Effective 31 October 2026
Note to Self is made by Saleh Kayyali, an independent developer in London. The short version: the app does not collect your data. I run no servers, the app has no account, and your notes never reach me.
What the app stores, and where
Your notes, voice recordings, transcripts, titles, tags, reminders, channels and settings are stored on your iPhone, inside the app’s own storage. The app does not sync them to iCloud or to any other service, so they do not appear on your other devices.
If you have iCloud Backup (or backups to a computer) turned on, your iPhone includes the app’s data in those backups, as it does for most apps. Those backups are made, encrypted and stored by Apple under your Apple Account and Apple’s privacy policy; I cannot see or open them. Link-preview images and temporary files are left out of backups.
What I collect
Nothing. The app contains no analytics, advertising, tracking or crash-reporting code, and it does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites. The App Store privacy label for the app is “Data Not Collected”.
The one exception is what you send me yourself: if you use Send feedback in the app, or email me, I receive your email and whatever you choose to write. I use it only to reply and to improve the app, keep it no longer than needed for that, and delete it on request.
Transcription and Apple Intelligence
Voice notes are transcribed on your iPhone with Apple’s speech recognition. The first time a language is used, iOS may download its speech model from Apple; that download is handled by iOS and contains none of your notes.
Titles, tags, search by meaning, answers and summaries are produced by Apple Intelligence on your iPhone. The text never leaves the device for these features.
Private Cloud Compute (optional, off unless you turn it on). Settings has a switch to use Private Cloud Compute, Apple’s server-based model, for summaries too long to produce on the iPhone. When it is on and you ask for such a summary, the text being summarised is sent to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute to produce it. Apple states that data sent to Private Cloud Compute is used only to fulfil the request, is not retained after the response is returned, and is never available to Apple. Use counts against a daily limit tied to your iCloud account. I receive nothing. You can turn it off at any time in Settings; summaries then use only the on-device model.
Link previews
When you save a link, the app fetches that page once, directly from the website it points to, to show its title and image. The website receives an ordinary request from your iPhone, including your IP address, as it would if you opened the link in Safari. The preview is stored on your iPhone.
Send to Self
Items you share through the Send to Self extension are passed to the app through storage on your iPhone that only Note to Self and its extension can read. Nothing is sent anywhere else.
Permissions
| Permission | Used for | If you decline |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | Recording voice notes you choose to make | Text and links still work |
| Speech recognition | Transcribing those recordings on the iPhone | Recordings are kept without text |
| Notifications | Reminders you set, scheduled on the iPhone | Reminders still appear in the app |
You can change any of these in the iPhone’s Settings → Apps → Note to Self.
Backups you export
A backup file is made only when you ask (Settings → Backup). It contains your notes and recordings, unencrypted, and goes wherever you save or send it; keep it somewhere you trust.
Keeping and deleting your data
Your data stays on your iPhone until you delete it. Deleting a note removes it from the app; deleting a channel removes its notes. Deleting the app removes everything it stored on the iPhone; copies remain in earlier iPhone backups until those are replaced or deleted, which you control in iCloud settings. Because I hold none of your data, there is nothing for me to delete on request, apart from any email you have sent me.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and similar laws you have rights to access, correct, delete and move your personal data, and to object to its use. For data in the app, you exercise these directly: everything is on your device, and the export gives you a complete copy.
Open-source components
- ZIPFoundation (MIT licence), used to read and write backup files. It makes no network connections and collects nothing.
Changes
If the app’s handling of data changes, for example if sync is added, this policy will be updated before that version is released, and the new version posted here with a new effective date.
Contact
Saleh Kayyali · email · mskayyali.com