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Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 10, 2026

The short version

  • What you write and log in Soberwise stays on your phone, in an encrypted database. We never receive it.
  • There is no account and no sign-in. We don't ask for your name or your email.
  • The app contains no advertising tools, no analytics tools and no crash-reporting tools.
  • The only outside service the app sends data to is RevenueCat, our subscription service. It receives your purchase record, an anonymous ID and a few technical details. It never receives your progress, your journal, your check-ins or anything else you enter.
  • Google handles payment through Google Play. If you choose to rate the app, Google receives your rating and review.
  • You can export or delete all your data yourself, at any time, from Me > My data.

1. Who we are

Soberwise is made by Ibtikar Al Ula for Information Technology and E-Marketing Co. Ltd. ("we", "us").

For the small amount of personal data described in section 4, we are the controller: we decide why and how it is used.

  • Contact: info@ibtikaralula.com

2. What stays on your phone

Everything you enter in Soberwise stays on your phone:

  • your start date, your day count, the drinks you log and any limit you set;
  • check-ins, mood, cravings and which tools helped;
  • journal entries, letters to your future self, your reasons, affirmations, plans, rewards and habits;
  • your weight, if you choose to log it;
  • the names and phone numbers of people you trust, which you type into SOS yourself;
  • your answers to the starting questions, and your settings.

How it is protected:

  • It is stored only in the app's private storage on your phone, in an encrypted database (SQLite3 Multiple Ciphers). The encryption key is random, created on your phone, and protected by the Android Keystore. It never leaves your phone.
  • Android cloud backup and device-to-device transfer are switched off for all of the app's data, so Android does not copy it to a backup.
  • We have no server that receives this information and no way to read it. This also means we cannot recover it if you lose your phone or delete the app. To keep a copy, use Me > My data > Export my data (section 8).

If you add the home-screen widget, the start time of your current count and its day labels are also kept, outside the database, so the widget can count on its own. Deleting your data resets it.

Some of this information is about your health. Because it never reaches us, we don't see it, keep it or share it. The app processes it on your phone, for you.

3. Features that work only on your phone

  • Notifications are created and scheduled on your phone. Nothing is sent to a notification server. "Discreet notifications" is on by default, so notifications never mention alcohol on the lock screen.
  • The home-screen widget shows only the app icon, your day count and the name Soberwise. Anyone who can see your home screen can see it.
  • App lock uses your phone's own fingerprint or face unlock. The app only learns whether unlocking worked. It never sees your fingerprint or face data.
  • A message to someone you trust (SOS): the app opens your own messaging app with a ready message ("I'm going through a hard moment right now. Could you call me or reply when you can?"). Nothing is sent unless you press send. The message goes through your messaging app and your phone network, not through us. SOS can also open your dialer with their number; the call starts only when you tap it.
  • Helplines and source links open your phone's dialer or browser. We don't learn whom you call or what you read. Websites you open have their own privacy policies.
  • Sharing your tree or a milestone uses Android's share menu. You choose the app and the person. We don't receive what you share.

4. What leaves your phone, and why

4.1 RevenueCat (subscriptions)

RevenueCat, Inc. (USA) checks whether you have Premium. It works for us, under a data processing agreement, as our processor.

Each time the app opens, it asks RevenueCat whether you have Premium. So this happens for everyone who uses the app, even if you never buy anything.

What RevenueCat receives when the app checks your subscription, shows you the plans, restores a purchase, or when you buy:

  • An anonymous ID. RevenueCat's code creates a random ID on your phone the first time the app runs. It is not linked to your name, email or Google account. If you reinstall the app, a new ID is created.
  • Your purchase record, if you buy. Google Play gives a purchase token, which RevenueCat uses to check the purchase with Google: the plan, dates, price and currency, whether it is a free trial or an introductory price, and whether it will renew.
  • Technical details. Device type, Android version, app version and your phone's language setting.
  • Your IP address, because every internet connection carries one. RevenueCat uses the country of your Google Play purchase. If there is none, it works out your country from your IP address. It keeps the country and drops the IP address.

RevenueCat never receives anything listed in section 2.

We use this information to:

  • unlock the Premium features you paid for, and restore them on a new phone;
  • show the plans and prices offered in your country;
  • see totals in RevenueCat's reports, such as how many people started a trial or renewed, so that we can run the business.

We don't use it for advertising, and we don't sell it.

Legal basis (EU and UK).

  • Unlocking what you bought and showing you the plans: a contract with you, or steps you ask for before one.
  • The totals in reports: our legitimate interest in running the service.

