The app collects nothing. Here is exactly what that means.

The short version

Applies to the Gurbani Soul app for iPhone and iPad (bundle org.sggs.app, including its widgets and Live Activity) and to this website.

• No accounts. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to log in to.
• The app makes no network connections. It works fully in Airplane Mode.
• No analytics, no advertising, no tracking, no third-party SDKs in the app. This website counts page views anonymously, without cookies; see This website.
• Everything you do in the app (saved verses, settings, reading position, Nitnem progress and reminders) stays on your device.
• Location is optional, used only on your device, and never transmitted.

The app

The app bundles the complete text of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, plus the Nitnem banis as a separate, labelled layer, and searches it locally. It never sends a request to any server, so we cannot see what you read, search for or save. Specifically:

• Saved verses are stored in the app's own database on your device. If you save a verse, it is also added to your device's Spotlight index so you can find it from the Home Screen search; unsaving removes it. Spotlight data stays on your device.
• Themes in Spotlight: the app also adds the 54 theme names, with their Gurmukhi words and verse counts, to Spotlight so a theme can be opened from the Home Screen search. These entries hold nothing about you.
• Your themes on the Themes page is worked out on your device from your saved verses. It is never sent anywhere, and you can turn it off in More (“Show Your themes”).
• Settings (accent colour, transliteration, traditional rendering, last Ang read) are stored in the app's local preferences.
• Vaars: where you are in a Vaar you are reading is stored in a small file in the app's own App Group container on your device. It is never transmitted.
• Nitnem progress (where you are in each bani, which days you completed it, your own sets and journey) is stored in small files in the app's own App Group container on your device, so the Nitnem widget can show it. It is never transmitted.
• Reminders are optional local notifications. The app asks for notification permission only when you turn a reminder on, schedules them on your device at the times you choose, and uses no push service: no notification ever comes from a server, and no device token is created or sent anywhere.
• Live Activity is optional and off by default. When you turn it on, a reading session shows its progress on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. It is driven entirely on your device (no push updates) and never shows a verse.
• Widgets read a small snapshot the app writes into its own App Group container on your device: the raag watch, the Hukam of the day for the next two weeks with their Angs, today's Nitnem progress, and — if you use solar mode — your clock-mode choice and the same ~1 km rounded coordinates. Nothing leaves the device.
• Location is used only by the Raag Clock's optional solar mode to compute local sunrise and sunset. It is requested only when you tap “Use my location” in solar mode. The fix is rounded to two decimal places (about 1 km) before it is stored in the app's own App Group container — shared only with the app's widgets on the same device — and the raw position is never kept. You can enter a location manually instead, or deny the permission; the clock still works.
• Integrity checks read the bundled scripture database's size and modification date to decide whether its checksum needs re-verifying. This is why the app's privacy manifest declares the "file timestamp" and "user defaults" API reasons. Nothing is displayed or transmitted.
• Diagnostics: if the app ever crashes or hangs, iOS may hand it a diagnostic report. The app writes that report to its own local folder; it is never uploaded. You can see how many there are, share them via the system share sheet to a destination you choose, or delete them under More → About & credits → Integrity — nothing leaves the device unless you send it. Separately, Apple may share crash reports with us through App Store Connect only if you have enabled "Share with App Developers" in your iOS Privacy & Security → Analytics settings. Those reports are governed by Apple's privacy policy and contain no account or identity information.

Because the app collects no data, its App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected".

This website

• The site is static, carries no advertising, and sets no cookies.
• The Gurbani Soul pages (the home page, Features, The watch, Learn, Support, Contribute and this policy) count page views with Vercel Web Analytics, and only when served from gurbanisoul.com. It uses no cookies and does not follow you across other sites. It records the page, the referring site, and your country, browser, operating system and device type as anonymous totals; visitors are counted with a short-lived hash that is discarded after a day. We do not build profiles from it or share it.
• The Knowledge Base pages (search, reader and the study tools) load no analytics.
• Your browser keeps your settings for this site in its local storage: theme (light or dark, colour theme and paper tone), text size, transliteration, the traditional-rendering toggle, the raag-timing label and focus mode. It also keeps the Ang you last read in the Reader, your Nitnem reading positions and Rehras choice, the verses you pin to the Study Trail, and your Raag Clock setting. While you browse, session storage holds the path you walk on the Semantic Trail, and the tab clears it when you close it. All of this lives in your browser; clearing site data removes it.
• Location is used on this website only if you switch the Raag Clock to solar mode, to work out local sunrise and sunset. Switching the mode on asks for nothing: your browser asks your permission only when you press “Use my location”, or you can type coordinates in yourself. The position is rounded to two decimal places (about 1 km) and kept in your browser's local storage; it is never sent to us or anyone else, and “Forget location” removes it. Without a location, the clock stays on fixed hours.
• The engineering wiki at docs.gurbanisoul.com offers links that open ChatGPT or Claude with the address of the page you are reading. Following one takes you to that service, under its own privacy policy; the wiki records nothing.
• Searches and page requests are answered by our API. The hosting providers we use (Vercel for the site, Render for the API) keep standard server logs — IP address, user agent, request path and time — for security and operations, under their own retention rules. We do not add tracking to those logs, do not build profiles from them, and do not share them.

Contributions

If you choose to contribute on gurbanisoul.com/contribute, you leave this site for a checkout page run by Stripe, which processes the payment under its own privacy policy. Our pages load no Stripe code before you click. We never see or store your card details. Stripe gives us your email address, name, the amount and the date, which we use only for receipts, refunds and our business records (kept as long as Australian tax law requires) and never share or use for marketing.

Children

The app is rated 4+ and collects no personal information from anyone, of any age.

Your data, your control

We hold no data about you, so there is nothing for us to export, correct or delete. Everything the app stores is on your device: deleting the app removes it. Everything the site stores is in your browser: clearing site data removes it.

Changes

If this policy ever changes, the date at the top changes with it and the new text is published here before it takes effect. The app will not start collecting data without a new version, a new policy, and a new App Store privacy label.

Contact

Questions about privacy: support@gurbanisoul.com. For help with the app, see Support.