Military Veteran Help — Privacy Policy

Military Veteran Help is an independent iPhone and iPad app from Banana Apps LLC. It provides plain-language education about U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs benefits, disability claims, and transition; private local-first claims and wellbeing tools; optional Help+ cloud sync; and an adult, pseudonymous, text-only peer Community with reporting, blocking, muting, moderation, and appeals. Private app records are never posted to Community automatically. The app is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and does not provide legal, medical, financial, crisis, or claim-representation advice.

The app does not connect to your VA account, access VA records, or submit claims to the VA.

Account-enabled releases use Supabase for verified email/password sign-in, Sign in with Apple, Sign in with Google, password recovery, session management, and optional authenticator-app multi-factor authentication. Supabase handles account identifiers, email, hashed credentials, factors, and session records.

Existing users upgrading from a local-only version may receive one 30-day account migration period. Previously validated users may access protected local data offline for up to 30 days; network features require a valid session.

The app may handle profile and onboarding choices, saved content, reading and search history, checklists, transition tasks, claims work, statements, evidence documents, journals, moods, symptoms, triggers, recovery goals, support plans and contacts, self-checks, sleep, medications, appointments, reminders, and progress records.

SwiftData remains the immediate on-device source of truth. Private app records are never posted to Community automatically.

If you explicitly enable Help+, eligible private records and validated PDF, JPEG, and PNG evidence files are stored in your Supabase account for cross-device sync and restoration. Bundled educational content, temporary form input, notification permission, scheduled notification requests, caches, and derived calculator results do not sync.

You can pause sync without deleting local data. The service uses change records, deletion tombstones, conflict copies, checksums, retry state, and a device identifier to keep long-offline devices from restoring deleted or stale records.

If you join Community, Supabase handles your chosen handle, display name, optional bio and service branch, adult/rules confirmation, posts, comments, reactions, bookmarks, follows, blocks, mutes, reports, appeals, in-app notifications, and moderation status.

Handles, display names, optional bios/branches, posts, comments, and aggregate counts are visible to other signed-in members subject to block, mute, report, hold, moderation, and deletion rules. Account email, authentication records, private app data, reports, appeals, and moderator records are not public.

Members can report posts, comments, and profiles; block or mute members; manage safety lists; delete eligible content; and appeal a restriction. Reporting hides the target for the reporter and sends it to a private moderator queue.

The service uses text/contact/link filters, rate limits, risk holds, moderator audit actions, restrictions, and suspensions. Community is not continuously monitored and is not an emergency service.

Apple processes Help+ purchases. Superwall presents the paywall and handles purchase, restore, and entitlement events. Banana Apps uses the account identifier and purchase/entitlement state needed to grant private cloud sync. Community and local features remain free.

Account deletion does not cancel Apple billing. Manage or cancel a subscription in your Apple Account subscription settings.

We do not use advertising, attribution, cross-app tracking, or App Tracking Transparency. Superwall processes paywall and subscription interactions needed to operate and measure the Help+ purchase flow.

Sentry is disabled when no approved DSN is configured. If enabled in a later build, it receives only scrubbed crash and technical operation/error types. PII, account identifiers, user content, requests, screenshots, view hierarchy, replay, performance tracing, breadcrumbs, and product analytics are disabled.

The app requests notification permission only after you enable a local reminder. Reminder schedules stay on the device. The app does not request camera, microphone, photo-library, contacts, location, HealthKit, Bluetooth, or tracking permission. Calming noise is generated locally without microphone input.

Network traffic uses TLS. Hosted data uses managed encryption at rest and authorization policies. Private sync also requires a server-confirmed Help+ entitlement. Local app data, Community cache, and evidence files use iOS Data Protection; authentication material uses Keychain.

The service is not end-to-end encrypted. Do not use the app as a replacement for an official VA, legal, medical, or financial record system.

Local information remains until you clear it, reset the device copy, complete account deletion, or uninstall the app. Cloud records, conflict copies, deletion tombstones, and files remain while your account exists as needed for sync and safety.

Confirmed in-app account deletion removes private cloud records/files, Community profile/content/relationships/notifications/reports, stored Apple credentials, and the Supabase user before clearing local records/files, Keychain state, reminders, sync state, and provider identity. A non-identifying deletion receipt may remain only to finish cleanup after a lost response. Encrypted provider backups expire on their normal recovery schedule.

You can edit profile information, export local data, clear selected private activity, pause sync, resolve sync conflicts, manage or restore Help+, control local reminders, reset the device copy, manage Community relationships/content, or delete your account in the app.

See Privacy Choices and Delete Account.

Military Veteran Help and Community are intended for adults age 18 or older. Community requires adult self-confirmation. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children; contact us if you believe a child supplied information.

If you contact support, your email provider and ours process the message. Do not send passwords, Social Security numbers, VA file numbers, claim records, evidence files, medical records, or payment details. For privacy questions, email team@getbananaapps.com.