Uplink — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-04-21 (Phase 11 initial landing).

Uplink is a standalone watchOS recorder that turns spoken thought into Markdown notes in your own Obsidian vault. This policy describes every piece of data the app touches.

Microphone and audio recording

Uplink records microphone audio when you tap the complication or the in-app record button. Audio is stored temporarily on the watch in the app’s Documents directory until upload to your homelab completes, then deleted from the watch. Audio sent to your homelab never reaches any server operated by Uplink’s maintainer.

Audio uploads from the watch to your homelab use HTTPS over Cloudflare Tunnel (TLS 1.3). No audio is transmitted unencrypted.

Data we collect

None. Uplink does not operate a shared backend. It records audio locally on your Apple Watch, uploads that audio to uplinkd — a service you run on your own homelab under a hostname you control — and your homelab writes transcripts to your own Obsidian vault.

Specifically:

• Uplink (the watchOS app) stores recordings in the app’s own Documents directory on the Apple Watch until upload succeeds.
• Uplink does not send any data to a central server operated by the Uplink maintainer.
• Uplink does not track you, fingerprint you, or analyze your usage. The privacy manifest (PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy) included in every release declares NSPrivacyTracking=false and an empty NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypes array.

Third-party services used by your own homelab

uplinkd, the service you run on your homelab, calls two external AI APIs using API keys you supply:

• OpenAI (api.openai.com) — for Whisper transcription of your recordings. Subject to OpenAI’s own privacy policy.
• Anthropic (api.anthropic.com) — for Claude-based note routing and drafting. Subject to Anthropic’s own privacy policy.

These calls originate from your homelab, not from the watch app. Uplink’s maintainer does not proxy, log, or see any of that traffic.

Required-reason API declaration

Uplink uses UserDefaults to share state between the main watch app and its complication extension. This usage is declared in the shipped PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy under Apple’s required-reason API policy using reason code CA92.1 (access to information from the same app per the app’s own functionality).

Data retention on your homelab

uplinkd deletes each uploaded audio file after transcription completes. Transcripts and derived Markdown notes live in your Obsidian vault on your filesystem; you control their retention and deletion.

Changes to this policy

Changes are version-controlled in the Uplink repository at docs/runbooks/privacy-policy.md. The commit history of that file is the canonical changelog.

Contact

For questions about this policy, email felipe.romero@live.com.