Privacy Policy

Your letters stay on your phone.

Effective September 15, 2026. This policy describes what the VA Claim Decoder app for iPhone stores, where it stores it, how it is protected, and the few things that can leave the phone.

The short version

  • The app has no accounts and no analytics. Your VA claim letters and claim data are processed on your iPhone, and your claim documents are never uploaded for analysis. We never receive your letters, your name, your dates, your conditions or your diary.
  • Everything the app reads or you type is kept in an encrypted database on your phone. The encryption key lives in the iPhone Keychain, and the database and letter files are left out of iCloud and computer backups.
  • Your letter is read by Apple's on-device text recognition. No page, photo or text is uploaded anywhere.
  • The only network activity the app performs: the purchase flow run by Apple together with RevenueCat, which checks whether a purchase is active, and links you tap that open VA.gov in your browser or a phone number in the Phone app. None of them receive your letters or anything the app pulls out of them.
  • Anything else leaves the phone only when you build an encrypted backup or a redacted packet and share it yourself.
  • Erase Everything in Settings deletes all of it in one step.

Who we are

VA Claim Decoder is published by BlackRidge Systems LLC, a California limited liability company ("we" or "us"). You can reach us at support@vaclaimdecoder.com.

VA Claim Decoder is an independent educational and organizational tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It is not a law firm, medical provider, or accredited VA claims representative. Important dates, calculations, and automated results should be verified against your actual VA documents and official VA information or discussed with an accredited representative.

What the app keeps on your phone

When you use the app, it stores the following on your phone and nowhere else:

  • Letters you import. The PDF you choose or the photos you take, plus a text version of each page produced on the phone.
  • Facts the app pulls out of a letter. Each decision, condition name, rating percentage, effective date, letter date, favorable finding, evidence item, stated reason and any special monthly compensation code, each with the page and sentence it came from, a confidence score, and whether you confirmed it.
  • Things you enter. Conditions you claimed, evidence you sent, an Intent to File date, a rating and dependents for the calculator, diary entries and notes, an optional display name, and which deadlines you confirmed and asked to be reminded of.
  • App housekeeping. Settings, a local activity log used by Erase Everything and Export, and the bundled rate table and Exam Guide library.

None of this is transmitted to us. We cannot see it, and we have no way to retrieve it for you.

How it is protected

  • The database is encrypted with SQLCipher (AES-256). The 256-bit key is generated on your phone and stored in the iPhone Keychain, marked as accessible only while the phone is unlocked and only on this device. It is never written to a backup or sent anywhere.
  • Letter files, page images and the database are protected with Apple Data Protection at the "complete" level, which keeps them unreadable while the phone is locked.
  • The database and letter files are excluded from iCloud Backup and from backups made with a computer. If you want a copy off the phone, the passphrase-encrypted backup described below is the way to make one.
  • Temporary page images drawn for the highlighted Source view are written with complete protection and are removed by Erase Everything.

Encryption protects the data at rest. Anyone who can unlock your phone can open the app, so a passcode, Face ID or Touch ID matters.

Reading happens on the phone

PDF letters are read with Apple's PDFKit. Photographed or scanned pages are read with Apple Vision text recognition. Both run entirely on the device. The parser that turns that text into decision cards is deterministic code inside the app. There is no outside service and no upload.

What the app does not do

  • No account. There is nothing to sign up for, no email address and no password.
  • No backend of ours. We run no server of our own, and there is nowhere for the app to send your claim data. The app does talk to Apple and to RevenueCat, each described in full below; none of them receive your letters, your conditions, your dates or your diary.
  • No analytics, advertising or tracking software.
  • It never asks for or stores VA.gov, ID.me or Login.gov credentials, and never connects to VA systems on your behalf.
  • It never asks for bank or payment card details. Purchases go through Apple.
  • It never puts letter text, dates, condition names or diary content into a log or a notification.

Permissions the app may ask for

  • Camera. To photograph a paper letter. Asked only when you choose to scan with the camera. The photo stays on the phone.
  • Photo library. To read a picture of a letter you already took. Asked only when you choose a photo.
  • Files. To pick a PDF letter or a backup file to restore. The app uses the standard iOS document picker and sees only the file you choose.
  • Notifications. To show local reminders before a deadline. Asked only when you tap Remind me on a confirmed deadline. You can turn reminders off in iOS Settings at any time.

