Privacy Policy

Effective date: {{EFFECTIVE_DATE}}

This policy explains what data the {{APP_NAME}} app for iPhone (“{{APP_NAME}}”, “the app”) handles. The app is provided by {{OPERATOR}} (“we”, “us”). If you have questions, write to {{CONTACT_EMAIL}}.

In short

Screen Time data never leaves your iPhone. Which apps you limit, when a shield appears and how long you use apps stay on your device. Apple gives the app only anonymous tokens, not the names of your apps.
Step counts are read on your iPhone and are never sent anywhere.
We receive anonymous product analytics about our own screens (never Screen Time, app names or health data) and subscription status through RevenueCat.
If you connect an account — a chess.com username or a partner service — that service receives only what its task needs.
There are no user accounts, advertising or tracking. We do not sell your data or share it with data brokers.
Deleting the app deletes everything it has stored on your device.

Screen Time (Apple Family Controls)

{{APP_NAME}} uses Apple’s Screen Time API to put a shield over the apps you choose to limit and to open them again for a short time after a pause or a task.

Your device only. You authorize the app for your own iPhone with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. It cannot restrict or observe anyone else’s device. You can revoke access at any time in Settings → Screen Time or by deleting the app; iOS then removes all restrictions.
Anonymous tokens. You choose apps in Apple’s system picker. The app receives opaque tokens and can show the apps’ names and icons only through Apple’s own views; it cannot read them or see which other apps are installed.
What is kept on the device: the apps and categories you selected (as tokens), whether the shield is on, access windows (which app is open until when), the last shield you tapped, usage goals for time-based tasks, and the counters shown in the app — impulses redirected today, your spectrum of the day, your streak and past days. This data is kept in the app’s private storage and in a container shared only between the app and its own Screen Time extensions.
Time-based tasks. For a task such as “10 minutes in your reading app”, you pick that app in Apple’s picker, and iOS tells the app only when the goal is reached.
Never shared. We do not send Screen Time data — selected apps, tokens, app names, shield events, usage times or counters derived from them — to our servers, to analytics or subscription providers, to partners or to anyone else, and we do not use it for advertising, advertising measurement or profiling.

Steps and motion

The walk task counts steps you take after the shield appears. It is optional.

Motion & Fitness. With your permission, the app reads the step count from your iPhone’s motion sensors (Core Motion).
Apple Health (optional). If you turn it on, the app may read your step count from Apple Health, for example to include steps from an Apple Watch. It only reads steps, never writes to Apple Health, and ignores steps entered by hand.
Step data is used only to check the task and stays on your device. It is never used for advertising, marketing or analytics, and the app does not store it in iCloud.

Notifications

Notifications are optional. The app schedules them on your device: to bring you to the app from a shield on iOS versions before 26.5, to tell you that a task is complete, and, if you choose, a daily reminder with your spectrum of the day. They may be marked Time Sensitive so that Focus does not delay them. We do not use a push service and do not collect a push token. You can turn notifications off in Settings → Notifications.

Connected accounts and partner tasks (optional)

Everything in this section is optional; the app works without connected accounts or a partner code.

chess.com. If you enter your chess.com username, the app stores it on your device and asks chess.com’s public API directly from your iPhone whether you finished a game after the task started. chess.com receives your username, which is public, and your IP address, and processes them under its privacy policy. We do not receive your username, and we never ask for your chess.com password.
Time in a partner’s app (for example, a Go or language app) is measured by Screen Time on your device, as described above. The partner receives nothing from us.
Tasks from a partner. The app may download task sets (for example, Go problems) from a partner; such a download contains nothing about you beyond your IP address. If you link your account with a partner, you sign in on the partner’s own page and the app keeps the access token in your iPhone’s Keychain. The app then sends the partner only what its tasks need: which of its tasks you solved, how many attempts it took and when — so your progress counts in your account there. Before the first such transfer the app asks for your permission. It never sends which apps you limit, when a shield appeared or your screen time. You can unlink the account in the app’s settings; this deletes the token from your device. Each partner processes data under its own privacy policy, which the app links to before you connect.
Partner code. If you enter a partner’s code, the app stores it on your device, uses it to show that partner first, and adds the partner’s identifier to our analytics and to your subscription record. This lets us count people and subscriptions that came through a partner and share revenue with it. Partners receive only aggregated numbers, never data about you personally. A partner code does not unlock paid features.

