Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 26, 2026

Delve is published by Nolan Joseph Connolly, an individual based in Texas, United States ("Delve", "we", "us"). This policy says what information Delve collects, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it. We wrote it in plain language on purpose. If anything is unclear, email support@delvelearning.app.

The short version

• Delve is an iPhone app of short interactive lessons, lessons about well-known books, and daily puzzles.
• We collect your account details, the interests and lesson requests you give us, and a record of what you play.
• We use that to run the app, choose what to show you, and, if you subscribe to Delve Plus, write a lesson for you each day.
• The lesson written for you each day stays private to you until it passes an automated content check, and then joins Delve's shared library, where other readers can find it. Your requests shape its topic, but nothing about you is put into the lesson.
• We send some of your data to AI providers only after you turn AI on, and you can turn it off at any time.
• We never sell your data, we show no ads, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
• You can delete your account from the Account tab at any time, and that deletes your personal data from our servers.

What we collect

Your account

• Your email address, if you sign in with an emailed code, or if Apple shares it when you use Sign in with Apple (it may be an Apple private relay address).
• Your Sign in with Apple identifier, and, if you use Sign in with Apple, a token Apple gives us so that we can revoke Delve's access at Apple when you delete your account.
• An account identifier that Delve creates for you.

We do not ask Apple for your name, and we do not collect it.

If you are signed out

You can use much of Delve without an account. While you are signed out, your lesson and puzzle activity stays on your phone, with these exceptions:

• What you type into search is sent to Delve's search function to find matching lessons, and is not stored.
• With AI on, your interests and your searches are sent to OpenAI to be turned into embeddings (see "AI" below), so that Home and search can find matching lessons.
• RevenueCat gives your phone an anonymous identifier, so that a purchase made before you sign in can move to your account.
• Expo receives the update identifier described under "Technical data".

The first time you sign in, what you set up while signed out is copied to your account: your interests and settings, your setup answers, your review record, and your puzzle plays. Your XP, your streak, and your saved lessons stay on your phone.

Your interests and settings

When you are signed in, these are saved to your account so the app and the daily lesson can use them:

• The areas of interest and interest topics you pick, and the lessons you mark as interesting or not while setting up.
• What you type into the "what do you want to understand" line, and any lesson you ask for from the Library or Explore. Each request stays on your list until a daily lesson has covered it.
• Lessons you swipe away from Home ("Stop seeing"), and the books you pick while setting up.
• Your narration voice and speed.
• Your time zone, so your daily lesson is written starting at your local midnight.
• Whether you have turned AI on or off.

Answers you give us about yourself

During setup we ask what you hope to get out of Delve and, after your first lesson, where you heard about it. These answers (and the plan you said you were interested in, if any) help us understand who uses Delve. They are never used to write lessons and never shown to anyone else.

What you do in the app

When you are signed in, we keep:

• Lesson activity: when you start and finish a lesson or a book part, which screens you reach, your answers to checks and guesses, and where you opened it from (for example Home, the Library, or a reminder). If a screen fails to load, or the app hits an error while a lesson is open, we record the error's name and message so we can fix it.
• Your review record: the lessons you have finished, the ideas each one taught, and how you did on its checks and on the Review chats in the Library.
• Chats: your messages to "Ask about this" and to the Review chat in the Library, and the replies, so you can come back to a conversation.
• Puzzles: each puzzle you play, when you started and finished, whether you solved it, how many hints and mistakes it took, and a skill rating per game that sets how hard your puzzles are.
• Daily lessons: for Delve Plus members, which lessons were planned and written for you on which day.
• Reminders: which lesson each reminder named, when it was scheduled, and whether you tapped it, opened the lesson later, or ignored it, so we stop suggesting lessons you are not interested in.
• Reports: if you report a problem with a lesson or with an answer in "Ask about this", your report and the lesson or answer it is about.
• Subscription: whether you are on the free plan or Delve Plus, and when your plan renews or ends.

