01
On your phone by default
Text is stored on device with SwiftData; photos and recordings live in the app’s own sandbox. Everything works fully offline.
Privacy
The best privacy policy
is having nothing to collect.
Trace has no account, no content server and no analytics SDK. Everything you write stays on this phone by default; turn sync on and it travels through your own private iCloud. Here is exactly how that works, and what each system permission is actually for.
Privacy
We have no server
that could read your journal.
That isn’t a promise, it’s a fact of the architecture: Trace has no content server of its own. To read your writing there would have to be somewhere it lands. There isn’t.
02
Sync runs on your iCloud
The switch is in the profile sheet and it’s off by default. Turn it on and it uses your own private iCloud (Apple CloudKit private database), handled end to end by Apple, stored in your account. The developer can neither read it nor keep it.
03
No analytics, no ads
No analytics SDK, no advertising, no crash reporting, no remote AI, no third-party tracking. The one third-party dependency is a library for packing zip files.
04
Health data never lands here
Period dates are read from and written to Apple Health only — never copied into Trace’s database, iCloud sync, logs or backups.
05
No sign-up
No account, no phone number, no email, no public profile, no friends, no likes. Open it and write.
06
Take it or erase it, any time
“My Data” exports a complete zip backup, or wipes everything on the device in one step. Permissions can be revoked in iOS Settings whenever you want.
This page is about how the app is built. The clause-by-clause text lives in the full privacy policy.
Permissions
Asked for only when you use the feature.
Nothing is requested the moment you open the app. Skip a feature and its permission is never asked for; anything you did grant can be revoked in iOS Settings whenever you want.
Photos
To attach an image to an entry, or set an avatar for yourself and the people you keep.
Microphone & speech recognition
Only while you are dictating, to turn speech into text. The audio itself is never saved.
Local notifications
Reminders for to-dos, goals and important dates. All scheduled on device; there is no remote push.
Calendar
With your permission, important dates are written into the system calendar alongside everything else.
Apple Health
Requested only after you turn period tracking on, to read and write period dates. Never symptoms, ovulation, pregnancy, temperature, heart rate or any other health type.
Never requested
Camera, contacts, location, remote push.