Because Soberwise is about alcohol, the fact that you bought a Soberwise subscription could, under some laws, be read as saying something about your health. We treat it as sensitive. We use it only for the purposes above, and only with RevenueCat.

4.2 Google

  • Payment. You pay through Google Play. Google processes your payment details under its own privacy policy. We never see your card or bank details. Google tells us and RevenueCat that a purchase was made.
  • Rating the app. After a big milestone, the app may show Google Play's rating card, at most once every four months. You can switch this off in Me > Privacy and security. If you rate or review the app, it goes to Google Play, under Google's terms. Your review is public on Google Play. The app does not receive your rating or your words.

4.3 If you contact us

If you email us, we receive your email address and what you write. We use them only to answer you, and we keep them for 12 months after our last reply.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in answering you, or steps you ask for under a contract.

5. What we never do

  • We don't sell your data.
  • We don't show ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites.
  • We don't send your progress, journal, check-ins, mood or anything else you enter to any company: not to advertisers, not to analytics companies, not to anyone.

6. Data sent outside your country

RevenueCat stores data in the United States.

  • For people in the EU, the UK and Switzerland, RevenueCat's data processing agreement uses the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, with the UK addendum and the Swiss changes.
  • Google explains its own safeguards in its privacy policy.

7. How long we keep data

  • On your phone: until you delete it in the app, or uninstall the app.
  • Export files: wherever you saved or sent them, until you delete them. The app deletes the temporary copies it makes itself.
  • At RevenueCat: for as long as we use RevenueCat to manage subscriptions, unless you ask us to delete it sooner. If we stop using RevenueCat, its agreement with us gives us 30 days to ask it to delete or return the data, and after that RevenueCat may delete it. We delete your record sooner if you ask (section 8).
  • Emails to us: as stated in section 4.3.

8. Your choices and rights

Data on your phone: you control it directly.

  • See it: everything is in the app.
  • Take a copy: Me > My data > Export my data. The app creates a file you can save or send. The file is not encrypted: anyone who opens it can read everything in it, including your journal, your letters and the names and numbers of the people you trust. Keep it somewhere safe.
  • Move it to a new phone: Me > My data > Import a backup, using that file.
  • Delete it: Me > My data > Delete all my data. This removes it from your phone permanently and resets the home-screen widget. Uninstalling the app also removes it.

Deleting your data in the app, or uninstalling it, does not cancel your subscription, and it does not remove your record at RevenueCat. To cancel, see the Terms of Use.

Your record at RevenueCat: ask us.

  1. Email info@ibtikaralula.com.
  2. Include the order number from your Google Play receipt. It starts with "GPA." and helps us find your record without asking you for anything else.
  3. We will delete the record, which removes all of its data at RevenueCat.

If you have never bought anything, there is no order number. Your record then holds only the anonymous ID, the technical details and the country, and nothing in it links it to you, so we can't tell which record is yours.

Please note:

  • This does not cancel your subscription. You cancel in Google Play.
  • If you keep using the app with an active subscription, the app checks your subscription again and a new record is created.

Your rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

  • be informed;
  • access your data;
  • have it corrected or deleted;
  • restrict or object to its use;
  • receive it in a portable form.

We make no decisions about you by automated means. We reply within one month. Where the law allows, we tell you within that month if we need up to two more months. We don't charge for this.

Complaints. You can complain to a data protection authority. In the EU and EEA, that is the authority where you live, where you work, or where you think the problem happened. In the UK, it is the Information Commissioner's Office.

United States. We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising. If you live in Washington State, Nevada, or another place with a consumer health data law, read our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

9. Children

Soberwise is for adults aged 18 or over. It is not directed to children.

We don't knowingly receive data about children. If you believe a child bought a subscription, contact us and we will delete the RevenueCat record. Refunds go through Google Play (see the Terms of Use).

10. Security

  • Your data is encrypted on your phone (section 2).
  • The connection to RevenueCat is encrypted.
  • In Me > Privacy and security you can lock the app with your fingerprint or face and hide the app's content in the app switcher. Discreet notifications are on by default, in Me > Notifications.

Your phone's own screen lock matters too. Please use one.

11. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change matters, we tell you in the app before it applies.

At launch the app has no crash-reporting service. If we ever add one, or any other outside service, we will:

  1. ask you in the app first;
  2. update this policy before the service is switched on.

12. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, email info@ibtikaralula.com.

Ibtikar Al Ula for Information Technology and E-Marketing Co. Ltd.