SystemStew

Layers Privacy Policy

Effective: October 9, 2026

Layers (the “App”) is an iOS app made by SystemStew (“we”). The App has no accounts, and we run no server that stores your records. This policy describes what the App keeps and where, and what it sends when you use its AI features or connect an AI assistant.

1. Stored on your device

To-dos, journal entries, quotes, books, habits, scraps, recurring rules and attached photos are stored only on your devices and, if you turn on sync, in your own iCloud. We don't store or view them.

  • Photos keep their original metadata, which may include where they were taken.
  • Share extension: when you share to Layers from another app, the link, title, selected text and part of the page text are saved on your device.
  • Deletion: deleted items stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, then are removed for good. Deleting the App removes all of its records.

2. Permissions

  • Calendar (optional): read only, to show your Apple Calendar behind your plans. Events are never saved, changed or sent anywhere.
  • Camera (optional): to photograph a book page and pull out a sentence, or to scan an ISBN barcode. Text recognition runs on the device, and the photo stays on the device with the sentence.
  • Photos: the system photo picker passes only the photos you choose.
  • The App does not ask for location, contacts, microphone or notifications.

3. Requests to outside services

Your device contacts outside services directly when you use these features (AI features and assistant connections are covered in sections 4 and 6). Each service can see your device's IP address, and its own privacy policy applies.

  • Book search: the title or ISBN you enter is sent to the Kakao Book Search API (dapi.kakao.com) and Open Library (openlibrary.org), and cover images are downloaded.
  • Scrap link previews: the App visits the saved link to fetch its title and thumbnail.
  • iCloud key-value storage: one setting (how long scraps show as undecided) is kept in your iCloud account to stay in sync across devices.

4. AI features

The App's AI reads your records to sum you up, give advice drawn from your past, suggest new tastes and answer questions about your records. You can turn AI off in Settings at any time; when it's off, none of your records are used for AI processing.

  • On-device: short tasks such as a daily summary run on the AI model built into your Apple device, and your records never leave it.
  • Cloud: analysis across months or years, advice, taste suggestions and answers to your questions send only the records needed for that request (text, dates and record types), encrypted, to an AI model provider. Requests pass through a relay server we run, which does not store their content.
  • The AI model provider uses your records only to produce the response, does not keep them afterwards and does not train models on them. We don't use your records to train AI either.
  • The summaries and advice the AI produces are stored on your device.

5. International transfer

When you use cloud AI processing, part of your records is transferred abroad.

  • Recipient: an AI model provider
  • Country: the United States or wherever the provider's servers are located
  • Data: the text, dates and record types needed for the request
  • When and how: each time you use a cloud AI feature, over an encrypted connection
  • Retention: deleted as soon as the response is produced (not kept)
  • How to refuse: turn off cloud AI processing in Settings and no transfer happens. You can then use only the on-device AI features.

6. Connecting an AI assistant (MCP)

You can connect Layers to AI assistants that support MCP, such as Claude or ChatGPT. A connection happens only when you turn it on, and it sends your records to that assistant at your request.

  • Scope: the assistant can read only the record types you choose (for example, reading and plans only).
  • Writing: if you allow it, the assistant can add to-dos or notes, which land on that day's page.
  • After sending: records delivered to the assistant are handled under that service's privacy policy and your settings there. We don't control what happens next, so please check its policy before connecting.
  • Disconnecting: you can disconnect in the App's Settings at any time, after which the assistant can no longer read or write your records.

7. Usage statistics and crash data

  • To improve the App, it keeps an anonymous usage log on your device: six kinds of events, such as app launches and how many records of each type are created, plus a random install ID. It contains no content and nothing that identifies you, and the current release does not send it anywhere.
  • Crash data is stored on your device through Apple MetricKit. If you turn on ‘Share with App Developers’ in iOS Settings, Apple may pass crash and diagnostic data to us.
  • If we ever start receiving this log, we will update this policy before then and add a way to turn it off in the App.

8. What we don't do

  • Ads, collecting the advertising identifier (IDFA), or tracking across apps
  • Third-party analytics or advertising SDKs
  • Accounts or sign-in
  • Storing your records on our servers
  • Using your records to train AI models
  • Selling your information

9. Children

The App collects no personally identifying information from anyone, whatever their age.

10. Contact

Your records live on your device, so you can view, edit and delete them in the App. For questions, contact:

  • Privacy officer: Minseong Kang (CEO)
  • Email: hello@systemstew.com

11. Changes

If a change to the App changes what information it handles, we will post the update on this page at least 7 days before it takes effect.