LDR Buddy ("the app", "we", "our") is built around one simple rule: what you record is yours. This page explains exactly what data the app handles, where it's stored, and what — if anything — ever leaves your phone.
When you use LDR Buddy, you may enter:
All of this is stored locally on your device using standard iOS storage (on-device database and secure keychain storage). It is included in your device's encrypted backups if you have those enabled, but it is never transmitted to us or stored on any server we operate.
When you record a voice note, the audio is passed to Apple's speech recognition
(SFSpeechRecognizer) to produce a text transcript. Apple may
process that audio on its servers rather than on your phone — this is the same
mechanism as iOS dictation, and Apple's handling of it is governed by
Apple's privacy policy.
We never receive your audio. It is not uploaded to our servers and we do not store it. While you record, a temporary audio file is written to LDR Buddy's own private storage on your phone — it never leaves the device, and it is deleted as soon as you finish recording. Nothing is kept but the transcript.
The transcript stays on your device unless you use a premium AI feature described below.
Premium unlocks four features — extracting memories/reminders/gift ideas from a note, generating Thoughtful Act suggestions, generating trip itineraries, and sorting memories into your Constellation (the "Orbit," "Joys," and "Us" groupings you see on that screen). All four work the same way:
If you're on the free tier, none of this applies — your notes never leave your device.
Nightly check-in nudges are scheduled entirely on your device and never leave it.
Reminders and important dates work differently. When you save a reminder with a time, or add a birthday or anniversary, we store that item on our servers so we can deliver the notification. What we keep is small and specific:
We do this because a phone can only hold a limited number of pending notifications, and only tops them up while the app is running. Keeping the schedule on our servers is what makes a yearly birthday reminder actually arrive every year, whether or not you have opened LDR Buddy in between.
This information is used only to deliver your notifications. It is never sold, shared, or used for advertising, and it isn't linked to a name or email — only to an anonymous device identifier. One-off reminders are deleted from our servers once they have been sent. Repeating ones — birthdays, anniversaries — are kept only for as long as you have the app.
If you delete LDR Buddy, we delete your schedule. Apple tells us the app is gone, and every reminder and date we were holding for your device is removed. If Apple hasn't told us — that can happen when you have nothing coming up — anything left is deleted once your device has been silent for 90 days.
Your voice recordings, transcripts, memories, gift ideas, and Constellation are not part of this and stay on your device.
We do not sell, rent, or share your information with third parties for advertising or any other purpose. Data leaves your phone in exactly two cases, both described above: the premium AI features, which send text to Anthropic's Claude API to process and discard; and the notification schedule, which we store so your reminders can reach you. Nothing else is transmitted.
You can delete a partner profile and all associated memories and reminders at any time from Settings; doing so also removes their reminders and dates from our servers.
Uninstalling the app removes all locally stored data from your device, and, as described under Notifications, causes your notification schedule to be deleted from our servers too.
LDR Buddy is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.
If this policy changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Questions about this policy? Email us at hello@ldrbuddy.com.