The short version
- You don't need an account. Your plan, workouts, food log, body data and settings are stored on your iPhone.
- If you sign in with Apple or Google, your data is backed up to our servers in the EU, encrypted with a key for your account.
- Building your plan, Coach, Chef, plan translation, meal scan and voice log send the details they need to Anthropic, the AI provider behind them. We never store your meal photos or the words you say.
- Food search and barcode lookups ask public food databases (USDA and Open Food Facts) for what you search for.
- PULSE has no ads, no analytics and no trackers, and we never sell your data.
- You can delete your account and backup from the app at any time.
Who we are
PULSE ("we", "us") makes the PULSE: Workout & Meals app for iPhone and runs this website. For anything about your data, email support@getpulse.fit.
What stays on your iPhone
Everything you enter is stored on your iPhone, in the app's own storage:
- your profile: sex, year of birth, height, weight, activity level, goal and pace, units, and your answers to the health questions, including the limitations you describe
- your plan, and the answers it was built from
- your workouts and lifting history, your food log, saved meals and custom foods, water, body weight and measurements
- your streak and milestone cards, your Coach conversation (the last 20 messages), reminders, theme, language and settings
This stays on your iPhone unless you back it up (below) or use a feature that sends part of it (further below). Deleting the app deletes it. The app's storage is not included in iCloud backups.
If you sign in: your account and backup
Signing in is optional. You can sign in with Apple or Google to back up your data and use it on another iPhone, and to send Coach more messages each day.
Your account. We receive and keep your name (if you share it), your email address (or the private relay address Apple gives you) and your Apple or Google account ID. For Google, this includes the address of your profile photo. We also keep the sign-in tokens Apple or Google issue, encrypted. For each signed-in session we keep the session's IP address and device type, to keep your account secure.
Your backup. Before anything is uploaded, the app asks for your consent. After that, your whole PULSE document is backed up and kept in sync: everything listed under "What stays on your iPhone" except your water log, your Coach conversation, reminders and app settings. That includes your health answers and limitations, because your plan and targets depend on them.
Where and how. Your account and backup are stored with Cloudflare in the European Union. Your backup is encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a key that belongs to your account, which is itself encrypted with a key only our server holds. Our server can decrypt your backup to send it back to your iPhone, so this is not end-to-end encryption.
If you decline the consent after signing in, nothing is uploaded and you're signed out; your account record stays until you delete it (see Deleting your account).
Features that use Anthropic
Some features are powered by AI models from Anthropic, PBC (the company that makes Claude). When you use them, the app sends what that feature needs through our server to Anthropic, and the answer comes back the same way:
- Building your plan: your sports, level, training days, age, sex, height, weight, goals, the limitations you describe, your sport-specific answers and your language.
- Coach: your message and up to the last 10 messages of the conversation, with the context Coach needs: your goal and pace, sports, level, plan week, today's session, today's food totals, and any safety note your answers set (such as pregnancy or a heart condition), so Coach answers safely.
- Chef: the ingredients you list, your note, servings, and your daily and remaining nutrition targets.
- Plan translation: the text of your plan.
- Meal scan: the photo you take or choose, made smaller first (1,024 pixels on its longest side). The app asks for your permission the first time.
- Voice log: the words you said or typed. The app asks for your permission the first time.
We don't send your name, email or account ID to Anthropic. Our server doesn't store or log what you send or what comes back: no plan details, messages, photos or words. Under its commercial terms, Anthropic doesn't use this data to train its models, and deletes it from its systems within 30 days unless it must keep it longer to enforce its usage policy or by law. See Anthropic's privacy information.
Camera, photos, microphone and speech
PULSE asks iOS for each permission only when you first use the feature that needs it:
- Camera: to scan barcodes and photograph meals. Photos aren't saved to your library or to your food log.
- Photos: only when you choose a meal photo, using Apple's photo picker. PULSE sees only the photo you pick.
- Microphone and speech recognition: only while you log a meal by voice. Your speech is turned into text by Apple's speech recognition, on your iPhone when it supports your language, otherwise by Apple's servers under Apple's privacy policy. The audio is never saved. To recognize foods better, the names of foods you logged in the last 14 days are given to the recognizer as hints.
