PocketDPE Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 13, 2026. This version replaces the policy dated September 6, 2026.

PocketDPE is an iPhone and iPad app for practicing the oral part of an FAA checkride with an AI examiner. It is made and run by London Moren, an individual developer ("we", "us"). This policy explains what the app and its server collect, why, which companies receive it, how long it is kept, and how to delete it.

Who we are

• Operator: London Moren, an individual developer. London Moren is the seller shown on the App Store.
• Contact: support@pocketdpe.org
• Website: pocketdpe.org

The short version

• We collect what the examiner needs to work: your account, your spoken answers (turned into text), and your practice history.
• Your voice, the text of your answers, and any test-report photo you scan are sent to OpenAI to run the examiner. Nothing is sent until you have agreed to that in the app.
• We do not sell your personal information, we do not show ads, and we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
• You can delete your account and the data on our server from inside the app at any time.

1. What we collect, and why

Your account

When you create an account, our sign-in provider, Clerk, collects your email address and your password (or, with Sign in with Apple, the identifier Apple gives us and, if you choose to share it, your email address and name). We never see or store your password. We use your account to sign you in and to keep your practice history tied to you.

Your profile and onboarding answers

During setup and in Settings you can tell us your first name, the rating you are working on, your aircraft and engine, your home airport, your goals, when your checkride is, why you fly, how ready you feel (a number from 0 to 100), and which subjects worry you. These are stored on your device.

• When you start or resume a practice session, the app sends your profile to our server with the session request. The server keeps it in memory for the live session (never longer than 24 hours of inactivity) and does not use most of it today. Your home airport, aircraft and goals are also saved with that session in your practice history.
• During setup, if you agree to AI processing, the app sends your first name, rating, checkride timing, readiness and chosen subjects to our server so each examiner can greet you in a short spoken introduction. Our server writes that introduction, checks your first name with OpenAI's moderation service, and has OpenAI's text-to-speech service read it aloud, so OpenAI receives your first name and the introduction's text. If you choose "Not now", the examiners give a generic introduction and nothing about you is sent.

Your voice and your answers

During a practice session the app records your spoken answers through the microphone. On an iPhone that supports it (iOS 26 or later), your iPhone turns each answer into text itself, using Apple's on-device speech recognition, and only that text is sent to our server — the recording is not uploaded. Otherwise, or if on-device recognition does not finish, the recording is uploaded to our server, sent to OpenAI to be turned into text, and deleted from our server as soon as that is done. The text of your answers, the examiner's questions, your grades and your debrief make up the session transcript. The temporary recording files the app keeps on your device are deleted automatically within a day.

Your written-test report photo

If you use the written-test scanner, the photo of your FAA Airman Knowledge Test Report is sent through our server to OpenAI to read the knowledge-area codes on it. The photo can show your name, your FAA Tracking Number and your score. It is deleted from our server as soon as the codes are read; only the list of codes is kept, on your device, and it is sent with your practice sessions to add questions in those areas.

Your practice history and progress

We store your session transcripts, grades, debriefs and study progress, and a list of which questions you have already been asked (so your next oral asks different ones). This powers your history, pause-and-resume, your Readiness Score, and getting your history back on a new device. Flashcard progress stays on your device.

Feedback you send

If you send feedback in the app, we store your message, the star rating if you gave one, your account ID, and a little context (your rating, examiner, the session result, the app version and the device platform).

Purchases

Subscriptions are sold by Apple through In-App Purchase, and Apple handles all payment; we never receive your card details. RevenueCat reads your subscription status from Apple on our behalf so the app knows what you have unlocked; it receives your purchase receipts, your account ID, and basic app and device information. We do not currently sell PocketDPE anywhere except the App Store. Our server still contains a web checkout with Stripe from an earlier version; if you ever bought a subscription that way, Stripe processed the payment on its own pages and we received only a customer reference and the subscription's status.

