Origin — Privacy Policy

Effective 3 October 2026 · Operated by Jember Forge Technologies LLC

Origin is a fire-investigation tool for the people who conduct fire investigations — fire service and fire marshal units, police, insurance and loss adjusting, forensic engineering, and independent investigators. This policy explains what information the app handles, why, where it goes, and how you can delete it. We collect only what the app needs to work. We do not show ads, do not track you across other apps or websites, and do not sell or rent your information.

Information we collect

• Account information. Your email address and password when you create an account, and the profile you enter at sign-up: full name, badge/service number, rank, station, fire department and country. Your password is handled by Google Firebase Authentication and is never visible to us.
• Case information you enter. Incident details (type, address, date and time, station, shift, owner/occupier), officer's observations, additional information, damage and value details, cause analysis notes, checklists, the evidence log, witness statements, hypotheses, report status, and the email addresses of reviewers you send a report to. Because investigations involve other people, this can include personal information about witnesses, owners, occupiers or casualties that you choose to record. This written record is stored in your account using Google Cloud Firestore, so your cases open on every device you sign in on. It is held against your account identifier and is readable only by that account. A copy is kept on each device so the app keeps working at a scene with no signal, and changes you make offline upload when you are back in range. Cases you created in an earlier version of Origin, which stored them on the device only, are moved into your account the first time this version connects; the earlier on-device copy is left in place and is not deleted.
• Location (optional). Only when you choose to fill in an incident address from your current position while creating a case. The app then reads your device's precise location once, saves the coordinates with that case, and sends them to OpenStreetMap to look up the street address. The app does not track your location in the background or at any other time.
• Photos and floor plans. Photos, attached plans and editable LiDAR drafts are stored only on the device that captured them. Origin does not upload their image or drawing files to its servers, and they do not sync to your other devices. Descriptive information (photo label, subject, note, recorded time and file name) is part of your case record and does sync, so another device shows the photo log and marks any frame whose image file is not present on it. Local files may be included in device backups managed by your operating system. You can explicitly export copies, or a report PDF containing them, through the app's share controls; copies you share are outside Origin's control.
• Voice recordings and transcripts. When you dictate a scene note, Origin records audio and saves it with that case on your device only; the audio is never uploaded to our servers. Transcription runs on your device using Apple’s on-device speech recognition, so the audio is not sent to Apple or to us for transcription. Where a device cannot transcribe on-device, Origin saves the recording and tells you transcription is unavailable rather than sending the audio anywhere. A transcript is shown to you for review and correction, and only the text you accept is added to your notes; that text then syncs with your case like the rest of your written record. Because you may dictate at a scene, recordings can contain other people’s voices and words — delete any recording from the app when it is no longer needed.
• Recorded witness statements. With recording authority or consent confirmed, you can record a statement and review an on-device transcript. Audio remains on the device that recorded it; the file reference syncs with the statement, but the audio itself does not. An audio draft is saved when recording begins. You must explicitly accept transcript text and save your edits. Deleting the statement or its case removes the referenced recordings on that device. Only accepted statement text, not audio, can be included in consent-controlled AI analysis.
• Camera and microphone. The camera is used only for the scene photos you choose to capture, and the microphone only while you are recording a dictated note or witness statement.

How we use it

Solely to provide the app's features: signing you in, storing your case record in your account so it is available on your devices, building reports and PDF exports, and optional AI-assisted case analysis. Photographs, voice recordings and plan files are not part of that sync and stay on the device that captured them, so export important records for safekeeping. We do not use your information for advertising, profiling or tracking.

Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers that run the app's features, and only for that purpose:

• Google Firebase provides two services. Firebase Authentication handles your account and email verification. Cloud Firestore stores your case record and investigator profile so they are available on each device you sign in on; Google processes and stores this data as our service provider under the Firebase data processing terms, and does not use it for its own purposes. Photographs, recordings and plan files are never uploaded to it.
• Apple StoreKit handles subscription purchases and payment information. Origin verifies transaction records to unlock Pro and sends Apple an account token derived from your Origin account identifier. A local Keychain record tracks the two-free-case allowance; deleting a case does not reset it. Origin does not receive your payment-card details.
• OpenStreetMap Foundation receives location coordinates only when you use the fill-address-from-location action, to return a street address.
• Visual Crossing receives only the coordinates and date you ask about, with your own API key, when you retrieve station observations. It does not receive your case name, witness details, photographs or recordings, and the key is never written into a case record.
• Open-Meteo receives only the coordinates and date you ask about when you retrieve historical weather for a place and hour. It does not receive your case name, address, witness details, photographs or recordings. Weather Underground withdrew its public API in 2018, so Origin cannot retrieve WU data; the Weather Underground link opens that site in your browser under its own privacy policy.
• The AI provider you choose (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or an OpenAI-compatible endpoint you configure yourself, such as a model hosted inside your own agency) — only if you add your own API key for that provider in Settings, run an analysis, and allow sharing when the app asks for your permission. The text of that case (its details, photo labels and notes, statements and hypotheses — never the images) is sent to that provider's API to produce the analysis, under your own account and that provider's terms. Choosing a different provider asks for your permission again; permission given to one company never carries over to another. Your API key is stored only in your device's Keychain and is never sent to us.

When you send a report for review, it is emailed from your own email account to the reviewers you choose; Origin does not send it through its own servers.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

How we protect it

Network requests use encrypted connections, and your case record is encrypted in transit and at rest by Cloud Firestore. Access rules allow an account to read and write only its own cases and profile. Email/password accounts must verify their email before entering the workspace. Protect access to your device with its passcode and keep exported files secure.

Keeping and deleting your information

Your information is kept until you delete it. Deleting a case removes its record from your account and the referenced attachments on the device holding them. Open Settings → Delete account to remove every case and the profile held in your account, your Firebase sign-in account, and the case data and attachments on this device; the app waits for the server to confirm those deletions before removing your sign-in. Attachments on another device are removed when you delete the app there. A case copy kept by an earlier local-only version of Origin stays on that device until the app is deleted. Exported copies and operating-system backups are outside Origin's control. Account deletion does not cancel an Apple subscription; manage or cancel it in your Apple Account subscriptions. Cases you have already created remain accessible when a subscription expires.

Your choices

Location and camera access are optional and can be turned on or off at any time in your device's Settings; the rest of the app works without them. The AI analysis feature is used only if you add your own API key and give permission; you can withdraw that permission at any time in Settings.

Children

Origin is a professional tool for people conducting fire investigations and is not intended for children.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date above, and we will tell you in the app about any significant change.

Contact

Questions or requests about your information: Jember Forge Technologies LLC, jemberforge@zohomail.com.