Privacy Policy
Your lists are yours
Alcove keeps your tasks and notes on your devices and in your own iCloud. There is no Alcove account, no Alcove server that stores your data, and no analytics or tracking.
In short: I can't see your tasks, notes or anything else you put in Alcove. They stay on your devices, and if you turn on iCloud sync, in your private iCloud database, which only your Apple Account can read.
What Alcove stores, and where
Everything you create in Alcove (tasks, lists, folders, tags, notes, boards, reminders, attachments and the history of changes) is stored on your device, inside the app's own storage. The widgets, the share extension and, on the Mac, the AI assistant connection read from that same storage on the same device.
iCloud sync
If you turn on Sync with iCloud, Alcove uses Apple's iCloud to keep your devices in step. Your tasks, lists, folders, tags, notes, boards and attachments, including the files and pictures you attach, are saved to the private iCloud database of your Apple Account. Apple stores that data under Apple's Privacy Policy. I have no access to your private iCloud database.
A file too large for Alcove to copy is kept as a link to where it sits on the device you added it on, and stays there. You can turn sync off at any time in Alcove's settings, and Alcove then works on that device alone.
Purchases and the free trial
The free trial and the one-time unlock are handled by Apple through the App Store, under Apple's Privacy Policy. Alcove never sees your card or any other payment details.
To know which features to open, Alcove asks the App Store whether this Apple Account has the trial or the unlock (including an unlock shared with you through Family Sharing) and when the trial started. It keeps that answer on your device, so Siri, the share sheet and, on the Mac, the AI assistant connection can respect it too.
On your device Alcove also keeps a few counts for itself: how many meetings you have recorded, for the free version's three, and how many tasks you have finished on how many days, so it asks for an App Store rating only once you have used it for a while. None of this leaves your device.
Alcove sends no purchase information to me or to anyone else. The sales reports Apple gives me don't say who bought Alcove.
What Alcove does not collect
- No account, sign-up, email address or password.
- No analytics, advertising or tracking code, and no data sold or shared with anyone.
- No location, contacts, photos or microphone access unless you use Speak tasks or record a meeting, or choose to attach a photo, scan a document or record audio into a note, and then only for that.
When Alcove connects to the internet
Alcove only goes online for these things:
- iCloud sync, when you have it turned on, through Apple.
- The App Store, through Apple, to check whether you have the trial or the unlock, and when you start the trial, buy the unlock or restore a purchase.
- Link titles. When you attach a web link to a task, Alcove can fetch that page's title so the link shows a readable name. That request goes straight to the website in the link.
Speak tasks never goes online. Your speech is recognised on your device, and Apple's on-device model (or, without Apple Intelligence, Alcove's own rules) turns it into tasks on your device too.
The typeface is built into the app, so nothing is downloaded to display it.
Siri, Shortcuts and widgets
When you use Alcove with Siri or Shortcuts, your request is handled by Apple under Apple's privacy terms, and Alcove answers from the data on your device. Widgets and Control Center controls show and change data on your device only.
Reminders
Reminders are scheduled on your device by the system's notifications. Alcove asks for notification permission the first time you set a reminder, and you can change it any time in your device's settings.
Meeting notes
When you record a meeting, Alcove uses the microphone and, on the Mac, the sound your call app plays, so the note has what the other people said as well as you. macOS asks you once to allow System Audio Recording. Alcove listens only while a recording you started is running, and shows that it is recording.
Speech is turned into text on your device by Apple's speech recognition; the first time you use a language, Apple downloads its model to your device. Telling the speakers apart and writing Indian languages in their own script also happen on your device, with models built into the app. The summary is written by Apple Intelligence on your device.
The recording, the transcript and the summary are saved as an ordinary note, and sync through your own iCloud like your other notes. If you turn on Remember these voices, which is off until you do, Alcove keeps a numeric description of each voice you name so it can suggest the name next time. Those stay on that device, never sync and are never shared, and you can forget them all in Settings. Nothing from a meeting is sent to me or to anyone else.
Notifications
Alcove keeps a list of the reminders that went off on each device for 30 days, so the Notifications page can show what reminded you of what. That list stays on the device and is not synced.
AI assistants (Mac)
On the Mac, Alcove can let AI assistant apps, such as Claude, work with your tasks and notes. This is off until you turn it on. Each new assistant waits for your approval, and you choose whether it may read, create, change or delete. Every request is recorded in an activity log in Alcove's settings.
The connection runs on your Mac. When you allow an assistant to read something, that assistant's app receives it and may send it to its provider as part of your conversation. That provider's own privacy policy then applies, so only connect assistants you trust.
Your control over your data
- Delete any task, note or list in the app. You can also export everything with Export as Markdown in Settings, or a single note with Copy as Markdown.
- Deleting the app removes the data stored on that device.
- Data synced to iCloud can be removed from your iCloud storage settings on your device.
This website
This site sets no cookies and runs no analytics. It remembers the accent colour you pick in your own browser, and that choice never leaves your device. Apart from the YouTube player described below, its fonts and scripts are served from this site, not from third parties. The server that hosts the site may keep standard access logs, such as IP address and browser type, for security.
The demo video on the home page is hosted on YouTube, and nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. It then plays through YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), which streams the video from Google's servers, and Google's Privacy Policy applies to that playback, including anything YouTube stores in your browser. The Tour page at /tour shows the player from YouTube's privacy-enhanced domain as soon as it opens, so Google's policy applies there from the moment the page loads, while everywhere else on this site nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
Children
Alcove is a general productivity app and is not directed at children under 13. It collects no personal information from anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date. A change that affects how your data is handled will also be mentioned in the app's release notes.