Network activity, in full

1. Purchases through Apple, checked by RevenueCat

When you make the optional one-time Pro purchase, the transaction is handled by Apple through the App Store. Apple processes your payment and your Apple Account under Apple's privacy policy. We do not receive your name, your payment details or your Apple Account.

To know whether Pro is unlocked on your phone, the app uses RevenueCat. RevenueCat receives the App Store receipt for the purchase, a random installation id it generates for the device, and the network address the request comes from. There is no account and no sign-in: the id is anonymous and is not tied to your name or your Apple Account. RevenueCat never receives your letters, your conditions, your dates, your diary or anything else the app pulls out of a letter. It is a third party and processes this purchase data on its own systems under its own privacy policy. If a build of the app ships without a RevenueCat key, the app makes no request to it at all.

2. Links you tap

Find help shows VA's public list of accredited Veterans Service Organization representatives, bundled inside the app. Tapping a phone number opens the Phone app. Tapping "Open VA's accreditation search" opens VA.gov in your browser. Once you leave the app, VA's website, your carrier and the organization you call apply their own policies. The Exam Guide's crisis section lists the Veterans Crisis Line the same way.

That is the complete list. The rate table and the representative list ship inside the app and change only when the app itself is updated through the App Store. The app does not fetch them over the network.

Reminders

Reminders are local notifications scheduled on the phone by the app. There is no push service. Every reminder reads "You have a reminder in VA Claim Decoder." and nothing else, so nothing about your claim appears on the lock screen. They are scheduled 90, 30, 7 and 1 days before a deadline you confirmed, and they are canceled by Erase Everything.

Exports you choose to make

  • Encrypted backup. A single file (ending in .vacd) holding your letters' extracted text, facts, conditions, deadlines, diary entries and settings, encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a key derived from a passphrase you choose. Letter page images are not included. The file is handed to the iOS share sheet and you pick where it goes, for example Files, iCloud Drive or AirDrop. We never receive it, and we cannot recover a lost passphrase.
  • Redacted packet. A PDF built on the phone that summarizes what the letter says, the questions to bring to a representative, and diary entries if you include them. Your name, Social Security number and VA file number are blacked out where the app finds them by pattern matching, and you can add other words to black out. You inspect the packet before sharing it. Redaction is automatic and can miss something, so read every page before you send it.
  • Restore. Restoring a backup decrypts it on the phone and replaces what is on the phone with the backup's contents.

Deleting your data

  • Erase Everything in Settings deletes the database, the letter files, the encryption key, every scheduled reminder and any export files still on the phone. There is no undo, and we hold no copy.
  • Deleting the app removes its data from the phone. Run Erase Everything first so the Keychain entry holding the database key is removed as well.
  • Records of the one-time Pro purchase belong to Apple and are managed through your Apple Account.

How long data is kept

We keep nothing, because we receive nothing. Data on your phone stays there until you delete it. If you email us, we keep that email as long as necessary to answer you and keep an accurate record, typically no more than two years.

Email to support

If you write to support@vaclaimdecoder.com, we receive your email address and whatever you include, and we use it only to reply. Please do not paste letter text, your Social Security number or your VA file number into an email. We do not need them to help.

Children

The app is built for adult veterans and the people who help them. It is not directed to children under 18, and because it collects nothing, we hold no information about anyone of any age.

Your privacy rights

Laws in some states and countries give you the right to access, correct, export or delete personal information a business holds about you. Because we do not collect or hold personal information through the app, those controls are in your hands: the app's Export screen is your access and portability, and Erase Everything is your deletion. If you believe we hold anything about you, for example because you emailed us, write to support@vaclaimdecoder.com and we will respond within 45 days. We do not sell or share personal information.

Changes to this policy

If the app's data practices change, for example if a new network feature is added, we will update this page and the effective date, and the app's Privacy screen will describe the change. We will not start collecting data the app does not collect today without telling you first.

Contact

BlackRidge Systems LLC
1111 6th Ave, Ste 550, PMB 730893
San Diego, CA 92101, United States
support@vaclaimdecoder.com