Your journal stays yours.

Countersign keeps your journal, the signers in it and your fees and miles on your own devices. We don't collect them, see them or sell them, and there is no account to make. We can't hand over a journal we don't have.

What we collect: Nothing. The app has no analytics, no ads, no tracking and no third-party code, and it makes no network requests of its own.
Where your journal lives: On your iPhone, iPad or Mac, and in your own iCloud if you turn sync on. Never on our servers; we have none.
Who can see it: Only you, and anyone you choose to give an export, a backup or a copy of an entry to.
How to delete it: Delete the app, and turn off or clear its iCloud data. Filed entries can't be deleted one by one, because a notary journal is a permanent record.

Who we are

Countersign is made by IndieDeveloperJ LLC ("we", "us"), an independent app developer in Arizona, USA. This policy covers the Countersign apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac, their widgets, Live Activities, Siri and Shortcuts actions, and these web pages.

What the app keeps, and where

Everything you put in the app is stored on your device, inside the app's own storage:

Your commission: your name as commissioned, your state, the commission number and its expiry, and a picture of your commission certificate if you add one.
Journal entries: for each notarial act, the date, time and place, the act and the document, and each signer's name and address, how they were identified, their ID details, their signature and a thumbprint, as your state's rules call for. Filed entries are sealed into a numbered chain so any change would show.
Fees, trips and appointments: what you charged and were paid, the miles you drove to a signing, and the signings you have coming up.

In Arizona, California and Washington, where the law keeps the journal on paper, Countersign works beside your paper book and doesn't store ID numbers, signatures or thumbprints at all.

The widgets, Live Activities and Siri and Shortcuts actions read the same records through storage shared on your device. None of it is sent to us.

The signers in your journal

The people you notarize for are in your journal because your state's notary law asks you to record them. You decide what goes in, and you're responsible for keeping it as your state requires. Countersign helps: ID numbers are hidden unless you choose to show them, and a copy of an entry for a signer shows only their own part of it, never anyone else's.

Scanning an ID

When you scan a driver license or ID card, Countersign reads its barcode and printed text with Apple's on-device recognition. Nothing is uploaded to read an ID. A thumbprint is kept as a picture only; it is never read, matched or used to identify anyone.

Where a signing happened

If you allow location, Countersign uses it to fill in where an act took place and how far you drove. Places and drive times are looked up with Apple Maps, which receives the place being looked up under Apple's privacy policy, not who it's for. We never see your location.

iCloud

When iCloud sync is available and turned on, your journal is kept in your own private iCloud database so it appears on your other devices. It is stored by Apple under your Apple Account, and we cannot read it. ID numbers, signatures and thumbprints are kept in iCloud's encrypted fields.

Permissions the app may ask for

Camera: to scan an ID, a thumbprint or your commission certificate. Only the pictures you keep are saved.
Location: while you use the app, to fill in where a signing happened and the miles to it.
Face ID or Touch ID: to lock the journal, if you turn it on. Your face or fingerprint never reaches the app; your device only tells it yes or no.
Photos: none needed. When you pick a picture, Apple's photo picker hands the app only that photo.
Notifications: for reminders such as your commission's expiry, if you allow them. Reminders are scheduled on your device.

Exports, copies and backups

A journal export (PDF or spreadsheet), a copy of one entry and a backup are made on your device and go only where you save or send them. A backup is locked with a password you choose; without it, nobody can open it, us included, so keep it somewhere safe.

Purchases

Countersign's subscription is sold through Apple's App Store. Apple handles payment; we never see your name, card or Apple Account. The app checks your subscription with Apple on your device. Apple gives us sales reports that don't identify you.

Requests for your journal

Notary journals are sometimes asked for by a court, a state office or a signer. Because we never have your journal, any such request has to go to you, and we have nothing to give. Your state's notary law says what you must provide and to whom.

When you contact us

If you email us, we receive what you send, including your email address, and use it only to answer you. We keep that correspondence in our email inbox and delete it on request. Please don't send us journal entries, ID details or signatures; we never need them to help.

These web pages

These pages set no cookies, load no web fonts and use no analytics. They are served by Cloudflare, which processes basic request data such as IP addresses to deliver and protect the site, under Cloudflare's privacy policy.

Children

Countersign is made for commissioned notaries and is not directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect anyone's personal information, children's included.

Your rights

Because your journal stays on your devices, you already hold it: you can see and export all of it in the app. For anything we hold, which is only email you've sent us, write to us and we'll answer within 30 days, whatever your country or state.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update it here and change the date at the top. If a change affects what the app does with your data, we'll say so in the app's release notes first.

Contact

Questions about privacy: [email protected].