Quillow — Privacy Policy

Effective August 16, 2026 · Applies to Quillow for iOS and macOS

The short version: Quillow is a private diary, and it behaves like one. Your entries, photos, videos, voice notes, drawings and moods stay on your device. We run no servers, collect no data, show no ads, and use no analytics or trackers. We — the developer — cannot read your diary. Ever.

What we collect

Nothing. Quillow has no accounts, no sign-up, no analytics SDKs, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Nothing you write or add to your diary is ever transmitted to the developer or to any server we operate (we don’t operate any).

Where your diary lives

Everything you put into Quillow — text, photos, videos, video notes, voice notes, songs of the day, drawings, moods, time capsules — is stored locally on your device, inside the app’s private storage.

iCloud sync (optional, off by default)

If you turn on iCloud sync in Settings, your diary is synchronized between your own devices through your personal, private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit). This data is tied to your Apple ID, encrypted in transit and at rest by Apple, and accessible only to you. The developer has no access to it. Turning sync off stops synchronization; your data remains on your devices. iCloud storage is governed by Apple’s privacy terms.

The diary lock

You can lock Quillow with Face ID / Touch ID / your device passcode (handled entirely by the system — Quillow never sees your biometrics), or with a Quillow passcode of your own. The Quillow passcode, its recovery code and the optional secret question answer are stored only as salted cryptographic hashes in your device’s Keychain. They never leave your device, and there is no way for the developer to see or reset them.

Backups

Backups exist only where you put them. The daily automatic safety copy is written inside the app’s own storage on your device. Exported backup files are created only when you choose “Export”, and go only to the location you pick. Quillow never uploads backups anywhere.

An exported backup is an ordinary .zip archive: your writing in a readable diary.json, and your photos, voice notes, videos and drawings as plain files beside it. You can open it on any computer, with or without this app. Your diary is yours, in a format nobody can take away from you.

Music features (optional)

Some optional features talk to music services, only when you use them:

• Song search uses Apple’s public iTunes Search API — your search words are sent to Apple to find the song. No diary content is included.
• Spotify connection (if you connect it) authorizes through Spotify and exchanges only playback state and commands (play/pause/track info) with Spotify’s servers. Your access token is stored locally on your device. Spotify’s own privacy policy applies to their service.
• Apple Music playback state is read locally on your device via the system media player.
• Album artwork is fetched from Apple’s / Spotify’s image servers.

None of these requests ever contain your diary content.

Device permissions Quillow may ask for

• Camera — to record video notes. Recordings stay in your diary, on device.
• Microphone — to record voice notes. Same: on device.
• Speech recognition — for dictation, processed on device where available.
• Photo library — Quillow uses the system photo picker, which shares only the specific photos and videos you choose; Quillow has no access to your library itself.
• Face ID / Touch ID — to unlock the diary; handled by the system.
• Notifications — for the optional daily reminder, scheduled locally on your device. No push servers are involved.

Every permission is optional and requested only when you use the corresponding feature.

Children

Quillow is not directed at children under 13 and collects no data from anyone, including children.

Your rights

Because your data never reaches us, it never leaves your control: to view it, open the app; to export it, use Backup; to delete it, delete entries or the app itself (and, if you used iCloud sync, your iCloud data can be removed by disabling sync and deleting the app’s iCloud data in system settings). There is nothing for us to hand over, correct or erase — we hold nothing.

Changes to this policy

If Quillow’s behavior ever changes in a way that affects privacy, this page will be updated first, with the effective date above, and notes in the app’s release notes.

Contact

Questions? Write to denell.dev@gmail.com.