What stays on your phone

Some things never leave your device:

• Your XP total and your streak.
• Your saved lessons and where you are in a lesson.
• Your reminder time, your appearance setting, and your Lock Screen streak reminder setting.
• Which of the day's puzzles are open to you on the free plan. To keep that choice the same all day, Delve makes a random identifier for your phone the first time you open Puzzles and keeps it in the app's own storage. It is not linked to your Apple ID or any other app, is never sent to our servers, and is deleted when you delete the app.

Technical data

Our hosting providers keep standard request logs (such as IP address, time, and app version) for security and to fix problems. Delve checks for app updates with Expo, which receives the same kind of request data, plus a random identifier that Expo's update library makes once when the app is installed. That identifier is not linked to your account and is deleted when you delete the app. If the app crashed the last time it ran, the next update check also sends Expo that error's message, so the update service can recover. We do not use any third-party analytics or advertising software.

What we do not collect

• Your name.
• Payment card details. Apple handles every payment; we only learn whether your subscription is active.
• Your location, contacts, photos, health data, or microphone.
• A push notification token. Every Delve notification is scheduled on your phone.

How we use it

• To run your account and sign you in.
• To choose what Home, the Books tab, and your reminders show you, using your interests and what you have already played.
• To write your daily lesson if you are a Delve Plus member (see below).
• To answer your questions in "Ask about this", and to grade the Review chats you choose to take.
• To keep your puzzles at the right difficulty and keep your record across devices.
• To check whether you are a subscriber, through Apple and RevenueCat.
• To understand, in aggregate, which lessons and puzzles people finish, and to find and fix problems.
• To answer you when you write to us, and to meet legal obligations.

We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell it to anyone.

AI, and how your daily lesson is written

Several Delve features use AI models run by other companies: OpenRouter, which routes each request to a Z.AI GLM model or an OpenAI model, and OpenAI, which makes embeddings. Delve asks before sending anything of yours to them. You can turn AI on or off at any time in Account > AI Preferences. With AI off, the Library, text search, saved lessons, lessons, books, puzzles, and narration all still work; the daily lesson, "Ask about this", Review chats, and AI-picked reminders need it on.

What each feature sends, with AI on:

• Your daily lesson (Delve Plus). Your interests, your typed requests, and the lessons you have already had are sent to an AI model that plans a topic and then writes a lesson on it overnight. The topic passes a safety screen, and the lesson stays private to you until an automated content check passes. Then it is a normal Delve lesson: it joins Delve's shared library, and other readers can find and play it. Nothing that identifies you is put into the lesson, and the lesson does not show your requests or your name. Please do not type sensitive personal details into your interests or requests.
• Ask about this, and Review chats. Your messages and the lesson you are asking about are sent to an AI model to write the answer, which can draw on the lesson, general knowledge, and the web. For some questions the model plans a short web search, which OpenRouter runs through its search partner; the search contains a query about the topic, not your account details. Sources in an answer are links that open in your browser, outside Delve.
• Search and your Home feed. Your search queries and interest phrases, whether or not you are signed in, are turned into embeddings (lists of numbers that capture meaning) by OpenAI, so we can find lessons that match. We do not store your search queries.
• Reminders. Your interests and recent lessons are sent to an AI model that picks which lesson to name in your next reminder.

We do not add your name or email to anything we send to AI providers, but anything you type could identify you. We do not use your data to train AI models, and our providers process it to answer the request. They may keep request logs for a limited time under their own policies.

Narration is different: lessons are read aloud by Cartesia and, for older recordings, Inworld. We send them only the published text of a lesson, never anything about you, so narration works with AI off.

Who we share it with

We share data only with the companies that help us run Delve, and only what each needs:

• Apple - Sign in with Apple, In-App Purchase, and the App Store.
• Supabase - our database, sign-in, file storage, and server functions, in the United States (AWS us-east-2, Ohio).
• RevenueCat - links your account identifier to your Apple purchase so the app knows you are a subscriber.
• OpenRouter - sends AI requests to the companies that host the models we use (the Z.AI GLM model family, and an OpenAI model for the answers in "Ask about this"). OpenRouter picks the host for each request by price, and hosts may be outside the United States.
• OpenAI - embeddings for search and your Home feed.
• Fly.io - hosts the server that writes daily lessons; it reads the plan for your day (your interests and requests) while it works.
• Cartesia and Inworld - turn published lesson text into narration.
• Resend - sends the email with your sign-in code.
• Expo - builds the app and delivers app updates (see "Technical data").
• Cloudflare - hosts delvelearning.app and forwards email sent to support@delvelearning.app.

