Blog

Sep 16, 2026

Who can read your app's data? Public, Personal, or Private

Once an app saves anything, there is a question worth asking before you share the link: who is allowed to read it back? A guestbook should show everyone's messages. A personal to-do list should show each person only their own. A waitlist should collect email addresses that nobody but you ever sees. Those are three different answers, and Breezify now lets you choose one per collection.

Public means anyone with your app's link can read every record in that collection. It is the right choice for things that are meant to be shared, like a guestbook, a shared reading list, or a poll with live results. Personal means a visitor reads only the records they created themselves, so two people using the same app each see their own list and never each other's. Private means visitors can submit records but can never read anything back, which is what you want for a waitlist, a contact form, or a survey.

You do not have to decide all of this up front. When Breezify generates an app, it picks a level for each collection based on what you described, and a waitlist or contact form comes out private by default. If a collection is ever left without a level on a new app, it defaults to Personal rather than Public, so a forgotten setting errs on the side of keeping data to whoever saved it.

To see or change any of it, open the app's Settings and choose the Data tab. Every collection is listed with a selector for its level, and any collection set to Public carries a plain warning that anyone with the link can download every record in it. The same tab has a View records button, so you can read what visitors have submitted, including the contents of a private collection, without leaving Breezify. You always see everything in your own app, whatever level you chose.

The levels are enforced on the server and in the database rules themselves, not just hidden in the interface. An app's own code cannot change its own access levels, and neither can a visitor. Only a generation and you, as the owner, can.

One thing to check if you built an app before this existed: those apps have no recorded levels and keep behaving exactly as they did, which means their collections are still public. If any of them hold emails or other personal details, open the Data tab and switch them to Personal or Private. It takes a few seconds and does not cost a credit.