Privacy Policy

Close By — Last updated June 2026

The short version: Close By stores your data on your device. Nothing about the people in your circle — their names, numbers, notes, or contact details — ever leaves your phone.

What Close By stores, and where

Close By keeps all relationship data locally on your iPhone using iOS’s built-in storage. This includes:

The names and contact channels (phone numbers, email addresses) you chose during setup
Relationship settings: category, cadence, Key person flag, last-contact date
Interaction history and optional notes you’ve written
Important dates you’ve entered manually
App preferences such as your daily digest time

None of this is sent to any server. No account is required.

iCloud backup

If you have iCloud backup enabled on your device, iOS may include Close By’s local data in your device backup. This is standard iOS behaviour and is controlled through your iPhone’s iCloud settings, not by Close By.

You can export or delete all app data at any time from Settings inside the app.

Analytics

Close By uses PostHog to collect anonymous, metadata-only usage events — things like “onboarding completed” or “reminder opened.” These events help us understand whether the app is working well.

What is never included in analytics: names, notes, phone numbers, email addresses, date labels, contact identifiers, reminder text, message contents, or any free text you’ve entered.

PostHog data is processed in the EU. Autocapture is disabled. PostHog privacy policy.

Crash reporting

Close By uses Sentry to receive crash reports when the app unexpectedly closes. Crash reports contain device type, iOS version, and a technical stack trace. They never contain contact names, notes, phone numbers, emails, or any relationship content.

Sentry privacy policy.

Contact picker

When you add people, Close By uses the iOS system contact picker. This means you grant access to individual contacts intentionally — Close By does not import your full address book. Close By never writes back to Apple Contacts.

Your rights

Export: Settings → Export data produces a readable file of everything the app holds about you.
Delete: Settings → Delete all data permanently removes all app-stored data from your device.
Per-person delete: you can delete any individual person and their history from their profile.

Children

Close By is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

If this policy changes in a material way, we’ll update the date at the top and note what changed.

Contact

Questions? Email closeby.feedback@gmail.com