Privacy policy

Who makes Friend

Friend is published by privatebytes, Netherlands, registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce under KvK 85503363.

Website and browser requests

This website does not read your journal. It includes no advertising, analytics scripts, forms or third-party media embeds. Fonts, illustrations and the film are served with the site. Your color-theme choice is saved in browser storage; clear this site’s data to remove it.

Hosts serving this website or the browser app may process your IP address and requested URL. App routes can contain record identifiers, dates and filters; search text stays in memory. App updates do not erase earlier browser history, bookmarks or host logs. Native editions bundle their app assets.

External links take you to services with their own privacy practices.

Your journal stays with you

This edition has no journal server, cloud accounts, remote backup, synchronization, advertising or analytics service. Your profile, people, photos, contact details, relationship settings, custom fields, events, notes, feelings and impressions stay in its local database, along with settings, drafts and optional activity records. The app does not send these records to us or an AI service.

Contact summaries, connection strength, charts and reminders are calculated locally. Reminders appear only inside the app; Friend does not message contacts or access your address book or calendar. Activity settings let you stop recording and clean up existing records.

Photos, files and copies

The local database is your working copy. Photos are processed on your device and embedded in it and in portable journal files, including profile photos and drafts. Originals stay where you kept them; Friend does not use a photo-upload service.

Settings → Your data manages selected documents, exports, imports and recovery. Connected-file updates are verified after closing the file. External changes or write failures pause updates visibly while preserving local edits. Background execution and provider availability are not guaranteed.

File providers, cloud folders, backups and sharing destinations you choose may retain additional copies under their own terms. We do not receive them automatically.

What password protection covers

Optional password protection encrypts portable journal files, including photos and drafts. Filenames, sizes and dates may remain visible. Unencrypted files are readable by anyone with access.

It does not encrypt the local working copy, profiles, photos, drafts or recovery copies. Switching journals or logging out does not lock the app. Protect your device, browser profile and backups.

The app stores neither your password nor its derived key. After restarting, local editing still works, but encrypted updates and exports need the password again. Encrypted files have no password reset; an available local copy can be exported with a new password.

Protection changes apply to new exports and the next verified file update. A failed update may leave the previous format; older exports, provider versions and recovery copies are not re-encrypted.

Removal and recovery

Removing a journal from the chooser forgets its entry and file access, without erasing its local database or file. Re-importing uses the file’s contents, which may be older than retained local edits.

Recovery copies are kept before replacing a journal. Interrupted native writes may also retain the previous file in its original format. These copies, drafts and forgotten journals remain until app/browser data is cleared or the native app is uninstalled; operating-system backups may retain more.

Deleting a record does not erase older exports, recovery copies or provider versions. Remove exported files and provider versions separately. Verify a current export before clearing storage if you want to keep your journal.

Support, requests and updates

Email providers process support correspondence, including your address and attachments. Avoid sending a private journal unless necessary and agreed; we cannot read or recover one you have not shared.

Contact contact@privatebytes.io for privacy questions or access, correction and deletion requests about information you send us. You control local journal data and copies with your providers; there is no remote account to delete.

Where applicable, you may complain to the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. We will revise this notice before introducing cloud accounts, remote analytics or other new data uses.