Lived Privacy Policy

Effective date: 21 October 2026

Lived (树洞日记 / 樹洞日記) is a journal app made by Rain Chai ("we"). We built it so that your journal belongs to you. Lived has no account and no server of its own, and we can't see what you write, the photos you keep, or who you share with. This policy explains what the app touches on your iPhone, where your journal is stored, and the few times data leaves your device.

What we collect

We don't collect any personal data. The app contains no analytics, advertising or tracking tools, and it doesn't build a profile of you. We never sell or share data, because we never receive it.

What the app uses on your iPhone

Photos. When you allow it, Lived reads your photo library on your iPhone to find days worth keeping and to show the photos from a day. It never changes or deletes anything in your library. When you keep a photo, Lived saves its own copy in your journal, so the moment stays even if you later delete the original. It also reads where and when each photo was taken, so it can place your days on a map and a calendar. Lived never asks for your current location.

Camera and microphone. These are used only when you take a photo or record a voice note to keep. The recording is saved in your journal.

Journaling Suggestions. If you open Apple's Journaling Suggestions picker, iOS shows you suggestions such as a walk, a workout or a place you visited. Lived receives only the suggestions you choose to add.

Notifications. Lived can remind you before a free trial ends, can send a quiet evening reminder, and can tell you when someone adds to a shared journal. These notifications are created on your iPhone. Shared-journal updates arrive through Apple's push service, which carries no journal content.

Understanding your words and photos. Search by meaning, "When did I last…", journal suggestions, care for painful moments and photo search all run on models built into the app (EmbeddingGemma 2 and SigLIP2). Your words and photos are processed on your iPhone and are never sent to us or to anyone else for this. Lived doesn't write text for you.

Face ID. If a Settings lock is offered, iOS checks your face or passcode. Lived only learns whether the check passed.

Where your journal is stored

Your journal is a folder of ordinary files. If iCloud Drive is on, Lived keeps that folder in your own iCloud Drive, in a folder named Lived, so it is backed up and comes back on a new iPhone signed in to the same Apple Account. If iCloud Drive is off, it stays on this iPhone only. Apple stores iCloud data under Apple's own privacy policy, and we can't access your iCloud.

Lived also keeps working data on your iPhone, such as search indexes and settings. That data is removed when you delete the app or use Delete everything.

Shared journals

When you start a shared journal and invite someone, Lived creates a share in your iCloud using Apple's CloudKit. Each moment is encrypted on your iPhone with a key that only members hold, and only then is it uploaded, so neither Apple nor we can read the content. The key is kept in your iCloud Keychain, so a new iPhone with your Apple Account can still open the journal. Members see the name and photo you choose to show them, and the moments you add. When you leave a journal, it stops syncing to your iPhone. Moments you already shared stay with the other members.

The invite is a link that you send yourself, through WhatsApp or the share sheet. The link carries what a new member needs to join, and it goes only to the people you send it to. Lived doesn't read your contacts to send invites.

Purchases

Subscriptions are sold and processed by Apple. We never see your payment details. Lived asks the App Store only whether your Apple Account has an active plan or can still have the free week.

When data leaves your iPhone

Data leaves your iPhone only in these cases:

• when your journal syncs with your own iCloud;
• when a shared journal syncs, encrypted, through iCloud;
• when the App Store checks a purchase;
• when you choose to share or export something, or to write to us by email. In those cases it goes where you send it.

Deleting your data

Settings › Account › Delete everything in Lived removes your journals, Lived's photo copies, its indexes and its settings from this iPhone and from your iCloud. It also clears pending notifications. Deleting the app removes what is on the iPhone, and iCloud Settings › Manage Storage can remove the Lived folder in iCloud. Because we hold none of your data, there is nothing for us to delete on our side.

Children

Lived isn't directed to children under 13, and because it collects no personal data, it doesn't knowingly collect data from children.

Your rights

You can see, export and delete all of your data in the app at any time (Settings › Backup & export, and Delete everything). Because we don't process personal data about you, a request to us will usually have nothing to return. You are still welcome to write to us.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update the date above and describe the change in the app's release notes.

Contact

Rain Chai, hello@livedjournal.app