Privacy policy

Last updated 6 November 2026

The short version

What you time and log stays on your iPhone and Apple Watch. There's no account, no analytics and no adverts.

If you use family links (people following your labour in the app), your updates pass through our server end-to-end encrypted: they're locked on your phone and only unlocked on the phones of the people you've let in. We can't read them, and neither can Apple, who deliver the notifications.

What the app stores on your devices

• The start and end time of each contraction you time.
• Events you choose to log, such as waters breaking, bleeding or pain relief.
• Your settings: your country, your maternity unit's name and number, "contractions" or "surges", and any reminder pattern you set.
• If you follow someone's labour: what you called it, your name, the updates and photos you've received, and reactions.
• Your own update messages and the icons you chose for them.
• Encryption keys for family links, kept on this device only.

It's kept in the app's own storage on your iPhone and Watch, which send the log to each other over Apple's Watch connection. The app doesn't use iCloud. Your device's own backups may include the app's data, as they do for other apps; that's controlled in your device settings.

Family links: what goes through our server

Only if you invite someone, or follow someone's labour. Our server holds:

• For each labour: a random ID, the invite code while it's valid, and when it was last used.
• For each phone: a random ID, a public encryption key, Apple's notification address for the app, whether it's family or birth partner, and when it joined.
• Followers' names, encrypted so only the person in labour can read them.
• Updates (milestones like "Heading in", your own messages, and for a birth partner the live contraction timer), end-to-end encrypted: we can't read them. Only the last 50 updates and the latest timer are kept.
• Photos sent with updates (with the unlock), shrunk on your phone and end-to-end encrypted. They're deleted after 7 days, and at most 10 are kept at a time.
• Reactions ("Sending love" and the like) and the name of who sent each one, end-to-end encrypted.

No names, email addresses or phone numbers are stored in readable form. The server runs on Cloudflare, in EU data centres. Like any website it sees each request's IP address, which it uses briefly to limit repeated attempts at guessing codes; it doesn't store it.

To deliver notifications, Apple sees the notification address and the encrypted update. The readable text is unlocked on your phone when the notification arrives.

How long: ending family links deletes everything for that labour straight away, as does 30 days without use. Removing a follower, or a follower leaving, deletes their record. Invite codes stop working after 24 hours.

Who can join: having the code isn't enough. The person in labour lets each person in, and can remove anyone at any time.

What the app never does

• It doesn't collect your email address or location, or ask you to make an account.
• It doesn't access your contacts.
• It doesn't use analytics, tracking or advertising, and doesn't sell or share data.
• It doesn't read from or write to Apple Health.

Your choices and rights

Delete any entry from the Log tab, or clear the log on iPhone and Watch together. End family links in the Family tab (Your circle, then End and delete), or leave a labour you follow. Deleting the app removes everything stored on your devices.

Under UK data protection law you can ask what we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it. Our server can't link a record to you by name, so tell us the invite code or the date and we'll do our best. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Why we can use this information

Pregnancy and labour information is health information. We only process it on our server if you choose to use family links, and the app asks for your explicit agreement first. You can withdraw it at any time by ending family links.

Children

The app is for adults and isn't directed at children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date, and significant changes will be shown in the app.

Contact

Nearly Here is made by Chris Mounce in the United Kingdom, who is the data controller. Questions about privacy go to hello@nearlyhere.app.