Privacy Policy

Last updated: 13 October 2026

The short version

We only use your data to run Aphra for you. We do not harvest it, profile you or show you ads.

• Encrypted. Your chats, notes, lists, reminders, memories and calendar events are stored encrypted, with a separate key for each person. Everything is encrypted on its way to and from Aphra.
• You can delete it all. Delete your account in the app and your live data and keys are removed straight away. Copies in backups are gone within 7 days.
• Not used to train AI. We do not train AI on your data. The AI models that write your replies are used under zero data retention: they may not keep what you send or learn from it. This is already switched on; there is nothing for you to turn off. Voice is handled by our speech providers (section 4).
• Never sold. We do not sell your data and there are no ads in Aphra.
• The honest limit. This is not end-to-end encryption. Aphra has to read your messages to answer them, and sends what it needs to our AI, voice and search providers (section 4). People at Aphra do not read your conversations (see section 11).

1. Who we are

Aphra Lite ("Aphra", "we", "us") is run by Ant vs Bear Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15391307). Our registered office is 128 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NX. We decide how and why your personal data is used (we are the "controller"). For anything about your data, contact privacy@aphra.me.

2. What Aphra is

Aphra is an AI personal assistant: chat, voice, calendar, reminders, notes, messages from the assistant, meeting arranging by email, web search, finding a restaurant and getting a booking started, and reading screenshots you share. Email features (a morning brief from your email, talking to your assistant about your email, and replies for you to approve) are available with Outlook (Microsoft). Gmail is coming soon and is not available yet. This policy explains how email works, so you can see it before you decide to connect an email account. You are talking to an AI, not a person. Please read "Things you should know about AI" in our Terms of Use. Aphra is for adults aged 18 and over.

3. What we collect, why, and our legal basis

We do not sell your personal data and we do not show ads in Aphra. We do not share your data with advertisers unless you turn on "Help measure our ads". If you do, we send install and purchase events, your device's advertising ID and device details to Google (Firebase and Google Ads), so we can tell which of our own ads brought people to Aphra. Google uses this under its own terms. This is off by default, separate from "Share usage data", and you can turn it off at any time in Settings.

4. Who else handles your data

We use these companies to run Aphra. They may only use your data to provide their service to us.

• Servers, database and keys: our servers run on Hetzner (Falkenstein, Germany). Our database is Supabase (London). The master keys that protect your encryption keys are held in Google Cloud Key Management (Frankfurt), separate from the database. Website: Vercel.
• Sign-in: Clerk.
• AI models: the text of your conversation is sent to AI model hosts, reached through OpenRouter (an AI routing service), so they can write replies. We use OpenRouter's zero data retention routing with data collection denied: your request goes only to hosts that commit not to keep it and not to train on it, and if no such host can be reached the request fails instead of going anywhere else. We do not use your content to train AI models ourselves. The hosts that actually run the models can change over time; email text is handled more strictly (see section 6).
• Voice: Deepgram turns your speech into text and Cartesia turns Aphra's replies into speech. They process your audio and Aphra's spoken replies to give you the result, under their own terms. We do not keep recordings of your voice.
• Web search: Serper and Tavily receive the search query.
• Microsoft: Outlook calendar, contacts, people suggestions and Outlook email through Microsoft Graph, if you connect Outlook.
• Google: Google Calendar, Google contacts and Gmail (when it is available), if you connect them. Google Places and Google Maps: to find restaurants we send the search (the place and cuisine you asked about and, if you allow it, your phone's coordinates) to Google Places, and on Android the map is drawn by Google Maps. On iPhone the map is drawn by Apple Maps. Firebase Cloud Messaging for push notifications and Firebase Crashlytics for crash reports; these create a random installation ID for your device. Firebase Analytics and Google Ads are used only if you turn on "Help measure our ads". We do not use Firebase for product analytics.
• Restaurants and booking sites: Aphra opens a restaurant's own booking page (often on a site such as OpenTable) with the date, time and number of people filled in, and you finish the booking yourself. What you type there (your name, phone or email) goes from you to them under their own privacy policy, not through Aphra. If we ever let Aphra complete a booking for you, we will say so here and in the app first and ask you before anything is sent.
• Meeting emails: Resend (sending) and ForwardEmail (receiving replies).
• Video calls: Daily.co, if you create an Aphra video call.
• Pictures for the assistants: Cloudinary.
• Payments: Google Play and RevenueCat.
• Product analytics: PostHog (EU region), acting as our processor. Error and crash reports: Sentry and Firebase Crashlytics. These reports contain technical details of the device, app and error, and we configure them to leave out message text, contact names, email addresses and event titles. We no longer use Mixpanel.

