Version 1.3.0
Effective Date: October 30, 2026
zDossier can now encrypt the files you export with a passphrase you choose. You can also pick which contacts to import with Apple’s contact picker.
This policy covers zDossier for iPhone and iPad.
The Short Version
We don’t collect your data. zDossier keeps your notebook on your device. It has no account, no sign-in, no servers of ours, no analytics, no ads, no tracking, and no third-party code. Nothing you put in the app is sent to us unless you choose to send it, as described under TestFlight and Apple.
zDossier can add a small link to the contacts you import, inside your own Contacts, and keep the details it copied from them up to date. You can turn each of these off. See Contacts and Links in Your Contacts.
Who We Are
zDossier is published by Bristlecone IT Services, LLC, a Tennessee limited liability company (“we”, “us”), as part of zSuite. We operate from Townsend, Tennessee, in the United States. Our mailing address is at the end of this policy. While our App Store account moves to the company, the App Store may still list Corey J. Mahler, the company’s owner, as the seller. This policy applies either way.
What zDossier Stores and Where
zDossier is a private notebook of the people in your life. It stores what you enter: people, fields and answers, notes, tags, categories, and the name you give your device (it is added to files you export so you can tell your devices apart).
All of this is kept in one notebook file in the app’s private storage on your device. The file is saved with iOS and iPadOS “Complete” file protection, which keeps it unreadable while the device is locked. This depends on your device having a passcode, and we can’t promise that any device or file is perfectly secure.
We don’t collect, receive, or have access to your notebook. zDossier has no features that send your notebook to a server.
Contacts
Importing from Contacts is optional. iOS and iPadOS ask for your permission when you tap Import From Contacts, and you can turn the permission off at any time in the Settings app. You can also use Choose Contacts to Import, which opens Apple’s contact picker and works without Contacts access. zDossier then copies only the contacts you pick, and only the details listed below that each one provides.
When you import, zDossier copies each person’s whole contact card into your notebook on this device. That includes every part of their name, their organization, department, and job title, all their phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, website addresses, social profiles, and instant-message addresses, the names and labels of related people, their birthday and other dates, and the contact’s photo. It does not read the notes in your contacts, and it does not copy the zDossier link described below.
zDossier also keeps a local Contacts identifier for each person it copied. It uses the identifier to find the contact again, so that importing again updates that person instead of adding a duplicate or a second link, and so that the copied details can be kept up to date. The identifier is removed from files you export with “Export Selected Entries”. It is still part of the file made by “Export Entire Notebook” and “Export Backup”, which are full copies of your notebook.
zDossier keeps the details it copied from Contacts up to date. When you open the app or return to it, and while it is open, it asks the system which contacts have changed since it last checked, and refreshes the copied details of the people it imported from Contacts. It keeps a local record of when it last checked. This happens only on your device; zDossier does not do this in the background and does not use the network for it. It is controlled by Keep Contact Details Updated in the app’s Settings, which is on by default. When it is off, the copied details stay as they are until you refresh them yourself. Contacts you pick with Choose Contacts to Import while zDossier doesn’t have full access to Contacts are not updated automatically. Picking a contact again updates its copy.
Details copied from Contacts can’t be edited in zDossier. To change them, use Edit in Contacts, which opens Apple’s own contact editor. While it is open, Apple’s editor shows the full contact, and zDossier doesn’t keep, copy, or send anything from it. Changes you make there are your own edits to that contact in Contacts. zDossier never writes your notes, answers, or other zDossier details into Contacts.
If a contact is deleted from Contacts, the person stays in your notebook with the last copy of their details, marked “No longer in Contacts”. If zDossier loses access to Contacts, or can no longer see that contact because you shared only some contacts with it, the person keeps the last copy too, marked “Contacts access needed”. Either way, you can turn that copy into your own zDossier details, or delete the person. Details you keep this way, including the contact’s photo if the person had none, become part of your own notebook, and zDossier no longer updates them from Contacts.
You can also import a vCard file you choose. zDossier copies the names, organization, job title, phone, email, and any note in that file.
Copies already in your notebook stay there until you delete them, even if you later turn off Contacts access.
Links in Your Contacts
When you import a person with Import From Contacts, or with Choose Contacts to Import while zDossier has full access to Contacts, zDossier adds a URL field labeled “zDossier” to that person’s contact in the Contacts app. This link is the only thing zDossier writes to Contacts.
The link looks like zdossier://person/<UUID>. The part after person/ is a random identifier that zDossier makes for that person in your notebook. The link holds only that identifier, not your notes or any other notebook content. Tapping the link in Contacts opens that person in zDossier. None of this is sent to us.
