Perennial
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Privacy Policy

Last updated August 4, 2026

Perennial shows you every photo you took on this day, in every year — and it’s built to work entirely on your device. This policy explains what data the app touches, where it goes, and what it never does.

The short version

  • The app has no backend server and no user accounts.
  • No analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs are included.
  • Your photos and videos are never uploaded to us or to any third party we operate.
  • Nothing you do in the app is shared with or sold to anyone.

Photo and video access

The app reads photos and videos from the sources you enable in Settings:

  • iCloud Photos — accessed on-device through Apple’s Photos framework, using the permission you grant at the iOS photo-access prompt. This data is governed by your Apple Account and Apple’s own iCloud terms, not by us.
  • Synology NAS — if you connect a personal Synology NAS, the app talks directly from your device to your NAS over your own network (or your NAS’s own remote-access relay). We never see this traffic or store a copy of it.
  • Files / local folders — any folder you pick through the iOS Files picker is accessed via a security-scoped bookmark stored only on your device.

What’s stored, and where

  • App preferences (which sources are enabled, sync intervals, display settings) are stored in iOS UserDefaults on your device.
  • Synology sign-in credentials are stored in the iOS Keychain, which is encrypted by iOS and never leaves your device.
  • A small cache used to speed up the Home Screen widget is shared with the widget through an iOS App Group container — still local to your device, never transmitted anywhere.

Notifications

The optional daily reminder is scheduled locally on your device using iOS’s local notification system. No push notification server is involved, and no notification content is sent to us.

Subscriptions and purchases

Subscriptions and the lifetime purchase are handled entirely by Apple through StoreKit and the App Store. We never receive or store your payment details — Apple’s own privacy policy governs that transaction. The app only stores, on your device, whether you currently have an active entitlement, so it knows whether to unlock the timeline.

Location and camera metadata

When shown in the photo viewer, capture details (date, camera, exposure, reverse-geocoded location) are read from each photo’s existing EXIF/QuickTime metadata and from Apple’s on-device geocoding APIs. This processing happens entirely on your device and is not sent anywhere.

Children’s privacy

The app is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the “Last updated” date above will change too. Material changes will also be reflected in the app’s release notes.

Contact

Questions about this policy: hello@theperennial.app