Papers exists to keep your paperwork private. This policy explains what data the app touches, where it lives, and who can see it. The short version: your documents are yours, and I cannot see them.
Who is behind Papers
Papers is made by Emilia Elgfors, an independent developer. If anything in this policy is unclear, email papers.info@proton.me and you will get an answer from the person who wrote the app.
No accounts, no tracking
Papers has no accounts. You never sign up, and you never give the app your name, email, or any other personal details. The app contains no analytics, no tracking, and no ads. I do not know who uses Papers, how often, or what they do with it. There is nothing to opt out of, because nothing is collected in the first place.
Where your documents live
Your documents, along with their titles, tags, extracted details, and insights, are stored in two places:
- On your own devices.
- In your private iCloud database, which Apple operates and which syncs your library across your iPhone and iPad.
I run no servers of my own. There are no third-party servers involved. Your documents are stored under your Apple Account, and I have no way to access, read, or recover them. Apple's handling of iCloud data is described in Apple's privacy policy.
How the AI works
Papers reads your documents to write titles, pick tags, extract details like amounts and due dates, and answer your questions. This runs with Apple Intelligence: Apple's own models, which may use Apple's Private Cloud Compute, built so that not even Apple can access your data. Text recognition on scans uses Apple's Vision framework inside the app.
Your documents are never sent to any third-party AI service. No AI provider other than Apple is involved, and nothing about your documents is used to train anyone's models by Papers.
Confidential documents
You can mark any document as Confidential. A Confidential document is excluded from AI analysis, AI search, and sharing entirely. You can also skip or cancel analysis for any individual document at any time.
Sharing, only when you choose it
If you share a list with someone, that happens through iCloud collaboration, and only the people you invite can see the documents in that list. If you share a single document as a PDF, it goes wherever you send it. Papers never shares anything on its own.
Reminders and Calendar
When you tap to add a due date to Apple Reminders or Calendar, Papers writes that one item to the app you chose, using the access you granted. It never reads or changes anything else in your reminders or calendars, and it does nothing without that tap.
Face ID and Touch ID
The optional app lock uses Face ID or Touch ID through the system. Biometric data is handled entirely by iOS. Papers only learns whether the unlock succeeded, never anything about your face or fingerprint.
Purchases
The Documents Unlimited one-time purchase is handled by Apple through the App Store. Papers never sees your payment details. Apple provides the app only with a confirmation that the purchase was made, so it can unlock unlimited documents and restore the purchase on your other devices.
Deleting your data
Delete a document in Papers and it is removed from your library and your private iCloud database. Delete the app and its data goes with it, apart from what remains in your own iCloud until you remove it there. Because there are no accounts and no servers of mine, there is nothing for you to request deletion of from me. Your data was never in my hands.
Changes to this policy
If Papers ever changes in a way that affects your privacy, this policy will be updated and the effective date below will change. The promise this policy is built on, that your documents stay private and out of my reach, is not going to change.
Contact
Questions, concerns, or anything else: papers.info@proton.me.
Effective date: August 8, 2026