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Privacy policy

Pearlin is built so that we can’t see what you keep in it. This page explains exactly what that means, including the few things that do leave your phone.

Last updated 8 November 2026

The short version

  • Your photos, videos, documents and notes are encrypted on your phone before they’re saved. We can’t open them, and nobody else can without your pattern or recovery phrase.
  • There is no Pearlin account and no Pearlin server that holds your files.
  • The app has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking. It contains no third-party analytics or advertising code.
  • If you turn on iCloud backup, sync or sharing, the data that leaves your phone is encrypted first.
  • We only learn something about you if you choose to email us, or from this website’s visit measuring (see This website).

Pearlin is run by Lakmal Silva, an individual developer based in Sri Lanka (“we”, “us”). For any privacy question, write to support@pearlin.app.

What the app keeps, and where

Everything you add to a vault stays on your device, encrypted:

  • Files and thumbnails are encrypted with AES-256-GCM.
  • The vault index (file names, notes, folders) is kept in an encrypted SQLCipher database.
  • Your pattern is never stored. The app turns it into a key with Argon2id, uses the key, and drops it when the vault locks.
  • Device secrets are kept in the iOS Keychain, set to stay on this device only.

Your settings (for example the app icon, theme colour and import quality) are stored on the device and contain nothing about your files or vaults.

We have no way to recover a vault if you lose both its pattern and its recovery phrase. That isn’t a policy choice: the keys exist only on your device and in what you wrote down.

iCloud backup and sync

Encrypted iCloud backup and sync between your iPhone and iPad use Apple’s CloudKit, in the private database of your own iCloud account. Only you can reach that database. We can’t.

Before anything is uploaded, Pearlin encrypts it on your device with a key Apple doesn’t have, and pads records so their sizes give little away. Apple stores the encrypted data and handles it under Apple’s privacy policy; it counts towards your iCloud storage. You can turn backup and sync off in the app, and remove the data in iOS Settings under your name, then iCloud, then Manage Storage.

Sharing a vault

When you share a vault, Pearlin encrypts a copy of it on your phone and uploads it to the app’s CloudKit public database, so the person you send the phrase to can fetch it. In detail:

  • The copy can only be opened with the share phrase. The phrase never leaves your phone in a form we can read, and records are named so that they can’t be linked to you or guessed from the outside.
  • As the app’s developer we can see that encrypted records exist and how big they are, but we can’t read them or tell who they belong to.
  • A share is deleted from the server once it has been saved, when it expires or reaches its open limit, or when you take it back.
  • Settings like “Exports off” are enforced by the recipient’s app. They can’t stop someone photographing the screen, so only share what you’d trust the other person with.

Purchases

Pearlin Pro is sold through the App Store. Apple handles payment, and we never receive your card or payment details. The app checks with Apple, on your device, whether you have Pro. Apple gives us sales reports in totals, without names or contact details.

Crash reports and diagnostics

If you’ve chosen to share analytics with app developers in iOS (Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Analytics & Improvements), Apple may pass us crash logs and performance diagnostics for Pearlin. These describe the app’s state when something went wrong, such as the iOS version and the code that crashed. They don’t contain your files, file names, patterns or phrases. You can switch this off in the same iOS setting at any time.

When you contact us

If you email us, or use Contact support in the app, we receive your email address, what you write, and anything you choose to attach. The in-app option fills in the app and iOS version to help us answer. We use this only to reply and to fix problems, keep it only as long as the conversation needs, and delete it if you ask.

Never send us a pattern, recovery phrase, share phrase or private file. We never need them to help you, and we’ll never ask.

Phone permissions

Pearlin asks for access only when you use a feature that needs it:

  • Photos, to import the items you pick, and, if you agree, to remove the originals after import. iOS confirms each removal.
  • Camera and microphone, to take photos and videos straight into a vault.
  • Face ID is not used to open vaults; a pattern is.

Nothing you grant access to is uploaded anywhere by these permissions.

This website

Everything above is about the app, which has no analytics. The website is different: it measures visits with Google Analytics and PostHog, both loaded through Google Tag Manager.

  • When: on every page of this website except the share-link page, as soon as the page loads. Each tool sets cookies that recognise a returning browser.
  • What it collects: the pages you view and what you click on them, how you arrived (for example a search or a link), your rough location, and your device and browser type. We use this only to see which pages help people. Advertising features are off, and it isn’t used for ads. PostHog doesn’t record your screen.
  • Who processes it: Google, under Google’s privacy policy, and PostHog, under PostHog’s privacy policy. Either may process it outside your country.
  • Never on share links. The page that opens a share link (/s/) never loads analytics, so the phrase in a link stays in your browser.
  • Turning it off: use the button below. It stops Google Tag Manager loading on this browser and deletes the Google Analytics and PostHog cookies on this site. Your choice is kept in your browser’s storage, so clearing site data turns analytics back on. Browser tracking protection and content blockers also stop them.

Analytics are on.

Like any website, the company that hosts it processes the technical details your browser sends with each request (such as your IP address, browser type and the page you asked for) in order to deliver the page and protect the site from abuse. There are no advertising or social-media trackers.

The download buttons and QR codes take you to Apple’s App Store, where Apple’s privacy policy applies.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to how it’s used, and to complain to your data protection authority. In practice, the only personal data we can hold about you is what you send us by email and the website visit data described above. To use any of these rights, email support@pearlin.app.

Data inside the app and in your iCloud is under your control: you can export it or erase it in the app at any time, and Erase everything on this device removes every vault from the phone.

Children

Pearlin doesn’t collect personal information from anyone, children included. If you think a child has emailed us personal information, tell us and we’ll delete it.

Changes and contact

If we change how Pearlin handles data, we’ll update this page and the date at the top before the change takes effect.

Questions: support@pearlin.app.