A Truly Private Symptom Tracker — No Account, No Cloud, No Servers
Trace keeps 100% of your health data on your iPhone. There is no sign-up, no email, no account, no Trace server and no third-party cloud database. Your symptom history is anonymous by architecture: it never leaves your device, so it cannot be read, shared, sold — or breached.
What “private” means in Trace, concretely
- No account required. Open the app and start logging. No email, no phone number, no sign-in — ever.
- Local-only storage. Your symptom and lifestyle logs live in your iPhone's storage, protected by your device passcode or Face ID and iOS encryption.
- No servers. Trace has no backend that stores health data. There is nothing to hack, subpoena or sell.
- No health-data analytics. We never see what you log. Your symptoms are yours alone.
- Your export, your choice. PDF doctor reports and Apple Health sync happen only when you explicitly tap them.
- You control backup. The only optional backup is to your own personal Apple iCloud account — off by default, controlled by you, and never visible to us.
Why privacy matters for symptom data
A symptom diary is among the most sensitive data you can create. It can reveal a chronic illness, a mental-health condition, a reproductive-health situation or a disability — things you may not have shared with your employer, your insurer or even your family.
Most health apps upload this data to their servers. Even with good intentions, server-side health data can be breached, acquired in a company sale, requested by third parties, or quietly used for analytics. The only architecture that fully removes those risks is the one where the data never leaves your phone. That is how Trace is built.
Private doesn't mean limited
Trace keeps everything on-device and still does the full job of a modern symptom tracker:
- Log any of 80+ symptoms in one tap, with severity levels (mild, moderate, severe).
- See how each symptom evolves over days, weeks, months and the last year with interactive charts.
- Track daily lifestyle factors — food, sleep, stress, exercise, medications — and discover what triggers or relieves your symptoms.
- Generate doctor-ready PDF reports for appointments.
- Sync symptoms with Apple Health (two-way, opt-in).
- Track a family member with multiple profiles.
- Use it in 9 languages.
How Trace compares on privacy
| Trace | Typical cloud-based tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| Account required | No — none at all | Yes, email sign-up |
| Where your health data lives | Only on your iPhone | On the company's servers |
| Who can read it | Only you | You + the company (policies vary) |
| Risk if the company is breached or sold | None — there is nothing to take | Your health history may be exposed or transferred |
| Works without internet | Yes, fully | Often degraded or blocked |
| Deleting the app deletes the data | Yes (unless you chose an iCloud backup you control) | Usually requires a separate deletion request |
“Typical cloud-based tracker” describes the common account-plus-cloud architecture used by most symptom tracking apps; check any specific app's privacy policy for its details.
Frequently asked questions
Is Trace really anonymous?
Yes, by architecture. Trace never asks who you are — no account, no email, no sign-in — and your health entries never leave your device. There is no server-side record of you or your symptoms to be identified from.
Does Trace require an account or email to use?
No. You download it, open it, and start logging. There is no sign-up screen anywhere in the app.
Can I use Trace completely offline?
Yes. Because all data is stored locally, every feature — logging, charts, insights, PDF reports — works without an internet connection.
What happens to my data if I delete the app?
It is deleted with the app. There is no copy on any server. If you enabled the optional backup to your own Apple iCloud account, that copy remains under your control in iCloud until you remove it.
If nothing is uploaded, how do I share my history with my doctor?
You generate a PDF report inside the app — a clear summary of frequency, severity and patterns — and hand it over or send it yourself. Sharing is always an explicit action you take, never something that happens in the background.
Track your symptoms privately — Download Trace and start logging in one tap — no account, no cloud, no compromise.