Privacy policy
In short: your recordings never leave your iPhone. To analyse a dream, its text goes through our server to Anthropic, the AI company that makes Claude. Our server doesn't store your dreams. There's no account, no advertising and no tracking, and we don't sell data.
Who we are
Sumerian is an iPhone app made by an independent developer, Scott Gilmour ("we", "us"). You can reach us at hello@sumerianapp.com.
What stays on your iPhone
- Audio recordings. Dreams are transcribed on your iPhone. Recordings are never uploaded and are deleted 72 hours after you record them.
- Your dreams and everything made from them: the text, analyses, interpretations, and the people and places across your dreams.
- Alarms and settings.
- Details you choose to give us during setup: age range, gender, birthday and place of birth. All of these are optional and are never sent anywhere.
What leaves your iPhone, and why
- Dream text, for analysis and interpretation. When you save or edit a dream, its text (and its analysis codes, when they exist) is sent over an encrypted connection to our server, which passes it to Anthropic's API. Anthropic returns the analysis or interpretation, and our server sends it back to your iPhone. This happens for every dream; analysis is how the app works, and you agree to it when you first open the app.
- A device check. Each request carries a key identifier and signature from Apple's App Attest, so our server only answers genuine copies of the app. This identifier is specific to the app on your device and isn't linked to your name or Apple Account.
- Purchases, if you subscribe. Subscriptions are handled by Apple. When they're available, the app sends our server Apple's signed proof of your subscription so it can unlock the full interpretation. We never see your payment details.
What our server keeps
- No dream content. Our server doesn't store or log dream text, analyses or interpretations. For readings that need a subscription, the full interpretation is returned to your iPhone encrypted, and kept there.
- Request records (the time, the App Attest key identifier, which feature was used, and whether it worked) for 30 days, then deleted. We use them to prevent abuse, to fix problems, and to understand in aggregate how often the app is used.
- Server error logs, which contain no dream text and no IP addresses, for up to 30 days.
- The public key from each device's App Attest registration, for as long as that installation uses it.
Anthropic
Anthropic processes dream text as our AI provider, under its commercial terms and privacy policy. We send it only the dream text and analysis codes, never your name, contact details, device identifiers or the details you gave during setup.
Interpretations are not advice
Interpretations are written by AI. They're reflections to think about, not diagnoses or medical, psychological or other professional advice.
What we don't do
- No account or sign-in. We don't collect your name, email, contacts or location.
- No advertising, no tracking across apps or websites, and no third-party analytics.
- We don't sell or share your data, and we don't use your dreams to train AI models.
Beta testing
If you test Sumerian through Apple's TestFlight, Apple may share crash reports, usage data and any feedback you send with us, under Apple's TestFlight terms.
Where data is processed
Our server is in the United States, and Anthropic processes data in the United States.
Your choices
- Delete any dream in the app; its analysis and interpretation are deleted with it. Deleting the app deletes everything stored on your iPhone.
- Change or remove the optional setup details any time in Settings, under About you.
- Because our server keeps no dream content, there's nothing dream-related to delete there. Request records expire after 30 days. To ask about your data, email hello@sumerianapp.com.
Children
Sumerian is meant for adults and isn't directed at children. We don't knowingly collect data from children.
Security
All traffic between the app, our server and Anthropic is encrypted. Our server accepts requests only from genuine copies of the app, and access to it is limited to the developer.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date above. If a change affects what leaves your iPhone, the app will show you the new terms and ask you to accept them before sending anything.