Deleting your data
Return to You — "Return" for short — is built by one person and has no account system. Almost everything Return holds lives only on your phone, so you can delete nearly all of it yourself, in seconds, without asking anyone. This page shows how — and how to reach me for the little that ever touches a server.
On your phone — the reset
Open Settings → Privacy and data in the app and choose the reset. It removes:
- Your name and written intentions.
- Your conversation with Return.
- Your local check-in timing.
Two things the reset deliberately leaves alone, because losing them by surprise would be its own harm:
- Your journal. It has its own delete — Settings → Privacy and data → Delete the journal — which removes every page at once, with a few seconds to undo. The reset spares it on purpose; the journal is yours and separate, and Return's AI has never been able to read it.
- Your API key or invite code. It stays on the device so a reset doesn't lock you out of your own app. Remove it on the key screen whenever you want.
Uninstalling the app removes all of it — journal, key and everything above. None of this data ever left your phone by itself, so removing it there removes it completely.
One exception, and it is yours to control: a backup file. If you saved a backup, or turned on automatic backups, that file lives in the folder you chose rather than inside the app — so uninstalling does not touch it, and if that folder syncs to a cloud service a copy is there too. Deleting it is your own step, wherever you put it.
On Return's servers — what to email me about
Return stores nothing about you by default. Three optional features can leave a trace on a server — two of them anonymous, and the third holding only what you chose to attach. Here is each one and how to have it removed:
Diagnostic reports
If you ever chose to send a diagnostic report, a short technical record — the app version, a recent error log, the state of Return's background service, and a counts-only summary of how you have been using Return, never any conversation content — is kept for at most 90 days and then deleted on its own. If the report was about a crash, a copy is also emailed to me. If its wording suggested distress, only a notice is emailed — the report itself stays in the 90-day record. To have either deleted sooner, email me.
Feedback and flagged lines
If you flagged a line and sent a note about it, the note and that line go to the same server and are kept the same 90 days. If you ticked the box to attach a few lines of the conversation, those went too — including your own words. You saw all of it on screen before it left, and nothing is attached unless you add it. A report whose wording suggests distress is also emailed to me so it is not missed. To have any of it deleted sooner, email me.
Invite-code access
If you used a Return invite code, the server kept only a one-way hash of the code and a count of tokens used — never your messages, which are never written down. To have your code revoked and its hash removed, email me.
Message content itself is never stored on a Return server. When you use the AI, your words go to Anthropic to generate a reply and are handled under Anthropic's privacy terms; Return keeps no copy.
To request deletion
Write to support@returntoyou.app with the subject Data deletion request. Because there is no account to look you up by, tell me which applies:
- the invite code you would like revoked, and / or
- that you sent a diagnostic report you would like removed (the date helps me find it).
I confirm and complete the deletion within 30 days, and usually much sooner. What is kept afterward: nothing tied to you — only anonymous, aggregate token counts that carry nothing about who you are.
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