Privacy policy

Your practice stays on your device

Cortex is a cognitive exercise app. It does not require an account and has no advertising, analytics, or app-operated backend. Cortex does not transmit your practice history or profile to us.

What the app stores

Cortex keeps the following information in local app storage on your device:

• Your optional name, weekly practice-day goal, Daily focus, and challenge preference.
• Whether you completed the introduction.
• Completed practice sessions, dates, exercise results and performance, optional reflections, and vocabulary review scheduling.
• Recent-content choices used to vary your practice.
• Your optional local reminder choice and time.

The app uses these records to greet you, offer practice, show progress, and schedule local reminders. The app does not record your voice. Prompts to say something aloud are for you; there is no microphone recording or speech upload.

How local storage works

In the installed iPhone app, Cortex saves progress and preferences in private Application Support files. A device save is reported as complete only after the native write finishes. The browser version uses browser local storage.

When upgrading from an earlier build, Cortex copies existing local values into native storage and keeps the earlier copy until you confirm Replace progress or Reset progress. Existing native values take priority, and unreadable data is preserved instead of silently replaced. Confirmed replacement or reset clears the earlier history and recent-content copies after the current saves succeed; profile settings and unrelated older data stay. If any step fails, Cortex explains what could not be saved or cleared.

Notifications

Daily reminders are optional in the installed iPhone app. If you enable one, Cortex requests notification permission and asks iOS to schedule a notification on your device. This does not use a remote messaging service. You can turn reminders off in Profile and settings or change notification permission in iPhone Settings.

Exporting, restoring, and deleting your data

In Profile and settings → Privacy & your data, choose Export progress to prepare a JSON copy of saved progress. A file is created only when you request it. You choose where to save or share it and who can access it; Cortex does not upload it automatically.

Choose Restore progress to select a Cortex JSON export on your device, up to 8MB. Cortex reads the file locally and shows a preview before you confirm Replace progress. Restore replaces saved practice history and results instead of merging records. Your profile, preferences, and reminder settings stay. The file is not uploaded. Canceling, an invalid file, or a failed restore leaves your current progress unchanged.

Reset progress removes saved practice history, results, vocabulary review scheduling, and recent-content choices on this device. It preserves profile preferences and reminder settings. Reset does not remove files you have already exported. Clearing browser storage may remove browser progress. Uninstalling the iPhone app removes its local files; an available device backup or a saved Cortex export may be used for restoration. Device backup and restoration follow your operating system settings.

Apple purchases

Optional Premium plans use Apple’s in-app purchase system. Apple processes payment through your Apple account under its policies. Cortex checks verified purchase access on your device to unlock Premium; we do not receive your card details or upload your practice history. Purchase access is separate from your local practice progress and can be checked through Restore purchases. Subscription management opens Apple’s subscription controls.

Cortex does not send purchase receipts, transaction identifiers, or practice records to an app-operated server. Development builds may offer local test purchases or leave plans unavailable while release products are being prepared.

External pages and support

If you open a public support page, your browser and the hosting provider may process ordinary web request information under their policies. The app does not send your practice history to that page. If you email support, your email provider processes the message, and the recipient receives only the information you choose to send. Do not include sensitive personal information unless you intend to share it.

Children and health information

Cortex does not request age, medical information, or a health profile. Its exercises and results are practice tools, not a diagnosis or medical assessment.

Changes and contact

This policy will be updated when the app’s data handling changes. The effective date appears above. For privacy questions, email contact@buildsbythor.com. Cortex is published by Builds by Thor.