Privacy Policy for Ownplora

The controller for the Ownplora app is Tom Silas Helmke, c/o Online-Impressum #4746, Europaring 90, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany. Contact: tshfm78@gmail.com. The full provider details are in the legal notice.

This policy describes processing inside the Ownplora app for iPhone and iPad. Visiting the tommsel.com website is separate and is described in the general tommsel.com privacy policy.

Ownplora is in development and not yet available on the App Store. The policy describes the current state of development and will be checked against the final behavior and final source code of the app before release.

Ownplora is used to record personal observations, capture measurements and evaluate your own records with caution. The app has no user account of its own and no registration.

Ownplora follows a local first principle. The following can be stored on your device: observation projects, measurements, check-ins, notes, events, photos, study plans and measurement plans, app settings and the evaluations calculated from them. There is no developer cloud account on which this data is stored. Tommsel does not receive this data.

You can voluntarily record sensitive information as well, such as symptoms, physical changes or personal health experiences. Ownplora does not require this. Like all other records, such information stays locally on your device. The app does not collect it on a server of its own. Decide yourself what you enter and whether you export it.

The connection to Apple Health is optional and only happens after your decision in the iOS permission dialog. Ownplora reads steps and sleep only. Ownplora does not write to Apple Health. Values that are read are processed locally and stored on the device as part of your Ownplora records.

You can change the access at any time in the iOS settings or in the Health app. Whether and how already imported values can be removed in Ownplora will be confirmed with the final app. Ownplora cannot always tell whether access was denied or whether there is simply no data. Apple Health and Ownplora are separate data stores: Apple processes health data under its own terms.

You choose or take photos for documentation yourself and they are stored locally in Ownplora. Ownplora does not search your photo library on its own. The handling of image metadata such as capture time or location will be checked against the final implementation and added here. As a precaution, assume that images and exported files can contain metadata.

Widgets can use minimal status information that is shared between the app and the widget in an App Group container. Widgets do not need your complete personal study data for this. On the lock screen or home screen, widget content may be visible to others if your device allows it.

Reminders are local notifications that you activate voluntarily and that your device schedules itself. There is no Ownplora push server. You can revoke the permission at any time in the iOS settings.

There are three kinds of copies you should distinguish. First, the encrypted Ownplora backup that you create and store yourself. Second, operating system backups of your iPhone or iPad, including through iCloud, which can contain app data depending on your system settings. Third, a voluntary data export. A local data model does not automatically rule out iOS device backups. Ownplora does not manage or store your backups on a server.

You trigger exports yourself. PDF reports and machine-readable research exports are possible. Exported files can contain sensitive information, and certain exports are unencrypted. When you pass a file on, for example through Apple's share sheet, external recipients receive a copy and process it on their own responsibility under their own terms.

You can import structured external study templates. Importing brings a template into the app and does not mean your data is shared automatically. External templates are not automatically scientifically reviewed. Check the source before you use a template.

At the current state of development Ownplora contains no analytics of its own, no advertising tracking and no advertising. This statement will be checked against the SDKs and network access actually used in the final source code before release.

You can edit entries in the app, export your data and use the delete functions the app offers. Deleting the app removes its local data from the device as far as iOS provides for app data. You must delete exported copies separately at their location. You can manage operating system backups in the iOS settings. There is no central deletion request to Tommsel, because Tommsel stores no Ownplora data.

A distinction applies between data processing inside Ownplora, visiting tommsel.com, contacting us by email and sharing through Apple's share sheet. Visiting tommsel.com creates technically necessary access data, for example through hosting. The general tommsel.com privacy policy applies to that and to possible consents. If you write to us, we process your message in order to answer it. Please do not send health data or personal records unprompted.

Where the legal requirements are met, you have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection, as well as the right to withdraw a given consent with effect for the future. You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example with the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia (LDI NRW). Because Tommsel does not hold your Ownplora records, Tommsel cannot hand them over. You manage and export them yourself in the app. You send requests to tshfm78@gmail.com. Anonymity cannot be guaranteed, for example when you pass on files.

Last updated: October 28, 2026. It refers to the development status of Ownplora at that time. It will be updated if features or data processing change. It is an editorial draft and has not yet been finally reviewed by a lawyer.