Why it matters
A dose log is a profile. Treat it like one.
Most people would not email a stranger a list of everything they self-administer, with timestamps, amounts, and notes on how they felt. Yet that is what a tracking app does the moment it syncs to a server. This page is about why we built Solum to keep that list on your phone, and what to look for in any app that asks to hold it.
What a log actually reveals
On its own, a single entry is unremarkable. A year of entries is something else. Frequencies, timings, changes, gaps, the notes you add when something feels off: together they describe your routines, your priorities, and your body in a way few other datasets do. That picture is valuable to advertisers, insurers, employers, and anyone with a legal instrument and a reason. It should be yours alone.
Where health-adjacent data usually goes
In the United States, medical privacy law covers clinicians and insurers, not most consumer apps. A tracking app is generally free to store your entries in its own cloud, run third-party analytics against them, share them with partners, and keep them after you delete your account. Regulators have brought cases against health and wellness apps for exactly this, and breaches of app databases are routine enough that they rarely make the news.
None of that requires bad intent. A cloud-first app collects data because that is what cloud-first apps do. The analytics SDK is there because the team wanted to see which features were used. The data broker relationship came with the advertising platform. Each step is reasonable on its own. The result is a copy of your log that you do not control.
Data that does not exist cannot leak
A policy says what a company intends to do with your data. Policies change, companies get acquired, and a subpoena does not care what the policy says. Architecture is different. If the app never sends your log anywhere, there is no server copy to breach, sell, or produce. Solum's answer to "what do you do with my data" is that we do not have it, and we designed the app so that we cannot have it.
That claim is checkable. Every network request the app can make is listed on the home page, with what it contains. Your log is not in any of them.
No account means no identity to link
An email address is a join key. It connects a dose log to a name, a purchase history, and every other service that has the same address. Solum has no sign-up. The only identifier the app holds is a random ID generated on your phone, and it is not linked to anything about you. The App Store or Google Play knows you bought a subscription; it does not know what you logged.
The trade-off, honestly
Keeping data on the device means you carry the responsibility for it. There is no automatic backup and no sync between phones. If you lose the device without having exported or transferred your data, it is gone. We think that is the right trade for a record this personal, and we made export a first-class feature so the cost is small. But it is a real cost, and you should know it going in. Privacy by design covers the mechanics.
What to check in any tracking app
Whether or not you use Solum, these questions separate apps that respect the data from apps that harvest it.
- Does it require an account? If yes, your entries are tied to an identity by design.
- Where is the data stored? "Securely in the cloud" means on their servers. Ask whether it works in airplane mode.
- What third-party code is inside? Analytics, crash reporting and ad SDKs all report home. The app's privacy label on the store is a start; the network list is better.
- Can you export everything? In a format you can read without the app.
- What happens on delete? Deleting an app should delete the data. If there is a server copy, find out how long it lives.