We may also share data where the law requires it, or to protect people from serious harm.

5. International transfers

Our servers are in Germany, our database is in London and our master encryption keys are in Frankfurt. Some of the companies above are in the United States or elsewhere. When your data leaves the UK or the European Economic Area we rely on an adequacy decision, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, as applicable to each provider.

6. Google user data (Limited Use)

Aphra Lite's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

In plain words: we use your Google Calendar, Google contacts and, if we offer it later, your Gmail data only to give you the features you asked for. We do not use it for advertising, we do not sell it, we do not use it to train or improve any AI model that serves other people, and people at Aphra do not read it except where you ask for support, it is needed for security, or the law requires it. When you ask about your email, the text of the messages needed for that answer is sent, with your permission shown on the connect screen, only to the AI hosts named there. They are reached through OpenRouter using its zero data retention routing, with data collection denied, so they do not keep the text or train on it. If a host that meets this cannot be reached, the request fails instead of going elsewhere. You can disconnect Google at any time in the app, and you can remove access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Email: Outlook (available) and Gmail (coming soon)

Email is available with Outlook (Microsoft). Gmail is not available yet. This is exactly how email works, for Outlook and, when it is available, for Gmail. We will not turn Gmail on for anyone until this page and the in-app screens say so.

• What we ask for: permission to read your email. Separately, and only when you first ask for them, permission to create drafts and replies, and then to send. Outlook asks for these in three steps, each on its own screen; Gmail in two. Microsoft has no permission that only saves drafts, so for drafts and replies its consent screen asks for "read and write" access to your mail. Aphra uses that only to save the draft or reply you asked for. Aphra does not delete mail, move it, flag it, mark it as read or change your settings, and it asks Gmail for nothing beyond reading and composing.
• What we use it for: only what you can see in the app: your morning email brief; talking to your assistant, in chat or by voice, about your email (what needs a reply, what someone said, reading or summarising one email, why something was flagged); writing a reply or a new email for you to approve; reminders such as "tell me if Tom hasn't replied in 3 days"; and, only if you turn it on, telling you when something important is waiting. Aphra never sends from your account without showing you the whole email and getting your approval, and you then have 10 seconds to undo.
• How it decides what matters: by visible rules you can read and change in the app (for example: someone on your VIP list, or someone you have written to, who asks you a question or has waited for your answer). It never uses a hidden score. Your own settings are kept until you delete them: your VIP and muted senders, nicknames such as "my boss", and the days you want to wait before a reminder.
• Reading and storing: Aphra fetches the messages it needs from your mailbox when your brief is made, when you ask, or, if you have turned on alerts, when a person you have said matters writes to you. We do not store the body of your emails or any attachments. The words and cards Aphra shows you in your email chat (sender, subject, a one-line summary, and an email's text when you open it) are kept for 7 days in that chat and then deleted, and the chat is kept out of Aphra's memory. We also keep short notes (sender address, subject, a one-line reason and the message ID) for 7 days, which you can see and delete. We keep, until you delete them, a record of which messages you told Aphra you dealt with (message references only, not text), your reminders (the name you gave, the conversation reference and the date), and a log of the alerts we sent (message references only, to count the day and avoid repeating ourselves). When you ask Aphra to write an email, it is held on our server only while you decide (up to an hour) and is deleted when you send it, cancel it, or it expires; a draft you save lives in your own mailbox. For each email sent we keep who it went to, the subject and when, for 7 days (you can see and delete this), but not its text.
• Writing and sending: when you ask Aphra to reply to an email or to write a new one, it writes the text using the AI step below and shows you the whole email first: who it is going to, the subject and the full text. A reply goes to the person who wrote to you unless you name others, and a new email goes only to the person you chose; Aphra shows the real address and tells you if you have not emailed that address before. Emails are plain text, with no attachments and no links unless you gave one. Nothing is sent until you approve it. When you do, it is sent from your own mailbox, in your name, to the people shown, and a copy is in your own Sent folder, like any email you send yourself. Aphra limits how many emails it will send for you in a day.
• AI and your consent: to understand your request we use our usual assistant model on your own words only, never on the contents of your email. To read, summarise, find and write, the text of the emails Aphra needs is sent to an AI model host through OpenRouter. We ask you to agree to this in the app before you connect an email account. Apart from the speech step described under "By voice" below, we send email text only to hosts we have approved for email, which must not keep it or use it to train their models, and the assistant is never allowed to take an action because of something written inside an email. We do not use your email data to train, build or improve any AI model for anyone else.
• Speaking up on its own (optional): off until you say yes. At most twice a day by default, never at night, and only about people you have told Aphra matter or have worked with. The notification on your phone never says who or what the email is about; the details are in your email chat.
• By voice: in a voice conversation Aphra reads back the reply it has written, and sends it only if you say "send" on its own (or tap Send); you then have 10 seconds to say "undo". Aphra will not take a new email address by voice. Aphra speaks only a short summary of an email (for example the sender's first name and what it is about), never a whole email. What Aphra says aloud about an email and the words you dictate pass through our speech providers (section 4), which turn text into speech and speech into text. While you are reading, you can say "hang on" and the call stays open, with the microphone off, for up to 10 minutes.
• People: people at Aphra cannot read your emails, except a specific message you ask us to look at for support, where it is needed to investigate abuse or a security problem, or where the law requires it.
• Sharing: apart from the AI step above, we do not share or sell your email data, and we never use it for advertising.
• Your control: you can disconnect Gmail or Outlook at any time in Settings, when we stop reading your email and delete your access tokens and the short notes. Withdrawing your email agreement deletes everything above at once: your email chats, notes, rules, reminders, alert settings and logs. You can also remove access at myaccount.google.com/permissions (Gmail) or account.live.com/consent/Manage (Outlook).

