Privacy

Updated 22 October 2026. This covers the Orbit app for iPhone, which is in testing, and this website.

Everything you tell Orbit stays on your phone, unless you choose to send it to someone. Orbit has no accounts, no server that holds your data, no analytics and no ads. I never see what you put in it.

What Orbit keeps, and where

The people you add, the rings you put them in, the days you saw them, your check-ins, your notes and your answers to the weekly questions. All of it is stored by Orbit on your phone, and none of it is uploaded. Deleting Orbit deletes it. Like every app's data, it is included in your iPhone's own backups if you make them, and those are covered by Apple's privacy policy.

Your contacts

If you allow it, Orbit reads names from your contacts to suggest them as you type. When you tap Reach out, it looks up that person's numbers at that moment and hands the one you choose to Messages. It keeps only the names you add. It never stores a number, and it never reads anything else in a contact: no email addresses, home addresses, birthdays or photos.

What your iPhone asks:

Orbit uses your contacts to suggest names as you type, and to find someone's number when you reach out to them. It keeps only the names you add. Everything you tell Orbit stays on your phone, unless you choose to send it to someone.

Your photos

If you allow it, Orbit reads the dates your photos were taken, so a check-in can show you which days you took photos that week. It doesn't open, show or copy the photos themselves.

What your iPhone asks:

Orbit only reads the dates your photos were taken. Everything you tell Orbit stays on your phone, unless you choose to send it to someone.

Reminders

Orbit's reminders are set by your phone, on your phone. They don't come from a server, and Orbit has no way to send you anything.

Linking with a friend

To link with someone, Orbit makes a link for you to send them yourself, in Messages or however you like. The link holds two random codes and nothing about you: no name, no notes, no rings. The codes come after the “#” in the address, the part a browser never sends to a website. Your two phones use them to make a key only the two of you have. For now, linking just connects your two phones, and nothing else is sent between them. If that changes, it will be encrypted with that key, and this page will say so first.

This website

orbit-friends.pages.dev is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare receives what every browser sends when it loads a page, such as your IP address. These pages run no scripts and have no analytics. If you open an Orbit link on a device without Orbit, it shows a page explaining what the link is, and the codes in it stay in your browser.

Apple and TestFlight

Orbit reaches you through Apple's TestFlight, and Apple's privacy policy covers what Apple collects. If you choose to, TestFlight sends me crash reports and any feedback you send through it.

Nobody else

Orbit has nothing about you to sell or share, and it contains no code that reports anywhere.

Changes

If what Orbit does changes, this page changes first. The date at the top says when it last changed.

Questions

Write to handle_flip_6a@icloud.com. While Orbit is in testing, you can also ask through TestFlight: in the TestFlight app, open Orbit and choose Send Beta Feedback.