Privacy Policy

Effective date: May 27, 2026 · Last updated: May 27, 2026

1. Who We Are

ONCA Decisions is an independent iOS application that provides access to decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. We are not affiliated with the Court of Appeal for Ontario, the Government of Ontario, or CanLII.

For privacy questions, contact us at: azzopalj@gmail.com

2. Information We Collect

Information you provide:

• Apple device token — collected when you subscribe to Premium and enable push notifications. Used solely to deliver decision alerts to your device.
• Notification preferences — your choices for criminal and/or civil decision alerts. Stored on our server associated with your device token.
• Bookmarks — if you are a Premium subscriber, your bookmarked cases are synced to our server to enable citator alerts. Free users' bookmarks are stored only on your device.

Information collected automatically:

• Device language — used to determine notification language (English or French).
• App Store receipt — used to verify your Premium subscription status. We do not store the full receipt; verification is handled by Apple's systems.

Information we do NOT collect:

• Your name, email address, or any account information
• Your location
• Browsing history or search queries
• Device identifiers beyond the APNs push token
• Analytics or usage tracking data
• Any information from third-party advertisers (we have no ads)

3. How We Use Your Information

• Push notifications — your device token and preferences are used exclusively to send you decision alerts. We send notifications only for new ONCA decisions and, for Premium subscribers, citator alerts for bookmarked cases.
• Subscription management — Apple handles all payment processing. We verify your subscription status through Apple's StoreKit framework and do not store payment information.
• Citator alerts — Premium subscribers' bookmarks are stored server-side to enable alerts when a bookmarked case is cited in a new decision.
• AI summaries — when you request a summary, the text of the decision (sourced from CanLII's public database) is sent to Anthropic's API for processing. No personal information is included in this request. Summaries are cached on our server once generated.

4. Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. We share data only in these limited circumstances:

• Apple — push notifications are delivered through Apple Push Notification service (APNs). Apple's privacy policy applies to their handling of notification delivery.
• Anthropic — for Premium users requesting AI summaries, decision text (public court records) is sent to Anthropic's Claude API. No personal information is transmitted. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
• CanLII — decision metadata and links are sourced from CanLII's public API. See CanLII's Terms.
• Legal requirements — we may disclose information if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of others.

5. Data Retention

• Device tokens — retained while you have push notifications enabled. Automatically deleted if Apple reports the token as invalid (e.g. app uninstalled).
• Bookmarks — retained while your Premium subscription is active. You can delete them at any time via Settings → Clear All Bookmarks, which also removes them from our server.
• AI summaries — cached indefinitely to avoid regenerating (and re-billing) for the same decision. These contain no personal data.

6. Your Rights and Choices

• Disable notifications — at any time via iOS Settings → ONCA Decisions → Notifications, or within the app's Settings tab.
• Delete bookmarks — Settings → Clear All Bookmarks removes bookmarks from your device and our server.
• Cancel Premium — manage your subscription through your Apple ID in the App Store. Cancellation ends future billing; your data is retained until the subscription period ends.
• Data deletion — to request deletion of all data associated with your device token, email azzopalj@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Security

All communication between the app and our servers uses HTTPS/TLS encryption. Our server (hosted on Railway) is located in the United States. Device tokens are stored in a PostgreSQL database with access restricted to our application server.

We do not store any sensitive personal information (no passwords, no payment data, no government IDs). The most sensitive data we hold is your APNs device token, which can only be used to send push notifications to your device.

8. Children's Privacy

ONCA Decisions is intended for legal professionals, law students, and adults with an interest in Ontario appellate law. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

9. Third-Party Links

The app contains links to CanLII (canlii.org) and the Court of Appeal for Ontario website (ontariocourts.ca). These are independent websites with their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for their content or privacy practices.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. For significant changes, we will provide notice within the app.

11. Contact Us

For privacy questions, data deletion requests, or other concerns:

• Email: azzopalj@gmail.com

We aim to respond to all privacy requests within 30 days.