Topics privacy.

Topics is designed to be private by default. Topics is a local-first iPhone app: it has no backend server, no user accounts, and no analytics. Your information stays on your device. This policy explains exactly what that means.

The short version

Topics does not collect any data. Your personal information is never gathered, stored, or transmitted to the developer — because there are no Topics servers. Your notes, attachments, events, and reminders live on your iPhone and sync only through your own private Apple iCloud account (using Apple's CloudKit).

What we collect

Nothing. Topics has no analytics, no tracking, no advertising, and no third-party SDKs that collect data. The developer of Topics never receives your notes, your calendar data, your attachments, or any usage information.

Where your data is stored

• On your device. All Topic content, embedded events and reminders, and file attachments are stored locally on your iPhone.
• Your private iCloud (CloudKit). Your data syncs to your own private iCloud account using Apple's CloudKit, so it stays current and can be restored across your devices. This sync is operated by Apple and governed by Apple's Privacy Policy; it uses your private iCloud database, which the developer of Topics cannot access. (Your data is also included in your device's standard iCloud backup.)

Calendar access and sync

Topics can connect to calendar providers that you explicitly authorise, and to only two kinds of provider:

• Google Calendar — connected through Google's official OAuth 2.0 sign-in. You grant access in Google's own consent screen, and you can revoke it at any time from your Google Account settings. Topics uses this access solely to read and write your calendar events. Your Google sign-in tokens are stored securely in the iOS Keychain on your device and are never sent anywhere except directly to Google during the authorised sync.
• Apple Calendar — accessed on your device through Apple's EventKit framework after you grant the system permission prompt. This is entirely on-device; no OAuth tokens and no network calls to the developer are involved. You can change or revoke this permission at any time in iOS Settings.

Calendar data flows only between your device and the provider you authorised, using that provider's official API. Topics does not route, intermediate, copy, or store your calendar data on any server operated by the developer.

Note: Microsoft Outlook / Microsoft 365 is not a supported provider.

Google user data

If you connect Google Calendar, Topics accesses Google user data through Google's official Calendar API, using the single OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar. This section sets out exactly what that means.

What is accessed. Topics accesses your Google Calendar list (calendar names and colours) and your calendar events — titles, descriptions, dates and times, locations, recurrence, and colours — together with the OAuth tokens Google issues when you sign in. Topics reads events to display them in the app and writes back the events and reminders you create or edit. Topics does not access Gmail, Drive, Contacts, or any other Google data.

How it is used. Google user data is used solely to provide the two-way calendar sync you asked for: showing your Google Calendar events inside Topics and keeping the events and reminders you author in your notes in sync with your Google Calendar. It is never used for advertising or profiling, is never sold, and is not used to develop, improve, or train generalised artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models.

Sharing, transfer, and disclosure. Google user data is not shared with, transferred to, sold to, or disclosed to any third party. It flows directly between your iPhone and Google's API — there is no developer server to pass it through. The only copies outside Google's own service are on your iPhone and, as part of your synced Topics content, in your own private Apple iCloud database (CloudKit), which Apple operates and the developer cannot access.

How it is protected. All communication with Google uses encrypted HTTPS (TLS) connections. Your OAuth tokens are stored in the iOS Keychain, which is encrypted and protected by the operating system, and are sent only to Google. Calendar data stored on your device is protected by iOS device encryption, and the copy synced through your private iCloud is encrypted by Apple in transit and at rest.

Retention and deletion. Google user data is retained only on your device, and only for as long as you keep the connection and the content. Disconnecting Google Calendar in Settings immediately deletes the OAuth tokens from your device and stops all access; calendar items already stored on your device remain until you delete them in the app or delete the app. Deleting an embedded event or reminder in Topics also removes it, through sync, from your Google Calendar. Deleting the app removes all locally stored data, and you can remove the synced copy from your iCloud at any time in iOS Settings. You can also revoke Topics' access whenever you like at myaccount.google.com/permissions, which invalidates its tokens. The developer retains nothing — there is no server-side copy to delete.

Authentication tokens

When you sign in to Google Calendar, the resulting OAuth tokens are stored in the iOS Keychain, which is encrypted and protected by the operating system. Tokens are used only to perform the calendar sync you requested and are never transmitted beyond the authorisation and sync flow with the provider. Signing out removes the tokens from your device.

Notifications

Topics schedules local notifications on your device for your events and reminders using Apple's notification system. These are generated and delivered entirely on-device. No notification content is sent to any server.

Tracking and advertising

Topics does not track you across apps or websites, does not use advertising identifiers, and contains no advertising. The app's privacy manifest declares no tracking and no collected data types.

Children's privacy

Topics does not knowingly collect any data from anyone, including children. Because the app collects no data at all, it transmits no personal information about users of any age.

Website visits

The Topics pages on www.basicapps.com.au are static. They have no account or form, set no first-party cookie, and do not use browser storage to track you. The production website uses cookieless aggregate analytics and ordinary hosting logs, as explained in BasicApps website privacy. Those website services do not receive any data from the Topics app.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date above will be revised and the new version will be published at this URL. Because Topics collects no data, any changes are expected to be clarifications rather than changes to data practices.

Contact

For privacy questions about Topics, contact sjmeehan9@gmail.com.

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This page is published as the Privacy Policy URL for the Topics app on the Apple App Store.