No servers
Keepsake has no servers and no user accounts. Your voice recordings, transcripts, photos, tags, and locations never pass through or stay on any server of ours, and the developer cannot see them.
What the app stores on your iPhone
All app data is stored locally on your device:
- Your voice recordings, their transcripts, and any photos you attach.
- Titles, summaries, and tags for your memos, and where each was recorded if you turn on location.
- The names, birthdays, and nicknames of the people you add.
- Your app preferences, and the email address of the Google account you connect (shown in Settings).
This information is stored on your device and in the backups in your own personal accounts described below. There is no Keepsake server, account, or cloud service.
Microphone & audio capture
The app accesses your iPhone’s microphone only when you explicitly start a recording (by tapping the Record button, pressing the Action button, using a Lock Screen widget, or commanding Siri). Keepsake never listens or records in the background. System recording indicators (the iOS orange indicator dot and Dynamic Island) remain active during every recording session.
Transcription
Memos are transcribed entirely by Apple's speech recognition engine on your iPhone. Audio is not sent anywhere to be transcribed.
Titles, summaries, and tags
If Apple Intelligence is enabled, it drafts a title, a short summary, and tags for each memo using Apple's on-device foundation models. Your transcript does not leave your iPhone for this.
Location (optional)
Location capture is off by default unless you explicitly turn it on in Settings. When enabled, the app records where your iPhone is at the start of a recording and asks Apple Maps for the place's name. The location is stored with the memo on your iPhone and in your own personal backups, and is never sent to the developer. You can remove location from a single memo or from all memos at any time in Settings.
iCloud Drive backup
If your iPhone is signed in to iCloud with iCloud Drive enabled, the app keeps a copy of your memos in its folder in your own iCloud Drive: each memo's audio, photos, metadata file, and a text transcript export for each person. You can turn this off in Settings. These files are stored by Apple in your personal iCloud account under Apple's Privacy Policy. The developer has no access to them.
Google Drive backup (optional)
If you choose to connect Google Drive, the app signs in with Google and requests access only to the specific files it creates in your Drive (the drive.file scope). It cannot view, access, or modify any other files in your Google Drive.
It uploads to a "Memos from Dad" backup folder in your own Drive:
- Each memo's audio, photos, and a file containing its date, length, title, summary, tags, transcript, location (if enabled), and the person's name, birthday, nicknames, and age at recording.
- A "Memo Index" Google Sheet cataloging your memos for easy personal browsing.
These files go directly from your iPhone to Google and belong to you. The developer has no access to them. Google's handling of them is governed by Google's Privacy Policy. Your sign-in token is stored securely in your iPhone's Keychain.
Google API Limited Use Disclosure
Keepsake’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Specifically:
- Google user data is used solely to provide user-facing backup and restore capabilities in Google Drive.
- Data is never used to train, develop, or improve generalized artificial intelligence or machine learning models.
- Data is never transferred, shared, or sold to third-party ad networks, data brokers, or marketing entities.
- Authentication tokens are stored encrypted in the iOS Keychain and used solely for direct communication with Google APIs over TLS 1.3.
Web Guestbook & Listening Pages
When you host an audio guestbook for a family milestone or event, guests record voice messages from their mobile browser without downloading an app or creating an account. The guest page encrypts the audio and author name end-to-end directly in the guest's browser using a cryptographic key contained solely in the host's private link fragment (which web servers never receive). Sealed recordings are stored temporarily in Apple CloudKit's database until the host's iPhone retrieves and permanently saves them to the host's library, after which the public copy is deleted.
Face ID
If you turn on the app lock, iOS verifies your identity via Face ID or Touch ID and communicates only a success or failure result to the app. The app never accesses or receives your biometric face or fingerprint data.
Purchases
All in-app purchases and lifetime unlocks are processed directly by Apple through the App Store. The app learns only whether an unlock is active, never your payment methods, credit card details, or billing address.
Crash and performance reports
iOS provides the app with technical diagnostic reports covering crashes, hangs, and battery utilization (Apple's MetricKit). These reports contain technical diagnostic data about the app software, never your memos or recordings. They remain on your iPhone unless you explicitly choose to share them from Settings (for instance, via email to the developer for debugging).
What the app does not do
- No analytics, advertising, or tracking: We do not include third-party tracking libraries, analytics trackers, or advertising SDKs.
- No data brokers: Your data is never sold, rented, monetized, or shared with third parties.
Children
The app is designed for use by parents, grandparents, and adults. Information regarding children (such as names and milestone dates) is entered by that adult and stays exclusively on their iPhone and in their own iCloud Drive or Google Drive backups. The developer does not collect, process, or store personal data from children.
Deleting your information
- Deleting a memo moves it to Recently Deleted in the app for 30 days before permanent deletion. You may also delete it permanently at any time from Recently Deleted.
- Deleting a person removes their memos immediately.
- When a memo is deleted permanently and Google Drive backup is enabled, the corresponding files in Drive are moved to Google Drive's trash.
- Deleting a memo permanently also removes it from your iCloud Drive backup.
- Deleting the Keepsake app removes all local recordings and data stored on your iPhone.
- Backed-up files remain in your personal iCloud Drive or Google Drive until you delete the "Memos from Dad" folder there.
- You can disconnect Google Drive at any time in the app's Settings, or revoke the app's access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
User rights & data ownership (GDPR & CCPA/CPRA)
Because Keepsake operates with zero external servers and stores all data locally and in your private personal cloud storage (iCloud Drive / Google Drive), you retain full ownership and control over your data at all times. You have the right to access, export, modify, or permanently delete your recordings, transcripts, and metadata at will directly on your device or in your personal cloud drives without needing to submit a request to the developer.
Changes
If this privacy policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this URL (keepsakeapp.dev/privacy) along with a revised effective date.
Contact
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy, please contact us at support@keepsakeapp.dev.