The short version
- Stashbird has no server. Your documents are never sent to us.
- Your documents are kept as plain files in your own iCloud Drive, under your Apple account.
- Reading, naming, filing, search and answers all happen on your iPhone, with Apple's own on-device tools.
- There are no ads, no tracking and no analytics in the app.
- You can erase what Stashbird keeps on your iPhone at any time with Delete account (only its list of files deleted for good stays until you remove the app), and your files are always yours to keep or delete.
1. Who this is from
Stashbird ("Stashbird", "we", "us") is an iPhone app that keeps your documents as files in your own iCloud Drive, suggests a name and a folder for each one, and answers questions about them. It renames or moves a file only when you tell it to. It is made by an independent developer, who can be reached at antwijason55@gmail.com.
This policy says what the app keeps, where it keeps it, and who else is involved. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the app.
2. What Stashbird keeps, and where
2.1 Your documents
The files you add are kept in your own iCloud Drive, in a folder called Stashbird, which you can see in the Files app and in Finder on a Mac. Alongside them are an Inbox folder (where new files land), a Removed folder (where removed files wait), and a short note explaining the folder. It is your iCloud, run by Apple under your Apple account. We cannot see it, read it or reach it.
2.2 What Stashbird reads from them
To name, file, search and answer questions, Stashbird reads each document on your iPhone and keeps what it read in a small database in the app's own storage on the phone: the words on the pages, and facts such as what kind of document it is, who it is from, dates, amounts and reference numbers. The same database keeps a short record of your filing habits: the folder you chose for each sender and each kind of document, so it can suggest that folder next time. This database is never put in iCloud and never sent anywhere. What it read can always be rebuilt from your files; the record of your filing habits cannot. Like other app data on an iPhone, it can be included in your iPhone's own backup (iCloud Backup, or a backup on your computer), which Apple protects.
2.3 Small notes and settings
Also kept on your iPhone, never in iCloud Drive and never sent anywhere: your choices in the app (such as how lists are sorted and whether Stashbird may make folders), short descriptions it works out for your folders and what their short names stand for, questions it suggests you could ask, which folder each removed file came from (so it can be put back), and a record of the last 400 files deleted for good (each one's name, when, and whether you chose it or its 90 days ran out). The app keeps that record for its own checks and does not show it to you. Delete account erases all of these except that record, which stays so a missing file can always be explained; removing the app deletes it (section 6). Like the database above, these notes can be included in your iPhone's own backup. Small pictures of first pages, which help lists draw quickly, stay on the phone only and are not backed up.
2.4 Signing in
You sign in with Apple. Apple gives the app an identifier for you, and your name and email address if you choose to share them. These are kept on your iPhone, in its protected storage. None of it is sent to us. When the app opens, it asks Apple whether your sign-in is still valid.
2.5 Files you share into Stashbird
When you share a file to Stashbird from another app, it is copied into a folder on your iPhone that only Stashbird can reach, and waits there until the app next opens and moves it into your Inbox.
2.6 What Stashbird does not collect
- No analytics, and no record of what you tap or how long you use the app.
- No advertising identifier, and nothing for advertisers.
- No location, contacts, calendar, camera, microphone or health data.
- No access to your photo library. Stashbird only sees what you give it: files and photos you share to it or pick yourself, and anything you put in its Stashbird folder in iCloud Drive. It cannot see your other files or folders.
3. Apple, and nobody else
The app's own code makes no requests over the internet. The only company involved is Apple, through parts of your iPhone and your Apple account:
- iCloud Drive. Your documents are stored and kept in step across your devices by Apple, under your Apple account.
- Sign in with Apple. How you sign in, as described above.
- Apple Intelligence. Used to work out what a document is and to answer your questions. Stashbird uses the model that runs on the iPhone itself, so your documents are not sent anywhere to be read.
- Apple's other on-device tools. Vision reads the words in scans and photos, and PDFKit and Quick Look show your documents. These run on the iPhone.
Apple's own privacy policy covers what Apple does.
4. Selling and sharing
We do not sell your information and we do not share it with anyone. We could not: we do not have it.
5. Keeping it safe
What is on your iPhone is protected by your iPhone and its passcode. What is in iCloud is protected by Apple, under your Apple account. Stashbird keeps your documents as ordinary files and does not add a lock of its own, so anyone who can unlock your iPhone or sign in to your Apple account can see them. Look after both. If you would like your iCloud Drive to be end-to-end encrypted, Apple offers Advanced Data Protection in the iPhone's Settings.
6. How long it is kept, and deleting it
- Your documents are kept until you remove them.
- A removed document waits in the Removed folder for at least 90 days. After that Stashbird deletes it for good, but only while you are using the app, so it can take a day or more longer. If you stop opening Stashbird, removed documents stay in the Removed folder in iCloud Drive until you delete them yourself. You can recover a removed document before then, or delete it for good yourself straight away.
- Delete account, in the app's Settings, signs you out, forgets your Apple sign-in and erases what it read in your documents, the other notes and settings in section 2.3 and the small pictures of first pages. The one thing it keeps is the record of files deleted for good (section 2.3), which stays until you remove the app. What it read is taken out of the database files themselves, not only out of sight. A backup of your iPhone made before then can still hold a copy until that backup is replaced. Delete account does not touch your files, which stay in iCloud Drive; you can delete them yourself in the Files app. Files waiting in the Removed folder stay there too, and if you sign in again and recover one, it goes to your Inbox, because where it came from has been forgotten.
- Removing the app from your iPhone removes most of what it keeps there, but iOS holds on to your sign-in (your Apple identifier, and your name and email if you shared them), so if you install Stashbird again you are signed straight back in. To remove that as well, use Delete account before you remove the app. Your files stay in iCloud Drive.
- To disconnect Sign in with Apple as well: in the iPhone's Settings, tap your name, then Sign in with Apple, then Stashbird, and tap Delete.
7. Children
Stashbird is not aimed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. As this policy explains, we do not collect information from anyone.
8. Your rights
Laws such as the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR give you rights over information held about you: to see it, to correct it, to have it deleted. Stashbird holds none of your information on any computer of ours, so there is nothing for us to hand over or delete. What the app keeps is in your hands: you can see your documents in the Files app, and remove everything as described above. For anything Apple holds, Apple's own policy applies.
9. This website
This website sets no cookies and has no analytics, adverts or trackers, and it loads nothing from other companies. Its pages are served by Cloudflare, which, like any web host, sees your internet address when you open one.
10. Changes to this policy
If the app changes what it keeps or who it talks to, this page will change with it, and the date at the top will be updated.
11. Contact
Questions about privacy: antwijason55@gmail.com.