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Privacy

What Alma keeps, and what it doesn’t.

Short version: the site keeps your email, or your answers to a few questions, only if you give them. The app isn’t out yet; once you have it, it keeps your location on your phone and sends nothing anywhere. There are no accounts, no ads, no trackers, and nothing is sold or passed on.

Last updated 25 October 2026. Alma is run by Arash Ershadi.

The website

alma.study has two things that collect anything: the early-access box, and the questions page at alma.study/form.

  • If you join the list, I keep your email address, the time you joined, which of the two boxes on the page you used, the country your connection came from, and the page that sent you here if your browser says (an Instagram link, say). I use it for one thing: to email you about Alma, mostly to tell you when you can have it. Nothing else, and no one else.
  • To stop the box being abused, the site counts sign-up attempts per connection for ten minutes. It keeps a scrambled version of your address that can’t be turned back into it, and forgets it within about an hour.
  • If you join, your browser remembers that you did, so the page doesn’t ask you again. That lives in your browser, not with me.
  • If you answer the questions at alma.study/form, I keep what you typed: your first name, what you study, and your answers about your days on campus, along with the time you sent it, the country your connection came from, and the page that sent you here if your browser says. I use the answers to understand how students actually spend their days, so I build the right thing. Only I read them. Nothing is published, and nothing is shared with anyone, including UQ.
  • The same ten-minute abuse counter applies to the questions page, with the same scrambled, short-lived address.

The site sets no cookies. It counts visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and doesn’t follow you to other sites. It notes which page was opened, the page that sent you, your country, and the kind of browser and device, and shows me only totals, never who you are. The site is hosted by Cloudflare, which, like any host, sees connections to it (addresses and browser details) for a short time to keep it running and to block abuse. Cloudflare’s own handling of that is covered by Cloudflare’s privacy policy.

The app

Alma isn’t available yet. When it is, this is what it does. It’s a map of your campus with your day on it. To do that it asks your iPhone for two things, and both stay on the phone.

  • Your location, while the app is open, to show where you are on the map and to walk you to a room. Directions ask for precise location, because a route needs to know which side of a building you’re on. If you say no, the map still works; you just won’t see yourself on it.
  • Motion, meaning steps and floors, to keep track of where you are inside a building, where GPS doesn’t reach.

None of this leaves your phone. The app doesn’t send your location, your steps or anything else to me or to anyone. It has no account, no sign-in, no analytics, and no advertising. The only thing it remembers between opens is a small on-device note of which Wi-Fi networks it has seen in which buildings, so it can place you faster next time. That note never leaves the phone either, and deleting the app deletes it.

Two things do go somewhere, and only when you choose:

  • If you share directions, the text you share goes wherever you send it, the same as any text you share from your phone.
  • If you send feedback from Settings, it opens your mail app with an email to me. I see what you send, nothing more.

The map itself is about buildings, not people: outlines, floors, rooms, and how busy each building is as a count, never who is in it.

Early access through TestFlight

Alma isn’t on TestFlight yet. When early access starts, that’s how it’ll be installed. Apple may then collect crash reports and basic usage, such as how many times the app was opened, and show that to me without identifying you. If you send a screenshot or a note through TestFlight’s own feedback, I’ll get that too. Apple’s handling of this is covered by Apple’s privacy policy and TestFlight’s terms, not mine.

Leaving

Every email I send has a way to stop them. To come off the list, to have your answers deleted, or to ask what I hold about you, email hello@alma.study and I’ll remove it within a few days and tell you when it’s done. There’s nothing else to delete: the app has no account, and uninstalling it removes everything it kept.

If this changes

If Alma ever needs an account, or starts sending anything off the phone, this page will say so before it happens, and the app will ask first. The date at the top is the last time anything here changed.

Questions, or something here that isn’t clear? Say hello. If you’re in Australia and think I’ve handled your information badly, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.