries, and what it is for.
App updates
Sovereign Vault delivers updates over the air using EAS Update, a service operated by Expo. Each time you open the app, or come back to it, it contacts Expo's servers to ask whether a newer version is available. If one is, the app then downloads the updated application code and any changed assets from Expo's content delivery network.
Expo describes what the request holds: your phone's operating system, our project's ID, and a random token. Its own words are that this includes no unique device identifiers. Like any internet request, Expo's servers can also see the IP address it came from. No health information, and nothing you have entered, is sent at any point in the update process.
This happens automatically and needs nothing from you. Expo's handling is governed by Expo's privacy policy.
Polar sync
If you connect a Polar account, the app signs in to Polar's servers for you and asks for your readings. This is a connection to another company's servers over the internet, not a local read from your phone.
It happens only if you set it up, and only when a sync runs. You can disconnect at any time. Data retrieved from Polar is then stored on your device like any other entry.
The connection runs directly between your device and Polar. There is no server of ours in the middle, and your Polar data does not pass through us at any point. Your relationship with Polar is governed by Polar's privacy notice.
Buying the app
Sovereign Vault is sold as a one-time purchase through the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Payment is handled entirely by Apple and Google. We never see your payment details. The app also talks to Apple's or Google's purchase system to show you the price and to restore your purchase on a new phone. No server of ours is involved.
Apple and Google collect their own information when you buy or download an app. They give us overall sales numbers that cannot identify you. Their handling is governed by Apple's privacy policy and Google's privacy policy.
On your device only
Apple Health and Health Connect
When the app reads from Apple HealthKit (iOS) or Health Connect (Android), it happens on your own phone. Your phone's operating system handles it, and only for the data types you approve. Nothing is sent over the network, and no third party receives it. You can withdraw these permissions at any time in your phone's settings.
What the app reads this way becomes part of your record, alongside what you typed. It shows up in the app, and it is included when you export. See below.
Taking your data out
Export
The app can produce a summary of your record as Markdown, JSON, a short brief or a spreadsheet. You can take it to your own notes, to a doctor, or to an AI you want to ask questions. It covers your whole record, both what you entered and what the app read from connected services. That means what you take, with doses, units, routes and schedules. How your protocol has changed. Your dose history. Lab results, weight and blood pressure. Training plans and sessions. Your Clocks. And readings from Apple Health, Health Connect or a wearable, like HRV, resting heart rate, sleep, steps, strain and VO2 max.
Every reading carries its own date, and a time where it has one. Readings from Apple Health, Health Connect or Polar also say where they came from, so a reader can tell them from numbers you typed. Weight and blood pressure are always marked as entered by you. If a sync has fallen behind, the date shows it.
Cycle entries are included only when the cycle is your own. If you track a partner's cycle, all of it is left out. See above.
There are two ways out, and you start both. Markdown, JSON and the brief are copied to your clipboard for you to paste. The spreadsheet is saved as a file and handed to your share sheet, where you choose where it goes: Files, AirDrop, mail or another app. The app writes the file, hands it over, and deletes its own copy. It cannot reach a copy you saved somewhere else.
Neither route is encrypted. Anyone who opens the spreadsheet, or reads what you pasted, can read all of it. That is what makes an export useful: a doctor or an AI can read it without anything from us. It is also the risk you take when you send it somewhere.
One thing to know about the clipboard. Your iPhone may share its clipboard with your other Apple devices. Apple calls this Universal Clipboard, and it is on by default. If it is on, your copy goes to those devices too, through Apple. The app cannot turn that off. To stop it, turn off Handoff on your iPhone, in Settings under General, before you copy.
What you paste or send it into is a separate and deliberate act you perform.
Once you paste or send an export somewhere else, that service's policies apply to it, not ours. That goes for an AI assistant, an email or a cloud drive. It is out of our reach. Nothing we do can protect a copy you have handed to someone else. That is the trade-off for being able to take your data anywhere.
Backup
The app can make a backup file so you can move your vault to a new phone. It is an encrypted copy of the vault itself, and your recovery code is the only key to it. We hold no copy of that code and nothing else opens the file. A backup whose code has been lost cannot be opened by anyone, including us.
It contains everything in the vault, including a partner's cycle if you track one. That is the difference between a backup and an export. An export leaves a partner's cycle out, because it is made to hand to someone else. A backup is made to hand back to you, on your next phone, so it carries the whole vault.
Making and restoring a backup use no network and involve no server of ours. On iPhone, the file goes to your share sheet and you choose where it lands. On Android, you pick a folder, or use the share sheet. Whatever service you send it through has its own policies, not this one. The app keeps no copy of the file and cannot reach one you saved elsewhere. It records one thing: the date of your last backup, so it can show you how old a backup is before you restore it. Restoring asks for your recovery code, then a new PIN. Your old PIN does not come across.
The check-in message
A few days in, the app may show a short check-in card. It asks if you expect to still be logging in two weeks, and if you would recommend the app. If you would not, it asks what is missing, in a box you fill in yourself.
If you choose to answer, the app opens your own messaging app with the message already written, addressed to a Barca Labs phone number. It contains your answers and whatever you typed, exactly as you wrote it.
The app cannot send it. You send it, from your own number, after reading it. If you send it, we receive your phone number with the message. That is just how text messages work. It is also the only thing in the entire app that could identify you to us. If you would rather we did not have it, dismiss the card, or delete the message instead of sending it.
Because you write that free-text part yourself, please do not put anything in it you would not put in an ordinary text message. It travels as a normal SMS and it is not protected the way your vault is.
Diagnostics and analytics
As of 30 August 2026, Sovereign Vault contains no analytics software, no advertising software, no crash reporting service, and no third-party tracking of any kind. Beyond the connections described above, the app makes no network requests. If that ever changes, this section changes with it and the effective date above moves.
Your device's operating system and the app store you installed from may collect their own diagnostic information, independently of the app. That collection is controlled by Apple's and Google's settings and policies, and by the choices you have made in your device settings.
Deleting your data
The app includes an erase function that removes your records from the device. Uninstalling the app also removes its database.
Because we never hold a copy, there is nothing for you to ask us to delete, and no request process to go through. When it is gone from your phone, it is gone.
Your rights
Privacy law generally gives you the right to access, correct, export or delete the personal information a company holds about you. From the app, we hold none. No account, no profile, and no copy of your records. The only personal information we can hold is an email address you gave us on this website's notify page, described below.
The third parties described above hold whatever they hold under their own policies. To exercise rights against Expo or Polar, contact them directly using the links in those sections.
If you believe we hold information about you and wish to exercise a right in relation to it, write to [email protected] and we will respond.
Children
Sovereign Vault is intended for adults and is not directed to anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. In practice, we do not collect it from anyone.
Not medical software
Sovereign Vault records information you choose to record. It is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Nothing in the app is medical advice, and no output of the app should be read as a clinical finding.
Decisions about your health belong between you and a qualified clinician.
This website
This website is a set of static pages. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics, embeds no third-party scripts, and loads no external fonts or trackers. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes standard server request data, including IP address, in order to deliver the page to you.
The notify page. If you leave your email address there, we store that address and the time you signed up. Nothing else: not your name, and not your IP address. It is kept in our own Cloudflare account, not with a mailing-list service. We use it only to tell you about Sovereign Vault, and never share or sell it. To have it removed, write to [email protected].
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page changes with it. If a change ever made a real difference to how your data is handled, we would announce it in the app, not just post it here.
If a future version adds a new connection, or starts collecting something we do not collect today, we will describe it here before it takes effect.
Contact
Barca Labs, LLC
Kansas, United States
[email protected]