Privacy Policy
Effective 1 November 2026
In short. Big Why keeps what you tell it so it can remind you of it. It sends what you say to OpenAI, our AI provider, only after you agree, and OpenAI does not train on it. We never sell your data, never show ads, and never store recordings of your voice. You can export or delete everything from the app.
Who we are
Big Why is published by Tornike Nizharadze, an individual developer in Pennsylvania, USA (“we”, “us”). Write to support@abigwhy.com about anything in this policy. Big Why is offered in the United States, to adults 18 and over.
What we collect
- Your account: your email address and a password (stored only as a secure hash by our database provider).
- Your profile: your name, date of birth, gender if you choose one, time zone, and your settings (note time, voice, orb colour).
- What you tell the assistant: written transcripts and short summaries of your conversations, and what you put on your page: values, goals, people, traits, and short facts remembered from conversations (each marked as something you said or something it inferred). Also your daily notes, weekly letters and your answers to them.
- Your voice, while you talk: streamed to OpenAI during a conversation so the assistant can hear and answer you. We do not store the audio, and we never create voiceprints or identify who is speaking.
- Health details, only if you opt in: things you mention about mood, sleep, habits, substances or your body, kept as memory only after you turn on “Remember health-related details”. See the Consumer Health Data Policy.
- Looking things up, only if you turn it on: for each lookup, its topic, whether it worked, and the source shown to you. Not the question itself.
- Subscriptions: whether you have Big Why Plus and until when, from Apple through RevenueCat. We never see your card.
- Safety and reports: a record, without any content, each time the crisis card is shown; and the words of any response you report.
- Technical logs: which functions ran, when, and whether they worked, without what you said.
- The waitlist: on this website, the email address you give us.
How we use it
- To run the assistant: hold conversations, write summaries, daily notes and letters, and remember what you said.
- To look things up for you, when you have turned that on.
- To keep conversations safe: what is said is classified during the conversation so crisis resources can be shown (see Safety).
- To manage your subscription, answer support requests, and protect the service from abuse.
- To send the one launch email to the waitlist.
We do not sell your data, share it for advertising, or give it to data brokers. We do not use it to train AI models, ours or anyone else’s. There is no advertising or tracking code in the app or on this website.
Who processes it for us
These companies process data on our behalf, under contract, and may not use it for their own purposes.
| Company | What for | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | The AI provider: voice conversations, summaries, notes, letters, memory search, safety classification | Your voice while you talk, transcripts, your page and remembered facts as needed. Under OpenAI’s API terms it is not used for training and is kept for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring, then deleted. |
| OpenAI web search and its search partners | Looking things up, only if you turn it on (off by default) | A short, impersonal question, never your name, your notes or who you have talked about. Your location only if you say it. |
| Supabase | Database, sign-in, server functions, sign-in emails (United States) | Everything stored for your account. |
| RevenueCat | Subscription status | Your account id and purchase records from Apple. |
| Apple | The App Store, payments and notifications | What Apple needs to sell and renew a subscription and deliver notifications. |
| Cloudflare | Hosting this website | Ordinary web request data. |
Your consent
Nothing about you is sent to OpenAI until you agree to the notice in the app, which names OpenAI and says what is sent. Looking things up and remembering health details each have their own switch, off until you turn them on. You can turn any of them off in Settings › Memory and AI.
How long we keep it
- Your account data is kept until you delete it. Deleting your account removes it from our database at once; backups roll off within 35 days.
- Turning off “Remember health-related details” deletes the health details remembered so far.
- OpenAI keeps what it receives for up to 30 days.
- The waitlist is deleted within 90 days after launch.
Your choices and rights
- See and correct: everything on your page can be edited in the app; any remembered fact can be forgotten.
- Export: Settings › Your data › Export gives you all of it as one file.
- Delete: Settings › Your data › Delete account, or see Delete your account.
- Withdraw consent: Settings › Memory and AI.
You can also email support@abigwhy.com to use any of these rights. We answer within 45 days.
Connecticut residents
Under the Connecticut Data Privacy Act, you have the right to confirm whether we process your personal data and to access it, to correct it, to delete it, to get a portable copy, and to opt out of the sale of personal data, targeted advertising, and profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. We do none of the last three. We process sensitive data, such as health details and any beliefs you choose to share, only with your consent, only to provide Big Why, and we delete it when you withdraw that consent. We do not use your data to train large language models.
Appeals. If we decline a request, you can appeal by writing to support@abigwhy.com with “Appeal” in the subject. We answer within 60 days and explain why. If you are not satisfied, you can contact the Connecticut Attorney General.
Washington, Nevada and other health data laws
How we handle consumer health data is set out in the Consumer Health Data Policy.
Children
Big Why is for adults, 18 and over. The app asks for a date of birth before anything else and cannot be used by anyone who gives a date under 18. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we delete it.
Security
Data travels encrypted. In our database, each account can reach only its own rows. On your phone, your sign-in is kept in the keychain; the screens you saw last are cached so the app opens quickly.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in the app before the change applies. The date at the top shows the current version.