Effective July 2026 · Backstory for iOS
Backstory collects nothing. There are no accounts, no servers operated by us, no analytics, no trackers, and no advertising. We never see your stories, your characters, or anything else you write.
Everything you create in Backstory — stories, characters, scenes, knowledge ledgers, portraits, settings — is stored locally on your device. Automatic backups are written to your device's Files storage, where they belong to you. Nothing is uploaded to us, because there is no "us" to upload to.
Backstory works with an Anthropic API key that you supply. The key is stored only in your device's Keychain. It is sent only to Anthropic's API (api.anthropic.com) to authenticate your requests, and it never appears in backups or exports.
When you take a turn in a story, the relevant story context is sent to Anthropic's API to generate the next passage, using your key. That is the app's only network communication. Your use of the Anthropic API is governed by Anthropic's privacy policy and their terms; Backstory adds no intermediary — requests go directly from your device to Anthropic.
Portraits you attach to characters stay on your device and are never sent to the API. A photo you deliberately attach to a story message is sent to the API once, as part of that turn, so the model can see it.
If you have opted in to sharing analytics with app developers in your iOS settings, Apple may share anonymized crash reports with us through Apple's developer tools. That is the only diagnostic signal we ever receive, it contains no story content, and it is controlled entirely by your iOS settings.
Backstory is rated 17+ and is not directed at children.
If this policy ever changes, the updated version will be posted at this address with a new effective date. Given the architecture — no collection, no servers — we don't expect it to change much.
Questions about this policy: see the support page.