Privacy Policy

Who this covers

This policy explains how Coastal Dune Labs LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) handles information in YapVault (the “app”), a voice recording, transcription, and summarization app for iPhone, and on this website. It applies to the current version of the app.

What stays on your device

YapVault has no account and no login. The audio you record, the transcripts produced from it, titles, summaries, notes, speaker names, custom vocabulary, pins, and settings are stored only on your iPhone, using Apple’s on-device storage. We do not operate servers that receive or store any of it, and we cannot access it. Every search you run is executed on your device against your own library.

Transcription and speaker labels

Transcription uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition. The first time you transcribe, iOS downloads a speech model for your language from Apple. That download is made by the operating system, carries none of your content, and tells us nothing. After that, your audio is transcribed on your iPhone and is never uploaded to us or to anyone else. If you turn on speaker labels, voices are separated by machine-learning models bundled inside the app that run on your device and make no network connections.

Titles and summaries

On iPhones that support Apple Intelligence, YapVault can write a title and a short summary for each recording. Titles are written on your device using Apple’s on-device model. Summaries are too, unless Private Cloud Compute is available and switched on, as described next.

On devices and versions of iOS where Apple offers it, the app can instead produce summaries using Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. Where that option is in use, the text of a transcript — never the audio — is sent to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers to be summarized, and the result comes back to your device. Apple designs Private Cloud Compute so that the data is used only to fulfill the request, is not retained after the response is returned, and is not accessible to Apple’s staff; Apple publishes the design and makes it available for independent security research. Coastal Dune Labs never receives the transcript, the summary, or any record that a request happened. This processing is performed by Apple, under Apple’s terms and privacy policy, not ours.

Where the option exists it is on by default and appears in the app under Settings as “Summarize in Apple’s Private Cloud.” You can turn it off at any time, after which every summary is produced on your device. If the service is unavailable, turned off, or declines a request, the app falls back to on-device summarization on its own.

The tip jar

YapVault is free. It includes an optional tip jar under “Support the Developer” in Settings. A tip is an Apple in-app purchase, processed entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never receive your name, email address, Apple Account, payment method, or billing address. The app checks the purchase on your device using Apple’s StoreKit framework and keeps only a count of completed tips, stored locally on your iPhone so the app can thank you. That count is never sent to us. We use no third-party purchase or subscription service. Apple gives us aggregate sales reports that do not identify individual purchasers.

Loading tip prices and completing a purchase are network requests made by Apple’s StoreKit framework to the App Store. They carry no content from your library.

iCloud backup

YapVault does not sync and has no iCloud database of its own. If iCloud Backup is turned on for your iPhone, iOS includes the app’s data in your device backup: your recordings and their transcripts, titles, summaries, notes, and settings, and the memos you have locked along with them. The app has no separate backup setting — everything is included, so that losing the phone is not losing the library. Whatever goes into that backup lives in your own iCloud account, where it is protected by iCloud’s security rather than by the app’s memo lock, is managed by Apple under Apple’s privacy and security practices, and is inaccessible to us. You can keep YapVault out of your backup entirely in Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Storage.

Locked memos

You can lock individual memos behind Face ID or your device passcode. A locked memo’s audio and transcript move into storage that iOS encrypts and keeps unreadable while the device is locked, and the memo drops out of the library, the search index, and widgets until you unlock it. Face ID is evaluated by iOS — the app never receives, stores, or has any access to your biometric data. While a locked memo is open, the app hides its contents from the iOS app switcher.

Permissions the app asks for

YapVault asks for a permission only when you use the feature that needs it, and only for functionality that runs on your device:

• Microphone — to record, only while you are recording. Recordings are stored locally and never transmitted to us.
• Speech Recognition — to transcribe your recordings on your device with Apple’s speech framework.
• Face ID — to unlock memos you have locked. If Face ID is unavailable, iOS offers your device passcode instead.
• Files — your recordings appear in the Files app so you can copy or share them, and the app can open audio you choose to hand it. We see only the files you pick.
• Siri and Shortcuts — if you start a recording by voice, from Control Center, or from a Shortcut, iOS handles the request. We receive nothing from Siri.
• Background audio and processing — so recording continues with the screen locked and transcription can finish after you close the app. Nothing is transmitted during background work.

What we do not collect

We collect no usage analytics, crash reports, or diagnostics, through any service of ours or anyone else’s. We use no advertising frameworks, no data brokers, and no cross-app tracking, and we do not ask for App Tracking Transparency permission because we do not track you. The app’s Apple privacy manifest declares no tracking and no collected data, and its App Store privacy label is “Data Not Collected.”

When you contact us

If you use “Report a Bug” or “Suggest a Feature” in the app, it opens a pre-addressed draft in your mail app. The draft includes your device model, iOS version, and app version so we can reproduce the problem — you can see and edit all of it, and nothing is sent unless you send it. If you do send it, we receive your email address and whatever you wrote, and we use it only to reply.

If you use the contact form on this website, we receive the name, email address, topic, and message you provide. Submissions are delivered to us by our website host and used only to respond to you. This website sets no advertising or analytics cookies.

Recordings of other people

YapVault records whatever your microphone hears, which may include other people. You choose what to record, and you are responsible for getting whatever consent the law requires from the people you record. We never hear, receive, or process any of it. The Terms of Use say more about that responsibility.

Who else is involved

YapVault contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking code. The only outside parties are:

• Apple — runs the App Store and processes tip-jar purchases; provides on-device speech recognition and the speech-model download, Apple Intelligence and, where available, Private Cloud Compute; provides Siri, Shortcuts, Face ID, device encryption, and iCloud Backup. Your use of those is governed by Apple’s terms and privacy policy.

The app also includes open-source software and machine-learning models that run entirely on your device and make no network connections. We have nothing to sell, rent, or share: the app sends us no data, and the only information we ever hold is what you choose to send through the contact form. If a law, regulation, or legal process ever required us to disclose something, that is all there would be.

Keeping and deleting data

The app sends us nothing, so we hold no data from it. Your content stays on your iPhone until you delete it. Deleting a memo moves it to Recently Deleted, where it stays for thirty days before it is removed for good; you can delete it permanently sooner from there. Deleting the app removes its data from your device. Any copy inside an iCloud backup is under your control through your Apple Account. Messages you send us are kept only as long as it takes to resolve your question, and then deleted.

Children

YapVault is a general-audience utility and is not directed at children under 13, or the equivalent age where you live. Because the app collects no personal information, has no accounts, shows no advertising, and sends us no content, it does not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, children included. We build no profiles and track no one, at any age.

Your rights

Because your content stays on your device, you control it at all times: you can view, edit, export, or delete any of it inside the app. The app sends us none of it, so there is nothing on our side to access, correct, port, or delete, and nothing to opt out of. The only personal data we ever hold is a message you have sent us, and you can ask us to delete it at any time. Depending on where you live — for example under California’s CCPA/CPRA — you may have further rights over personal data. You are welcome to ask us, and we will respond as the law requires.

Changes

We may update this policy, for instance if a future version of the app handles data differently. If we make a material change we will update the date at the top of this page and may give notice in the app or on this site. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Questions

Reach us through the contact page.

YapVault is published by Coastal Dune Labs LLC, a Florida limited liability company, USA.