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Privacy Policy

Last updated · 9 October 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how the Hints iPhone app (“the App”) and the Hints website at tryhints.app (“the Website”) handle your data. The App is developed and operated by Vladyslav Kozlov, an individual developer based in Ukraine (“we”, “us”). Contact: support@tryhints.app.

The short version

Hints is built so that your gift notes stay yours. What you write or say — names, gift ideas, dates, facts about people — is stored on your iPhone and, if you use iCloud, in your own private iCloud account. We run no servers that receive your notes, there are no accounts, and we have no access to your notes. The App does not contain analytics, advertising or tracking software, and it sends nothing to us — unless you choose to report a wrong suggestion, in which case you see exactly what is sent and send it yourself by email.

How your notes are processed

Apple Intelligence. When you save a note, the App asks Apple Intelligence to turn it into a structured gift hint (who it is for, what they want, when the occasion is). This runs either on your iPhone or on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. Private Cloud Compute processes the request on Apple silicon servers, uses it only to answer that request, does not store it, and is designed so that no one — Apple included — can read it; Apple publishes its software so independent researchers can verify these guarantees. We never see the note or the result. The App adds no network requests of its own for this. Apple’s privacy policy applies: apple.com/legal/privacy.

Voice notes. If you dictate a note, speech is transcribed on your device by Apple’s speech framework. The App does not save the audio or send it anywhere.

Siri and Shortcuts. You can add a note with Siri, Shortcuts or the Action button. When you speak to Siri, Apple handles your request under its own Siri privacy terms; Hints receives only the text of the note and processes it as described above.

Things you share into Hints. If you share text, a link or a screenshot into Hints from another app, it is stored on your device like a note. For a link, whether you share it, paste it or type it into the App, Hints opens the page once, directly from your iPhone, to read the product details it describes (its name, brand and price), so you don’t have to type them. Like opening the page in a browser, this request lets that website see your IP address and basic details of the request, and the website’s own privacy policy applies to it. Hints sends the website nothing from your notes, does not go through any server of ours, and does not visit the page again or follow its price. The details it reads are stored with the hint, like the rest of your notes.

What is stored, and where

  • Your gift notes, people, hints, facts and occasions, and the other names Hints learns for a person (for example “Nadia” for “Nadiia”), are stored on your device. If you are signed into iCloud, they sync between your devices through Apple’s CloudKit, in your private iCloud database. We cannot read it. Apple’s iCloud terms apply.
  • Notes waiting for review (a note you have saved but not yet confirmed, including a shared screenshot) stay on the device where you made them and do not sync.

Contacts

If you allow it, the App reads your contacts on your device to match a name in a note (“Anna”) to the right person. When you file a hint under a contact, the App keeps that person’s name, the contact’s identifier, their birthday’s day and month (saved as an occasion) and, if available, a small copy of their contact photo with your Hints data (on your device and in your private iCloud). Your contact list is never uploaded to us or to anyone else. You can deny or revoke Contacts access at any time in Settings → Hints; the App still works, and you can add people by name.

Reporting a wrong suggestion (optional)

If Hints misreads a note, you can tap Report this parse. Before anything is sent, you see exactly what the report contains:

  • the note’s text and what Hints extracted from it;
  • what you say was wrong, and anything you add about what you expected;
  • how Hints matched the name: whether the person came from your contacts, from people already in Hints, or was new, and whether the match was ambiguous — never your contact list;
  • technical details needed to reproduce the problem: the app version and build, the iOS version, your iPhone model, the language of the note and of your iPhone, the date, time and time zone the note was written in (to check dates like “next Friday”), how it was entered (typed, dictated, shared text, a link or a screenshot) and how it reached Hints (the app, Siri or Shortcuts, or a share), whether Apple Intelligence answered on your iPhone or through Private Cloud Compute and, if it fell back to your iPhone, why, how long reading the note took, which of Hints’ own correction steps ran, and the version of Hints’ note-reading logic.

The report includes the names in your note, because a wrong name match is one of the things we need to see. It never includes your contact list, your other notes, your Apple Account, or any device identifier. The report is sent only when you tap Send in your own email app, from your email address, to support@tryhints.app. Nothing is ever sent automatically.

