Privacy
Patterns is built so that your journal stays yours. Here's how, in plain language.
The short version
- There’s no account and no server. We don’t collect, store or see your journal.
- Everything you log is encrypted on your iPhone.
- Anything that reaches outside the app is off by default, and you decide what to turn on.
How your journal is protected
Every tracker, entry and attachment is encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a random key created on your device. If you set a password, that key is protected by it (PBKDF2 with 600,000 rounds). You can also use Face ID or Touch ID, auto-lock when you leave the app, and a privacy cover in the app switcher.
If you set a password and forget it, the journal can’t be decrypted, by you or by us. There’s no recovery, because we never have a copy.
Connections
Settings › Privacy & connections is the only place where anything that reaches outside the journal can be turned on. Every connection starts off.
| Connection | Where it goes | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Stays on device | Lets a location detail use your current position, only when you tap “Use current”. |
| Place names | Apple | Sends the coordinates of that one location to Apple to get a place name. |
| Maps | Apple | Shows an Apple Maps preview, which loads map tiles for that area. |
| Apple Health | Stays on device | Read-only daily import of steps, energy, heart rate, HRV, sleep and period days. |
| Weather | Apple (WeatherKit) | Daily weather for one location, rounded to about 1 km. |
| Siri & Shortcuts | Apple (Siri speech) | Lets you say “Log Headache in Patterns”. Entries are sealed and only readable once you unlock. |
| Apple Intelligence | Stays on device | Summaries and questions about your journal, processed entirely on your iPhone. |
An activity log, stored inside your encrypted journal, records every time a connection is used. Turning a connection off also turns off anything that depends on it, and Erase all data resets every connection to off.
Purchases
Subscriptions and the lifetime purchase are handled by Apple through the App Store. We don’t receive your payment details. If a plan ends, your journal is never deleted: you can still read and export everything.
Questions
If anything here is unclear, please write to us. We’re happy to explain.