Privacy Policy
Lobster: Writing App (macOS · iOS · iPadOS)
- Effective: 16 September 2026
- Publisher: RoyWorkx · Contact: RoyWorkx@gmail.com
- Last revised: 16 September 2026
0. The short version
Lobster does not collect anything about you. The app has no server. What you write, the ideas you catch, your photos and recordings all stay on your device, and if you turn on iCloud sync they travel only to your own devices through your own Apple Account. The developer cannot see any of it and does not hold any of it. There is no advertising, no analytics and no tracking of any kind in this app.
1. Who and what this covers
This policy covers Lobster: Writing App and its Share Extension, published by RoyWorkx ("the developer"). Apple's services that the app uses — iCloud and the App Store — are governed by Apple's own privacy policy in addition to this one.
2. What the developer collects — nothing
The developer collects no personal data through this app. Specifically:
- There is no sign-up, no sign-in and no account.
- Nothing that identifies you — email, name, phone number, device identifier, advertising identifier — is ever requested or received.
- No usage data, statistics or crash reports are sent to the developer.
- There is no third-party analytics (Google Analytics, Firebase, Sentry and the like) and no advertising SDK in the app.
- The app does not talk to any server run by the developer. No such server exists.
This is verifiable in the source: the app contains no outbound networking code, and its single third-party library (GRDB, which manages the on-device database) does not use the network either.
3. What is stored on your device
All of the following lives only on your device. None of it is transmitted to the developer.
| What | Where | Why |
| Your writing (sheets, groups, projects), keywords, notes, saved versions | a database file in the app's own folder | the app's core purpose |
| Caught ideas and their attachments (photos, video, recordings, files) | beside the library folder | Catch Ideas · Idea Aquarium |
| A location attached to an idea (latitude, longitude, place name) — only if you allowed it at that moment | as above | so you remember where a thought reached you |
| App settings, export styles, editor themes | the app's settings store | to keep your preferences |
| Automatic backups (hourly, daily, weekly) | your device | to survive mistakes and failures |
| Your password-lock password | Apple Keychain | to unlock the app |
| Temporary files handed over by the Share Extension | the App Group folder | deleted once the main app takes them in |
4. Device permissions — when and why
The app asks for each of these only at the moment you use the feature that needs it. Decline any of them and the rest of the app still works.
| Permission | When | Where the result goes |
| Camera | photographing or filming an idea in Catch Ideas | your device (and your own iCloud) |
| Microphone | recording a voice note in Catch Ideas | as above |
| Photo library | attaching an existing photo or video to an idea | only what you pick is read |
| Location | attaching where you are to an idea | as above |
| Face ID · Touch ID | opening the password lock | nothing leaves the device. The app never receives or stores biometric data — only Apple's answer of whether authentication succeeded |
On place names. To turn coordinates into a readable place name, the app uses Apple's built-in reverse geocoding (CoreLocation). That lookup goes to Apple, never to the developer, and is handled under Apple's privacy policy.
The Share Extension does not take your location. Sharing to Lobster from another app never raises a location prompt; the location field is left empty.
5. iCloud sync
If you use iCloud sync:
- Your data is stored in Apple's CloudKit private database, which belongs to your own Apple Account.
- The developer has no access to it. There is no permission and no route by which the developer could read your writing.
- Storage, encryption and retention follow Apple's iCloud terms.
- If you would rather not sync, keep your writing in the "on this device" library. It never leaves the machine.
- The original always lives on your device. iCloud only mirrors it.
6. Payment
Purchases and trials run entirely through the Apple App Store.
- The developer never receives your card number, payment method, billing address or Apple Account.
- The app receives only Apple's answer to "has this device a confirmed purchase?", and keeps that answer on the device.
- Refunds and billing questions are handled by Apple (see §12).
7. What the password lock does and does not do
- Does: locks the app's windows and screens. It opens with Touch ID or Face ID too.
- Does not: it does not encrypt the library file. Anyone who can read the files on your Mac can still read them, lock or no lock. For whole-device encryption, use FileVault.
- The password is kept in the Apple Keychain and is never sent to the developer. There is no way to recover it — the developer cannot open it for you either. If you forget it, your manuscript is still readable: the lock guards the app's windows, not the file.
8. Sharing and processors
Because the developer collects nothing, there is nothing to share with third parties and nothing to hand to a processor. Specifically, this app contains none of the following:
- analytics tools (Google Analytics, Firebase, Sentry and the like)
- advertising networks
- third-party SDKs
- any parent, subsidiary or affiliated company (there is none)
So the question "does a third party protect your data to the same standard as this policy?" does not arise here — there is no third party receiving it.
The Apple services the app uses (iCloud sync, App Store payment, place-name lookup) are between you and Apple, under Apple's own privacy policy. The developer plays no part in those and cannot see what travels along them.
Since nothing is collected, there is also no international transfer of your data by the developer.
9. Retention and deletion
The developer holds no data about you, so there is no retention period or deletion procedure on the developer's side. Everything on your device is yours to delete:
- One piece of writing: move it to the trash, then delete it there.
- An idea: delete it in the Idea Aquarium.
- All of it: deleting the app removes the data in the app's own folder.
- Anything in iCloud: remove Lobster's data from your Apple Account's iCloud settings.
10. Children
This app is not directed at children and collects no personal data from anyone, children included.
11. Your rights
There is no developer-held data to request access to, correct, delete or restrict. You can see, change and erase everything yourself, at any time, on your own device and in your own Apple Account.
Withdrawing permission
Any permission you granted can be taken back at any time.
- iPhone · iPad — Settings ▸ Lobster, and switch off Camera, Microphone, Photos or Location individually.
- Mac — System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security, the same items.
- iCloud sync — turn it off in the app under Settings ▸ General ▸ Sync, or keep your writing in an "on this device" ocean.
Refusing or withdrawing a permission never locks anything you paid for. No paid functionality in this app depends on granting data access — switch the camera off and you simply cannot attach a photo; writing, reading and exporting carry on unchanged.
If you want to check anything else about this policy or how the app behaves, please write by email below.
12. Contact
| Publisher | RoyWorkx |
| Contact | RoyWorkx@gmail.com |
The developer collects and holds no personal data, so no separate data protection officer is appointed. Questions about this policy or about how the app behaves are received at the email above.
Refunds and billing are handled by Apple — https://support.apple.com/HT204084
13. Changes to this policy
When this policy changes, the change and its effective date will be posted on this page. If a change materially reduces your protections, it will be posted 30 days before it takes effect.