A migraine diary without an account

Why the account is the part worth skipping

A migraine diary without an account is one where the record lives on your phone, not in a company's user database. That distinction does most of the privacy work, because almost every way health data gets mishandled starts with the data being collected centrally in the first place:

• No credentials to breach. We hold no passwords, no login tokens, and no user table. A breach of our infrastructure cannot expose a diary that was never uploaded to it.
• No email marketing. We never ask for an email address, so there is no list to mail, sell, or lose. You will never get a “we miss you” message about your headaches.
• Nothing to hand over. If we were ever ordered to produce user data, there would be nothing to produce. Records that only exist on your phone cannot be subpoenaed from us.
• Data minimization by architecture. Not collecting the data is a stronger guarantee than promising to guard it. Promises change; the FTC's actions against Flo Health[1] and Premom[2] both involved health apps that collected data centrally and shared it despite privacy policies saying otherwise.

This page covers the practical side. For the fuller case that headache data deserves this level of care, read why a private migraine diary matters.

What “no account” means technically in Cephalo

Skipping the login screen is not a trick; it follows from where the work happens:

• A local database. Your episodes, medication log, and questionnaire scores are stored in a Core Data database on your iPhone, Apple's standard on-device storage. There is no copy anywhere else unless you create one.
• Analysis on the device. Patterns, trigger analysis, and the doctor-ready PDF report are computed by your iPhone. That is why the whole app works offline, airplane mode included: there is no server doing the work.
• Your Apple account for sync, not ours. If you want backup or a second device, optional iCloud sync stores the diary encrypted in your personal iCloud account. Apple hosts it under your login; we never operate or see that storage. It stays off until you turn it on.
• A label you can verify. You do not have to take our word for any of this. Cephalo's App Privacy section on the App Store lists no health data collection, only data not linked to you such as purchases and anonymous usage statistics.[3]

The honest trade-offs

An account-less design gives some conveniences up, and it is fair to name them before you commit your diary to it:

• No web access. There is no website login where you can view your diary from a work laptop or an Android phone. Your diary lives on your iPhone and, if you enable sync, on your other Apple devices.
• Restoring depends on iCloud. With no account of ours, there is no “log in on the new phone” recovery. Moving to a new iPhone works through iCloud sync, and it has to be enabled before the old phone is lost or wiped. If sync was off, a CSV or PDF export you made is the only copy that survives the phone.
• No community features. There are no shared forums, group challenges, or comparisons with other users, because there are no user identities to connect. Cephalo is a diary, not a social network.

If those trade-offs are dealbreakers for you, an account-based tracker is the honest recommendation. If a diary that answers only to you sounds like the point, this is that diary.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need an account to keep a migraine diary?

No. A migraine diary only needs somewhere to store your entries, and your phone already is somewhere. Cephalo stores your diary in a local database on your iPhone, so there is no sign-up, no email, and no login: you download the app and start logging.

How does my diary get to a new iPhone without an account?

Through optional iCloud sync. Your diary is stored encrypted in your personal Apple account and restored when you sign in to iCloud on the new iPhone. It is off by default and has to be enabled while you still have the old phone; without it, an export you made is the only copy that survives the phone.

Can a headache tracker work fully offline?

Yes, if the app stores and analyzes everything on the device. Cephalo works in airplane mode: logging, history, the MIDAS questionnaire, pattern analysis, and PDF reports are all computed by your iPhone, because there is no server doing the work.