Privacy policy
In short. SOVIQ runs entirely on your iPhone. We operate no server and never receive your location, your record, or anything else about you. The optional backup is encrypted on your phone before it goes to your own iCloud storage, and only you hold the key.
1. Who we are
SOVIQ is published by MAYBERG INVESTMENT IN COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES & MANAGEMENT - FZCO, licence 75434, IFZA Properties, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates ("we"). Contact: support@soviq.win.
2. What the app does
SOVIQ records which country your phone is in, using the location services of iOS, and counts your days against published residency rules. All of this happens on your phone.
3. What the app stores on your phone
- Location observations as iOS reports them (coordinates, accuracy, time) and the country each one resolves to. Country resolution uses map data bundled with the app (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap; see the acknowledgements in the terms). No coordinate is sent anywhere, except inside your encrypted backup if you switch Backup on (section 5).
- Your answers in the app (for example that you were only passing through), the goal you set, planned trips you enter, and your alert settings.
- The app's own diagnostics, such as capture health and the version you are running.
This record lives in a database inside the app's private container. iOS data protection encrypts it on the phone; because the app records while the phone is locked, the app can read it from the first unlock after the phone starts. The record is deliberately excluded from iCloud device backups and from computer backups of your phone. A few settings, such as your alert choices, are kept in the app's ordinary settings, which iOS includes in those backups. You can additionally lock the app with Face ID. It stays on your phone until you delete the app.
4. What we receive
Nothing. The app has no account, no sign-in and no server. It contains no analytics, no crash-reporting library and no advertising, and no third-party software development kit of that kind; the only third-party code is the GRDB.swift database library. The only way we learn anything about your use of the app is if you write to us. If you email support@soviq.win, Cloudflare forwards the message to our mailbox under its own privacy policy. We keep the correspondence only to answer you and delete it within twelve months of the last message.
5. Backup, if you switch it on
When you enable Backup, the app encrypts a snapshot of your record with a key generated on your phone and stores the snapshot in your own iCloud storage, in a container that belongs to your Apple Account. Apple therefore holds only encrypted data. The key is kept in your iCloud Keychain, which Apple describes as end-to-end encrypted, and you receive a recovery code that is shown once. We have no access to your iCloud, to the key or to the code, and cannot recover a backup for you. If you lose the key and the code, the backup cannot be opened by anyone.
Deleting the app does not delete these snapshots. You can remove them in iOS Settings under your Apple Account, iCloud, Manage Account Storage, where SOVIQ's data is listed.
6. Apple
The App Store, iCloud and iCloud Keychain are Apple services, provided under your agreement with Apple and Apple's privacy policy. If you have chosen in iOS Settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may provide us with anonymous crash reports. They contain no location and no identity.
7. Permissions the app asks for
- Location, Always. Border crossings happen while the app is closed. With Always access the app records arrivals and departures without being opened, which is the only way the day counts can be accurate. With "While Using" only, the record has gaps, and the app tells you so.
- Notifications. Arrival alerts, warnings when recording stops working, and threshold alerts, all generated on your phone. Discreet notifications are on from the start, so the lock screen shows only "Open SOVIQ"; if you switch them off in the app, an alert names the country.
- Face ID. Optional, to lock the app. iOS performs the check; the app never receives your face data, only whether you passed.
8. Children
SOVIQ is not directed at children under 13. A parent who installs SOVIQ on a child's phone is the user for the purposes of this policy and the terms.
9. Your rights
Apart from any email you send us, we hold no personal data about you, so there is nothing for us to access, correct, export or delete; your record is on your phone and under your control. To delete it, delete the app and remove any iCloud snapshots as described in section 5. For readers in the EU and the UK: since we neither collect nor process your record, we are not a controller of it; Apple processes your iCloud data under your agreement with Apple. If you believe we do hold data about you, write to us and we will respond.
10. Changes
If this policy changes, the new version is published here with a new effective date.