Delve also loads public content from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons (lesson sources and pictures) and book covers from Open Library. Delve is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. When you tap Get the book, your phone opens Amazon's website; that link is a plain link, it carries nothing about you, and what Amazon collects is under Amazon's policy.

Each of these providers must give your data the same or equal protection as this policy describes and as Apple's App Store rules require, under its data processing terms with us, and we use each one only to run Delve. We may also disclose data if the law requires it, to protect the safety and rights of our readers or of Delve, or as part of a sale or transfer of Delve, in which case we will tell you first.

Notifications and the Lock Screen

All Delve notifications are scheduled on your phone, and each needs your permission:

• A daily reminder at the time you choose, naming a lesson you have not played.
• A red count on the app icon for today's puzzles you have not finished and for a daily lesson you have not opened. These set the count only; they show no banner and make no sound.
• On an evening when you have a streak and have not finished anything that day, a Live Activity on the Lock Screen that names a lesson and counts down to midnight. It closes two minutes after you finish a lesson or a puzzle; after midnight it says the day has ended until you next open Delve or your iPhone removes it. It is made on your phone; nothing is sent to it from our servers. It appears only while your reminder and its "Streak reminder on the Lock Screen" switch (Account > Reminder) are on, and you can turn it off there or in iPhone Settings.

How long we keep it

• Your account and the data linked to it: for as long as your account exists.
• When you delete your account, your personal data is deleted from our database at once. Backups may hold a copy for up to 30 days before they are overwritten.
• Lessons written for you stay in the shared library after you delete your account, with no link to you.
• A report you sent stays with the lesson or answer it is about, and its link to your account is removed.
• Aggregate counts that cannot identify you (for example, how many people finished a lesson) may be kept.
• Apple keeps its purchase records under its own policy, and RevenueCat keeps a record of your subscription under your account identifier.

Your choices

• Delete your account in the app: Account > Delete account. This removes your account and your personal data from our servers and, if you used Sign in with Apple, revokes Delve's access at Apple. Deleting your account does not cancel an Apple subscription; cancel that in iPhone Settings > your name > Subscriptions.
• Delete your account by email: write to support@delvelearning.app from the address you signed in with.
• Turn AI off: Account > AI Preferences.
• Change your interests and requests: Account > Your interests.
• Turn off reminders, badges, or the Lock Screen reminder: in Account, or in iPhone Settings > Delve.
• Ask for a copy of your data, or a correction: email support@delvelearning.app.

Security

Data moves between the app and our servers over encrypted connections, and our database only lets each account read its own rows. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your data safe and to act quickly if something goes wrong.

Children

Delve is for people aged 13 and older, and it is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If we learn that we have, we will delete it. If you think a child under 13 has given us data, email support@delvelearning.app.

If you are outside the United States

Delve is run from the United States and your data is stored there. Some AI requests may be handled by model hosts in other countries, as described above.

Legal bases (EEA, UK, and similar)

• Contract: to provide the app and the plan you signed up for.
• Legitimate interests: to keep Delve secure, fix problems, and understand how it is used.
• Consent: for AI features and notifications, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Legal obligation: where the law requires it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your data, object to or restrict some processing, and withdraw consent without affecting what was done before. Email support@delvelearning.app to use any of these rights.

California

California residents can ask to know, delete, and correct their personal information, and can opt out of its sale or sharing. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. Email support@delvelearning.app to make a request.

Changes

We may update this policy as Delve changes. If a change is material, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. The effective date at the top always shows the current version.

Contact

Email support@delvelearning.app with any question about this policy or your data.

Nolan Joseph Connolly Texas, United States