Privacy Policy

alīv · Last updated 13 August 2026

alīv is a self-help app for people working through low mood. This policy explains exactly what it does with your information. The short version: almost everything stays on your iPhone, and the parts that don't are listed below.

What alīv keeps on your device

Everything you create in alīv is stored on your iPhone and is not uploaded anywhere:

• Your name, your optional profile photo, and your start date
• Your daily plan and which actions you have checked off
• Your journal entries, including anything written after checking off an action
• Which lessons you have read, saved or marked as learned
• Your self-check answers and scores
• Your crisis contacts and your written safety plan
• Your settings, including the appearance, effects and reminders you choose

This lives in the app's private storage, which iOS protects with your device passcode and which other apps cannot read. It is included in an encrypted iPhone or iCloud device backup if you take one — that backup is Apple's, not ours, and we cannot read it.

iCloud backup

alīv can keep a copy of everything above in iCloud so that it survives a lost phone and appears on any iPhone signed into the same Apple Account. It is off unless you turn it on, at User → iCloud backup.

When it is on, the app's database is mirrored into the private database of your own iCloud account. This is worth being precise about:

• It goes to your Apple Account, not to a server of ours. We have no copy, no access, and no way to read it — Apple's private database is reachable only by the account that owns it.
• It includes your journal. Everything listed above is copied, because a backup that leaves out the writing is not much of a backup.
• It is a mirror, not an archive. Deleting an entry on one device deletes it everywhere, and there is no version history to restore from.
• Apple counts it against your iCloud storage, and Apple's own privacy policy covers what they do with data held in your account.

To stop it, turn the switch off. To remove what is already there, go to Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage and delete alīv's data. That is your account, so it is your control, not ours.

Health data

If you connect Apple Health, alīv reads these, with your permission:

• Steps and exercise minutes
• Sleep, including how consistent your sleep and wake times are
• Time in daylight

It reads them to show them beside your plan. They are never uploaded, they are never shared, and they do not affect your score.

If you turn on mood sharing — which is off unless you switch it on — alīv writes the mood you record after journalling to Health as a State of Mind entry. That is the only thing it ever writes, and it goes to your own Health app, not to us.

You can withdraw either permission at any time in Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices, or in the Health app under Sharing. alīv does not receive health data through any other route, and Apple's rules prohibit us from using it for advertising or selling it — we do neither.

There is no account

alīv has no sign-in and no user account. There is nothing to register, no password, and no email address to give us. Nobody has to identify themselves to use any part of this app.

What alīv does not do

• No analytics. No usage tracking, no crash reporting, no event logging.
• No advertising, and no advertising identifiers.
• No tracking across apps or websites, and no data brokers.
• No selling or sharing of personal information, for any purpose.
• No server of ours. There is nowhere for us to keep your writing even if we wanted to. iCloud backup goes to your Apple Account; it does not pass through us.
• No accounts, so nothing to leak and nothing to breach.

alīv checks your writing for language suggesting thoughts of suicide or self-harm so that it can offer crisis resources at that moment. That check happens entirely on your device, in the app, and nothing about it is recorded, counted or transmitted.

When you export something

You can export your journal or your crisis plan as a PDF. The file is created on your device and handed to the standard iOS share sheet, and where it goes next is entirely your choice. Once you send it somewhere — mail, Files, another app — this policy no longer governs it.

Deleting your information

• Logged days and lesson records: User → Privacy & data → Erase logged days and lessons
• Journal entries: User → Privacy & data → Delete all journal entries
• The iCloud copy: Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage → alīv → Delete Data
• Everything else: delete the app. iOS removes its local storage with it — though if iCloud backup is on, the copy in your account outlives the app until you delete it there too.

Because we do not hold your content, we cannot delete it for you, and we cannot recover it if you delete it yourself.

Children

alīv is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. Since there is no account and nothing is collected, there is nothing held about a child for us to delete.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export or delete personal information held about you, and to object to its processing. For everything alīv stores on your device, you can exercise those rights yourself using the app — the data is in your hands, not ours. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of them.

Because alīv holds no accounts, no analytics, no profiles and no content of yours, there is nothing for us to give you if you ask for a copy. That is not evasion — we genuinely hold nothing about you.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what happens to your information, the updated version will be published here and in the app, with a new date at the top. Continuing to use alīv after that means the new version applies.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about your information: mrentrekin@gmail.com

alīv is published by Michael Entrekin.