Privacy Policy for Motivate

Effective Date: August 24, 2026
Last Updated: September 30, 2026

Motivate (“we,” “our,” or “the app”) is a daily quotes, reflection, and journaling app for iPhone. This Privacy Policy explains what information Motivate handles, where it lives, and the choices you have.

Motivate does not sell personal information, does not show advertising, and does not use analytics SDKs, advertising trackers, or third-party data brokers.

1. Information stored on your device

The following stays on your devices (and, for a few settings, in the App Group shared with the Motivate widget). It is not uploaded to Motivate’s servers:

• Journal entries and journal reminders
• Daily reflections (mood score, feelings, optional notes) and reflection reminders
• Saved quotes, reading preferences, themes, app icon choice, streaks, and daily practice
• The username you type during setup (also stored on-device; account use and Forum posting may send a copy as described below)

iCloud Sync. Sync is always on. Your journal entries, daily reflections, saved quotes, and reminder settings travel through your private iCloud to your other devices signed into the same Apple account, so your writing and reminders are the same everywhere; there is no switch to look for in Settings. That copy lives only in Apple’s iCloud under your account — Motivate keeps no server copy, cannot see it, and never receives it. To stop it on a device, sign out of iCloud or turn iCloud Drive off for Motivate in iOS Settings; whatever is already in your iCloud is left untouched, so your other devices keep working. Deleting journal entries, reflections, or saved quotes removes them from your other devices too.

This on-device data is protected by iOS Data Protection and your device passcode or biometrics, like other apps’ private files. Motivate does not add its own encryption layer on top of that. Journal entries and daily reflections are stored in files that request the strongest Data Protection class iOS offers, so they are readable only while your device is unlocked. They are therefore not included in an unencrypted device backup; an encrypted backup (the default for iCloud Backup and for Finder/iTunes backups with encryption switched on) includes them like any other app data. Your sign-in token, if you sign in, is kept in the iOS Keychain and never travels to another device.

When you switch away from Motivate while Journal or Reflect is on screen, the App Switcher snapshot shows only the app’s mark — not your journal or reflections. This also covers the private sheets opened from those sections (the entry editor, the check-in composer, and reflection history). The quote feed and Saved quotes are not private, so they may appear in the snapshot. Journal and reflection fields use your system keyboard settings, so corrections follow what you have chosen in iOS Settings.

You can export or delete reflections from Reflection settings. From the Journal’s own settings you can export your whole journal as Markdown, plain text or JSON, and import one of those files back; on macOS the same export lives under File ▸ Export Journal. An export is a file handed to iOS or macOS itself — Motivate has no server to send it to and uploads nothing. Individual entries can be deleted in Journal, where a deletion offers an Undo rather than asking you to confirm. A page you close before saving is kept on this device as a draft so the words are there when you come back; it is removed when you save the page, and it goes with everything else when you remove all on-device data from Profile. Uninstalling Motivate removes on-device data.

2. Sign in with Apple (optional)

You can use Motivate without an account (Continue without an account). Sign in with Apple is optional.

If you sign in:

• Apple authenticates you. Motivate never receives your Apple ID password.
• We create an account authentication record so the account can be restored on this device. Account services are operated by qualified service providers under contractual safeguards.
• We store an account record in our account database that may include your account identifier, the username you chose, and timestamps needed to run the account.
• If you share your email with us through Sign in with Apple, that email may be stored with your account record. If you use Hide My Email, we receive only Apple’s private relay address and do not try to unmask your real email.
• Your Apple ID name, if Apple provides it on first sign-in, may be used as a starting display name.

Authentication tokens are handled by Apple and our account service providers. Motivate does not store your Apple credentials.

2a. App activity (accounts and guests)

Motivate reports when the app opens, how long a session lasted, and when you save a reflection or journal entry. We store the activity type, timestamps, open counts, and session duration in seconds — not the writing, title, mood score, feelings, or entry identifier. Saving an edit also counts as activity. This first-party reporting uses our own app services, not an analytics SDK.

Signed-in activity is associated with your account identifier. Without an account, activity uses a random token stored on the installation; the server stores a hash of that token. It is not an advertising identifier, and guest history is not linked to a later sign-in. Reinstalling or deleting on-device data can create a new guest identity. Guest counts represent installations, not verified people.

When an activity report reaches our servers, the hosting platform may include an approximate country code derived from the network path (for example US or FR). We store that ISO country code, not the network address itself, not GPS, and not a city. Country is unknown when the platform does not provide it.

