Privacy Policy

What personal data Omut collects, why, how long we keep it, who else processes it, and how you can control it. We try to write it so that one careful read is enough.

Version 2026-10-09
Effective 2026-10-09
Apps Omut for iPhone, iPad and Mac

1. Who is responsible for your data

Omut is operated by Nikita Terekhin, an individual based in Tokyo, Japan (“we”, “us”). Omut is not yet incorporated. We are the business handling personal information under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) and, where the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, the controller.

For any privacy question, request or complaint, write to [email protected]. We reply within 30 days, usually sooner.

This policy covers the Omut apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac, our servers, and the website omut.chat. A plain-language overview is on the Security & Privacy page.

2. What data we collect

Account

Username (@username) and display name. Other users can see them.
Email address, used to recover access. It is verified with a code.
Password. We store only a hash (Argon2id with a separate secret “pepper”), never the password itself.
Sign in with Apple: a stable Apple user identifier, name and email (which may be a private relay address).
Sign in with Telegram: your Telegram user ID.
Passkeys: the public part of the key. The private key stays on your device.
Acceptance records: which document and version you accepted, when, and your IP address at that moment.

Messages in Omut chats

Omut chats are not end-to-end encrypted. Messages are protected in transit with TLS, pass through our servers and are stored in our database. This is what makes history on a new device, search and notification text possible. Technically we are able to read these messages. We do not, but saying “we can't” would be untrue.

On our servers we store: message text, attachments (photos, files, voice messages), who wrote to whom and when, members of groups and channels, reactions, read receipts, and the fact and duration of calls.

Connected Telegram and WhatsApp accounts

When you connect another messenger, our server acts as a client of that service on your behalf. This is what lets notifications arrive while the app is closed. It means:

the messages of that service pass through and are processed on our servers: messages, attachments, chat and contact lists, names of the people you talk to;
we keep the session (authorization data) on our servers. Like any Telegram or WhatsApp client, the session contains your account details, including your phone number. In our own database we keep your Telegram user ID and a hash of the phone number, not the number itself;
WhatsApp is connected as a linked device, like WhatsApp Web; its message history is kept by our WhatsApp connector on our servers;
we do not store your Telegram two-step verification password. It is used only at sign-in;
we do not write message text to our logs.

These conversations include personal data of the people you talk to. We process it only to show and deliver your messages. Telegram and WhatsApp process this data under their own policies.

Devices and notifications

Platform, app version, and your push notification token for the Apple Push Notification service. Without the token, notifications cannot be delivered.

App analytics and crash reports

The iPhone and iPad app uses AppMetrica (by Yandex). It receives a fixed list of events: app opened, onboarding completed, Telegram connected, WhatsApp connected, first message sent, call started, subscription screen opened, plus the name of the screen from a fixed list. Events are linked to our internal user ID, not to your phone number or name. AppMetrica also receives crash and freeze reports (stack trace and device model). The Mac app does not use AppMetrica.

Message content never goes to analytics. No text, names, phone numbers or chat IDs. Screen recording is not used, and AppMetrica does not receive your location. You can turn analytics off in the app: Profile → Privacy and Sign-In → Usage Analytics.

Subscription and free trial

During the beta, Omut does not charge users and processes no payments. Paid plans and the payment provider will be added to this policy before launch.

We already keep subscription status and its dates, and whether and why a free trial was granted. To prevent the same external account from getting a trial twice, we keep a hash of the phone number or the ID of the Telegram or WhatsApp account that already received one.

Technical logs

Our servers keep logs with IP address, time, type of operation, request IDs and errors, to find failures and stop password guessing. Message content is not written to logs. We also count failed sign-in attempts per username and email.

Support

If you email us, we receive your email address and your message.

3. What stays on your device

Some data is used only on your device and is not sent to us:

Contacts. The app matches phone numbers with how you saved them. Your address book is not uploaded.
Voice transcription. Voice messages are transcribed on your device using Apple's speech recognition. The audio is not sent to us for transcription.
App passcode and lock. Checked on the device and stored in the Keychain.
Camera, microphone, photos. Used only when you take a photo, record a voice message, make a call or save an image. Only what you send reaches our servers.

Location is used only when you choose to share your location in a chat or open “People nearby”. For “People nearby” we do not store your exact location: it is rounded to a grid cell of about one kilometer, and other users see only the distance. Sharing stops after the time you choose or with one tap.

4. AI features

Voice transcription happens on your device. The audio of voice messages is not sent to us or to anyone else for transcription.
Voice summaries. In Omut chats, if you tap “Summary” under a long voice message, the text of its transcription is sent from our servers to Anthropic, PBC (USA) through the Claude API to produce a short summary. Nothing is sent to Anthropic unless you ask for a summary. The audio itself is never sent to Anthropic.
We do not store the transcription on our servers. We cache the summary for that voice message and language, so other participants of the chat can see it without sending the text to Anthropic again. The cached summary is deleted together with the voice message.
For each request we record who asked, when, and how many tokens were used, without any text. This enforces a daily limit and tracks costs.
Under its commercial terms, Anthropic does not use data received through its API to train its models by default. Anthropic may retain API data for a limited period under its own policies, for example for safety and abuse monitoring.
The text you summarize may contain personal data of other people in the conversation. Use summaries only where you are entitled to share that text.
AI features are not available in all countries. To decide whether the feature is available, our server determines your country from your IP address. If it is not available to you, no data is sent to Anthropic.

