What Inkolia does not do
- It does not ask you to create an account or sign in.
- It does not collect analytics, usage statistics or crash reports, and contains no third-party software development kits.
- It does not read the advertising identifier, track you across apps or sites, or show ads.
- It does not send your notes, handwriting, PDFs, recordings or images to us or to any outside AI service. Its AI features use Apple's on-device model, so using them sends nothing off your iPad. We never see your content, even when it syncs through your iCloud account.
- It does not sell, rent or share data with anyone. There is no data to share.
Your content stays on your iPad
Everything you make in Inkolia (notes, notebooks, boards, ink, PDFs, images, audio recordings and their transcripts, tasks, templates, themes) is stored in the app's own private storage on your iPad, protected by the device's built-in data protection. Unless you turn on iCloud Sync, it stays there, and deleting the app deletes all of it.
Because it lives in the app's storage, your content is included in the device backups you control: iCloud Backup and Finder or iTunes backups. Those are governed by Apple's privacy policy.
Locked notes are hidden behind Face ID or your passcode. Locking is a gate, not encryption: a locked note is protected by the same device data protection as every other note, no more and no less, and it is still included in device backups and in Inkolia's own backup.
Inkolia's own backup
Inkolia can back up to a folder you pick in the Files app (on your iPad or in iCloud Drive), or to a server you own or choose, such as a NAS on your home network, over the WebDAV protocol. For a server, you enter the address, user name and password. Nothing is set up by default, and no backup happens unless you turn it on.
- What is sent: your notes, notebooks, boards and tasks, with their images, PDFs and recordings, plus a small manifest with the type of device and the app's build number so a restore can tell backups apart.
- Where it goes: only to the folder or server you chose. Inkolia has no server of its own and never receives a copy.
- When: when you tap Back Up Now, and, if you turn on automatic backup, each time the app goes to the background and something has changed.
- How it travels: to a server, over HTTPS unless you turn HTTPS off for it. Plain HTTP is not encrypted, so turn it off only for a server on your own network. Inkolia remembers your server's certificate the first time it connects and refuses a changed one.
- Your credentials: the password and the remembered certificate are stored in the Keychain on your iPad and are sent only to that server.
iCloud Sync (Inkolia Plus)
With Inkolia Plus, you can keep your library the same on all your devices through your own iCloud account. It is off until you turn it on in Settings ▸ Backup, and the change takes effect the next time Inkolia opens.
- What syncs: your notes and notebooks with their ink, text and properties; the photos, attachments, PDFs and recordings inside them; your tasks; your own templates and saved themes; the desk photos you marked as favorites; and your profile name and picture.
- What stays on each device: your settings, your backup server and its password, the trial date, and caches. Purchases are not synced by Inkolia; the App Store restores them on each device.
- Where it goes: into the private database of your iCloud account, which only you can reach. It counts against your iCloud storage. Inkolia has no server and no way to read it; Apple stores and carries it under Apple's privacy policy, encrypted in transit and on its servers, as described in iCloud data security overview.
- How devices hear about changes: through Apple's push notification service. These silent messages tell the app that something changed; they carry none of your content and show nothing on screen.
- Handwriting is never silently lost: so that two devices editing the same page at once can both be kept, Inkolia keeps a copy of the last ink you drew on each page on that device. If the versions collide, the version from the other device takes the page, the ink you drew here is saved as a separate copy, and Inkolia tells you so. The ink kept for this stays on the device and is cleared after 30 days.
- A new device joining: if your iCloud already holds a library and the new device has only Inkolia's untouched sample notes, those samples are removed before it joins, so your library does not fill with duplicates. Anything you made or edited is kept.
- Turning it off, or Plus ending: syncing stops the next time Inkolia opens. Every note already on each device stays there. The copy in your iCloud account stays too, until you delete it from your iCloud storage settings.
When the app talks to the internet
Inkolia makes no update checks, no telemetry and no "phone home" requests. It contacts the internet only in the cases below. All but two are caused by something you did; the two automatic requests are described under the table.