Only authorized moderators can see individual activity indicators, engagement rankings, and aggregate usage in the Users, Leaderboard, and Analytics pages. These use UTC calendar days. Limited activity metadata may wait on your device for up to seven days while offline. Server activity records are retained for 90 days and removed by daily cleanup. Deleting your account deletes its associated activity; unlinked guest records expire through that cleanup. Network addresses are also processed by our existing abuse-prevention rate limits. We use this information to understand app usage, not for advertising or cross-app tracking.

3. Forum

The Forum is the app’s only social feature. It stores its data in our secured account and content systems, accessed through controlled application services. When you submit a post or comment, we store its text, your chosen profile username (or an anonymous handle), your account identifier, timestamps, and its moderation status. If you set a Forum profile photo from Settings or Profile, the photo and your current display name are kept in your shared Forum profile. Posts and comments are submitted for review; approved content and its current display name are visible to other Forum readers in the app, along with your Forum profile photo if you set one.

Reports and nickname-removal and profile-photo-removal decisions are also stored in our secure content systems for moderation, and every privileged action is authorized by the server. The app does not display a reporter’s identity. A removed nickname is replaced in the app with a neutral handle, and a removed profile photo is replaced with the author’s initial, but the original name snapshot can remain on stored posts and comments. Database access is restricted to the authorized service credentials; hiding a name or photo in the app is not deletion of the underlying row.

Signing in alone does not publish your username to the Forum. Submitting a Forum post or comment includes your chosen display name for review. Choosing a Forum profile photo publishes it with your display name on the Forum.

4. Live Support & Feedback

The app’s Feedback section includes a live, two-way support conversation with our moderators, plus a way to send general feedback.

When you start a support conversation or send a message, we store your account identifier, your message text, an optional short subject, the feedback category you choose, timestamps, and the conversation’s status (waiting, in progress, or resolved). Support messages are visible only to you and to the moderators handling your conversation — they are never shown to other members, and you cannot see another member’s conversations.

A moderator may be assigned to your conversation and may add internal notes about it. Internal notes are visible only to moderators and are never shown to you. Feedback you send is visible to you in “My Feedback” and to the moderators who review it; a moderator may reply with a note, which we show you in the same place.

Support and feedback data are stored in our secure content systems and accessed only through controlled application services that verify your identity on every request. The app and the admin panel do not read the underlying data stores directly; access is restricted to the authorized service credentials.

You can close (resolve) a support conversation and reopen it later, or simply send another message to continue it. We use this information only to respond to your request and to improve the app, and we do not use it for advertising.

5. AI coach (off by default)

The optional “coach note” / daily life tip is off until you turn it on. Before the first request, Motivate asks whether to send:

• Moods only: mood scores, feelings, and life-area tags from your last 7 days of check-ins; or
• Notes too: the above plus the written reflection notes from those check-ins.

That data is sent over HTTPS to Motivate’s AI coach service (our AI coach service), which forwards it to our AI model provider to generate the note. our contracted AI service providers process the request to provide the feature. We do not use that content for advertising.

Your choice is stored on the device and applied to later requests. Turn the coach off any time in Reflection settings. With it off, reflection text is never sent to our AI service.

Coach notes are for personal reflection only. They are not medical, mental-health, financial, legal, or other professional advice.

Coach chat. The app also offers an optional text chat with the same AI coach. When you send a chat message we store your account identifier, the message text, the reply, timestamps, and which AI model provider answered. Every message is checked by an automated safety filter before any provider sees it, and the provider’s reply is checked again before it reaches you. A chat is deleted automatically 24 hours after its last message. The coach may end a conversation that has reached its close; a closed chat stays readable until that 24-hour deletion, and you start a new one to keep talking.

Blocked messages are reviewed by our team. When a chat message is blocked — by that safety filter, or by a blocklist our team maintains — we keep a review record of it for 30 days: the blocked text, why it was blocked, up to the last 12 messages of that conversation for context, and what the moderator decided. A review record is also kept when we answer a message that still tripped the filter (wording that read as an attempt to steer the coach, or a blocked term that appeared inside a longer word) so our team can check the filter is neither too strict nor too loose. Only our moderators can read it, and it is used to check whether a block was correct. That record deliberately outlives the chat it came from, so deleting a chat does not delete its review record; deleting your account does.

Repeated refusals are counted, and that count can pause the coach. If a message is refused by one of the chat's own limits — its rate limit, the free daily message cap, the safety filter, the blocklist our team maintains, or wording that reads as an attempt to steer the coach — we count the refusal. When the same kind of refusal happens repeatedly, we keep a short record for 90 days: which limit was hit, how many times and over what window, a score, and up to 400 characters of the message that hit it. That record is what lets our team spot misuse — a script driving the coach, or someone working through the blocklist — and suspend a member's access to the coach chat and/or the daily tip. Only our moderators can read it, it never changes what a member is sent at the time, and it is deleted with your account. A member whose coach access is suspended sees a notice in the app when they use the coach, pointing to Support, and can ask us to review that decision.

