Backstory privacy policy
Last updated 23 July 2026. This policy covers the Backstory mobile app on iOS and Android.
The short version. Your memories — dates, titles, stories, photos and voice memos — are stored in a database on your device. There are no ads, no analytics and no trackers, and nothing about you is ever sold.
Accounts
Backstory works without an account. If you choose to turn on family sharing, you sign in with Apple, Google or an email address, and the memories you explicitly share are stored on our Supabase server so the people you share them with can see them.
What we collect, and what we don't
| Data | What happens to it |
|---|---|
| Memories (dates, titles, stories, photos, voice memos) | On your device. Uploaded only for memories you explicitly choose to share. |
| Email address or Apple/Google account identifier | Only if you create an account for family sharing. Used to sign you in and to link shared memories to you. Never sold, never used for marketing. |
| Location | Only if you switch on “Tag location and weather” in Settings, which is off unless you turn it on. Backstory then reads your position once as you save a memory, turns it into a city name, and stores that city — not your coordinates — with the memory on your device. |
| Contacts | Only if you run Settings → Import from Contacts. Backstory reads names, birthdays and anniversary dates on your device to suggest memories, and saves only the entries you tick. Your address book is never uploaded. |
| Calendar | Only if you run the calendar import. Backstory reads existing yearly events on your device so you can turn them into memories. It never adds to or changes your calendar. |
| Advertising identifiers | Not collected. There are no ads and no ad SDKs in the app. |
| Analytics or usage tracking | Not collected. There is no analytics SDK running in the app. |
Who else touches your data
| Service | What it receives |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosts the account and shared-memory database, and only receives data if you turn on family sharing. |
| Open-Meteo | A free weather service. If you turn on location tagging, it receives the coordinates of the memory you are saving so it can return the temperature. No account, no identifier and no history is sent with it. |
| Apple / Google sign-in | Used only to verify who you are when you create an account. They tell us an account identifier and, if you allow it, an email address. |
Permissions the app asks for
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Photos | To attach pictures to a memory. Backstory only reads the photos you pick. |
| Camera | To take a new photo for a memory. The photo stays on your device. |
| Microphone | To record a voice memo on a memory. Recording only happens when you tap record. |
| Contacts | To find birthdays and anniversaries you can import as memories. Read on your device; only what you tick is saved. |
| Calendar | To find yearly events already in your calendar so you can import them. Backstory only reads — it never writes to your calendar. |
| Location | To tag a memory with the city and weather where it happened, if you turn that setting on. Off by default. |
| Notifications | To send the yearly reminder for your memories. All reminders are scheduled on your device. |
| Face ID / biometrics | To unlock the app if you turn on the lock. Handled by the operating system; the app never sees your face or fingerprint data. |
How long we keep things
Data on your device stays until you delete it or remove the app. Anything held on our server is kept until you delete your account, at which point it is erased for good.
Deleting your data
Delete individual memories with a two-tap delete on the memory itself. To remove everything from your device, delete the app — this permanently erases the on-device database.
If you created an account for family sharing, open Settings → Family sharing → Delete account. This permanently deletes your account, your shared memories and anything linked to them from our server. It cannot be undone.
Your rights
| Right | What it means |
|---|---|
| Get a copy of your data | Ask us and we will send you everything we hold that is linked to you. |
| Correct it | If something we store about you is wrong, tell us and we will fix it. |
| Delete it | Use the in-app delete, or ask us and we will erase it. |
| Complain | If you are in the UK or EU you can complain to your local data protection authority. |
To exercise any of these, email [email protected]. We reply within 30 days.
Children
Backstory is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes in a way that affects what we collect, we will update the date at the top and note the change in the app's release notes.
Contact
Gaurav Choukse — [email protected]
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