Privacy policy
Last updated 28 October 2026
The short version. We keep what's needed to run your drawer: your email, your name, your notebooks and who you share them with. We don't show ads, we don't track you across apps or websites, and we don't sell anything about you. You can delete your account from the app at any time.
Who we are
Bottom Drawer is an iPhone app made by Arian, an independent developer (arii.dev; "we", "us"). If you have a question about this policy or your data, write to [email protected].
What we store and why
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address | To send you sign-in codes and, rarely, messages about your account. We never send marketing email. |
| Your name, handwriting style, pen and ink colour | To show your name plate and draw your writing the way you chose. People you share a notebook with see your name and your handwriting. |
| Your notebooks and what you write in them | To keep them in your drawer and deliver them when you pass, lend or give them. This includes covers, titles, page count, pages, margin notes and where you stopped reading. |
| Sharing history | Who sent which notebook to whom, when, how (pass, lend or give), notes sent with it and due dates. This is how the app knows who's holding what. |
| Invite links | A random link that puts a notebook in the tray of whoever opens it first. Links work once and you can take one back before it's opened. |
| Your phone's notification token | To tell you when a notebook arrives, is due back, or comes home. |
| Your passkey's public key | To let you sign in with Face ID. Your face data never leaves your phone; Apple's Face ID handles it and we never see it. |
We don't collect your contacts, location, photos, or advertising identifier, and the app has no third-party analytics or advertising code.
Who can read your notebooks
Only the person holding a notebook can open it. While it's away with someone else, it's locked for everyone else, including you. This rule is enforced by our database, not only by the app.
Notifications never include what anyone wrote, or a notebook's title, because they can appear on a locked screen.
Your writing is encrypted when it travels between your phone and our servers, and encrypted on disk where it's stored. It is not end-to-end encrypted, which means our service providers' systems hold it in a form our servers can read. We only look at stored content if you ask us to help with a problem, or if the law requires it.
Services that help us run Bottom Drawer
- Supabase stores accounts and notebooks and sends sign-in emails. Region: to be confirmed.
- Apple Push Notification service delivers notifications to your phone.
- Cloudflare hosts this website and invite links.
They process data only to provide their service to us, under their own privacy and security terms.
How long we keep things
We keep your data while you have an account. A deleted notebook is gone for everyone straight away. When you delete your account, your profile and personal data are deleted, and each notebook is handled so nobody loses something that's theirs:
| Notebook | What happens |
|---|---|
| Passed, and the other person wrote in it | It becomes theirs. Your pages stay in it. |
| Passed, but only you wrote in it | Deleted. |
| Lent out by you | Returned and deleted. |
| Borrowed by you | Goes back to its owner. |
| Given for keeps by you | Stays with the person you gave it to. |
| Given to you for keeps | Deleted. |
| Waiting in your tray | Goes back to whoever sent it. |
The app shows you a summary of this before you confirm. Backups held by our providers are overwritten on their normal schedule, after which deleted data is gone from them too.
Your choices and rights
- Change your name, handwriting or ink in Settings.
- Turn notifications off in your iPhone's Settings.
- Decline any notebook that arrives in your tray.
- Delete your account in Settings, then Delete account.
- Ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or delete it, by writing to [email protected]. We'll reply within 30 days.
Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to object to or restrict how we use your data, and to complain to your local data protection authority.
Children
Bottom Drawer is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them. If you think a child has made an account, write to us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll also tell you in the app before it applies.