6. How we use information

We use the information above only to:

• Operate the app (quotes, journal, reflection, widget, reminders, optional account)
• Understand app usage through limited activity metadata
• Generate a coach note if you opt in
• Restore or delete your account when you ask
• Respond if you email support

We do not use the information for targeted advertising or to track you across other companies’ apps or websites.

7. Third parties who receive information

Only when the related feature is used:

Apple and our contracted service providers process data under their own privacy policies. We do not sell your information to them or to anyone else.

The optional Motivate Premium subscription is billed entirely by Apple through the App Store. We do not process payments and never receive your credit card number, billing address, or other payment details. The App checks Premium on your device against Apple’s signed transaction data through StoreKit, and shares subscription status with RevenueCat, our subscription infrastructure provider: associated with your account id when you are signed in, or with an anonymous app-generated identifier when you are not. RevenueCat relays that status to us — the plan, its expiry, and the purchase’s product and transaction identifiers, never your payment details — so Premium follows your account across your devices instead of living on one device. We store only that status with your account, and it is removed when you delete your account. RevenueCat processes data under its own privacy policy; Apple’s own collection and use of purchase data is governed by Apple’s privacy policy.

Push notifications are scheduled locally on your device through Apple’s notification system. Motivate does not run a separate push-marketing server.

8. Account deletion

If you signed in with Apple, you can delete your Motivate account from Profile → Delete account.

Deletion, after Apple confirms it:

• Removes your account authentication record
• Removes your account record
• Removes Forum posts, comments, and profile data tied to that account (if any exist)
• Removes AI coach chats, any blocked-message review record, and any coach-abuse record or coach suspension tied to that account
• Removes your Premium subscription status record (the subscription itself stays with Apple until you cancel it in iOS Settings)
• Asks Apple to revoke the app’s Sign in with Apple token

Journal entries and reflections stay on your devices (and in your private iCloud). They were never stored with the account. You can delete those separately in Journal and Reflection, clear everything stored on this device from Profile → Delete on-device data, or delete the app.

You can also stop using Sign in with Apple for Motivate in iOS Settings → [your name] → Sign in with Apple.

9. Children’s privacy

Motivate is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum digital-consent age in your country). You must be at least that age to create an account or to use Sign in with Apple or the AI coach.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information through Motivate, email us and we will delete the account and associated server data.

Journal and reflections are stored on your devices (and in your private iCloud); we cannot see that content unless the AI coach is enabled and the child (or a parent on that device) has opted in.

10. Data retention

• On-device data remains until you delete it or uninstall the app.
• Account data remain until you delete the account, or until we delete unused records if the service is discontinued.
• AI coach requests are processed to produce a note and are not kept by Motivate as a long-term archive of your reflections. Provider logs, if any, are subject to the retention practices of our service providers.
• AI coach chats are deleted 24 hours after their last message. A blocked message is kept 30 days as a moderation review record, and a repeated-refusal record 90 days, as described in AI coach. Both are deleted with your account.

11. International processing

our service providers may process data in the United States or other countries. If you sign in or enable the AI coach, you understand that your account or coach request may be processed outside your home country.

12. Legal bases and international privacy frameworks

Where required by law, we process personal information on the following bases: performance of a contract to provide requested account and Forum functions; consent for the optional AI coach and other consent-based features; legitimate interests for security, service reliability, and support, balanced against your rights; and legal obligations where required. You may withdraw consent at any time, without affecting prior processing.

For individuals in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, we act as the controller for the personal information described here. You may contact us to exercise your rights, request information about safeguards for international transfers, or complain to your local data protection authority. We do not use personal information for solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.

For individuals in jurisdictions with comprehensive privacy laws, this Policy is intended to provide the required notice of categories collected, purposes, sources, disclosures, retention, rights, and request procedures. Nothing in this Policy limits a non-waivable right under applicable law.

13. Your privacy rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a portable copy of personal information we hold about you. You may also have the right to object to or restrict certain processing, withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, and lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority. We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

To exercise a right, contact us using the details below. We may verify your request and will respond within the period required by applicable law. Authorized agents may submit requests where permitted by law. We do not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. If you are in California, you may request to know, delete, or correct covered personal information and appeal a decision; we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

14. Security

We maintain administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information we process. No electronic transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for protecting access to your device and account credentials.

15. Changes

We may update this policy. The “Last Updated” date will change. Material changes will be reflected in the in-app Privacy Policy. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.

16. Contact

Eunice Padua
Developer of Motivate
Email: luisjohnmc12@gmail.com

The copy of this policy inside the app is the version that applies to the build you are using. If a website copy exists, treat the in-app policy as authoritative when they differ.