Last updated: 9 September 2026
This policy explains how the Heapforge Journal app for Android, iOS and the web handles your data.
The Heapforge Reader app is covered by a separate privacy policy, and the heapforge.com website by another.
In short
Heapforge Journal keeps your journal on your device. Your entries, their contents, whatever you attach to them, your tags and moods, your reminders and your settings never leave the phone, tablet or computer they are written on. We operate no servers for the app, so there is nothing for us to receive, store, read, or lose.
The single exception is purchase verification: the app asks Google Play or the App Store whether your copy is a legitimate purchase. That check happens between your device and the store you bought from. We are not told who you are, and nothing from your journal is involved in it.
We run no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising, and no accounts.
Who we are
Heapforge Ltd. is the data controller for the limited processing described in this policy.
- Company: Heapforge Ltd., incorporated in England and Wales
- Company number: 17418393
- Registered address: 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, Bury St. Edmunds, England, IP28 7DE
- Privacy contact: privacy@heapforge.com
We process personal data in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and, where it applies to our activities, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679).
What stays on your device
A journal is about as personal as data gets, and we have designed the app so that we never come near it. Everything below is stored locally, in the app’s own private storage on your device. It is never transmitted to Heapforge, and never to any third party:
- your entries and their full contents, including drafts and anything you have deleted but not yet purged;
- photographs, audio, and any other files you attach to an entry;
- the metadata around your entries: dates, titles, tags, moods, prompts, streaks and word counts;
- reminders and notification schedules you set;
- your appearance and writing preferences — theme, typeface, editor settings, and so on;
- search history within the app, and any local index or cache the app builds to find your entries quickly;
- any passcode or biometric lock you set on the app, which is checked on your device and never sent anywhere.
This data is removed when you delete the app, or when you clear its data through your device’s settings. If you export or back up your journal yourself, that exported copy goes wherever you send it, and is then in your hands rather than ours.
A note on device backups. If you have turned on your operating system’s backup service — Android Auto Backup or Google One, or iCloud Backup on iOS — your device may include the app’s local data in that backup. That copy is made by your device and governed by Google’s or Apple’s privacy policy, not by ours. Heapforge has no access to it. You can turn this off in your device settings.
The web version
The web version of Heapforge Journal runs entirely in your browser. Your entries are held in your browser’s own local storage on the device you are using; they are not uploaded to us, and we have no way to read them. Clearing your browser’s site data for the app deletes them, and they do not follow you to another browser or another device.
Loading the page itself is a request to our hosting provider, which records the usual server-log information described in the heapforge.com privacy policy. That log concerns the delivery of the page, and never the contents of your journal.
Purchase verification and licence checks
Heapforge Journal is a paid app. To confirm that a copy is legitimately purchased — and so to protect the app against unauthorised copying and distribution — the app performs a purchase and entitlement check against the store it was installed from.
Android — Google Play
On Android, the app uses Google Play Services and the Google Play Billing Library to verify purchases and licence entitlement.
In carrying out that check, Google processes data including your Google account identifier, the purchase token for your order, and information about your device and the installed app. Google carries out this processing under its own terms, as an independent controller, not on our behalf. It is described in the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Play Terms of Service.
iOS — App Store
On iOS, the equivalent check is made through StoreKit and App Store receipt validation. Apple processes the associated purchase and device information as an independent controller, as described in the Apple Privacy Policy.
Our lawful basis, and what we actually see
- Article 6(1)(b) — performing the licence agreement under which the app is supplied to you; the check confirms your entitlement to use it.
- Article 6(1)(f) — our legitimate interest in preventing unauthorised use and distribution of software we sell. The check is limited to the purchase status of the copy in front of it and does not profile you.
From Google and Apple, Heapforge receives only the aggregated, non-identifying sales and payout reporting that every developer sees in the Play Console and App Store Connect — unit counts, revenue, refunds, and broad country and device breakdowns. We do not receive, and cannot request, the identity of an individual purchaser.
What the app does not do
Heapforge Journal contains:
- no analytics or usage telemetry of any kind;
- no crash or diagnostic reporting to us or to any third-party service;
- no advertising, ad SDKs or advertising identifiers, and no tracking across other apps or websites;
- no accounts, sign-in, or cloud sync operated by Heapforge;
- no scanning, indexing, reading or “AI” processing of your entries anywhere but on your own device;
- no sale or sharing of personal data, because there is none to sell or share.
Permissions
The app asks for a permission only when a feature you have used needs it, and only for that feature:
- files and storage — to attach files you choose to an entry, and to save exports and backups where you ask for them;
- camera and microphone — only if you attach a photo or a voice note from within the app; nothing is captured in the background;
- notifications — only if you set a writing reminder; reminders are scheduled on your device, not sent from a server;
- biometrics — only if you turn on the app lock; the check is performed by your operating system and tells the app nothing more than whether it succeeded.
Everything these permissions produce stays on your device. The app does not scan your storage for unrelated content and does not upload anything you open or create. Network access is used only for the store purchase check described above.
Store privacy disclosures
This policy is the disclosure referenced by the app’s store listings. Our Google Play Data safety declaration and our Apple App Store privacy labels state that the app collects and shares no data, other than the purchase processing that Google and Apple themselves perform in order to sell and license the app.
Retention
Because we receive no personal data from the app, we have none to retain. Data held on your device is kept until you delete it or uninstall the app. Purchase records held by Google or Apple are retained under their own policies.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR you have the right to access your personal data, to have it rectified or erased, to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
Because Heapforge holds no personal data originating from the app, a request to us about your use of Heapforge Journal will honestly return nothing — we will confirm that in writing so you have a record of it.
- For data held on your device, you are in control: delete individual entries in the app, export your journal at any time, or clear the app’s data or uninstall it through your device settings. In the web version, clear the app’s site data in your browser.
- For purchase data, the controller is Google or Apple. Use Google’s privacy tools or Apple’s Data and Privacy portal to exercise your rights over it.
If you want to ask us anything or make a request anyway, email privacy@heapforge.com or write to the registered address above. We respond within one month, extendable by up to two further months for complex or numerous requests, in which case we will tell you within the first month and explain why.
We carry out no automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Complaints
If you think we have handled your personal data improperly, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority:
- in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner’s Office — ico.org.uk, helpline 0303 123 1113;
- in the EU/EEA, the supervisory authority of the country where you live, work, or where you believe the problem occurred — in Bulgaria, for example, the Commission for Personal Data Protection (cpdp.bg).
Complaints about Google’s or Apple’s own processing should be directed to them, though you may also complain to your supervisory authority about it.
Children
Heapforge Journal is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. As the app collects nothing, a child using it discloses nothing to us.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the app handles data, we will publish an updated version of this policy at this address and change the “last updated” date at the top. Material changes will be summarised here, and, where the change is significant, noted in the app’s release notes.
Contact
Questions about this policy: privacy@heapforge.com, or Heapforge Ltd., 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, Bury St. Edmunds, England, IP28 7DE.
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