NovaLife Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 6, 2026
Contact: [email protected]

NovaLife is a health and lifestyle tracking app. This policy explains, in plain language, what data the app handles, where it lives, what leaves your phone, and the controls you have.

The short version: what you log is stored encrypted on your phone and, when Sync & Backup is on (it is by default), in your private account space on our servers, so a lost phone doesn't mean lost data and you can use NovaLife in a web browser. Mood and journal entries stay on your phone unless you separately opt in. We don't sell your data and we don't track you.

1. Where your data lives

On your phone: everything you log is stored in a local database encrypted with SQLCipher (the encryption key is held in your phone's secure keystore).

In your account on our servers (when Sync & Backup is on; it is by default): your food, water, exercise and workout records, weight and body measurements, manually logged sleep, meal and workout plans, saved meals, milestones and streaks, and profile and targets. This exists so your data survives a lost or broken phone, syncs across devices, and is available on the NovaLife web app. Server data is protected by row-level security (only your account can access your rows) and encrypted in transit. You can turn Sync & Backup off in Settings at any time; that stops future syncing, and you can remove everything from our servers with "Delete my account and all data."

Never synced, no matter the setting:

The Coach AI (an optional download of roughly 550 MB in Settings) runs entirely on your device. Your health data is never sent anywhere for coaching, guidance, or chat. Coaching numbers are computed locally; the model only rewords them, on the phone.

2. What leaves your phone, and why

DataWhere it goesWhyStored there?
Email address (and password hash, or your Google account ID if you sign in with Google)Supabase (our backend provider)Creating and signing in to your accountYes, until you delete your account
Fitness and lifestyle logs (food, water, workouts, weight, manually logged sleep, plans, saved meals, milestones, profile and targets)Supabase, under your accountSync & Backup (on by default; Settings toggle): backup, restore, multi-device sync, and web accessYes, until you delete your account (turning sync off stops future syncing)
Progress photosSupabase Storage (private bucket; only your account can access them)So your photos survive a lost phone and sync across devicesYes, until you delete the photo or your account
Meal photos (only when you use "Log meal from photo")Our server function, which forwards the photo to Anthropic's Claude API for analysisTo identify foods and estimate portions in the photoNo. The photo is analyzed and discarded; it is not stored by us. You are asked for consent before the first use, and nutrition numbers always come from a food database, not the AI
Anonymous photo-correction records (only when you correct a photo-detection result)Our serversTo improve food detection for everyone. Contains only: the detected food, the database food you chose instead, and a portion-size bucket. Never the photo, never custom foods you typed, never your identityYes, but it contains nothing that can identify you or your device. Turn off in Settings ("Help improve food detection")
Food search text (what you type, or a scanned barcode)USDA FoodData Central and Open Food FactsTo look up nutrition dataQueries are not linked to your account by us
Crash reports (device model, OS version, stack trace)Firebase Crashlytics (Google)To find and fix crashesYes, retained per Google's Crashlytics policy. Crash reports contain no health values and no log content
Push notification tokenFirebase Cloud Messaging (Google)Reminders you schedule (meals, water, workouts, weekly summary)Yes, while the app is installed
Mood & journal entries (only if you opt in)Supabase, under your accountBackup/restore you explicitly requestedYes, until you opt out or delete your account

We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or share it with data brokers. We do no behavioral analytics: no screen tracking, no advertising profiles, no engagement tracking.

3. AI features, spelled out

4. Health Connect

With your permission, NovaLife reads steps, heart rate, active calories, and sleep from Google Health Connect, and writes back workouts, water, weight, and active calories you log. Health Connect data is displayed in the app and stored only in the encrypted local database. Health Connect data is never uploaded to our servers and is never included in Sync & Backup or the web app.

Per Google's Health Connect policy: we use this data solely to provide the app's tracking features. We do not use Health Connect data for advertising, do not sell it, and do not share it with third parties. You can revoke access at any time in the Health Connect app, and the app keeps working without it.

5. Using NovaLife on the web

The NovaLife web app (app.thenovalife.app) gives you access to the same account and synced data from a browser: viewing and editing your logs, plans, and progress. All traffic is encrypted (TLS) and the same row-level security applies. Data kept in your browser for the web app to work is protected by your device's own login rather than the app's database encryption, so sign out when using a shared computer. Phone-only features (camera, barcode scanning, GPS tracking, Health Connect, and the on-device Coach AI) are not available on the web.

6. Permissions the app asks for

Camera (barcode scanning, meal photos, progress photos), location (live run/walk tracking only; routes stored on-device), calendar (showing and adding your planned workouts/meals, with permission), notifications (reminders you set), and Health Connect (section 4). Each is optional; the app functions without any of them.

7. Your controls

8. Security

Local data is encrypted at rest (SQLCipher, key in the platform keystore). All network traffic uses TLS. Server data is protected by row-level security so each account can only access its own rows and photos.

9. Children

NovaLife is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your region) and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

10. Retention

Local data stays until you delete it or the app. Server data (account, synced logs, photos, opted-in backups) stays until you delete your account. Anonymous correction records contain nothing identifying and are retained in aggregate. Crash reports are retained according to Google's Crashlytics retention policy (90 days as of this writing).

11. Changes

We will update this policy as the app changes. Notable change on July 6, 2026: Sync & Backup (cloud sync of fitness logs, with the Settings control described above), the web app, and anonymous photo-correction records were added to this policy. Material changes will be announced in the app.

12. Contact

Questions or privacy requests: [email protected].