Near
What stays private, and what doesn't.
The boundary isn't a setting you can flip by accident. It's built into how Near stores things. Here is the whole of it, in plain language.
Your private Hold drawer
How you check in, the notes you write, the rhythms you keep, the comforts you save. These live on your device and sync only across your own Apple devices.
There is no toggle that shares them, and no version of them anyone else can open.
What you choose to share
A line you send. A note or warmth you place in one shared space. These reach the person you send them to, because you sent or co-authored them.
If the other person wants to add something, they write it where you can see it. Nothing is recorded about you that you can't read.
How Near holds your trust.
Consent goes both ways, and back.
Pairing is mutual, and each person's side stays revocable. Either side can stop sharing alone, without forcing the other person to retreat.
No one is watching anyone.
Near has no monitoring, no scoring, no audit of how another person is doing. Near assigns no permanent role to either person. You see the other person by their name, and either of you may be the one who reaches next.
It can't judge safety, so it won't pretend to.
Near cannot assess urgency, diagnose a state, or decide what should happen next. It does not supply or recommend clinical resources. A call list appears only when you write and keep those contacts yourself.
No backend. No accounts. No analytics.
There is no server to sign in to and no company account. Syncing and sharing use Apple's own iCloud primitives. No third-party SDKs, and nothing measuring your use.
Near is a quiet reach with a private Hold drawer for the person using it. This policy describes exactly what data Near handles, where it lives, who can see it, and what rights you have over it. Nothing here is buried.
1. Who is responsible for this policy
Near is developed and maintained by Mark David Gan, an independent developer based in the Philippines. If you have any question about this policy, or a request related to your data, write to privacy@keepnear.app.
2. Where your data lives
Everything private you create in Near — broad-feeling check-ins, journal notes, comfort items, the photos or videos you keep, and voice recordings — is stored using Apple's on-device data stores and synced across your own Apple devices through your personal iCloud account. Your Hold drawer lives in your private iCloud database. Near's developer has no server, no content database, and no way to access it. That sync connection is between your devices and Apple.
There is no Near account to create, no password to set, and no data sent to any server we operate.
3. Sharing within a bond
Near lets you invite up to five people — a partner, a friend, a family member — to open a mutual space with you. Each bond is separate and one to one: there is no group space, and the people in your circle cannot see one another. Deliberately sent Reach content is end-to-end encrypted by the app before it leaves your device, travels through an encrypted mailbox over Apple's iCloud infrastructure, and is decrypted only on the recipient's device. Because the mailbox uses iCloud, opening a shared space requires that both you and the person you invite are signed in to iCloud on your devices. The rest of Near — your private Hold drawer — needs no Near account; only the mutual mailbox depends on it.
Only what you explicitly place in the shared space (a line you choose to send, a note or warmth you leave there) ever reaches your other person. Your private journal entries, broad-feeling check-ins, and comfort items are in a separate data store that is never read by Reach. There is no way for another person to see your private records, and no way for you to accidentally send them.
You can remove anyone in your circle and close that shared space at any time, from within the app.
4. On-device intelligence
Some optional writing features in Near use Apple's on-device Foundation models to offer suggestions or gentle prompts. This processing happens entirely on your device. No text you write is sent to Apple's servers or to any other party as part of these features. The developer cannot see what you type.
5. Subscriptions
Near offers an optional subscription called Near Supporter, purchased through the App Store. All billing is handled by Apple. The developer receives only the aggregate financial information Apple provides to all developers (total proceeds, renewal counts); we do not receive your payment card details, your Apple ID, or any personal information tied to your subscription. Apple's own privacy policy governs the purchase transaction.
6. Device permissions
Near may request the following permissions, all of which are optional:
- Photo Library — to keep a photo or video as a comfort item. A kept video stays in your Photo Library; Near holds only a link to it and a still image, and never copies the clip out. Nothing is uploaded anywhere outside of your own iCloud.
- Microphone — to record a voice note or comfort audio clip. Recordings are stored locally and treated the same as any other Near content.
- Face ID / Touch ID — to lock the app so it can only be opened by you. Biometric data is handled entirely by Apple's Secure Enclave; Near never has access to it.
You can grant or revoke any permission at any time in iOS Settings. Denying a permission does not affect the rest of the app.
7. Tracking and analytics
Near does not track you. There are no third-party analytics SDKs, no
advertising networks, no data brokers, and no crash-reporting tools that
send data to a remote server. Near's
PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy manifest declares
NSPrivacyTracking = false, and the app makes no
App Tracking Transparency request because there is nothing to request
permission for.
8. Children's privacy
Near is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect any data from children. Because Near collects no data at all on our servers, there is nothing to delete, but if you believe a child under 13 has used the app, contact us at privacy@keepnear.app and we will help.
9. Your rights and data deletion
Because Near stores your data on your device and in your own iCloud account, you are already in full control:
- To erase Near's local data, use the full reset in Near's settings. You can also remove Near's iCloud data in Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage.
- To revoke another person's access, close that one-to-one space from within the app. Revoking one direction does not force the other person to retreat.
The developer holds no copy of your data and has nothing additional to delete. If you have a concern or believe otherwise, write to privacy@keepnear.app and we will investigate and respond within 30 days.
10. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes in a material way, we will update the "last updated" date at the top of this page and note the change in the app's release notes. Continuing to use Near after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
11. Contact
Privacy questions, data requests, or anything else: privacy@keepnear.app. General feedback: hello@keepnear.app.