Privacy policy
1. Who this covers
This policy covers a writing app for Mac and its companion app for iPhone (together, “the apps”). “We” means the maker of the apps. For anything in this policy, write to leek-00-quip@icloud.com.
2. The short version
The Mac app and the iPhone app do not collect personal data. There are no accounts, no servers of ours that receive your writing, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, and no third-party code in either app. We do not sell or share personal data, because the apps do not give us any.
3. What stays on your device
Your projects (manuscript, structure, notes, research and settings) are stored on your own Mac. We cannot see them. To remove a project, delete its file; to remove the app’s settings, delete the app.
If you use the iPhone app, the phone keeps a downloaded copy of the projects you have chosen to sync, any edits not yet synced, pictures and covers it has cached, and your preferences (such as your reading position, your last project and any projects you have hidden). All of this stays on the phone, and is removed when you remove that project’s copy or delete the app.
The iPhone app also includes a built-in sample project (a public-domain novel). It stays on the phone and is never sent to iCloud or to us.
4. iCloud sync (optional)
Sync is off for every project until you turn it on for that project. When it is on, the project’s contents, including your text, are stored in your own private iCloud database (Apple’s CloudKit) under your Apple ID, so that your Mac and iPhone can show the same project. Only your devices signed in to your Apple ID can read it. We have no access to it, and Apple handles it under its own privacy policy. You can turn sync off for a project at any time, which stops further syncing. The copy held in iCloud can be removed through the iCloud storage settings on your Apple device.
5. When the apps use the internet
Writing and editing never need a connection. The Mac app goes online only in these cases, each started by you:
The web pane. When you open a page in the web pane, it loads that page from the site, as any browser would. That site’s own privacy policy applies, and it may set cookies or see your IP address.
Adding a web link to your research. The app asks the page you entered for its title. The request goes straight to that site, uses a temporary session that keeps no cookies or credentials, and does not pass through anything of ours.
Opening a link. Links to outside pages open in your default browser.
iCloud sync, as described above, if you have turned it on.
The iPhone app makes no web requests of its own. A web link in your research opens in your iPhone’s browser, and the only connection the app makes is to your own iCloud, if you have turned sync on. It checks whether the phone is online, and sends nothing, to decide when to sync.
6. What the iPhone app asks to use
Camera, only when you choose to take a photo for a Story Bible or Research entry. The photo is kept in your project.
Photo library, only through Apple’s own picker, so the app never gets access to your library as a whole.
Microphone and speech recognition, only when you dictate a To-Do or record a voice memo. Dictation is recognised on the phone itself and is not sent to us. A voice memo is saved to the project’s Research, and to your own iCloud if you have turned sync on for that project.
The share sheet (“Add to To-Dos”) saves what you share to a private inbox inside the app, on the phone.
7. Apple
You get the apps from Apple (the App Store or TestFlight), and Apple handles any purchase. The apps use only Apple’s own software frameworks and apply Apple’s standard encryption. If you have chosen to share crash reports or analytics with app developers in your device settings, Apple may pass us anonymous crash and diagnostic information. It does not identify you and does not contain your writing. We do not use any other crash-reporting or analytics service.
8. If you email us
If you write to us, we receive your email address and whatever you send. We use it only to reply and to deal with your message. We keep a message for as long as it takes to deal with it and a reasonable time afterwards, and we delete it sooner if you ask.
9. Your rights
We hold no personal data from your use of the apps, so there is nothing there to access, correct or delete. For anything you have emailed to us, you can ask us to tell you what we hold, to correct it, to delete it, or to stop using it, by writing to leek-00-quip@icloud.com. If you are in the UK or the European Economic Area, these are your rights under data protection law, and you may also complain to your data protection authority; in the UK that is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk). We process emails you send because you asked us to deal with something, and for our legitimate interest in answering you.
10. Children
The apps are writing tools for adults and are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, children included.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change how the apps handle data, we will update this page and its effective date before the change takes effect.
12. Contact
Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: leek-00-quip@icloud.com.