Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 30, 2026

Antiviral is built on a simple principle: your data is yours. The intelligence that curates your feed runs on your iPhone, and we run no server that stores you. Once a day, to compose your Edition, Antiviral borrows Apple's Private Cloud Compute — Apple's infrastructure, not ours — which is built so that no one, including Apple and us, can see or keep what it processes.

This isn't a legal document designed to obscure what we do. It's a plain-English explanation of exactly how Antiviral handles your information — including the few moments it does leave: syncing to your own iCloud, fetching the content you ask for, and the one daily call to Apple's Private Cloud Compute.

Google user data accessed by Antiviral

Antiviral, published by Studio Ikigai, uses YouTube API Services when you choose to connect your Google account. Connecting is optional. We request the read-only Google OAuth permission youtube.readonly to import your YouTube sources and preferences. While you remain signed in, Antiviral can refresh these imports when you open the app or sync your subscriptions.

What Google user data we access

  • —YouTube subscriptions — your subscribed channels and their metadata, including channel IDs, channel names, and thumbnail URLs.
  • —Liked videos — your channel's liked-videos playlist identifier, the video IDs in that playlist, and the videos' topic categories.
  • —Disliked videos — the topic categories of videos you have disliked, when YouTube makes them available.
  • —Your playlists — playlist metadata, particularly playlist titles, which we use to identify topics you are interested in.
  • —Channel topics — the topic categories associated with your subscribed YouTube channels.
  • —Google account display name — Antiviral attempts to read your display name from Google to label the connected account. It stores the name only if Google returns it.
  • —Authorization credentials — the OAuth access token, refresh token, and token expiration time Google issues so Antiviral can make these authorized requests.

This connection does not access Gmail messages, Google Drive files, calendars, contacts, or your Google password. Antiviral does not request your email address or read your YouTube watch or search history through OAuth. Separately, if you choose to import a Google Takeout file, Antiviral can read the YouTube subscriptions and watch history in that file.

How we use Google user data

We use subscriptions to add channels to your Sources and fetch their public feeds. We use video topics, playlist titles, and channel topics to establish initial interests and preferences for your personalized feed, Shortlist, and Edition. A local record of processed liked-video IDs prevents repeat imports. The display name identifies your connected account, and the tokens authorize and renew access to Google APIs. Antiviral does not post, subscribe, like, dislike, or change playlists on your behalf, and does not send your activity in Antiviral back to your YouTube account.

Storage, protection, and sharing

Requests to Google use HTTPS. OAuth tokens, their expiration time, and any returned display name are stored in the operating system's encrypted Keychain with device-only protection. These credentials are not included in Antiviral's iCloud sync or backups.

Imported channels, channel metadata, and interests derived from your YouTube data are stored in the app's local database. They can also sync to your private iCloud account and be included in your iCloud backups. The record of processed liked-video IDs is kept in a local app-data file. Studio Ikigai does not receive these imports or your Google credentials on its servers.

Derived interests can inform the search queries described below. When the cloud editor is enabled, a summary of your interests and preferences can also be sent to Apple's Private Cloud Compute with content metadata to compose your Edition. The cloud editor is on by default on eligible devices and can be turned off in Edition settings. These transfers support the app's features; we do not sell Google user data, use it for advertising, or use it to train general-purpose AI or machine-learning models.

Retention, disconnecting, and deletion

Signing out in Antiviral's YouTube account settings removes the stored Google tokens and display name from the device and sends a request to Google to revoke access. You can also revoke Antiviral's access directly at any time from your Google Account permissions.

Signing out or revoking access stops future authorized imports; it does not automatically delete channels, derived interests, or the local record of processed video IDs already imported. These records remain in your app data until removed. You can remove imported channels in Sources and manage derived interests in Interests. Copies in iCloud and backups are separate from the device's local data. For help removing remaining app data or iCloud copies, contact info@studioikigai.ai.

Google API Limited Use

Antiviral's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google and YouTube's own handling of data is described in the Google Privacy Policy.