Product analytics (PostHog)

To understand which screens help and where people get stuck, the app sends anonymous usage events to PostHog, our analytics provider.

What is sent: events of the app’s own screens and buttons — for example, which onboarding step you viewed, your answers to the in-app questionnaire (such as the range of hours per day or the mode you chose; the apps you named are sent only as a number), that a task was started, switched or completed, that the paywall was shown or a purchase was made, and the partner code if you entered one. The analytics library also adds app lifecycle events (installed, opened, sent to the background) and technical details such as app version, device model, iOS version, language and time zone.
Identifier: a random anonymous ID created on your device. It is not your name, email or Apple ID. Resetting the app in its settings creates a new one.
Never sent: Screen Time data (app names, tokens, when a shield appeared, usage times), counters derived from it (impulses, spectrum, streak), step counts and your chess.com username.
PostHog receives your IP address with each request, as any internet service does. We configure analytics not to store it and do not use it to identify you. PostHog Inc. processes the data in the United States under its privacy policy.
You can turn product analytics off in the app’s settings.

Subscriptions (RevenueCat)

Purchases are processed by Apple; we never see your payment details or Apple ID. To check whether your subscription is active and to restore purchases, the app uses RevenueCat. RevenueCat receives an anonymous customer ID created by the app, your purchase and subscription information from the App Store (product, price, dates, trial, transaction identifiers), technical details such as app version and device type, your IP address, and the partner identifier if you entered a partner code. RevenueCat, Inc. processes this data under its privacy policy. You can manage or cancel a subscription in iOS Settings → your name → Subscriptions.

Configuration and app updates

Configuration. The app may download settings that we can change without an App Store update — for example, the list of partners with their names, logos, colors and tasks, and limits of the free version. The app downloads them as a file; the request contains no identifiers and nothing about you beyond what any internet request carries, such as your IP address.
Code updates. The app may check for and download updates to its own code through Expo’s update service (EAS Update). Such a request contains only technical information needed to deliver the right update — platform, app version, update channel, the identifier of the installed update and a random installation identifier created by the update library — and your IP address. Expo processes these requests under its privacy policy.
When you download the app, Apple may collect information under its own privacy policy, for example download statistics and, if you agreed to share them, crash reports. We see these only as aggregated statistics in App Store Connect.

What we do not do

No user accounts: the app does not ask for your name, email or phone number.
No advertising, no tracking across other companies’ apps and websites, and no data brokers.
We do not sell your personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Besides the services named above, we disclose information only if the law requires it.

Storage, retention and deletion

Data on your device stays there until you reset the app in its settings or delete the app. Like other app data, it may be included in your iPhone backup if backups are turned on; backups are handled by Apple under your account settings.
Analytics events are kept only as long as we need them to improve the app. Subscription records are kept as long as needed to provide the subscription and to meet legal obligations, such as accounting.
To ask us to delete analytics or subscription records linked to your installation, write to {{CONTACT_EMAIL}}. Because these records are anonymous, we may ask for details that help us find them, such as the date of a purchase.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example, in the European Union, the United Kingdom or California), you may have the right to access, correct or delete your personal information, to object to or restrict its use, and to complain to a data protection authority. To use these rights, write to {{CONTACT_EMAIL}}. We will not treat you differently for doing so.

Children

{{APP_NAME}} is a self-control app for adults and is not directed to children under 13. It is not a parental-control or monitoring app and is not meant for schools or employers: it only works on the device of the person who installed it and cannot be used to restrict or observe someone else’s device. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy and its effective date before releasing a version of the app that handles data differently — for example, exercise tasks with the camera or an Android version. If a change is significant, we will also tell you in the app.