5. Purposes and legal bases

We use personal data only for the purposes below. Under APPI, we use it within the scope of these purposes. For users in the EU, the GDPR legal basis is shown for each purpose.

Providing the Service: account, messages, attachments, connected messengers, devices, calls. Basis: performance of our contract with you (Terms of Service).
Sign-in and account recovery: username, email, password hash, Apple ID, passkeys. Basis: contract.
Notifications: device token. Basis: contract. You can turn notifications off in your device settings.
Subscription and free trial: subscription status, trial records. Basis: contract.
AI summaries: text you choose to summarize. Basis: contract — you request the feature.
Fixing errors and improving the app: analytics and crash reports. Basis: our legitimate interest in a working app, and your consent where required by law. You can turn analytics off in the app.
Security and abuse prevention: logs, sign-in attempt counters, reports from users. Basis: legitimate interest in protecting users and the Service; legal obligations.
Answering you: support emails. Basis: contract or legitimate interest.
Website statistics: see section 13. Basis: legitimate interest.

We do not use your data for advertising and we do not sell it.

6. How long we keep data

Account and Omut messages: while your account exists.
Attachments in Omut chats: 180 days, then deleted from our servers.
After you delete your account: 30 days, then the account data is deleted. Signing in within 30 days restores it.
Backups of deleted accounts: up to 30 days after deletion, then removed.
Connected Telegram and WhatsApp data: while the connection is active. Disconnecting ends the session; related data is deleted together with the account.
Trial records (phone number hash or external account ID): kept after account deletion, so that a free trial cannot be claimed repeatedly.
Cached AI summaries: until the voice message is deleted (see section 4).
Server logs: rotated automatically and kept only as long as needed to investigate failures and abuse.
App analytics: under AppMetrica's retention terms.
Acceptance records: while the account exists.
Deletion record: see section 11.
Support emails: as long as needed to resolve your request.

8. International transfers

We are based in Japan, but our servers and service providers are located in other countries: OVHcloud data centers outside Japan, Germany (netcup), the United States (Anthropic, Cloudflare, Apple, Resend), and Russia (Yandex AppMetrica, CDNvideo). Your data may therefore be processed outside your country, including in countries whose data protection laws differ from those of Japan or the EU.

Under APPI, when we provide personal data to a recipient in a foreign country, we either rely on the recipient having taken measures equivalent to those required by APPI (for example under contract or its published terms) and monitor them, or ask for your consent after informing you about the country and its data protection system. You may ask us for information about these measures at [email protected].

For users in the EU, transfers outside the EU rely on an adequacy decision where one exists (Japan has one), on Standard Contractual Clauses where available, or on the necessity of the transfer to perform our contract with you.

9. Security

Connections between the app and our servers use TLS.
Passwords are hashed with Argon2id and a pepper stored separately from the database.
Access tokens on your device are stored in the Keychain.
Repeated failed sign-in attempts are slowed down.
You can sign in with a passkey and lock the app with a passcode or Face ID.

No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach affects you, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law. To report a vulnerability, write to [email protected].

10. Your rights

Under APPI (Japan)

You may ask us to disclose the personal data we hold about you (including records of provision to third parties), to correct, add to or delete inaccurate data, and to stop using or delete data, or stop providing it to third parties, where APPI allows. You can also contact the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan.

Under GDPR (users in the EU)

You have the right to access, rectify and erase your data, to restrict or object to processing (including processing based on legitimate interest), to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier processing. You may lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of your country.

How to exercise them

Many things can be done in the app: change your name, username and email in your profile, disconnect Telegram and WhatsApp, turn off analytics, delete your account, and turn off notifications in your device settings.

For anything else, write to [email protected] from the email linked to your account. If it does not match, we will ask you to confirm that the account is yours. We reply within 30 days. Requests are free of charge.

11. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app, without emailing anyone. After you confirm:

you are signed out on all devices; signing in within 30 days restores the account;
after 30 days your profile (username, name, bio, photo, last seen) is erased, and your Omut messages, attachments, connected messenger sessions, cached summaries and device tokens are deleted;
the token Apple issued to us for Sign in with Apple is revoked;
we keep only trial records and a short deletion record — your former username and display name, the contact details you used to sign in, and counters such as the number of chats, without any messages — so we can answer you if you contact us about the deleted account.

Messages you sent to other people stay in their chats, as in any messenger, but they are no longer linked to your profile.

12. Age limit: 18+

Omut is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from people under 18. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will delete it and its data. If you believe this has happened, write to [email protected].

13. The omut.chat website

The website is served through Cloudflare and uses Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits. It does not use cookies or local storage for this and does not build a profile of you. Cloudflare sees the page address, the referring page, your browser and device type and, from your IP address, your country. We see only aggregated statistics.

The website remembers your manual language choice in your browser's local storage. Nothing else is stored on your device.

14. Changes to this policy

The version of this policy is the date at the top. When we change it, the date changes too.

We will tell you about material changes — for example, new types of data we start collecting or a payment provider at launch — in the app or by email before they take effect, and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

This policy is written in English. Translations into other languages are provided for convenience; if a translation conflicts with the English version, the English version prevails.

15. Contact

Email: [email protected] — for questions, requests about your data, and complaints.

Operator: Nikita Terekhin, Tokyo, Japan.