Past

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 6 September 2026

Past ("Past", "we", "us", or "our") is an independently developed app for recording a short video, sealing it, and receiving it back on a future date. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to the Past iOS app, this website, and the services behind them.

Past is operated by an individual developer. If you have questions about this policy or your data, contact us at [email protected].

Who can use Past

Past is intended for users aged 13 and older. It is a general-audience app and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, email [email protected] and we will delete it. If you are under 18, you should use Past only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

Where your recordings live

Your recordings are stored on our servers, not only on your phone. That is what lets a capsule survive a lost phone and arrive years later. The copy on your device is a cache. Recordings are held in private storage that only the people entitled to a capsule can read, and access is enforced by the server, not by the app.

Information we collect

Account information. When you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive a user identifier and an email address from the provider. With Sign in with Apple you may choose Apple's private email relay, in which case we receive a relay address rather than your personal email.
Your recordings. The video you record is stored so we can deliver it to you, and to anyone you sent it to, on its unlock date.
Information about each recording. Its length, when it was recorded, when it was sealed, the earliest date you allowed, the date that was drawn, your time zone at that moment, and the name of the device you recorded on (for example "Billy's iPhone", the name you gave the device in iOS). The device name is shown back to you when the capsule opens, so you know where it came from.
Your name, when you send to someone. If you send a capsule to another person, the display name from your sign-in provider is frozen onto that capsule at the moment you seal it, and shown to the recipients when — and only when — it unlocks.
Who a capsule is for. If you share an invite link, we store which accounts claimed it, the invite code, and when each person claimed and opened it.
Notification token. If you allow notifications, we store a push token for that installation so we can tell you when a capsule unlocks, and we record whether each notification was delivered.
Reports and blocks. If you report a capsule, we store the capsule, the account that sent it, your account, your reason, and the time. If you block a sender, we store that the block exists.
Support communications. If you email us, we receive what you choose to include.

Past contains no advertising and no analytics. We do not track you across apps or websites, we do not sell your personal information, and we do not use your recordings to train models.

How we use information

To store your capsules and deliver them, and any you were sent, on their unlock date.
To send the notification that a capsule has unlocked.
To let people claim an invite you shared, and to show the sender's name after unlock.
To act on reports and enforce our Terms of Service.
To respond to your support requests, and to keep the service secure and working.

Who else touches your data

We use these third-party services to operate Past. Each processes data only as needed to provide its function:

Supabase — authentication, database, and storage of your account, your capsules, and your recordings. Our database and storage are hosted in Seoul, South Korea.
Apple and Google — sign-in.
Expo — delivery of push notifications. Expo receives the push token and a capsule identifier so the notification can open the right capsule. It never receives the contents of a capsule; the notification itself carries no capsule content.
Cloudflare — hosting for this website and the invite links it serves.

We do not use an analytics provider, an advertising network, or an email provider. If that changes, this list changes with it.

International data transfers

Our providers store and process information in South Korea, the United States, and other countries. By using Past, you understand that your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own.

What we can and cannot see

Your recordings are not end-to-end encrypted. They are stored privately, and the server refuses to hand a recording to anyone who is not entitled to it — but as the operator of the service, we are technically able to access stored content. We do not do so as a matter of course, and there is no automated scanning of recordings. We access a specific recording when we have a specific reason: a report, a legal obligation, or a fault we cannot diagnose any other way.

Data retention

A sealed capsule is kept until its unlock date, which may be years away, and then for as long as your account is active. You can delete a capsule you created at any time.

When you delete your account, from the App's Settings:

Your account and sign-in identity are deleted.
Capsules you made for yourself are deleted, and their recordings are deleted with them.
Capsules you sent that nobody has claimed are deleted, and their recordings with them.
A capsule someone has already claimed is not deleted. It belongs to them now, and deleting your account would take away something that was given to them. It is unlinked from you — the account behind it is erased — but the recording and the sender name frozen on it at seal time remain, so it still arrives on its date.
Reports are kept. A report is a safety record, and it survives the deletion of the capsule and of the accounts involved. It is not linked back to a live account once that account is gone.

If you would rather not leave a claimed capsule behind, delete it before you delete your account.

Your choices

Notifications — turn them off in your device settings at any time. Capsules still unlock.
Camera and microphone — Past asks only when you first record, and iOS lets you revoke it in Settings. Without them the app cannot record, and that is the only thing it uses them for.
Deletion — delete individual capsules, or your whole account, from the App. Or email us.
Access — email [email protected] for a copy of what we hold about you.

Security

Access to capsules and recordings is enforced on the server by row-level security policies, so a capsule can be read only by the people on its roster, and a recording only after its capsule has unlocked. Data is encrypted in transit. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where the change is significant, tell you in the App.

Contact

[email protected]. We answer within 24 hours.