Privacy policy

Who is responsible

Joe Azzi, in Ontario, Canada, makes Underlock and is responsible for this policy. In this policy, “we” means Joe Azzi. To reach us, write to [email protected].

The short version

The app has no account and no analytics, and the app itself sends us nothing. Your photos, videos, files and notes are encrypted on your iPhone before they’re saved, and we never receive your files, your pattern or your keys. This website sets no cookies.

The app

• What the app collects. Nothing. The app has no server of ours to send anything to, and it shares nothing with third parties. It talks only to Apple: to your own iCloud if you keep the backup on, and to the App Store if you buy Pro.
• What we never receive. Your photos, videos, files and notes, their names and dates, your pattern, your passphrase, your recovery phrase and your keys. What’s saved stays encrypted on your iPhone, and in your own iCloud if you keep the backup on. With that backup off, your iPhone’s own backup holds the encrypted files.
• No account, no email. There’s nothing to sign up for, so we don’t have your name or your email address, unless you write to us or join News from Underlock.
• No analytics. The app doesn’t report how you use it, and it contains no third-party analytics or crash-reporting code.
• Camera, microphone and photos. The app asks for your camera and microphone only to take photos and videos into your vault. It asks for your photo library only to remove originals, when you ask it to.
• Buying Pro. Pro is bought inside the app, through Apple. Apple handles the payment; we receive App Store sales and download reports, which Apple provides without your name or contact details.
• If someone asks us for your vault. We’d have no files, no pattern and no keys to give.

Keeping and deleting what’s in the app

• How long. Nothing from the app reaches us, so we have nothing to keep. Your vaults stay until you delete them or delete the app.
• A file. A file you delete waits in Recently deleted for 30 days, then it’s deleted for good. To delete the file sooner, select the file in Recently deleted, then tap Delete now.
• A vault. Open the vault, tap Settings, then tap Delete this vault.
• Every vault. In Settings, tap Erase all vault data.
• Deleting the app. Deleting Underlock deletes your vaults from your iPhone. A backup of your whole iPhone can still hold the encrypted files until you delete that backup.

This website

• No cookies. This site sets no cookies.
• What your browser remembers. If you close a banner, your own browser remembers that, on your device. Nothing about it reaches us.
• Visit counts. We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which works without cookies. It shows us totals, such as which pages were read and which sites sent visitors here. Cloudflare says Web Analytics doesn’t collect personal data or follow you by your IP address or browser.
• Hosting. Like any website, the servers that deliver these pages (Cloudflare’s) receive your IP address and browser details in order to send you the page. We don’t keep these details. Cloudflare’s own privacy policy covers how long Cloudflare keeps them.
• Share buttons. The share buttons on our guides are plain links. X, LinkedIn and Facebook get nothing from this site unless you tap one.

If you write to us

If you email us, we receive your address and your message, and we use them to answer you.

Mail to our addresses passes through Cloudflare’s email routing on its way to our mailbox. We keep your message as long as we need it to answer you and to keep our records. To have it deleted, write to [email protected].

If you join News from Underlock

• Who keeps your address. An email service called Sender keeps the list and sends the emails. Sender is based in Lithuania, in the EU. Our sign-up form passes your address straight to Sender, and we don’t keep a copy. Sender also keeps a record of each email it sends. We use the list only to send you News from Underlock, a few times a year.
• How long. Sender keeps your address for as long as you stay on the list.
• Joining. Your address joins the list as soon as you subscribe, and we send you one email to say so.
• Opens and clicks. Our emails tell us when you open them and which links you click.
• Leaving. Every email has a link to leave the list. If you leave, Sender keeps your address only to make sure you get no more emails. To have your address deleted, write to [email protected].

Why we use your information

We send News from Underlock because you asked to join, and you can take that back by leaving the list. We answer your email because you wrote to us. We deliver this site and count visits because we have a fair reason to, which the law calls a legitimate interest: running the site and knowing which pages help.

Your rights

You can ask what we or Sender hold about you, ask for a copy, ask us to correct it and ask us to delete it. You can also object to how we use it. Write to [email protected], and we answer within 30 days. If you think we got something wrong, you can complain to your privacy authority. In Canada, that’s the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. In the EU and the UK, it’s your national data protection authority.

Where your information goes

Cloudflare, which delivers this website and routes our email, and Sender, which runs the newsletter, handle your information for us. Both have their own privacy policies: Cloudflare’s and Sender’s. They may handle it outside your country, and so may the email service that holds our mailbox. We don’t sell your information, and we give it to nobody else unless the law requires us to. Apple’s privacy policy covers iCloud, the App Store and crash reports.

Children

The app collects nothing from anyone, children included. On this website, we don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. If you think a child has joined News from Underlock, write to [email protected], and we’ll delete the address.

Changes

If this policy changes, we update this page and the date at the top.