Privacy

Last updated 13 November 2026

Offhand is made by Sam Turner (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the Offhand apps for Mac and iPhone and this website.

Your notes

Offhand stores each note as a Markdown file. If you're signed in to iCloud, the files live in Offhand's folder in your iCloud Drive and Apple syncs them between your devices. If you're not, they stay in a folder on your device. Either way, they never pass through a server of ours, and we have no way to read them. Apple's privacy policy covers iCloud.

Archived notes are kept, not deleted, so you can always get them back. To remove a note for good, delete its file.

Voice notes

Voice notes are recorded and transcribed on your device with Apple's speech recognition. Where Apple Intelligence can run, it tidies the transcript (punctuation, paragraphs, filler words) on your device too. None of this sends your audio or text anywhere.

Claude, on devices without Apple Intelligence

On a device that can't run Apple Intelligence, such as an iPhone older than the iPhone 15 Pro, Offhand Pro tidies voice notes with Anthropic's Claude instead, through Offhand's voice service (a Cloudflare Worker we run). When it does:

• The transcript of that voice note is sent. Your audio and your other notes are never sent.
• The service passes the transcript to Anthropic with Offhand's own API key and sends the tidied text back. It doesn't store or log the transcript.
• To check you have Pro, the app also sends its App Store receipt for the purchase. The service keeps only a scrambled form of the purchase ID and a count of this month's voice notes, so it can apply the monthly limit.
• Anthropic handles the transcript under its privacy policy and its commercial terms for the API.

If the service can't be reached, or you're over the month's limit, the note is kept as transcribed.

AI tools on your Mac

With Offhand Pro on the Mac, you can let AI tools you run yourself, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Cursor, search, read and add to your notes. It's off until you turn it on in Settings. The tool talks to Offhand directly on your Mac, and nothing goes through us. What the tool then does with your notes is covered by that tool's own privacy policy.

Anonymous usage counts

To see which features people use and where the app goes wrong, Offhand sends a small set of events to PostHog, our analytics provider. They're on by default. You can switch them off in Settings ▸ Share anonymous usage, and nothing more is sent from then on.

Every event comes from a fixed list written into the app. They record things like:

• that the app opened, a note was started, pinned, archived or shared, or a search was run
• rough sizes, in bands: about how many words a note has (say “51–200”), how long a voice note ran, how many notes an import brought in
• which font, theme or quick-capture method you used
• when the Pro sheet opened and which plan was chosen, bought or restored
• that transcription or sync hit a problem, and what kind

Each event also carries the app version, whether it's an App Store or test build, and basic device details such as the operating system version and device model.

Events are tied to a random ID made by the app. It's kept in your iCloud so your Mac and iPhone count as one person. It isn't linked to your name, email, Apple Account or any other app.

Never sent: note text, titles, file or folder names, search terms, transcripts, your contacts or your location. We've turned off PostHog's location lookup, person profiles, screen recording and automatic tap tracking.

Crash reports

If Offhand crashes, it sends a report the next time it opens, unless you've switched usage counts off. The report keeps what's needed to find the bug: the type of error, where in the code it happened, and the app and device details above. Error messages and file paths are removed first, since either could contain a note's title or a folder name.

Purchases

Offhand Pro is sold through the App Store. Apple handles payment, and we never see your payment details or Apple Account. The App Store tells the app which plan you have so it can turn Pro on, and the voice service checks the same receipt, as described above. If you use our analytics, we see that a purchase happened and which plan, without knowing who you are.

This website

This site uses no cookies and no analytics. It's hosted by Cloudflare, which handles requests as part of serving the pages. The App Store badge loads from Apple and the icons from unpkg, so they receive your IP address when the page loads.

Who receives data

• PostHog (United States): usage counts and crash reports, if they're on.
• Cloudflare (United States): runs this website and the voice service.
• Anthropic (United States): Pro voice transcripts, only on devices without Apple Intelligence.
• Apple: your notes in iCloud and your purchases, under your agreement with Apple.

We don't sell data, share it for advertising, or track you across other apps or websites.

How long we keep it

We keep usage events and crash reports for one year, then they're deleted automatically. The voice service keeps only the current month's count for each purchase.

Your choices and rights

You can switch usage counts off at any time in Settings. Depending on where you live (for example in the UK, EU, California or Australia), you may also have the right to see, correct or delete data about you, or to object to how it's used. Our basis for usage counts is our legitimate interest in keeping Offhand working and improving it, which you can object to by switching them off.

Because events are tied only to a random ID, we usually can't tell which ones are yours. If you'd like them deleted, email us and we'll help you find your ID so we can remove them.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

Offhand isn't aimed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect anything from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects what the app sends, we'll say so in the app's release notes first.

Contact

Questions or requests: margin@samturner.com.