What stays on your device

Almost everything. The intelligence that understands you lives on your phone:

  • —Your interest graph — every topic, weight, and preference
  • —Your watch and reading history
  • —Your conversations with the app
  • —Your subscriptions and sources
  • —Your saved content and annotations

The on-device intelligence runs on Apple Foundation Models and Apple's on-device text embeddings (part of the Natural Language framework) — both part of Apple Intelligence on your iPhone. Ranking, search, the Shortlist, and learning your taste all happen here, on your device. None of it is sent to a server we operate.

The one daily cloud call (Apple Private Cloud Compute)

Composing your Edition — reading across a whole day of pieces to find the genuine threads — is the one job too large for the on-device model. Once a day, Antiviral sends the day's items (titles and short descriptions) plus a compact summary of your preferences to Apple's Private Cloud Compute to write that issue.

Private Cloud Compute is Apple's privacy-hardened cloud. It is designed so that your data isn't stored, isn't accessible to Apple or to Studio Ikigai, and is discarded the moment the request completes. We operate no server in this path — the request goes from your device to Apple, and the finished Edition comes back.

If you're offline, over your daily allowance, or on an ineligible device, Antiviral assembles a simpler Edition entirely on-device instead. The daily ritual never depends on a connection you don't have.

What else leaves your device

Antiviral fetches content from the internet. When you ask for something, the app sends search queries to find it. Here's exactly what goes where:

Content fetching

  • —YouTube RSS feeds — your subscribed channel IDs are used to fetch their public RSS feeds. No authentication required.
  • —Brave Search — search queries are sent to Brave's API with an app-level API key. No user identifier or device ID is attached.
  • —iTunes Search — podcast search terms are sent to Apple's public search API. No authentication.
  • —Reddit — subreddit RSS feeds are fetched publicly. No authentication.
  • —RSS/Atom feeds — any feeds you add are fetched directly. Standard web requests.

Video playback

Videos play in YouTube's own official embedded player, so creators are paid exactly as they normally would be. That embedded player can't sign you in, so inside Antiviral you see the logged-out experience — including ads. If you want your signed-in YouTube account or your Premium subscription, open the video in YouTube. Antiviral never strips ads or extracts streams.

Bluesky (optional)

If you connect a Bluesky account, your session credentials are stored in your device's Keychain. Antiviral fetches your timeline and follows list. You can disconnect at any time.

iCloud sync

Antiviral keeps your sources, saves, annotations, interest graph, and preferences in sync across your devices through your own private iCloud account, using Apple's CloudKit. It's on by default — it's your iCloud, not a server we run, and we never see it. If you've enabled Apple's Advanced Data Protection, that sync is end-to-end encrypted.

What Studio Ikigai collects

Nothing.

  • —No analytics
  • —Crash reporting only through Apple's infrastructure, which strips all personally identifiable information before we see it
  • —No telemetry
  • —No Studio Ikigai account system
  • —No user identifiers

We operate no server that receives your personal data from the app. We don't know who you are, what you watch, or how you use Antiviral. The one daily Edition call goes to Apple's Private Cloud Compute, not to us — and Apple is designed to keep nothing from it either.

This website uses Vercel Analytics, which collects anonymous page view data (no cookies, no personal information). The app itself has zero analytics. If you use the “ask” box on this site, your typed question is sent to Anthropic to generate a reply — it isn't used to identify you and isn't linked to anything on your device.

Data retention

All of your data lives on your device (and, through iCloud sync, in your own iCloud). You're always in control of it:

  • —Watch history and conversations are kept only as long as they're useful, and you can clear them at any time
  • —Interests you stop engaging with gradually fade over time
  • —Cached media (thumbnails, articles) is managed by a local cache with a size limit — oldest items are evicted first
  • —Sign out of connected accounts to remove their stored credentials. Removing local app data does not automatically remove copies in iCloud or backups. Studio Ikigai cannot delete those copies for you because they are in your own account.

Third-party services

Antiviral sends search queries to Brave Search, fetches content from YouTube, Reddit, podcast directories, and RSS feeds, and uses Apple's Private Cloud Compute to compose your daily Edition when the cloud editor is enabled. These services receive the requests needed to provide those features and have their own privacy policies. Google authorization, private iCloud storage, and the use of derived Google data are described in the Google user data section above.

Questions

If you have questions about how Antiviral handles your data, reach out at info@studioikigai.ai.

from Studio Ikigai