The Short Version
Everything you write in Psynapse stays on your phone. Your mood entries, thought records, questionnaire answers, notes and review history are stored in an encrypted database on your device and are never uploaded, never shared and never seen by us. There is no account and no login.
Three things leave your device, and none of them is anything you wrote: the advertising identifier used by Google AdMob to show ads, and only with your consent; a report if the app crashes; and a count of which kinds of screen were opened — never which concept you looked up.
Who We Are
Psynapse is a psychology study and self-help app published by Shahzeb Speaks LLC, 1500 N Grant St, Denver, CO 80203-1859, United States. “We” and “us” in this policy mean that company.
This policy explains, in plain language, exactly what the app does and does not do with information.
What Is Stored on Your Device
- Study data — which entries you have added to review, how you rated them, your tags and your notes.
- Lab data — mood check-ins, thought records, activity plans and questionnaire scores.
- Settings — your exam date, chosen syllabus and selected country for crisis resources.
This is held in an encrypted SQLite database. The encryption key is generated on your device and stored in the Android Keystore or iOS Keychain. We do not have it and cannot recover it.
We cannot read any of it. It is not sent anywhere.
Advertising
Psynapse is free and paid for by advertisements from Google AdMob, which appear in five forms:
- a banner at the foot of the screen, on every screen except the one named below;
- a native ad laid out like the page around it, inside longer lists and on concept entries;
- a full-screen ad at a natural break — when a review session, a drill or a question set ends, after a Lab tool is saved, or after every few entries you read. Never more than three in one session, never within three minutes of each other, and none in your first three launches;
- an app-open ad when you open or return to the app, at most once an hour;
- an optional video ad you choose to watch in return for a printable question paper or handout. It is always offered first, never started for you.
AdMob may collect an advertising identifier and coarse technical information to serve and measure those ads. Google’s practices are described in their partner sites and apps notice.
Where ads never appear: on the crisis resources screen. And no full-screen ad of any kind is shown for 24 hours after that screen has been opened.
This is not a promise we ask you to take on trust. It is enforced by an automated test that fails our build if either rule is broken.
Consent (EEA & UK)
In the EEA and the UK you are asked before any of this happens, through Google’s certified consent platform. If you decline, advertising is switched off entirely for that install.
Crash Reports
If Psynapse crashes, Firebase Crashlytics sends us the error, where in the code it happened, your device model, your Android version and the app version. It does not send anything you have written.
We use this because some faults only ever happen on real phones — a fingerprint lock, a scheduled reminder, the speech voice — and without a report we would never learn that the app failed for you.
Which Screens Were Opened
Firebase Analytics records that a screen of a particular kind was opened: a concept entry, the drill, the reading list. It records the kind and never the thing.
Opening the entry for a sexual disorder or for suicidal ideation is reported identically to
opening any other entry, because the app sends the pattern /entry/:slug and
never the slug itself.
Again, not a policy you are asked to trust — the app’s test suite fails the build if any screen name it would send contains the value from the address.
Two screens report nothing at all. Opening the crisis resources screen and opening the Lab lock are never recorded in any form.
Nothing else. No account, no login, no profile, no advertising or analytics identifier is ever tied to a name, and we never set a user ID. Your Lab data — mood entries, thought records, questionnaire answers, notes — is never passed to any of these SDKs in any form.
Currently Switched Off
In the version published today, the crash reports and the screen counts described above are switched off and nothing is sent. They need a Firebase configuration file that the published app does not contain, so both are inert.
They are described here because the code is present and they may be turned on in a later version. If that happens, the date at the top of this policy changes and this section is removed.
Content Updates
The app may download an updated content pack — the encyclopedia text and the crisis helpline list. This is a plain file download. It sends no information about you beyond what any file download requires.
Health Information
Psynapse is an educational and self-help tool. It is not a medical device, it does not diagnose anything, and the questionnaires it includes (PHQ-9, GAD-7, K10) are screening instruments presented for education. Their results are not a diagnosis and the app says so on the screen.
If you are in crisis, please use the crisis resources in the Lab or contact your local emergency service.
Children
Psynapse is intended for university-level students and adults. It is not directed at children under 13.
Your Control
- Delete any note, mood entry or record from within the app.
- Reset study progress without losing your notes.
- Uninstalling the app removes every piece of data described above, permanently.
Because nothing is stored on a server, there is nothing left behind and nothing for us to delete on your behalf.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it and the new version appears at the same address.
Contact
Shahzeb Speaks LLC
1500 N Grant St, Denver, CO 80203-1859, United States
Psynapse is published by Shahzeb Speaks LLC. Google Play and Android are trademarks of Google LLC.