How Your Data Is Stored

Your device is the source of truth. Every change you make in Kinu, whether you add a person, record a moment, or adjust a compass setting, is saved to your device the instant you make it. No loading spinners, no waiting on a server, no "connection required" message standing between you and your own notes.

This is what local-first means, and it is a deliberate choice. Kinu is built so that the people you care about are always one tap away, online or off.

Everything lives on your device

Your local database holds all of your Kinu data:

• People you have added
• Moments you have recorded, including any voice notes
• Important dates like birthdays and anniversaries
• Private notes, for your eyes only
• Relational Compass settings: closeness, intention, and per-person mode
• Lenses, the categories like Family, Friends, or Work that you use to organize people

On your phone this lives in a local database using SQLite. In the browser it lives in your browser's own storage using IndexedDB. Either way, it is not locked away on a remote server. It is right there on the device you are using, and the app reads and writes it directly.

Your account

Kinu asks you to sign in with Apple, Google, or an email and password. Your account is what makes backup and restore, encrypted sync, and restoring a past purchase possible. It is also what keeps one person's data from ever appearing in another person's app on a shared device.

Signing in does not change the local-first promise. Once you are signed in, Kinu keeps working fully offline, and your data still lives on your device first.

What happens when you sync

If you have Kinu Plus, your data is also encrypted and backed up to our server. This is what lets you use Kinu across more than one device, so your phone, tablet, and browser all stay in step.

Here is the important part. Before anything leaves your device, it is encrypted on the device itself. The server receives and stores only encrypted blobs, protected in transit and at rest, and we do not access your relationship content as part of running Kinu.

To be precise about this, your encryption key is currently derived from your account, which means our server could in principle re-derive it. So we do not claim end-to-end encryption or zero-knowledge today. We are working toward user-held keys as a future improvement, and we will say so clearly when it ships. For the full breakdown, see Encryption Explained.

What the server stores

When sync is on, the server holds a short, fixed list:

1. Your account information: your email and authentication details, so you can sign in and recover access
2. Your subscription status: so Kinu knows which features to unlock
3. Encrypted sync data: your Kinu data, encrypted on your device before it is uploaded

That is the whole list. No readable profiles, no relationship graphs, no analysis of who is in your life or what you wrote about them. The only things the server ever keeps in readable form are your email address and your plan, because we need both to run your account.

What free users get

On the free plan, your data lives only on your device. There is no server copy and no sync. You still have an account so you can subscribe later and restore a purchase, but none of your people, moments, or notes are uploaded.

This keeps things simple and private. It also means that if you uninstall the app or sign out, your local data is removed, because there is no server backup to restore from. If you want to keep a copy, you can export your data first.

If you would like the safety of a server backup and access across devices, Kinu Plus adds encrypted sync while keeping your content private.

Quick reference

Learn more

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