Food search and barcodes
Nearly 12,000 everyday foods are stored on your iPhone and searched there. To find branded foods, the app also sends what you type to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's FoodData Central and to Open Food Facts, with your region so results fit where you live. When you scan a barcode, its number is sent to Open Food Facts. These services receive your request like any website does, including your IP address; we don't send them anything about you.
When an Arabic food search finds nothing, the app sends us the search words and your language, without any account details, so we can add foods people look for. We keep these searches, with a count and the country the request came from.
Apple Health
If you connect Apple Health, PULSE reads your step count and your latest weight, and saves your finished workouts (the activity, start and end time) to Apple Health. You choose what to allow in iOS, and you can change it any time in the Health app.
Your steps are shown and never stored. Your weight is saved in PULSE only when you tap Use this weight; it then becomes part of your profile, and of your backup if you're signed in. Once saved, it's used like a weight you type, including to build your plan. Data from Apple Health is never used for advertising or marketing, and never sold.
Daily limits and security
To keep the service fair and running, some features have daily limits (for example, 5 meal scans a day). To count them, our server keeps a small counter per day for your account or, if you're not signed in, for a random ID the app creates on your iPhone and for your network address. Meal scan and voice log also always count your network address. Our servers also use your IP address to stop too many requests at once, and keep short technical logs of each request: whether it worked, how long it took, the country it came from and how many items it carried. They never include what you sent.
Exercise videos and pictures come from our media server, which uses your IP address only to limit how many files one address can download.
What we never do
- No ads, and no advertising identifiers.
- No analytics or crash-reporting tools, and no tracking across apps or websites.
- No selling or renting of your data, ever.
- No use of your data to train AI models.
Notifications are local: reminders and the rest timer are scheduled on your iPhone, and we never ask for a push notification token.
Who processes data for us
We use a few companies to run PULSE. Each may only use your data to provide its service to us, and must protect it at least as well as this policy does:
- Cloudflare, Inc. runs our servers and stores accounts and backups (in the EU).
- Anthropic, PBC provides the AI models for the features listed above.
- Apple and Google handle sign-in, and Apple handles speech recognition when it isn't done on your iPhone.
Food databases (USDA FoodData Central and Open Food Facts) are public services that answer the searches and barcodes you send them.
How long we keep data
- Your account and backup: until you delete your account.
- Session records: until the session ends or your account is deleted.
- Daily counters and request limits: kept by account ID, app ID or network address to enforce limits; they hold no names or content.
- Server logs: kept by Cloudflare for a limited time; they hold no content.
- Arabic searches that found nothing: kept to improve the food list, with no account details.
- Data sent to Anthropic: deleted by Anthropic within 30 days, as above.
Your choices and rights
You can see and change almost everything in the app. You can stop backing up by signing out, turn off Apple Health, the camera, photos, microphone and speech recognition in iOS Settings, and delete your account at any time.
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK), you have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, receive a copy, object to or restrict how it's used, and withdraw consent. Email support@getpulse.fit and we'll reply within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
We process your data to provide the app you asked for, with your consent for backup, meal scan, voice log and Apple Health, and in our legitimate interest to keep the service secure and fair.
Deleting your account
In the app, open Settings from your profile card on Progress and choose Delete account. You may be asked to sign in again first. Deletion is immediate: we revoke PULSE's access to your Apple or Google account and delete your account, sessions and backup. What's on your iPhone stays there until you delete the app or choose Reset all data. Daily counters and server logs, which hold no names or content, aren't linked to anyone once your account is gone. Step by step: Delete your account.
Children
PULSE isn't for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them. If you're under 18, use PULSE with a parent or guardian's permission. For people under 18, PULSE never sets a weight-loss target. If you believe a child under 13 has given us data, email support@getpulse.fit and we'll delete it.
Where data is processed
Backups are stored in the EU. Requests to our servers are handled in the Cloudflare data center nearest to you, and requests to Anthropic are processed in the United States. Where data leaves the EU or UK, these companies rely on safeguards such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Changes to this policy
If we change how PULSE uses your data, we'll update this page and the date at the top before the change takes effect, and tell you in the app when the change is significant.
Contact
Questions or requests about your data: support@getpulse.fit.