How Yak handles your information

Who we are

Yak is made by Ample, LLC, an Ohio limited liability company (“Ample,” “we,” “us”). Ample is the data controller for the information described in this policy.

This policy covers the Yak mobile app and the website at yak.group. It applies to use of Yak in the United States. Yak is currently offered as a beta.

What we collect

We collect only what the app needs to work. Here is the complete list.

Information you give us

• Account details. Your name, email address, and a password. We store your password only in hashed form and cannot read it.
• Group setup. The kind of group you are meeting with (for example parenting, marriage, men’s, women’s, students, or Bible study), an optional short description of your group, and how many people are present.
• Recaps. After a conversation, what you choose to remember, either typed or spoken as a voice note. If you record a voice note, we store the recording and a text transcript of it.
• Challenges. The weekly challenge Yak suggests from your recap, and whether you accepted or dismissed it.

Information collected automatically

• Session security data. When you sign in, our server records the IP address and device or browser identification string of the sign-in, together with a session token and its expiry. We use this to keep your session secure and to spot suspicious activity.
• Timestamps. When your account, conversations, and recaps were created or changed.

Sensitive information

Yak is built for small groups that are often faith-based. Choosing a group type such as Bible study, and the recaps you write, can reveal your religious beliefs and other personal matters such as family life or health. You decide what to share. We use this information only to provide the features described below and never to profile you or target you.

Your recaps may also mention other people, such as members of your group. Please share only what those people would be comfortable with. We treat information about others in your recaps exactly as we treat your own.

What we do not collect

Yak does not collect your location, contacts, photos, calendar, or health data. It does not access your camera. The app has no advertising, no analytics or tracking software, no social sign-in, and no in-app purchases. We do not track you across other apps or websites.

How we use your information

• To create your account and keep you signed in.
• To generate conversation topics and questions for your group.
• To transcribe your voice recaps into text.
• To suggest one challenge from your recap and track whether you accepted it.
• To screen recaps for content that could be harmful, using automated moderation.
• To keep the service secure and to investigate misuse.
• To respond when you contact us.
• To comply with the law.

We do not sell your information. We do not share it with anyone for their marketing. We do not use it to serve ads or to build advertising profiles. We do not use your recaps or recordings to train AI models.

AI processing

Yak uses OpenAI to generate topics and challenges, to transcribe voice notes, and to run automated content moderation. To do this, our server sends OpenAI the relevant content: your group type and description for topics, the audio file of a voice note for transcription, and the text of a recap for moderation and challenge generation. Your name, email, and account identifiers are not sent.

Ample uses OpenAI under a business agreement with Zero Data Retention. This means OpenAI processes the content to return a result and does not store it afterwards, and OpenAI does not use it to train its models.

Topics and challenges are generated automatically and may occasionally be off the mark. They are suggestions, not advice. You can regenerate a topic or dismiss a challenge at any time.

Where your data lives and who processes it

Your data is stored in the United States. We work with a small number of service providers, each bound by contract to use your information only to provide their service to us.

• Render hosts our server and database in Oregon, United States, including encrypted backups. Everything in the table above is stored here, including voice recordings.
• OpenAI provides the AI processing described above, with Zero Data Retention.
• Sentry monitors our server for errors so we can fix them. We have configured Sentry to exclude your personal information, sign-in details, request contents, database values, and any AI inputs or outputs. It receives technical error details only.
• Expo builds the app and delivers app updates. When the app checks for an update, it sends Expo the app version and basic device and platform information, not your account or content.
• Netlify hosts our website and receives the email address you enter in the beta signup form.
• Apple distributes the app through the App Store and TestFlight under Apple’s own privacy policy.

Beyond these providers, we share information only if the law requires it, to protect the safety of a person or the integrity of the service, or if Ample is involved in a merger or sale, in which case this policy continues to apply to your data.

Retention and deletion

We keep your recaps, recordings, and challenges for as long as you have an account, so you can return to them. You are in control of when they go away.

• Delete one conversation. Open a conversation in the app and choose Delete. Its recap, voice note, and challenge are permanently removed right away.
• Delete your account. Choose Delete account in Settings in the app, or email contact@helloample.com from the address on your account. We delete your account, all of your conversations, recordings, and session records, and the data is gone from our backups within 30 days.
• Sessions. Session records, including the IP address and device string, are removed when the session expires or when you sign out.
• Beta signup list. We keep website signup emails until we have launched or you ask to be removed.

Your choices and rights

• Access and copies. You can see your conversations in the app at any time. To receive a copy of all the data we hold about you, email us.
• Correction. You can edit a recap in the app. To change your name or email address, email us.
• Deletion. See Retention and deletion above.
• Microphone. Yak asks for microphone access only when you record a voice note. You can turn it off any time in iOS Settings and keep using typed recaps.
• Email. We only email you about your account, your requests, or the beta you signed up for. Reply to any message or email us to be removed from the beta list.

California and other US state residents

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, to access it, to correct it, to delete it, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We honor these requests for everyone, whatever state you live in.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose other than providing the service you asked for.

To make a request, email contact@helloample.com. We will verify the request by confirming access to the email address on your account and respond within 45 days. You may use an authorized agent if you give them written permission and we can verify your identity.

Children

Yak is for people 13 and older. It is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. The Students group type is meant for teenagers and the adults who lead them. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, email contact@helloample.com and we will delete the account and its data promptly.

Security

All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit. Passwords are hashed. Your sign-in session is stored in the secure Keychain on your device. Data at rest is encrypted by our hosting provider, and access to production systems is limited to the people who run the service. No system is perfectly secure, so we ask you to use a strong, unique password, and we will tell you if a breach affects your information.

Our website

The website at yak.group uses no advertising and does not sell or share visitor data. It does use three third-party services:

• Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how many people visit the site and which pages they read. It sets cookies in your browser and sends Google your IP address, approximate location derived from it, device and browser details, and the pages you view. Google processes this under its own privacy policy and may combine it with other data as described there. You can opt out with theGoogle Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies for yak.group. The Yak app itself contains no analytics.
• Email updates. If you enter your email to be kept posted about Yak, it is stored by Netlify Forms and used only to send you occasional updates about Yak. Email us at any time to be removed.
• Fonts. The site loads its typefaces from Google Fonts. When your browser fetches a font, Google receives your IP address and browser details, as described in Google’s privacy policy.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your information, we will update this page and its effective date. For significant changes, we will also tell you in the app or by email before they take effect.

Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns: emailcontact@helloample.com or write to Ample, LLC, 6809 Main Street #716, Cincinnati, OH 45244.