Privacy

Messy is a personal catalog app. You own your stuff. This page explains what happens to your data when you use the app — what stays on your device, what touches our servers, what goes to third parties, and what we keep.

Your catalog

Every catalog row — the title, category, summary, and any per-category metadata Messy fills in for you — is stored in your personal iCloud account, in your private CloudKit database. Apple handles that database. We can't read it, Anthropic can't read it, no third party can read it. It syncs across the devices signed into your Apple ID and survives reinstalls. If you sign out of iCloud or turn iCloud Drive off for Messy, your catalog stops syncing and lives only on the device you last used.

Your captures

The raw media you record — photos, videos, voice memos — stays on the device that captured it. It is never uploaded to our servers and never synced through CloudKit. It's how you asked Messy a question, not what Messy keeps. After seven days, the app automatically deletes captures from local storage to keep your phone uncluttered. The catalog row that came out of the capture stays in iCloud unless/until you delete it.

Classification (the AI step)

When you save something, Messy needs to figure out what it is. That requires sending the capture's content — the OCR'd text from a photo, a transcription of an audio memo, the URL or text you typed — to a language model. Which model depends on the Active Provider setting in the app:

• Built In (the default). The capture content goes through a Cloudflare Worker we operate, which forwards it to Anthropic's Claude API and returns the classification. We don't store the request payload after the round-trip completes. Anthropic's standard data handling applies; under their commercial terms, inputs may be retained for up to thirty days for trust-and-safety review and are then deleted. Anthropic does not train its models on your captures.
• Claude / OpenAI / Google (BYOK). If you've added your own API key in Settings, the capture content goes directly to that provider, governed by their terms and your account with them. Messy never sees the request or the response in this mode.

In every mode, we send only what's needed to classify: the OCR text, transcription, or photo bytes. We don't send your catalog history, your other items, your iCloud account identifier, or anything that identifies you personally.

Feedback reports ("This Didn't Work")

Each catalog item has a This Didn't Work button. Tapping it — and only tapping it — uploads a snapshot of the problematic item, your written explanation, and the original capture media to a private repository we maintain. The report is anonymous; it doesn't include your name, email, or device identifier. Only Messy's maintainers can read these reports. We use them to fix classification bugs. If you'd rather not contribute, simply don't tap the button.

Location

If you grant location permission, Messy can stamp captures with your coordinates so it can identify nearby restaurants and places and so you can browse the catalog by where you were. The location stays on your device and is never sent to a classifier or to us. You can revoke location access at any time in iOS Settings.

Things Messy does NOT do

• No third-party analytics, no ad networks, no marketing trackers.
• No selling, sharing, or licensing your data to anyone.
• No background uploads of your captures or catalog content.
• No accounts, sign-ups, or identifiers we control.

Data retention

• Catalog rows: kept in your iCloud private database for as long as you keep them. You can delete any item at any time, or wipe everything via Settings → Reset Messy.
• Captures (raw media): kept on-device for seven days, then deleted automatically.
• Classification request bodies on our Worker: not retained after the round-trip.
• Classification request bodies at Anthropic (Built In mode): up to thirty days under their commercial terms.
• Feedback reports you explicitly submit: kept indefinitely in a private repository readable only by Messy's maintainers, unless you ask us to delete a specific report.

Your rights

You can export your entire catalog as a CSV at any time via Settings → Export your data. You can wipe all locally-stored Messy data via Settings → Reset Messy (this also clears your iCloud catalog within Messy's CloudKit container). To request deletion of a specific feedback report, email us at the address below.

Children

Messy is not directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has used Messy in a way that warrants attention, contact us.

Changes to this policy

If we materially change how Messy handles your data, we'll update this page and bump the date at the top. Material changes will also be noted in-app via release notes.

Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or anything else: support@messy.software.