Catastif

Privacy

Last updated 5 November 2026

Catastif has no account and no server. Your lists stay on your devices and in your own iCloud, shared only with the people you invite, and the developer can't see them.

Your lists

Your lists and what's on them (items, amounts, notes and links, dates, a birthday's or an event's date, the order you put them in, and what was ticked off and when, which is your History, kept for a year) are stored on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and sync between them through your private iCloud database (CloudKit), under your Apple Account. Apple's privacy policy covers iCloud. Deleting the app and its iCloud data removes them.

A few things stay on the device they were made on and don't sync: what you usually buy, the days your shopping reminders come, and the titles of linked pages.

Lists you share

When you invite people to a list, it's shared with them through iCloud sharing (CloudKit), Apple's service: the list's name, kind, colour and symbol, its occasion if it has one (the date, and whose birthday it is), and its items with their amounts, notes, dates, votes, who added each one, and what's been ticked off, by whom and when (that's how Catastif learns when each of you usually shops), and when the list was completed or archived, and by whom. The people you invite see the name on your Apple Account, as iCloud shows it, and you see theirs. You can stop sharing at any time, and someone you invited can leave. None of it passes through the developer, who can't see it.

Birthdays and occasions

A list can be for a birthday or an event. Its date, whether it comes round every year, and the name of the person whose birthday it is are stored with the list, like everything else on it: on your devices and in your own iCloud, shared only with the people you invite to that list.

Catastif reads Contacts only when you ask it to. From Contacts uses Apple's contact picker: Catastif sees only the person you pick, and needs no access to your contacts. Upcoming Birthdays asks for access the first time you open it, then reads names and birthdays on your device to show whose birthday is coming up, and keeps none of it. When you make a list for someone, only their name and their birthday are kept, nothing else from their contact card. You can turn access off in Settings at any time, and Catastif works the same without it. None of it is sent to a server.

Recipes and links

When you paste or type a recipe's link into a groceries list, or share a recipe page to Catastif, your device opens that page itself, the way a browser would, and reads the ingredients on it. A link in an item or a note is opened the same way, to show the page's title. The site sees a visit from your device, as it would from Safari, and nothing goes through a Catastif server. Page titles are kept on your device for up to a month, so they don't load every time, and they aren't synced.

A photo of a recipe is picked with Apple's photo picker, which hands Catastif only that photo: it needs no access to your library. A photo or a scan is read on your device with Apple's text recognition, and only the ingredients you add are kept. Scanning uses the camera only while you scan.

Translating a recipe uses Apple's translation on your device; the first time, your device may download that language from Apple. Romanian and Czech are translated with a glossary built into the app.

Saying a list

Saying a list uses Apple's speech recognition on your device, in the language you pick or the one your list is written in. The microphone is on only while you're saying a list, and the audio isn't kept or sent anywhere. The first time, your device downloads the speech model for your language from Apple.

Apple Intelligence and suggestions

On devices that have Apple Intelligence, Apple's on-device model can help split a spoken list into items, and shorten a long ingredient name from a recipe. Suggestions of what you usually buy, what's running low and the days you usually shop come from your own lists, worked out on your device. Nothing is sent to a server for any of it.

Reminders

Reminders, including the ones before a birthday or an event and before your usual shopping trip, are notifications your device schedules for itself. They don't go through any server. What you type into one, or add with Add Usuals, goes straight onto your list, as if you'd added it in the app. Word that someone added to, completed or archived a list you share arrives with iCloud's sync and is shown by your device; you can turn it off in Settings.

Tips

Tips are in-app purchases processed by Apple; Catastif never sees your payment details. The app asks the App Store whether you've tipped, to show the Hero badge. That's all it learns, and it isn't sent anywhere.

This website

catastif.app is served by Cloudflare, which sees your visit as any website's host does. The site sets no cookies, loads nothing from other servers and runs no analytics. Its demos run in your browser and don't use the microphone or the camera.

The waiting list

If you join the waiting list on this site, it keeps your email address, which devices you picked (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch) and the day you joined, in Cloudflare's storage for the site. It's used for one email, when Catastif is out on the App Store, and the list is deleted after that. It isn't shared or sold, and it's never linked to the app or to your lists. To be taken off before then, write to support@catastif.app. Your IP address isn't stored: to stop scripts flooding the list, the site counts attempts per hour against a scrambled form of it, and the count is gone within the hour.

Children

Catastif isn't directed at children under 13. Apart from an email given to the waiting list, it collects nothing about anyone.

Changes and contact

If this changes, this page will say so, with a new date. Questions: support@catastif.app.