Methodical Enterprises LLC
Last updated: October 12, 2026
The short version: GiftList keeps your lists, the people you buy for, your notes, gifts and budgets on your phone. There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking, and we run no servers, so nothing reaches us. GiftList goes online to read a product page you add, to show a wish's picture from its store, and when you tap Check prices, and then it talks to that store directly. On iPhone, a list you choose to share is sealed on your phone first and travels through your own iCloud or as a file you send yourself. The person a gift is for never sees who is buying what. The Android version doesn't currently share lists.
This policy applies to the GiftList wish list app for iPhone and for Android, published by Methodical Enterprises LLC ("we," "us"). Both versions work the same way except where this page says otherwise.
Your wish lists, the people you buy for and your notes about them (sizes, birthdays, gift ideas), occasions, budgets, gifts and their status, receipt photos, thank-yous and price history are stored on your phone. GiftList has no user accounts and never asks for your email address or phone number. This information leaves your phone only through features of your phone you control (such as your own device backup), when you send or print something yourself, and through the features below, each of which you choose to use.
When you add a wish by its link, share a product page to GiftList, import a store's wish list page, or tap Check prices, your phone downloads that page directly from the store and reads it on your phone. Only the page's address is requested, with no cookies. Nothing about you, your lists or the person the gift is for is sent. The store sees the request, including your IP address, as with any web visit. Prices are checked only when you tap Check prices, never in the background. The rules for reading store prices are built into the app; GiftList doesn't download them from anywhere.
A few store pages (such as Target's) and store wish list pages show their contents only after the page runs its own scripts. For those, GiftList opens the page in a hidden browser view that keeps no cookies or website data afterwards. As in any browser, the page's own scripts run, so the services that store's website uses may see the visit too.
The Privacy receipt in Settings lists each store GiftList has contacted and why. It records only the store's address, never the page you looked at.
When a wish has a picture from its store, GiftList loads it from that store's image server to show it, and the store sees that request like any web visit. Photos you take or choose yourself for a wish stay on your phone, unless you share that list as described below.
Find Online opens your own web browser on a store's search page (or, on iPhone, Apple Maps for a local shop). That's you visiting the store, not GiftList, and the store's and browser's own privacy policies apply. On-device AI may tidy the search first, on your phone.
Sharing is optional, and only lists you choose are shared. Before anything leaves your phone, GiftList seals the list (its name, wishes, notes, links, pictures, prices and members) with a key that only the people you invite receive. When someone marks a gift as bought, suggests a gift or chips in toward one, that is sealed with a separate key that the person the gift is for never receives, so they can't see it. The people you share with see the name you choose for sharing.
We never receive any of this, and we can't read it. Apple's handling of iCloud data is governed by Apple's own privacy policy.
The first time you share or join a list on iPhone, GiftList makes a sharing key on your phone. It's kept in your iCloud Keychain, so a new iPhone signed in to your Apple Account gets it back. We never receive it.
A Secret Santa is shared through iCloud like a list. The organizer's phone draws names once and seals each person's match so only that person can open it; the app never shows or keeps anyone else's match, not even for the organizer. If your phone sees you've drawn the same person as last year, it asks for a redraw without saying who.
The Android version of GiftList doesn't currently offer sharing, Secret Santa or list files. Your lists stay on your phone.
On iPhone, GiftList asks to use the camera to scan a list, a barcode or a receipt, and to take photos of wishes. You can revoke access at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera. On Android, GiftList doesn't ask for camera permission: scanning opens Google Play services' own scanner, which hands GiftList only the result. On both phones, photos you choose come through the system photo picker, which gives GiftList only the photos you pick and needs no permission. Receipt photos are kept only on your phone.
If you turn them on, birthday and return-deadline reminders are scheduled on your phone. There is no reminder server. Return reminders never name the gift, so a glance at your lock screen can't spoil a surprise.
A printable list, with a QR code for each wish's link, is made on your phone and goes wherever you print or send it.
GiftList contains no analytics, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. There's no sign-in. We don't build a profile of you, don't earn money from the stores you visit, and don't track you across apps or websites.
GiftList doesn't collect personal information from anyone, including children. It never asks for an email address, phone number or age; the only name it asks for is the one others see if you share a list on iPhone.
Everything lives on your phone, and deleting GiftList removes it. Settings → Delete my data removes your lists, people, notes, gifts, receipt photos, price history and privacy receipt all at once. On iPhone it also stops sharing your lists, removing their sealed copies from your iCloud, leaves lists others shared with you, and forgets the name others see; your sharing key stays in your iCloud Keychain. Stopping sharing a list you made removes it from your iCloud; list files you already sent stay wherever you sent them. We hold nothing to delete, because we never had it.
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page and post the new version here.
Questions? Email dwheat@methodical-ep.com.