The link is controlled by Link Contacts to zDossier in the app’s Settings, which is on by default. When it is off, zDossier does not add links to the contacts you import. When you turn it off, zDossier asks whether to also remove the links it has already added. If you choose to keep them, they stay in your Contacts until you remove them.
Contacts may sync through your own iCloud account or another account you use. If they do, the link and its identifier can travel with the contact to your other devices and services. We don’t control that, and we don’t receive it.
You can remove a link yourself at any time: edit the contact in the Contacts app and delete the zDossier link. zDossier itself can remove links only while it still has access to Contacts.
Exports and Sharing
You can export selected people, your entire notebook, or a backup as a .dossier.json file, or as an encrypted .dossier.enc file if you choose, and you can import such files. Exporting uses the share sheet, so you choose where the file goes. We don’t receive it.
Encryption is optional and off by default: unless you turn on Encrypt With a Passphrase when you export, exported files are not encrypted. When it is on, zDossier asks for a passphrase you choose and encrypts the file with it. The encrypted file opens in zDossier with that passphrase. zDossier never saves or logs your passphrase, and it is never sent to us. We can’t recover a forgotten passphrase, and without it, you won’t be able to open the file. Encryption is only as strong as the passphrase you choose, and we can’t promise that any file is perfectly secure.
Exported files, encrypted or not, include everything you’ve noted about the people in them, including private notes. Files made with “Export Entire Notebook” and “Export Backup” also include the details and photos in each person’s From Contacts section; “Export Selected Entries” leaves those out. Details you’ve kept as your own zDossier details are exported like the rest of your notebook. Once you share a file, it is under your control and the control of whoever or whatever you send it to, and anyone who has the passphrase to an encrypted file can open it. The practices of the app or service you choose apply to that copy, not this policy. Send files only to places you trust, even when they are encrypted, and don’t send a passphrase together with its file.
zDossier makes a temporary copy of a file to share it and removes that copy when the share sheet closes. To import, you pick a file and zDossier reads it on your device, asking first for the passphrase if the file is encrypted.
Device Backups
If iCloud Backup, or a backup to a computer, is turned on for your device, the zDossier notebook is included in that backup, like other app data. Those backups are handled by Apple, or by your computer, under your settings and your account. We don’t have access to them. Erasing the notebook in zDossier does not remove copies that are already in a backup.
If the Notebook Can’t Be Opened
If zDossier can’t read the notebook file, it stops before saving over it and keeps a copy set aside in the app’s private storage on your device. The app offers to share that set-aside file with you through the share sheet. That file is not encrypted, and the same rules as for any export apply to a file you share.
TestFlight and Apple
Apple runs TestFlight and the App Store under its own terms and privacy policy. If you test zDossier through TestFlight and send feedback or a crash report, Apple collects it and shares it with us, including any comments and screenshots you include and the device and app details Apple attaches. Screenshots show whatever is on your screen, so check them before you send. If you were invited to test by name, Apple may also share your name and email address with us.
If you have chosen in the Settings app to share analytics with app developers, Apple may also share crash reports and usage statistics with us, as described in Apple’s privacy policy.
We use information Apple shares with us only to fix and improve zDossier.
Deleting Your Data
- To remove one person, delete them in the app. If zDossier still has access to Contacts, this also removes that person’s link there.
- To remove everything, use Erase Local Notebook in the app’s Settings tab. It deletes the notebook data, any temporary export files, and any set-aside recovery files on this device. It also tries to remove the links zDossier added to your contacts, but it can’t if zDossier no longer has access to Contacts. You can delete any link that remains yourself in Contacts. This can’t be undone.
- To remove the link from a contact, edit the contact in the Contacts app and delete the zDossier link.
- Deleting the app also removes the app’s stored data from your device. It does not remove links already added in Contacts.
None of these remove files you already exported or sent elsewhere, or copies held in device backups. Those you delete where they are kept. The same goes for copies of a link that have synced from Contacts to other devices or services.
Apart from any feedback or crash reports Apple shares with us, we hold no data about you. To ask us to delete feedback you sent, write to us at the address below.
Children
zDossier is for a general audience and is not aimed at children. The app doesn’t collect data from anyone, including children.
Where We Operate
We are based in Tennessee, in the United States. Because zDossier doesn’t send your data to us, we don’t transfer it between countries.
Changes to This Policy
Each version of this policy has a version number and an Effective Date at the top. If we change it, we will publish the new version at the same address with a new version number and Effective Date. If we ever add a web or companion feature, it would come with an updated policy.
Contact
By mail only:
Bristlecone IT Services, LLCPO Box 296
Townsend, TN 37882