Privacy Policy
Last updated: 17 September 2026
NetGlow is a private notebook about the people you meet. It is built so that the notes you write stay on your device and nowhere else.
This policy is short because there is very little to describe. Guideline 5.1.1(i) requires it to be published at a public URL and reachable from inside the app, so it is both.
What NetGlow collects
Nothing. There is no account, no sign-up, no login, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, and no third-party SDK that reports anything about you or your use of the app. NetGlow's developer cannot see your contacts, your notes, or how you use the app.
Where your data lives
Everything you write — notes, contacts, facts, employment, birthdays, contact details — is stored in a database inside NetGlow's own container on your device.
If you turn on iCloud sync, that data also syncs through your own private iCloud database, using Apple's CloudKit. This is your personal iCloud storage, tied to your Apple Account. The developer has no access to it and no ability to read it. Sync can be switched off, and the app works fully without it.
What leaves your device
Your own iCloud sync, and nothing else.
Earlier versions had one exception: a Map screen sent a city name to Apple's geocoding service to place a pin. That screen has been removed, and with it the last thing the app sent anywhere.
What is never sent: names, notes, facts, contact details, birthdays, your search queries, or any identifier for you or for any contact.
Turning on iCloud sync moves your data over the network, but only between your own devices and your own private iCloud database — see above. It does not pass through anything belonging to the developer.
Dictation
Dictating a note uses Apple's on-device speech models — the same ones behind the
keyboard's microphone key — through the Speech framework's SpeechAnalyzer. The
microphone is active only while you are dictating and the transcription happens
on this iPhone.
What is never done: the audio is not recorded, not written to disk, and not sent to NetGlow, to Apple, or to anyone else.
The first time you use it, iOS may need to fetch Apple's speech model for your language. NetGlow asks before that happens and tells you what it is. The download comes from Apple and carries nothing of yours — no notes, no names, no audio, and no identifier for you. If you decline, dictation simply stays off and the rest of the app is unaffected.
The iPhone's own search (Spotlight)
With Settings → Find people in Spotlight switched on, NetGlow adds the people you know to the iPhone's search index: their name, and a line saying what they do and where — no more than the phone's own Contacts app publishes about the same person.
Your notes are never added. The index lives on this device, is not synced between devices, and is not sent to Apple. Turning the switch off removes everything NetGlow put there.
Importing from your contacts
NetGlow does not request access to your contacts and cannot read your address book. Importing opens the iPhone's own contact picker, which hands the app only the people you pick, one selection at a time.
Imported people are copied, not linked: editing someone in NetGlow does not change their card in the Contacts app, and NetGlow never writes anything back.
Artificial intelligence
NetGlow reads your notes and searches them using models that run entirely on your device:
- Apple's Foundation Models framework turns a note into structured facts, and writes the one-sentence answer above your search results. This is Apple's on-device model. Your notes are not sent to Apple, to the developer, or to any third party, and are not used to train anything. The answer is written from the notes already on your screen, is never stored, and is gone when you close the search.
- A text-embedding model bundled inside the app powers search. It also runs entirely on device.
Neither requires a network connection. No third-party AI service is involved, so there is nothing here that requires your permission to share.
Location
NetGlow does not ask for your location and cannot read it. The app no longer requests location permission at all.
Keeping and deleting your data
Your data is kept until you delete it. Deleting a contact removes their details immediately and permanently; the notes you wrote are kept and stay searchable, because they are your words rather than derived data.
Deleting the app removes everything stored on the device. If iCloud sync was on, you can additionally remove the app's data in Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage.
There is no account, so there is no consent to withdraw and no data-deletion request to make of anyone — deletion is entirely in your hands and takes effect straight away.
Diagnostics
When NetGlow reads a note, it keeps a short record of what it did on your device, so that a note which came out wrong can be looked into. You can read these yourself under Settings → Privacy → Diagnostics.
There is no way to send them anywhere, and nothing about your use of the app is transmitted to the developer or to anyone else.
Feedback
You can send feedback by shaking your iPhone in NetGlow, or from Settings → Send Feedback. NetGlow then prepares an email to netglowapp@gmail.com and opens it in your own Mail, where you read all of it and decide whether to send it. The app sends nothing itself.
The email contains what you write, NetGlow's version, your iOS version and iPhone model, your language, and whether Apple Intelligence and iCloud sync are on. It contains a screenshot of the screen you were on only if you choose to attach one — it is off unless you turn it on, because the screen may show people's names and your notes. The developer uses feedback emails only to answer you and to improve NetGlow, and deletes them on request.
Children
NetGlow is not directed at children and collects nothing from anyone.
Changes
Any material change to this policy will be reflected here and in the app, with an updated date.