Usage analytics (PostHog)

To see which parts of the app are used and where people get stuck, the app can send usage events to PostHog: the app being opened; setup screens viewed and the choices you pick there (your rating, checkride timing, reason for flying, readiness number, the subjects you flag, and the aircraft you pick); which examiner you tried during setup; paywall views, plan taps, trials and purchases; how you signed in, and signing out; practice sessions started (full oral or topic drill, and the rating); flashcard decks opened; and scanner use (how many codes were found). Each event carries the app version and build, the device platform and operating-system version, and a random ID for your device, which is replaced by your account ID once you sign in. PostHog receives your IP address with each request and may use it to estimate your country and city. Analytics never include your recordings, the text of your answers, your test-report photo, your name or your email address.

If your device's region is in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, analytics stay off until you tap Allow. Everywhere else they are on by default. You can turn them off at any time in Settings › Legal & privacy › Privacy choices.

Crash reports (Sentry)

If the app crashes or hits an error, it sends a report to Sentry: what went wrong in the code, your device model, operating-system and app versions, a random installation ID, a short trail of recent app events (screens opened and the addresses of network requests, with anything after the "?" removed), and occasional performance timings. Crash reports never include your recordings, the text of your answers or your test-report photo. They are on by default because they are how we find and fix crashes; you can turn them off in Settings › Legal & privacy › Privacy choices.

Server logs

Our hosting provider, Railway, handles every request to our server, including your IP address, to deliver it and keep the service secure. Our own server logs record account IDs, session IDs, the examiner's lines, timings, grades and error messages so we can fix problems. They do not record the words you say (as of this version they record only how long an answer was).

Permissions on your device

• Microphone: used only while you are in a practice session.
• Speech recognition: used only while you are in a practice session, to turn your spoken answers into text on your iPhone. It runs on the device.
• Camera and photos: used only when you choose to scan your test report.
• Notifications: used only for one reminder the day before a free trial ends. It is scheduled on your device; no push server is involved.

2. How the AI examiner uses your data

The examiner is powered by OpenAI. To run it, our server sends OpenAI: your recorded answers when your iPhone has not already turned them into text (to turn them into text), the text of the session (to grade your answers, write the examiner's replies, your debrief and Teach Me explanations), the examiner's lines (to turn them into speech), your test-report photo if you scan one (to read the codes), and during setup your first name and introduction (as described above). Under OpenAI's API terms, data sent through its API is not used to train OpenAI's models, and OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days to detect abuse. We have no special retention arrangement with OpenAI.

Before anything is sent to OpenAI, the app shows a disclosure that names OpenAI and explains what is sent, and you must agree. If you choose "Not now", the AI features stay off and nothing is sent. You can withdraw your agreement at any time in Settings › Privacy › AI Services; the AI features then stop immediately.

We, the developer, read individual session transcripts to find and fix grading mistakes and repeated questions. They are visible only to the developer, through a password-protected admin page.

3. Companies that receive your data

These are the only companies that receive personal data from the app or our server, each only for the purpose shown. They act as our service providers.

• OpenAI (AI examiner, transcription, speech, moderation and scanning): your recordings (when they are uploaded), session text, test-report photo, and your first name during setup. OpenAI privacy policy
• Clerk (sign-in and accounts): your email address, sign-in details, and the IP address and device information of your sign-ins. Clerk privacy policy
• Apple (App Store purchases, Sign in with Apple): purchase and subscription records. Apple privacy policy
• RevenueCat (subscription status): purchase receipts, your account ID and basic device information. RevenueCat privacy policy
• PostHog (usage analytics, only if allowed): the usage events described above and your IP address. PostHog privacy policy
• Sentry (crash reports, unless turned off): the crash details described above. Sentry privacy policy
• Railway (hosts our server and database in the United States): everything our server stores or processes. Railway privacy policy
• Stripe (only for anyone who bought through our old web checkout): payment and subscription details. Stripe privacy policy

Charts, airport diagrams, regulations and weather in the app come from U.S. government sources (the FAA and the National Weather Service) through our server; no personal data is sent to them. Our website, pocketdpe.org, uses no cookies, analytics or advertising trackers; its host, Vercel, processes standard request information such as your IP address to deliver the site.

4. Legal bases (European Economic Area and United Kingdom)

• To provide the service you asked for (your account, the examiner, your history, subscriptions): performance of our contract with you.
• To send your recordings, answers and test-report photo to OpenAI: performance of our contract, and your consent in the app, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Usage analytics: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Crash reports and security logs: our legitimate interest in keeping the app working and secure. You can object by turning crash reports off.
• Keeping records the law requires: legal obligation.

