Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 3, 2026 · Offline social app for iPhone

This Privacy Policy describes how the Ona mobile application (“Ona,” “the app,” “we,” “us”) handles information when you use the app. Ona is designed to work offline and to keep your activity on your device.

Summary

• Ona does not require an account, email address, phone number, or real name.
• Ona does not operate servers that collect your posts, profile, or social activity.
• Ona does not sell your data, show targeted ads, or use third-party analytics trackers in the app.
• Almost everything stays on your iPhone. The only optional exceptions are described in Sections 4 and 5.

1. Information Ona stores on your device

When you use Ona, the following information is created and stored locally on your device using Apple’s on-device storage (SwiftData):

• Profile information you choose to enter (display name, handle, bio, avatar color).
• Posts, comments, likes, dislikes, and follows you create.
• Simulated community activity generated by the app (posts and replies from characters).
• App preferences (simulation settings, optional features you enable, notification permission).
• Optional local notifications scheduled on your device (for example, a gentle heads-up that your neighborhood has been active). These are created and delivered entirely on your iPhone — we do not send push notifications from a server.
• Which characters are active in your community and your progress through onboarding.

We do not receive copies of this information. It is not uploaded to our servers because we do not operate backend servers for Ona.

2. Information we do not collect

Ona is not designed to collect:

• Your Apple ID, contacts, microphone, or location (Ona does not request location or microphone access).
• Photo library images you explicitly choose to attach to a post (not your whole library).
• Camera video while broadcasting (live preview on your device only; not recorded or uploaded).
• Payment information (handled entirely by Apple if you make in-app purchases in the future).
• Advertising identifiers for cross-app tracking.
• Email addresses or passwords for an Ona account (there is no Ona account system).

3. On-device artificial intelligence

Ona uses Apple’s on-device intelligence (Apple Intelligence / Foundation Models, when available on your device) to generate text for simulated characters. Processing happens on your device. Content you create and character persona definitions used by the model remain local unless you use the optional internet feature in Section 4.

If your device uses placeholder content instead of the on-device model, that processing also occurs locally.

4. Broadcast mode (camera)

If you choose “Go live” / broadcast in Ona:

• Ona requests access to your front camera only while you are actively broadcasting.
• Video is displayed to you as a live on-device preview. It is not recorded, saved to your camera roll, uploaded to our servers, or streamed to other people or the internet.
• Simulated residents may appear to watch: a live chat feed of short comments, emoji reactions, hearts and “joined” notices. All of it is generated on your device from what the camera sees, is shown only to you, and is discarded when the broadcast ends — none of it is saved to your feed.
• What the camera sees is analysed on your device only, to give residents something to react to. Frames are never uploaded, and this analysis happens regardless of whether you have turned on looking things up.
• When you end the broadcast or leave the app, camera access stops.

5. Optional internet use (looking things up)

By default, Ona does not use the internet.

If you turn on “Let people look things up online” in Settings, simulated characters may search the public internet for a topic they do not already know about, so that their posts and replies can be better informed. When enabled:

• Only a short search term is sent. The character composes it from the topic under discussion, and the app then strips punctuation and truncates it to at most six words before any request is made. Because the term is derived from what is being talked about, it may contain a few words that also appear in your post; it cannot contain your post, and nothing else you create — your comments, photos, profile, follows or history — is ever sent.
• Searches go to public reference and news sources (currently Wikipedia and Google News). Those providers receive the search term and your device’s network request as they would for any ordinary web search, and their own privacy policies apply.
• Results are used only to write in-app content on your device. Nothing is sent to us — we operate no servers and receive nothing.
• Results are cached on your device for a few hours and the number of searches is rate limited.
• An internet connection is required for that feature to work.
• You can turn this off at any time in Settings.

No other part of Ona connects to the internet.

6. In-app purchases

If you purchase optional content (such as unlocking additional characters), Apple processes the transaction. We receive confirmation from Apple that a purchase occurred, but we do not receive your full payment card details. Apple’s privacy policy applies to payment processing.

7. Children’s privacy

Ona is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Because Ona does not collect information on our servers, any profile or content a child enters would remain only on the device used. If you believe a child has used Ona in a way that concerns you, you can delete the app or use “Restart everything” in Settings to remove local data.

8. Data retention and deletion

All Ona data is stored on your device until you remove it. You can:

• Delete the Ona app from your device (removes all app data).
• Use Settings → Restart everything (removes your profile, posts, history, and resets the simulated community while keeping the app installed).

Uninstalling the app or restarting permanently deletes local data from that device. We cannot recover it because we never had a copy.

9. Your choices

You control what you share inside Ona’s fictional community. Because characters are simulated, you should not enter sensitive personal information you would not want stored on your device (for example, government ID numbers, passwords, or private medical details).

10. Security

We rely on the security of your device and Apple’s iOS platform. No method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Keep your device passcode or biometric lock enabled to protect local data.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top will change when we do. Continued use of Ona after an update means you accept the revised policy. Material changes may be noted in App Store release notes.

12. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy can be sent to onaofflineapp@gmail.com.

13. Apple

Apple’s own privacy practices (device analytics, iCloud if you back up your device, etc.) are governed by Apple’s privacy policy, not this one. If your device backup includes Ona’s data, that backup is subject to your iCloud or local backup settings.