| You… | Inkolia… | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Add a link to a note (paste, type or drop it), or share one into Inkolia | Fetches that page, and its preview image, to show its title and image on the link card | The site you linked |
| Paste a YouTube link | Asks YouTube for the video's title and thumbnail; playing it loads YouTube's privacy-enhanced embedded player | YouTube (Google) |
| Open the desk photo picker, or search in it | Loads a few sample tiles from Picsum; opening Stock Photos loads a first set from Openverse, and a search sends your search words to Openverse; then it loads the images returned | Openverse, Picsum, the image hosts |
| Tap "Fact check" on a built-in science fact | Opens a Google search for that fact in your browser | |
| Tap a link | Opens it in your browser | The site you tapped |
| Record audio for the first time (recordings are transcribed automatically, in your iPad's language) | iPadOS may download its on-device speech model for that language. Your audio is not sent | Apple |
| Set up backup to your own server | Sends your library to it when a backup runs, and lists its snapshots when you open Settings ▸ Backup | The server you chose |
| Turn on iCloud Sync (Plus) | Sends and receives your library through your iCloud account, and listens for Apple's silent push messages that announce changes | Apple (your iCloud account) |
| Buy, restore or manage Inkolia Plus or a sticker pack | Talks to the App Store | Apple |
| Own a sticker pack that downloads (the Medicine packs) | Downloads that pack's artwork from Apple's servers once you own it, on each device where you use Inkolia | Apple |
The two automatic requests: each time Inkolia opens, it asks the App Store which purchases you own and loads the current prices for Plus and the sticker packs; this goes to Apple and is handled by iPadOS like any app's purchases. And once per install, the first time Inkolia opens, it downloads the thumbnail again for any YouTube link cards already in your notes, and never again. On a new install there are no such cards, so nothing is sent. Each request goes to YouTube and carries only the video's address.
The link and image requests carry the URL or search words and nothing else about you. They are governed by those services' own privacy policies, which we do not control.
Intelligence, on the device
Summaries, outlines, flashcards, rewrites and the Ask feature use the on-device language model built into iPadOS. Speech transcription and handwriting recognition also run on the device. None of this text leaves your iPad, and Inkolia has no AI service of its own. Your questions and answers in Ask are kept in a local history so you can revisit them. That history stays on your iPad and is deleted along with the app.
So that Spotlight, Siri and Shortcuts can find your notes, Inkolia hands the system an index of each note's title, notebook and dates, and, for unlocked notes, the beginning of its text and recognized handwriting. Locked notes contribute their title only. This index is managed by iPadOS on your device under Apple's privacy policy.
If you ask Siri or Shortcuts about your notes or tasks, iPadOS handles that request under Apple's privacy policy, as it does for any app. Apple may process some requests on its own servers; Inkolia never receives them.
Text on boards, code blocks in notes and some fields, such as a note's title, also offer Apple's Writing Tools. If you use them, iPadOS handles that request under Apple's privacy policy: Apple may process it on its own servers, or with ChatGPT if you turned that on in Settings. Inkolia never receives it.
Permissions and why Inkolia asks
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Camera | Scanning documents into a note |
| Microphone | Recording audio in a note |
| Speech recognition | Transcribing your recordings, on the device |
| Face ID | Opening locked notes |
| Calendar | Showing your events in daily notes and the calendar view. Inkolia reads event titles, times, locations, attendees and notes, and can copy a title into a daily note. New events are created through the system's own editor. |
| Local network | Reaching a backup server on your network |
| Add to Photos | Saving a desk photo you liked to your library. Choosing photos uses the system picker and needs no permission. |
| Notifications | Reminders for your tasks. They are scheduled on the device; nothing is sent through a push server. |
Every permission is optional and can be changed later in the Settings app.
Purchases
Inkolia Plus and sticker packs are sold through Apple's App Store. Apple handles payment; Inkolia never sees your card, address or Apple Account details, and it confirms your purchases on the device without any server of ours. To keep the 14-day trial honest across reinstalls, the date you first opened the app is stored in the Keychain on your iPad. It is a date, not an identifier, it is never transmitted, and it remains in the Keychain if you delete the app.
Widgets and the Share extension
The Home Screen widgets read a small snapshot the app writes to storage shared between the app and its extensions: note titles, notebook names, a short preview of unlocked notes, and your next tasks. The Share extension writes what you share into an inbox the app picks up. Both stay on the device.
Diagnostics
The version of Inkolia you install from the App Store writes no diagnostic files. Like every app, it reports what it is doing to the system log on the iPad; entries that could include your content, such as a title, a file name or a search term, are marked private, so iPadOS redacts them. Nothing from that log is sent to us.
Children
Inkolia collects no personal information from anyone, of any age. Purchases in a Family Sharing group respect Ask to Buy.
Your choices
- Delete the app to remove everything it stored on the iPad, except what is in the Keychain: the trial date noted above and, if you set up a backup server, its password and remembered certificate.
- Turn off automatic backup, or turn off Back up to this server and clear its password, in Settings ▸ Backup. What was already backed up stays on your server for you to manage.
- Change any permission in the Settings app under Inkolia.
- Turn iCloud Sync off in Settings ▸ Backup. To remove the copy in iCloud, delete Inkolia's data from your iCloud storage settings.
- Export any note as PDF, or share it, at any time, free. With Plus you can also export as Markdown or Word, and many notes at once. Your content is never locked in.
Changes to this policy
If a future version of Inkolia changes what leaves your iPad, this page is updated before that version ships, with a new date at the top. The app links here from its purchase screen.
Contact
Inkolia is made by Julio Morales. Questions about privacy: support@inkolia.com.