Privacy Policy

Effective September 13, 2026 · applies to Meds Ahead for iPhone

Information stored on your device

Meds Ahead stores the medication details, schedules, dose logs, supply changes, scan evidence, and settings you choose to enter in a local database on your iPhone. Meds Ahead does not operate a server and does not transmit this information to the developer.

Your medication records are included in your own encrypted device and iCloud backups, so a history you built by hand survives replacing or restoring an iPhone. The database is protected by iOS file protection and readable only after you unlock the device. A backup goes to Apple under your Apple Account and its terms, never to Meds Ahead.

The Home and Lock Screen widgets read the same database on your iPhone, shared with them through an app group container; nothing leaves the device.

Camera, photos, and label scanning

If you grant access, Meds Ahead uses the camera to recognize visible medication-label text and supported barcodes. You may also choose an image from your photo library. Recognition happens on your device using Apple frameworks. Images selected or captured for scanning are not retained by Meds Ahead after recognition.

Recognized information is always presented for your review before it is saved. A recognized QR-code web address is never opened automatically.

Exact identification

Meds Ahead ships with a copy of the U.S. FDA National Drug Code Directory, a public-domain list of marketed drug products. When a label prints an NDC, or a package barcode carries one, the app looks it up in that bundled copy on your iPhone to fill in the product's name, brand, strength, and form for your review. No code, barcode, photo, or label text is sent anywhere.

Apple Health

On iOS 26 and later you can choose to import medications you already track in Apple Health. Health shows its own picker; only the medications you tick are shared, and you can change or withdraw that choice at any time in the Health app. Meds Ahead reads only those medications and the doses you log for them in Health: the last 30 days when you import one, and, for a medication that is also in Meds Ahead, new doses each time the app opens, so its supply count stays right. It never writes to Health, and it stores what it reads the same way it stores anything you type: on your iPhone. Health data is never used for advertising, analytics, or marketing, and is never shared with anyone.

Notifications

If you grant permission, dose and refill reminders are scheduled and delivered locally by iOS. Detailed notification text that names a medication is optional and off by default, helping keep lock-screen notifications discreet.

Optional tips

Optional tips are processed by Apple through StoreKit. Meds Ahead does not receive or store payment-card information, and a tip does not transmit medication information.

Information collection and sharing

Meds Ahead does not include advertising SDKs, third-party analytics, cross-app tracking, or social sign-in. It does not collect diagnostics or medication data for the developer. Because the developer does not receive your app data, there is no personal app data to sell or share.

Retention and deletion

Your information remains on your iPhone until you change or delete it. You can delete individual dose logs or delete a medication and its associated local history in the app. Deleting Meds Ahead removes its local app data according to iOS behavior. Device backups remain subject to your Apple backup settings and retention.

Children

Meds Ahead is a general-audience organization tool and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If Meds Ahead's data practices change, this page and its effective date will be updated before the change is released.

Contact

For privacy questions, email nick@christoforakis.com. Please do not include prescription-label photos or medication details unless you intentionally choose to disclose them.