Privacy Policy — Recall

recall-privacy-policy.md

Privacy Policy — Recall

Last updated: 2026-05-24

Recall is a personal-memory app for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac. Every note, photo, and recording you capture is stored as a plain Markdown file in a folder ("vault") you choose. Vaults live either in your own iCloud Drive or in a local folder you pick — never on a server the developer operates.

No tracking. No analytics. No advertising. No accounts. No personal data is collected by the developer or sent to any server operated by us.

What the app reads

To turn a moment into a memory, Recall uses a few system services — only at the moment you trigger them, never in the background:

• Microphone & Speech Recognition — when you tap Speak, or say "Hey Siri, save to Recall", the app uses Apple's SFSpeechRecognizer to transcribe what you say into text. Apple's framework performs the transcription either on-device (where supported by your hardware and language) or via Apple's speech-recognition service. The audio recording is not retained — only the transcribed text is written into your memory.
• Camera — when you choose Camera on the capture screen, the app opens the standard iOS image picker to take a photo. The photo is saved as a .jpg sibling to the memory's .md file inside your vault. Camera access is used only while you are actively taking a photo; the app never accesses the camera in the background.
• Photo Library (optional) — when you choose Photos, the app uses Apple's PHPickerViewController, which lets you pick a single image without granting Recall full access to your library. The picker hands the chosen image back to the app along with its embedded EXIF metadata (GPS coordinates and original date, when present); these are read on-device so that an older photo can be anchored to the place and date it was actually taken. If the photo has no EXIF GPS, the app silently falls back to your current location.
• Location — while the app is in use, Recall reads your current GPS coordinates via Core Location and asks Apple's geocoder to return a human-readable address. Both are written into the memory's frontmatter (latitude, longitude, location). Reverse geocoding is a network call to Apple's geocoding service; the developer never sees the coordinates or the result.
• Siri / App Intents — Recall registers a small set of phrases ("Save to Recall", "Add memory to Recall", "Hey Siri, save to Recall in VaultName") via AppIntents. iOS shows a one-time confirmation the first time you use one of these phrases. Siri itself handles the speech recognition; the transcribed text is then handed to the app the same way as in-app dictation.
• Apple Watch — the Watch app talks to the iPhone over Apple's WatchConnectivity framework. New memories captured on the Watch are sent to the iPhone for filing in your vault. If the iPhone is unreachable, the message queues locally on the Watch and delivers when the two devices reconnect — nothing is sent to any other destination.

What the app stores

Every memory is a plain Markdown file with the filename {yyyyMMdd_HHmmss}.md. The file contains:

• Frontmatter (YAML): a stable ID, the captured timestamp, the source (voice / typed / camera), latitude and longitude, the reverse-geocoded address, your #tags, and the filename of an optional sibling photo.
• Body: the text you spoke or typed.

If a memory has a photo, the photo is saved as a .jpg sibling file in the same vault folder. There are no other databases, indexes, or server-side records — what you see in the vault folder is the complete data set.

Where the vault lives is your choice:

1. iCloud (default on iPhone) — your vault folder lives inside Recall's iCloud Drive container, iCloud.shuklz.RecallMobile. Apple's iCloud Drive infrastructure handles the sync between your iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch (via the paired iPhone). The folder is visible in the Files app and on iCloud Drive under your own Apple ID. The developer cannot see, query, or export the contents — Apple's iCloud privacy model applies.
2. Linked iCloud Drive folder (iPhone) — you can link any other iCloud Drive folder (typically your Mac's vault) by picking it via the Files app. Recall reads and writes that folder using a security-scoped bookmark stored in the app's local preferences.
3. Local folder (Mac) — on the Mac, vaults are arbitrary folders you choose via the Open panel. Recall accesses them via security-scoped bookmarks stored in the app's local preferences.

Because every memory is a plain Markdown file, you can open the vault in Finder / Files, in Obsidian, or in any text editor — and you can copy, move, or delete memories outside the app at any time. The app reflects whatever's in the folder the next time it loads.

A small set of preferences (the current vault name, the list of linked vault bookmarks, your most recent location for Siri-captured memories, and the "seen welcome" flag) is stored locally in standard iOS / macOS user defaults. Preferences are not synced via iCloud.

Uninstalling the app removes its on-device caches and preferences. Your vault files in iCloud Drive remain in iCloud Drive, owned by your Apple ID, until you delete them yourself.

Network usage

The only network activity Recall performs is:

• iCloud Drive sync of your vault folder, to your own private iCloud account, when you keep the vault inside the iCloud container.
• Reverse geocoding — Apple's CLGeocoder sends the current coordinates to Apple's geocoding service and returns an address string, which is then written into the memory.
• Speech transcription — Apple's SFSpeechRecognizer may use Apple's speech-recognition service for some locales or older devices; on capable devices recent iOS versions transcribe on-device. The app does not retain the audio after transcription.

The app does not connect to any developer-operated server. There are no third-party SDKs and no analytics.

Permissions

• Microphone — used while you actively tap Speak, or when Siri / Watch dictation is triggered.
• Speech Recognition — used to transcribe what the microphone captures.
• Location (While Using the App) — used to tag memories with your current location.
• Camera — used while you actively take a photo from the capture screen.
• Photo Library — not requested. The picker (PHPickerViewController) lets you choose a single photo without giving the app library-wide access.
• Siri / Shortcuts — used so that "Save to Recall" voice phrases can capture a memory without launching the app.

The app does not request access to contacts, calendars, health data, Bluetooth, or any other system resource.

Exports

Recall has no separate export — your vault folder is the export. You can copy, share, or back up the .md and .jpg files however you like. The app itself never transmits a memory anywhere besides the vault folder you've chosen.

Third parties

The app does not share any data with third parties. The only data flows outside the app are (a) iCloud Drive sync to your own private iCloud account, and (b) the Apple system services described under Network usage (reverse geocoding, speech recognition) — both of which are operated by Apple under your Apple ID and your device's privacy settings.

Children

Recall is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect any data from children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, the updated text will appear at this URL with a new "Last updated" date.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to shuklz@gmail.com or via 3sstudio.net.