It depends on how you feel about tracking: Life declares data used to track you. The sensitive items are location and user content. In total the label lists 6 data types; 32% of journal & diary apps we checked declare tracking.
Life privacy in one look
- 1Collects nothing
- 2Not linked
- 3Linked
- 4Tracks you
Built only from the developer's App Store label. It describes disclosure, not tested behaviour.
Life's developer reports using location, contact info, identifiers, usage data, diagnostics to track you across other companies' apps and websites.
Did Life ask for something?
Pick the permission prompt you saw. We compare it with what Life's developer declared.
Life lists Location on its label, including for tracking. Choose While Using and turn off Precise Location if the feature works without it.
Life lists User Content on its label. Choose Limited Access and pick only the photos you want to share.
Contacts is not on Life's label. That can be fine: data used only on your iPhone does not have to be declared. If the data would need to leave the phone for the feature to work, ask why it is missing.
Life declares data used to track you, so expect the “Allow to track?” prompt. Tap Ask App Not to Track; the app must keep working without it.
Health & Fitness is not on Life's label. That can be fine: data used only on your iPhone does not have to be declared. If the data would need to leave the phone for the feature to work, ask why it is missing.
A permission is what the app can reach on your iPhone; the label is what the developer says leaves it. They answer different questions.
What Life collects, explained
| Data type | What it covers | Where to limit it |
|---|---|---|
| LocationSensitiveUsed to track youLinked to you | Where your phone is, either precisely (street level) or approximately (city or area). | Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services: choose Never or While Using, and turn off Precise Location if the app does not need it. |
| User ContentSensitiveNot linked to you | Messages, photos, videos, audio recordings, documents and support chats you create or upload. | Settings › Privacy & Security › Photos: choose Limited Access or None; review Microphone and Files access too. |
| Contact InfoUsed to track youLinked to you | Your name, email address, phone number or postal address. | Use Sign in with Apple with Hide My Email where offered, and check the app's account and marketing preferences. |
| IdentifiersUsed to track youLinked to you | An account ID, screen name, customer number or a device-level ID such as the advertising identifier. | Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking: turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track, or tap Ask App Not to Track when prompted. |
| Usage DataUsed to track youLinked to you | What you tap, open and view inside the app, plus which ads you have seen. | There is no single iOS switch. Look for an analytics or personalised-ads toggle in the app's own settings. |
| DiagnosticsUsed to track youLinked to youNot linked to you | Crash logs, launch times, hang rates and energy use. | Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements › Share With App Developers controls what Apple passes on; the app's own crash reporting is separate. |
What Life's label means for you
Life's label has 5 types under “Data Used to Track You”, 5 types under “Data Linked to You”, 2 types under “Data Not Linked to You”. A data type can appear in more than one section when it is used for different purposes — for example, identifiers used for both analytics and advertising.
Tracking is the declaration that most separates apps. It means location, contact info, identifiers, usage data, diagnostics from Life can be combined with data from other companies to target or measure ads, or shared with data brokers. On iOS 14.5 and later, the app must ask your permission before tracking you through the advertising identifier; answering “Ask App Not to Track” blocks that identifier and tells the developer you have declined.
The items that deserve the most attention are location and user content. Location history reveals home, work and routines. Precise location deserves the most scrutiny.
Journals collect your private thoughts, moods and often your location and photos. A lock screen inside the app is not the same as encryption of the synced entries. Check whether entries sync to the developer's server and whether that sync is end-to-end encrypted; export your journal regularly.
Among the 173 journal & diary apps in our snapshot with a label, 32% declare tracking, 54% collect data linked to you and 21% say they collect nothing. Life lists 6 data types, more than the average of 2.9 for this group.
Lifestyle apps cover family, home and personal organisation, and often combine location, contacts and photos in one place.
Settings to check for Life
- 1
Tracking
Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking. If “Allow Apps to Request to Track” is off, apps cannot ask, and they are told to treat you as having declined. You can also turn it off for this app alone.
- 2
Location
Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Life. Choose While Using or Never, and switch off Precise Location if a city-level answer is enough.
- 3
Photos
Settings › Privacy & Security › Photos. Limited Access lets you pick exactly which pictures the app can see; Add Photos Only lets it save without reading your library.
- 4
Sign-in
When creating an account, Sign in with Apple can give the app a relay address from Hide My Email instead of your real one.
- 5
Lock the app
On iOS 18 and later, touch and hold the icon and choose Require Face ID. Anyone who picks up your unlocked phone then needs your face, fingerprint or passcode to open it.
- 6
Notifications
Settings › Notifications › Life › Show Previews: When Unlocked keeps message and account details off the Lock Screen.
Does Life track you?
Location, contact info, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics. Apple defines tracking as linking data from this app with data from other companies' apps, websites or offline sources for targeted advertising or ad measurement, or sharing it with a data broker.
Lock Life behind Face ID
- Find Life on your Home Screen or in App Library.
- Touch and hold the icon until the quick-actions menu opens.
- Tap Require Face ID (or Require Touch ID / Require Passcode, depending on your iPhone).
- Tap Require Face ID again to confirm. Life now asks for authentication every time it opens.
The lock is an iPhone feature, so it works whether or not Life has a passcode of its own. It does not change what the app sends to its developer.
About Life
| Developer | Hitbytes Technologies |
| App Store category | Lifestyle (also Productivity) |
| Latest version | 8.0, released September 2022 |
| First released | March 2022 |
| Requires | iOS 14.0 or later |
| Size | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ |
| Languages | 1 (EN) |
| Bundle ID | com.hitbytes.minidiarynotes |
The current version shipped in September 2022, 4 years before our snapshot. Apps that are not updated may not support newer iOS privacy controls, and an abandoned app will not get security fixes.
What the label cannot tell you
- A label is self-reported. Apple publishes the developer's answers and can reject apps that misrepresent them, but it does not independently verify what Life sends.
- It does not say where data is stored, how long it is kept, whether it is encrypted, or which companies receive it. The privacy policy covers those points.
- Optional data counts: if a feature lets you add something (a profile photo, a phone number), the type is listed even if you never use the feature.
- Data handled only on your iPhone is not 'collected', so a no-collection label is compatible with an app that reads your files locally.
- Third-party sign-in, payment processors and SDKs are supposed to be included, but a label can lag behind a new version.
The question to ask Life's developer: Can anyone at the company read my entries?
Life vs similar journal & diary apps
- Life (this app)
- diAry AI Journal & Companion
- Aksha
- Everlog
- My Diary: Private Journal Lock
- Nacre
- Card Diary
Fewer types is not automatically safer: a cloud backup app has to collect your files to work. Compare like with like.
Look up any of our apps in seconds, or put two labels side by side.
Apps similar to Life
All journal & diary apps → Who tracks you? A–Z → Apps that collect location → Privacy label decoder →
Your Life privacy checklist
Done. You have applied every control the label points to.
True or false?
- Right.Not quite.
True: it lists location, contact info, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics under Data Used to Track You.
- Right.Not quite.
Labels are self-reported by developers. Apple can reject or remove apps that misrepresent practices, but it does not audit each label.
- Right.Not quite.
True: Location appears on its label.
- Right.Not quite.
It is collected and sent; the developer says it is de-identified rather than tied to your account or device.
- Right.Not quite.
Apple's rules require apps to work the same whether or not you allow tracking.