7. People you invite to meetings

When you approve a meeting, Aphra emails the people you chose. The email is sent as "Your Name via Aphra" with you copied, says an AI assistant is arranging the meeting for you, links to this policy, and lets the person stop further emails. We keep their name, email address and replies only to run that meeting and prevent abuse, and we keep a list of addresses that asked not to be contacted so we can respect that. See also our notice for people invited by Aphra.

7A. Sharing calendars with other people

A link to someone you choose. You can send one person a link that shows only when you are busy over the next 7 days: grey blocks with no event names, places, guests or notes. Busy time from all the calendars you have connected counts, but only the times leave Aphra. The person who opens the link needs no account and no app, and can add the same busy times to their own calendar app through a calendar feed. Each person gets their own link, and you can stop any of them, or all of them, in one tap. A stopped link stops working at once and looks the same as a link that never existed. We do not show you, or keep for display, who opened a link or when. Like any website, our servers and hosting process the visitor's technical details, such as an IP address, to deliver the page and protect against abuse. Sharing a link needs your fingerprint, face or phone PIN on a phone that has one.

A shared calendar you name. You can make a calendar with other people (a family, a house, a team) and give it any name. Everyone on it sees the events on it, with their names, and who added each. They do not see anything else from your own calendar, and your personal calendar is never merged into it. Adults join with a one-use invite. Someone without a phone can be added as a name and a colour. A calendar holds up to 8 people. If you leave, you lose access to it and nothing else changes. If the owner leaves or deletes their account, the longest-standing member with an account takes over; if there is no one, the calendar is closed and hidden.

7B. Connecting with other Aphra users

If someone shares their free and busy times with you (by sending a link you open in Aphra) you can ask your assistant whether they are free. The answer comes only from what they shared: "their calendar shows no conflict" or "they have a conflict", never what an event is, where it is or who it is with. If there is a conflict, up to three times when they are free, inside their own working hours, may be offered. Other people can do the same for you once you share back. Nothing is shared unless you choose it, and each person decides for themselves.

You can ask a connected person to meet. They get a message in Aphra and answer in one tap: accept, say they can't make it, or suggest up to three of their own free times. Nothing is added to either calendar until they accept; then one event is added to each person's own calendar (and to Outlook or Google if connected). Requests are limited so they cannot be used to pester someone. You can see who has checked your availability in Connections. If something looks unusual (for example the same person checking many times in a day) your assistant will say so.

Stopping sharing, muting and blocking are quiet: the other person is not told. A block ends sharing both ways and also stops that person reaching you through an Aphra meeting email.

