MARCUS - Privacy Policy

The short version: MARCUS does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data. Your journal entries, reflections, and conversations with the Inner Sage stay on your device and are never sent to any server. We have no analytics, no tracking, and no cloud services.

1. Who We Are

MARCUS is developed by Owen McLoughlin, an independent developer. This privacy policy applies to the MARCUS iOS application ("the App").

2. Data Stored on Your Device

MARCUS stores the following data locally on your device:

Journal entries and reflections -- Any text you write in the Reflect tab or during evening reflections is saved to your device's local storage using Apple's SwiftData framework. This data never leaves your device.
Morning intentions -- The intentions you set each morning are stored locally on your device.
Lesson progress -- Your reading progress through the seven Stoic lessons is tracked locally so you can pick up where you left off.
App preferences -- Your notification time preferences and other settings are stored locally on your device.

All of this data resides solely on your device. If you delete the App, this data is permanently deleted.

3. Data We Do NOT Collect

MARCUS does not collect, transmit, or have access to any of the following:

Personal information (name, email, phone number, location)
Usage analytics or behavioral data
Crash reports or diagnostic data (beyond what Apple collects through its own systems, which you control in your device Settings)
Advertising identifiers or tracking data
Your journal entries, reflections, or intentions
Your conversations with the Inner Sage
Device identifiers or fingerprints

We do not use any third-party analytics services, SDKs, or tracking frameworks.

4. AI Processing (Inner Sage)

The Inner Sage is MARCUS's AI Stoic coaching feature. It is important to understand how it works:

Fully on-device. The AI model runs entirely on your device using Apple's CoreML framework. Your prompts and the AI's responses are processed locally. No text is sent to any server.
No cloud AI services. MARCUS does not use OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, or any other cloud-based AI service. The model is downloaded once and runs offline.
Ephemeral conversations. In version 1.0, Inner Sage conversations are not persisted after you close the conversation. They exist only in your device's temporary memory while the conversation is active.
No training on your data. Your conversations are never used to train or improve any AI model. The model is static and does not learn from your inputs.

The AI model is downloaded as an on-demand resource (approximately 1.8 GB) when you first use the Inner Sage. This is the only network download the App initiates, and it contains only the model weights -- no personal data is transmitted during or after this download.

5. Notifications

MARCUS can send you daily reminders for your morning intention, afternoon pause, and evening reflection. These notifications are:

Local only. They are scheduled by the App on your device using Apple's local notification system. No push notification server is involved.
User-controlled. You choose whether to enable notifications and can customize the times. You can disable them at any time in the App's settings or in your device's system Settings.
No data transmitted. Notification scheduling does not involve any network communication.

6. Third-Party Services

MARCUS version 1.0 does not integrate with any third-party services. There are:

No analytics SDKs (no Firebase, no Mixpanel, no Amplitude)
No advertising frameworks
No social media integrations
No cloud storage or sync services
No crash reporting services (beyond Apple's own opt-in system)

7. Children's Privacy

MARCUS does not collect personal data from any user, including children. The App is rated 4+ and contains no objectionable content. Because no data is collected or transmitted, there are no special considerations under COPPA or similar regulations.

8. Data Security

Because your data never leaves your device, it is protected by your device's built-in security measures, including device passcode, Face ID or Touch ID, and Apple's hardware encryption. We recommend keeping your device's software up to date and using a passcode to protect your data.

9. Changes to This Policy

If we make changes to this privacy policy, we will update this page and the effective date above. If a future version of MARCUS introduces any data collection (for example, optional cloud sync), we will clearly describe those changes and require your explicit consent before any data leaves your device.

10. Your Rights

Because MARCUS does not collect or store any personal data on our servers, there is no personal data for us to access, export, or delete on your behalf. All data is on your device under your control. You can delete all MARCUS data at any time by deleting the App.

11. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or the MARCUS app, please contact:

Owen McLoughlin
Email: busiest-21.qualm@icloud.com