Privacy · Guide
What “Private” Should Mean in a Journal App
Every journaling app says it is private. Here is a plain-English checklist for what that word should actually mean for something as personal as a diary.
A diary is the most private thing many people will ever write. It holds what you would not say out loud, about other people and about yourself. So when a journaling app calls itself "private", it is worth asking what that word is doing.
Here is the standard we think a diary should meet.
1. No account
An account means a company holds an identity linked to your writing. It is also one more password to leak. A diary does not need to know who you are. It needs to open when you do.
2. No servers holding your pages
Ask where your entries live. "Encrypted in our cloud" is better than unencrypted, but it still means your diary sits on infrastructure you do not control, governed by policies that can change. The strongest answer is: on your own devices, and in your own iCloud, where the app's maker cannot reach it.
3. No tracking, no analytics, no ads
There is no good reason for a diary to report what you do inside it. Look for apps with no analytics or advertising SDKs at all, and read the App Store privacy label: the best answer is "Data Not Collected".
4. No AI reading your entries
AI summaries and "insights" mean your words are processed, often by a third party. Even when it is done carefully, it changes how you write: you start writing for a reader. If you want help reflecting, a simple question at the top of a blank page does the job without anything reading your answers.
5. A lock on the cover
Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode should stand between your diary and anyone who picks up your iPad or opens your Mac.
6. You can leave with everything
Privacy includes control. You should be able to export every page, handwriting included, as ordinary files, and take them anywhere.
How Virtual Diary does it
Virtual Diary meets every point on this list. There is no account to make. Your pages live on your iPad and Mac, with a copy in your own iCloud Drive; we run no servers that hold diaries, so we could not read yours if we wanted to. There is no analytics, no advertising and no AI. The cover opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode, and you can export the whole diary whenever you like.
Read the full privacy policy. It is short, because there is not much to say.