Privacy
Last updated 5 September 2026
The short version
Knock has no servers of its own. Everything it stores is either on your phone or in Apple's iCloud, and everything personal is encrypted on your device before it leaves it, except a report you choose to send.
There is no third-party analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising, no tracking, and no third-party code of any kind in the app.
What is stored, and where
When you pair with someone, Knock creates a shared record in Apple's CloudKit. It holds your display name, your emoji or photo, your current status, whether you are open to a call for the next half hour, your time zone and your quiet hours, the days on which you knocked, the hours of the day at which you tend to knock (counts only, never times or dates), the emoji or drawing you have left behind their face while it lasts, any words you have sent them, for the minutes they last, and (only if you choose to add it) the email address or phone number your FaceTime uses.
Every one of those is encrypted on your device before it is uploaded, using a key generated when you pair and shared only with that one person. The key is stored in your device's Keychain. We do not have it, Apple does not have it, and nobody who obtained the stored data could read any of it.
If you turn on the country option, the name of the country you are in travels the same sealed way, readable only by your people. Turning it off removes it.
A few things are not encrypted, and none of them say anything about you: an anonymous identifier Apple assigns your account within this app, an opaque random pairing id, and the time a record was last written. The identifier carries no name, email or contact details, and it exists so that blocking someone can keep working after you unpair.
Once a day, while you are using it, Knock writes which version of the app you have, the date it was last opened and your phone's language and region to a row keyed on a hash of your iCloud account, so we can see which versions are in use. Nothing else is in that row, and nothing in it names you.
What we can see
Nothing that identifies you, and nothing you have written. We can see that two anonymous accounts exchanged some encrypted bytes. We cannot see who you are, who you knocked, what you look like, or what your status says.
The one exception is reporting, and only when you choose it. A report carries the two anonymous account identifiers, your name and theirs as they are shown in your app, the reason you chose, anything you type, which version of Knock you are using, the time you sent it, and, only if you tick the box, the last three notes they sent you. It is read by a person, so that it can be acted on.
That is the complete list. Nothing else is attached to a report, and nothing else you or your person has written, drawn or shared is ever readable by us.
What Knock does not do
It does not collect analytics beyond the one daily row described above. It does not track you across apps or websites. It contains no advertising and no third-party SDKs. It makes no network requests other than to Apple's own services. It does not ask for your contacts, your microphone, or your photo library beyond the single image you deliberately choose. Location is used only if you turn on the optional country display: one coarse reading, turned into a country name on your phone, shared sealed with your people, and never stored as a location anywhere.
Camera
The camera is used for one thing: scanning a pairing code. Nothing is recorded, nothing is stored, and no image leaves your device. You can decline camera access and still pair by typing a code or opening a link.
Notifications
Knock only notifies you about someone you are already paired with, or someone asking to pair: that they are thinking of you, that they want to talk, or that they want to be your person. No reminders, no announcements, no marketing, and nothing designed to pull you back into the app.
Deleting your data
Unpairing deletes the shared record and its encryption key outright, on both sides. Deleting the app removes everything held on your device. There is no account to close, because there is no account.
Children
Knock is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly hold data from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date above changes with it, and the app's App Store privacy details are updated in the same release.