  • What we receive: the report as you sent it, and your email address and name as your email app sends them. Reports reach our support mailbox through Cloudflare Email Routing, which forwards them without storing them, and are stored in that mailbox, hosted by Google under its own terms and privacy policy.
  • What we use it for: only to improve how Hints reads notes, for example by adding the example — without your email address — to our internal test set. We never use it for marketing, never sell it or share it with anyone except the providers that forward and host our mailbox, and never combine it with any other data.
  • How long we keep it: only as long as it is useful for improving Hints. We delete the email on request. The example in our test set is kept without your email address, though it may still contain the names in the note, and we remove it too if you ask.
  • Legal basis (GDPR): your consent for your own data, given each time you send a report; our legitimate interest in improving Hints for the names of other people that appear in a note. You can withdraw your consent at any time by asking us to delete a report. We never contact people mentioned in reports. Please only send a note you are comfortable sharing.
  • Where it is stored: reports are stored outside the EU and UK — in Ukraine and on Google’s servers in the United States and other countries. These countries may not have data protection laws the EU or UK consider equivalent to their own. By sending a report, you explicitly agree to that transfer.

What we do not collect

  • The contents of your notes, the names of the people in them, or your gift ideas — except in a report you choose to send (see above)
  • Your contact list, calendar, photos or location
  • Your name, email address, phone number or any identifier — except the email address a report arrives from, if you send one, and the details below if you are a TestFlight tester
  • Usage analytics, advertising identifiers, or crash data sent by the App itself

If you turn on sharing with app developers in iOS settings (Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements), Apple may give us anonymous crash and performance reports and aggregated usage statistics; they describe the App, not your notes, and do not identify you.

TestFlight testers. If you test a pre-release version through Apple’s TestFlight, Apple shows us the name and email address we invited you with (nothing, if you joined through a public link), when you installed and opened the beta, and crash reports. We also receive the feedback you choose to send through TestFlight, including any screenshot you attach — a screenshot can show your notes, so check it before sending. We use this only to run the beta and fix problems (our legitimate interest in running the beta, GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)), and keep it until the beta ends or you ask us to remove it.

Purchases

The App has no in-app purchases yet. Before subscriptions launch, this section will describe how purchases are processed by Apple and how your subscription status is checked.

The Hints website and waitlist

The Website is a set of static pages hosted by Cloudflare. It sets no cookies and contains no advertising. To count visits, it uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which records the page viewed, the site you came from, and your browser, device type and country, without cookies, without fingerprinting and without identifying you. Like any website host, Cloudflare processes the technical data needed to deliver pages and protect the site against abuse, such as your IP address and browser type; we do not use it to identify you.

If you join the waitlist, we collect only your email address. We use it to invite you to the beta, to tell you when Hints is available, and to send occasional news about Hints, and never for anything else. Your email address is stored by our email provider, Loops (Astrodon Corporation), which sends these emails on our behalf, under a data-processing agreement, and stores data in the United States. Loops may record whether an email was opened and which links in it were clicked; we use that only to see whether our emails arrive.

  • Legal basis (GDPR): your consent, given when you join. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can also ask us to remove you at support@tryhints.app.
  • How long we keep it: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it, or until we stop sending news about Hints.
  • Where it is stored: in the United States. By joining the waitlist, you agree to that transfer.

Your rights

If you are in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, or another jurisdiction with similar laws, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to the processing of your personal data, and to data portability. We hold no data about you apart from reports you choose to send, your email address if you join the waitlist, and, if you are a tester, the TestFlight details above, so you control your data directly: delete people or hints in the App, delete the App, and turn off iCloud for Hints in Settings → [your name] → iCloud, where you can also delete the App’s iCloud data. To have a report, your waitlist address or your TestFlight details deleted, or for anything else, email support@tryhints.app.

We do not sell or share personal information, as those terms are defined in California law.

You may lodge a complaint with a data protection authority: in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights; in the EU, your national supervisory authority; in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Children

Hints is not directed at children under 13, or under the minimum age for consenting to online services in your country (up to 16 in the European Union). We do not knowingly collect data from children.

iOS permissions

The App may ask for access to Contacts (to match names), the microphone and speech recognition (for voice notes, transcribed on device). Each is optional and can be changed at any time in Settings → Hints.

Changes to this policy

If we change how the App handles data — for example, if we add anonymous usage analytics or subscriptions — we will update this policy and the “Last updated” date before that version of the App is released.

Contact

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights: support@tryhints.app.