VagusSensePrivacy Policy
For the VagusSense app (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac) and for this website.
Version date: [PLACEHOLDER: date of this version] · Version [PLACEHOLDER: version number]
Note to the operator — remove before publishing. This text states the app's facts completely and with evidence, but it is not a lawyer-reviewed legal document. Every [PLACEHOLDER] must be filled in and the text reviewed by counsel before the address is entered in App Store Connect. This English version is a translation of the German one, not a second policy.
1. Controller
The controller under the GDPR and the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) is:
[PLACEHOLDER: legal entity]
[PLACEHOLDER: street and number]
[PLACEHOLDER: postal code, city, country]
E-mail: [PLACEHOLDER: contact e-mail]
An EU or Swiss representative under Art. 27 GDPR / Art. 14 FADP must be named where required: [PLACEHOLDER: representative or "not required"]. A data protection officer must be named where required: [PLACEHOLDER: DPO or "not appointed"].
2. Three-sentence summary
VagusSense computes on your device. Nothing reaches the developer. There is no advertising, no analytics and no third party.
3. What the app reads from Apple Health
VagusSense reads exactly five things from Apple Health, and only with your explicit consent in the Health dialog:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Heart rate variability (SDNN) | Comparison against your own 28-day baseline, also matched to the block of the day |
| Resting heart rate | Comparison against your own 28-day baseline, as a whole-day baseline |
| Heartbeat series (the intervals between beats) | Computing the readings on the device |
| Wrist temperature during sleep | Stored, but part of no assessment in this release |
| Workout times | To leave out readings taken shortly after exercise, so that recovery is not read as strain |
Workout times serve only to exclude readings taken shortly after exercise. Readings taken during a workout are neither removed nor specially marked.
4. Nothing is written back to Health
VagusSense holds no write permission for Apple Health. The app creates no mindful session and no workout.
5. Where things live
- Raw Health samples stay on the iPhone, in a store with no iCloud mirror and excluded from device backup.
- Computed readings, baselines, daily context, cold-start state, breathing
pauses and — from the Mac — desk-activity windows live in the
private iCloud database of your Apple Account (container
iCloud.app.vagussense), every field encrypted. The developer has no access to it. The computed readings carry the HRV, resting heart rate and temperature values they were computed from. - Breathing pauses are stored with start, end and the planned and completed cycles. The reason is technical: readings inside the pause window must be kept out of your normal range, and that window is larger than the pause itself (from two minutes before the start to five minutes after the end). Only VagusSense's own pauses are excluded — the app does not read Apple's Breathe or Mindfulness sessions.
- Widgets, Control Center and the watch read a small file in the App Group container of that device.
- Apple Watch: it receives the state over WatchConnectivity, device to device, with no internet. It measures nothing and keeps no history.
The app makes the same promise in its own words: “Your Health history stays on your iPhone. Only the computed readings — together with the HRV, resting heart rate and temperature values they came from — and the times of your breathing pauses sync through your own private iCloud.”
6. The Mac
This recording is on by default on the Mac; you can switch it off at any time in the Mac settings. Switching it off stops the recording but deletes nothing: windows already recorded stay until the 90-day retention removes them.
On the Mac, VagusSense keeps coarse windows of your working day. Every five minutes it records:
- the number of app switches,
- active and idle time,
- the longest and the average focus duration,
- the number of distinct apps,
- one of ten coarse categories,
- a non-reversible token for the app that was in front.
A window never contains window titles, keystrokes or app names in clear text. Like the other computed rows, these windows sync into your private iCloud database and are deleted after 90 days.
Does the app turn this juxtaposition into a cause? No. The screen itself says that things which coincide need not be connected.
7. HealthKit rules, stated explicitly
Health data is not used for advertising, marketing or data mining, and is shared with no one. No sale, no third-party disclosure, no profiling.
8. No third parties, no analytics, no crash reporters
The binary contains no third-party SDK, no analytics and no crash reporter; the app has no network code of its own. If you have Apple's "Share with App Developers" switched on, the developer receives anonymised crash and performance reports through Apple. That is Apple's collection under your own device setting, and you can switch it off at any time.
9. Legal basis and purpose
The legal basis is your explicit consent, given in the HealthKit dialog: Art. 6(1)(a) together with Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR; for Switzerland, Art. 6 and 31 FADP. The purpose is showing your own autonomic balance as a wellness signal. You can withdraw consent at any time (section 10).
10. Retention, deletion, withdrawal
- Desk-activity windows from the Mac: 90 days, then deleted automatically.
- Everything else stays until you remove it.
- Deleting the app removes that device's local store.
- The iCloud copy is removed in Settings › Apple Account › iCloud › app data.
- Health access is withdrawn in the Health app under Data Access & Devices. After that, VagusSense reads nothing.
11. Your rights
You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and data portability, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
Honestly: the developer holds no data about you to give access to. Your data sits on your devices and in your private iCloud — it is in your hands. For questions: [PLACEHOLDER: contact e-mail].
12. Children
The app is not directed at children.
13. What VagusSense is not
A wellness signal, not a medical measurement. VagusSense makes no diagnosis and does not treat or prevent anything. It is not a medical device and does not replace medical advice.
14. This website
These pages are static files. They set no cookies, load no fonts or scripts from other servers, embed no analytics and count no visitors. The only script is a hint about the other language version; at most it stores one value in your browser's session storage, which disappears when you close the tab.
When you open a page, the host processes technically necessary server logs (including IP address, time and the file requested). Host and retention period must be entered here: [PLACEHOLDER: hosting provider, location, data processing agreement, log retention period].
15. Changes to this policy
When the app changes, this policy changes with it. The version in force is always the one at this address; the date above states its version.