8. How long we keep data

• Your account, chats, calendar, reminders, notes, memories and meeting records: until you delete them or delete your account. Deleting your account removes them.
• Voice audio: we do not keep it.
• Your location (restaurant search): 2 hours, then deleted. The options Aphra showed you for a restaurant search (place identifiers and what you asked for): 30 days. Restaurant booking records and any confirmation emails kept with them: until you delete them or your account, which removes them.
• Calendar sharing links: until you stop them or delete your account. Stopping a link deletes the label you typed for it straight away. Deleting your account removes all your links and your place on every shared calendar. Events you added to a shared calendar stay on it for the others, shown as added by someone who left.
• Connections, labels, blocks and mutes: until you stop them or delete your account. The Activity list and finished requests to meet: 90 days. Deleting your account removes all of these; an event already added to someone else's calendar stays in theirs.
• Google or Outlook connection: until you disconnect, after which we delete the stored access tokens and the events we imported from that calendar (events you made in Aphra stay in Aphra).
• Email (Outlook, and Gmail when it is available): email bodies and attachments are not stored. Your email chat, and the short notes made from your email (sender address, subject, one-line reason, message ID), are deleted after 7 days, or straight away if you withdraw your email agreement or delete them in the app. A reply or new email waiting for your approval is deleted when you send or cancel it, or after an hour. The record of who an email went to, its subject and when is deleted after 7 days. Your rules (VIP and muted senders, nicknames), your reminders, your alert settings and the logs of what you dealt with and what we alerted are kept until you delete them or withdraw your email agreement (which deletes all of them); disconnecting one mailbox also removes the logs for that mailbox.
• If you use Aphra without an account, we create a random guest ID on your device to run your session and count your free messages, and we store your guest chats under that ID. This is personal data, not anonymous data, because it is linked to your device. If you create an account your guest history moves to it. You can ask us to delete guest data at privacy@aphra.me.
• Records the law requires us to keep, such as payment records, are kept for the period the law requires.
• Backups: our database provider keeps a daily backup for 7 days. When you delete your account, your live data and your encryption keys are removed straight away and any copy in a backup is gone within 7 days. If a backup ever has to be restored, we first delete again every account that was deleted since it was made, before anyone can use it. Backups made before our move to encrypted storage on 12 October 2026 may still hold older, unencrypted copies of content from before that date until they expire, no later than 20 October 2026.
• Usage data in PostHog is deleted 12 months after your last activity. If you delete your account we delete your PostHog profile and its events straight away, including events from your earlier guest ID. Crash and error reports are kept by Sentry and Firebase Crashlytics for up to 90 days. Ad-measurement data, if you turned it on, is kept by Google under its own retention rules. Daily totals with no user, device or IP identifiers are kept because they cannot identify anyone.

9. Your rights

You can ask us to see, correct, delete, restrict or move your data, and object to some uses. You can withdraw consent at any time. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority. To delete your account, use Settings, "Delete my account" in the app, or see how to delete your account. For anything else, email privacy@aphra.me. We acknowledge complaints within 30 days and reply within one month.

10. Children

Aphra is for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you think a child has an account, tell us at privacy@aphra.me and we will delete it.

11. Security

• On the way: everything between the app and our servers travels over an encrypted connection (HTTPS).
• When stored: what you write and what Aphra writes back (chats and their titles, notes, lists, reminders, memories, calendar events, and the email notes, drafts and meeting messages Aphra keeps) is encrypted in our database with a separate key for each person (AES-256-GCM). Each person's key is itself locked by a master key held in Google Cloud Key Management, in a separate account from the database. Someone who got a copy of our database or of a backup would see scrambled text, not your content. Google and Microsoft access tokens are also stored encrypted.
• What this is not: it is not end-to-end encryption. Our servers decrypt your content while they work for you, and send what is needed to the providers in section 4. We hold the keys, so we are able to read your content, and we could be required by law to hand it over.
• Our people: people at Aphra do not read your conversations, notes or other content. The only exceptions are a specific item you ask us to look at for support, investigating abuse or a security problem, or where the law requires it.
• What is not encrypted this way: your account details (name, email, profile picture), the names and email addresses of contacts used to find the right person, the kind of thing Aphra remembers (for example "pet name", not the pet's name), times, IDs, counts, and how the app is used.
• Notifications: a notification shows the text of a message by default, so it can appear on your lock screen. You can hide message text in your phone's own notification settings.
• If something goes wrong: no system is perfectly secure. Access to our systems is restricted. If a breach puts your rights at risk, we will tell you and the regulator as the law requires.

12. California and other regions

If you live in California you have the right to know, delete and correct your personal information and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising.

13. Our website

This website uses only essential cookies, if any, and privacy-friendly analytics that do not use cookies.

14. Changes

We will tell you in the app or by email before material changes take effect.