5. How long we keep your data

• Recordings on our server: deleted as soon as they are transcribed; any left behind by an error are deleted within 30 minutes.
• Recordings on your device: deleted automatically within a day.
• Test-report photos: deleted from our server as soon as the codes are read.
• Data sent to OpenAI: OpenAI may keep API data for up to 30 days to detect abuse and does not use it to train its models.
• Your spoken introduction during setup (it contains your first name): kept for an hour, then deleted from our server's temporary storage within about 90 minutes.
• Audio of the examiner's replies: the copy made for your session is deleted from our server within 90 minutes. So that the same line is not paid for twice, the examiner's lines are also kept in a voice cache on our server, filed by their words rather than by who heard them, until newer lines push them out. Some of those lines respond to what you said. The cache is not linked to your account, so deleting your account does not remove it. Your debrief is never cached.
• Live session state, including the profile sent with it: kept in server memory until the session has been inactive for 24 hours.
• Pause-and-resume copies of your sessions on our server: deleted automatically 90 days after the session was last active.
• Your practice history, progress, question history and feedback: kept while your account exists, and deleted when you delete your account.
• Database backups: one copy a day; only the three newest are kept, so deleted data leaves the backups within about three days.
• Server logs: kept for a limited period under our hosting provider's log-retention settings.
• Analytics and crash reports: kept by PostHog and Sentry under their retention settings. Email us and we will ask them to delete yours.
• Data on your device: kept until you delete it (see below) or delete the app.

6. Deleting your data

• In the app: Settings › Legal & privacy › Delete my account and data, or the Delete Account button at the bottom of Settings. This permanently deletes your sign-in account at Clerk and, on our server, your practice history, progress, question history, feedback, promo-code history, your account record and the pause-and-resume copies of your sessions (copies made before September 6, 2026 were not labelled with an account, so those are removed by the 90-day rule instead). It does not cancel an App Store subscription; cancel that in Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions on your iPhone, or Apple will keep billing you.
• On this device only: Settings › Legal & privacy › Erase data on this device removes everything the app stores on your phone (history, profile, answers, flashcard progress, settings, your AI-processing consent and cached recordings; your analytics and crash-report choices are kept so an opt-out stays off) and signs you out. Your account and the data on our server are not affected.
• By email: if you cannot use the app, email support@pocketdpe.org from the address on your account (or tell us which address you used). We will confirm it is your account and delete your data within 30 days. We will also ask PostHog and Sentry to delete anything linked to you.

Deleting your account does not delete purchase records that Apple and RevenueCat keep, or information we must keep by law.

7. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of your personal data, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, and withdraw consent you have given (AI processing and analytics can both be switched off in the app). To make a request, email support@pocketdpe.org. We will answer within 30 days and will not treat you differently for using your rights.

• European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland: you also have the right to data portability, to restrict or object to our processing, and to complain to your local data-protection authority.
• California and other U.S. states with privacy laws: you have the right to know, delete and correct your personal information. We do not sell your personal information and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of; we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you.

8. Children

PocketDPE is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email support@pocketdpe.org and we will delete it. A parent or guardian can ask us to delete their child's data the same way.

9. International transfers

Our server, and the services listed in section 3, are in the United States. If you use the app from outside the United States, your data is transferred to and processed in the United States, where data-protection law may differ from yours. Where the law requires it, these transfers rely on our providers' standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards.

10. Security

Everything the app sends travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Requests that read or change your account's data need your sign-in token, the examiner's audio replies are served to your session at hard-to-guess addresses and that copy is deleted within 90 minutes, and admin access is protected by a secret key. Your consent choices and sign-in token are kept in the iOS Keychain. No system is perfectly secure, but we keep what we store to what the app needs.

11. Advertising and tracking

The app contains no advertising, uses no advertising identifier (IDFA), and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, so it never asks for Apple's tracking permission.

12. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we will update the effective date at the top and publish the new version in the app and on our website. If a change would use data you have already given us in a new way, we will ask for your consent first where the law requires it. The current version is always in the app: the Privacy Policy row under Settings › Privacy, next to Legal & privacy.

13. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: support@pocketdpe.org. PocketDPE is operated by London Moren.