Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2026

1. Controller

The controller responsible for data processing within the meaning of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws is:

2. How Journary handles your data

Journary is an on-device application. Unlike services such as Google Timeline, it does not send your location or activity history to a company server. There is no Journary account, no Journary login, and no Journary backend that stores your personal data.

All of the data you create in the app is held in two places, both of which you control:

• Locally on your iPhone — your journeys, location points, day statistics, matched photos, and journal entries are stored in the app's own on-device database.
• In your private iCloud — if you keep iCloud enabled, that same data is synced through Apple's CloudKit private database under your Apple ID, so it is available across your own Apple devices and can be restored. This storage is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. We have no access to your iCloud data.

We, as the provider, cannot read, retrieve, or analyze your journeys, locations, health data, photos, or journal entries. They never reach us.

3. Data the app processes on your device

The following processing happens entirely on your device (and, where you enable it, in your private iCloud). Each permission is requested in context the first time it is needed, and most are optional.

a) Location data (background capture)

With your permission, Journary records your location in the background to build your journey history and detect trips automatically — no start/stop buttons required. You can grant "Always" access for continuous background capture, or "While Using the App" for foreground use only. On the free tier, capture occurs roughly every two hours; with Pro you can choose an interval from one minute to 24 hours. Location data is used solely to draw your history on the map and is stored only on your device and in your iCloud.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (your consent, given via the iOS location permission prompt). You can revoke it any time in iOS Settings.

b) Motion & activity data

With your permission, Journary uses your device's motion data to tell driving, cycling, and walking apart, so that a car or scooter trip is not mistakenly recorded as "stationary." This improves the accuracy of automatic trip detection. Motion processing is performed on-device only.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent via the iOS Motion & Fitness prompt).

c) Health & fitness data (HealthKit, optional)

If you opt in, Journary reads selected Apple Health metrics — step count, floors climbed, walking and running distance, and elevation — to enrich your daily journey statistics. This data is read from HealthKit on your device and is never transmitted to us. In accordance with Apple's HealthKit requirements, your Health data is never used for advertising, marketing, or any purpose other than displaying your own statistics, and it is never shared with third parties. You can disable Health access at any time in iOS Settings or the Health app.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR (explicit consent for health data, given via the iOS Health permission prompt).

d) Photos

With your permission, Journary matches photos in your photo library by time and location so they can be shown alongside the relevant journeys and journal entries, and it can save exported images and videos back to your library. Photo matching happens on-device; your photos stay in your library and are never uploaded to us. You can grant full or limited photo access, or none at all.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent via the iOS Photos permission prompts).

e) Journal entries and app content

Any notes, titles, captions, or journal entries you write, and any videos you render, are created and stored on your device and in your private iCloud. They are content you control and are never sent to us.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the app's core function that you requested).

4. Notifications

Journary may use local and push notifications (for example, to surface a new journey or a daily recap). Push notifications are delivered through Apple Push Notification service (APNs); APNs handles only a device token and the notification payload, not your journey content. You can disable notifications at any time in iOS Settings.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent via the iOS notifications prompt).

5. Purchases (Journary Pro)

Journary is free to download. Journary Pro is an optional one-time purchase of $29.99 (lifetime, no subscription) that unlocks high-frequency location capture and video export. The purchase is processed entirely by Apple through the App Store and StoreKit. Apple handles all payment data, billing, and receipts; we never see or store your payment method or card details. We receive only Apple's anonymous confirmation that a purchase entitlement exists for your Apple ID so the app can unlock Pro features. Apple's processing is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the purchase contract with Apple).

6. No analytics, tracking, or ads

We do not use any analytics SDKs, advertising networks, cross-app tracking, or fingerprinting. Journary does not include the App Tracking Transparency tracking mechanism because it does not track you across apps or websites. We do not build profiles, and we do not sell or share your data with any third party. The only external parties involved are Apple (for iCloud sync, push notifications, and payments) — and in each case, Apple acts under its own privacy policy and we do not receive your personal content from it.

7. This website

This marketing website may process minimal technical data (such as your IP address and request metadata) that is necessarily transmitted when your browser loads a page, for the purpose of delivering the site securely and stably. If you choose to give us your email address to be notified at launch, we use that address only to send you launch-related updates, and you can ask us to delete it at any time by emailing privacy@journary.app.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in operating a secure website) and Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (your consent, for the email notification list).

8. Data retention and deletion

Because your data lives on your device and in your iCloud, you decide how long it is kept. You can delete individual journeys or entries, or wipe all Journary data, directly in the app at any time. Deleting the app from your device removes its local data; data held in iCloud is managed by you in your Apple ID / iCloud settings. Any email address you give us for launch updates is deleted on request or once it is no longer needed for that purpose.

9. Your rights under the GDPR

As a data subject, you have the following rights:

• Right of access (Art. 15) — most of your data is directly accessible and exportable in the app (GPX, KML, or JSON).
• Right to rectification (Art. 16) — you can edit your journeys and entries in the app.
• Right to erasure (Art. 17) — you can delete any or all data in the app.
• Right to restriction (Art. 18) and objection (Art. 21).
• Right to data portability (Art. 20) — export your history in open formats from within the app.
• Right to withdraw consent (Art. 7(3)) — revoke any permission at any time in iOS Settings, with no effect on prior lawful processing.

To exercise any right concerning data we hold (such as a launch-update email address), contact us at privacy@journary.app. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — for us, the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit).

10. Children

Journary is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. Because the app stores data only on your own device and iCloud, no such data is collected by us in any case.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy as the app evolves or as legal requirements change. The current version is always available on this page with its "last updated" date. Material changes will be communicated within the app where appropriate.

12. Contact

For any privacy question, contact us at privacy@journary.app or support@journary.app.