Privacy Policy
Effective 25 June 2026
We build tools meant to help you steady yourself and move on — so we're built to hold as little of your data as possible, by design. Where an app can keep your information on your own device, it does. Where something has to leave your device to work, we tell you plainly what, why, and to whom.
We don't sell your data, and we don't use it for advertising.
1.Who we are
These apps are operated by Gareth Hines, trading as Aperture Studio ("Aperture Studio", "we", "us"), based in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. We handle your information under the Privacy Act 2020 and, where it applies, the Health Information Privacy Code 2020.
Contact: hello@aperturestudio.app
2.Our approach to your data
Some of what you share with our apps — about your mood, anxiety, or wellbeing — is health information, the most sensitive kind. We treat it that way: collected only to make the app work for you, never sold, never used for advertising. Wherever possible, your information stays on your own device and never reaches us at all.
3.Ari and AI processing
Ari (Ariadne) is an AI companion — not a person, counsellor, or therapist. To generate Ari's replies, the words you send are transmitted to our AI provider, Anthropic (based in the United States), which produces the response.
- Anthropic does not use this text to train its AI models (this is set by its commercial terms, which govern our use).
- Anthropic automatically deletes these inputs and outputs from its systems within 30 days, except where it must retain them to enforce its usage policy.
- Whether we also store your Ari conversations depends on the app — see below.
By using Ari, you consent to your conversation text being processed this way, including transfer to the United States. If you don't want this, please don't use Ari.
4.How this applies to Torna
Torna is built to keep your information on your device:
- Your voice recordings are stored only on your device and are never uploaded to us.
- Your scripts and anchor details (titles, patterns, chosen voice, mood scores) are stored only on your device and never uploaded to us.
- Your conversations with Ari are not stored by us. Torna keeps no database and no record of them — on our side they exist only momentarily to produce a reply, and are gone when you refresh. To generate each reply, the text you send is transmitted to Anthropic as described above (not used for training; deleted within 30 days). The conversation text does leave your device in transit for this purpose.
- Torna has no accounts, no sign-in, no email, no analytics, and no server-side database. We do not know who you are.
Because Torna holds nothing about you on our servers, there is no account to delete and nothing of yours for us to retrieve or erase — your information lives on your device and is removed when you delete the app or its data.
5.Your rights
Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask to access the information we hold about you and correct it. Where an app holds your data on our servers, you can also have it deleted. For apps like Torna we hold nothing about you, so there is nothing on our side to access, correct, or delete — that information is on your device and in your control. To make a request, contact hello@aperturestudio.app.
6.Sending information overseas
Where Ari is used, your conversation text is processed by Anthropic in the United States (section 3). As required by the Privacy Act 2020 (Information Privacy Principle 12), we rely on Anthropic's contractual protections and your consent for this transfer.
7.Security
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect information, and — by keeping so much of it on your device and so little on our servers — we reduce the risk to you in the first place. No system is perfectly secure. If a notifiable privacy breach occurs, we will act as required under the Privacy Act 2020.
8.Children
Our apps are intended for adults and are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
9.People outside New Zealand
Our apps can be downloaded internationally. If you are in the EU/UK, California, Australia, or elsewhere, additional privacy laws may give you further rights. Contact us and we will help where we can.
10.Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. Material changes will be notified in the app or by email, and the effective date above will change.
11.Contact
Privacy questions or requests: hello@aperturestudio.app. You may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner: privacy.org.nz / 0800 803 909.