Privacy Policy
We don't collect your data.
Effective 20 September 2026. This policy covers the Slowcation app for iPhone and this website.
The short version. Slowcation has no accounts, no servers and no analytics of its own. Everything the app knows about you, including your location, your zones and the apps you choose, stays on your iPhone. We never receive it, so we can't use it, share it or lose it. On the App Store, Slowcation's privacy label is "Data Not Collected".
Who we are
Slowcation is made and published by David Stead, an independent developer ("we", "us"). For data protection law, David Stead is the data controller for the small amount of personal data described under If you contact us. That is the only personal data we ever hold. For anything about privacy, email support@slowcation.app.
What the app uses, how, and where it stays
Slowcation needs a few things from your iPhone to do its job. It asks for each one through a standard iOS permission prompt, uses it only for the purpose shown below, and keeps it on your device. None of it is sent to us or to anyone acting for us.
| What | Why | Where it stays |
|---|---|---|
| Location, including "Always" access | To know when you enter or leave a zone, including while the app is closed, and to show you on the map. | On your iPhone. iOS itself watches your zones and tells Slowcation only that a boundary was crossed. We never receive your location. |
| Screen Time access and the apps you choose | Only to block and unblock the apps you put in a zone. Never for advertising, analytics or profiling. | On your iPhone. Apple's Screen Time system gives Slowcation anonymous tokens in place of apps. The app can't read which apps they are, and can't see your activity or usage. |
| Zones and settings: places, sizes, rules, schedules, app groups, cooldown and username | So your setup is remembered. | In the app's storage on your iPhone. |
| Buddy keys: your Buddy ID, your buddies' IDs and recently used codes | To check that an unlock code really came from one of your buddies, and only once. | On your iPhone. Your private key is kept in the iOS keychain, marked for this device only, so it isn't included in iCloud Keychain or moved to another device. |
| Camera | Only to scan a buddy's QR code, when you tap Scan. | Frames are read on the device to find the code. Nothing is recorded or saved. |
| Clipboard | Only when you tap Paste, to read a message a buddy sent you, or when you tap Copy, to put a message there for you to send. | On your iPhone. Slowcation keeps only the Buddy ID, request or code it finds in what you pasted, and never reads the clipboard in the background. |
What leaves your iPhone, and when
Three things can, and none of them comes to us unless you chose to share it.
- Messages you choose to send a buddy. When you share your Buddy ID, ask for time or give a code, Slowcation prepares a message and hands it to the iOS share sheet. It contains your public Buddy ID, your username if you set one, and the number of minutes. It goes wherever you send it, through the messaging app you pick, under that app's own privacy terms. Slowcation never sends anything by itself.
- Apple Maps requests. The map, place search and the small map pictures in your zones list are provided by Apple Maps. To show them, your iPhone asks Apple for map data for the area on screen and for the places you search. Apple handles those requests under Apple's Privacy Policy. We don't receive them.
- Diagnostics you share with Apple. Slowcation contains no crash-reporting or analytics code. If you have turned on Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements → Share With App Developers, Apple may give us anonymous crash reports and totals such as how many people installed the app. They never identify you, and you can turn that setting off at any time.
Sharing with third parties
We don't sell, rent, trade or share your data with anyone, because the app never gives us any. There is no third-party code, library or SDK inside the app, no advertising, no advertising identifiers and no tracking across apps or websites.
If Slowcation ever works with a third party that handles user data, we will name them here first and require them to protect your data to the same standard as this policy and Apple's App Store guidelines.
How your data is protected
The strongest protection is that your data isn't on our systems at all. On your iPhone it sits inside the app's protected storage, covered by your device passcode and iOS encryption, and your Buddy ID key is held in the iOS keychain. Unlock codes are digitally signed, work once, only for the person they were made for, and expire after 30 minutes.
Keeping and deleting your data
Because everything is on your device, you decide how long it is kept.
- Delete a zone, group or buddy in the app and it is gone. Removing a buddy needs one of their codes, by design, so that a weak moment can't undo your own rules.
- Deleting Slowcation from your iPhone removes its zones, settings and blocks. iOS may keep the app's keychain entry, which holds your Buddy ID key, on the device after the app is deleted. It is never transmitted anywhere.
- If your iPhone is backed up, the app's storage may be included in your own iCloud or computer backup, under your control and Apple's terms.
Withdrawing your consent
Every permission is yours to take back, at any time, in the iPhone's Settings app:
- Location: Privacy & Security → Location Services → Slowcation
- Screen Time: Screen Time → Apps With Screen Time Access
- Camera: Privacy & Security → Camera
Without location or Screen Time access, zones can't work. The camera is optional: you can paste a buddy's message instead of scanning.
If you contact us
When you email us we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to reply and to fix problems, which is our legitimate interest in supporting the app and, where you ask us to do something, acting on your request. We keep it for as long as it takes to resolve your question and a reasonable time afterwards in case you follow up, and we delete it sooner if you ask.
Our email and website hosting providers process these messages for us and may do so outside your country, including in the United States, under their standard data protection terms. Please don't send us anything sensitive. We will never ask for an unlock code, a Buddy ID key or a password.
This website
This site uses no cookies, no analytics and no advertising. It is hosted by Cloudflare, which, like any web host, processes technical request data such as your IP address to deliver pages and protect against abuse, under Cloudflare's Privacy Policy. Links to other sites, and the messaging apps you use with your buddies, are covered by their own policies, not this one.
Children
Slowcation is a general-audience self-control tool, not a parental control. It is not directed at children under 13, or under the age of digital consent where you live, and, as with everyone else, it collects no personal information from them.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, laws such as the GDPR and the CCPA give you the right to ask for a copy of your personal data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to how it is used, to receive it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent. We don't sell personal data and we make no automated decisions about you.
We hold no personal data from the app, so there is nothing for us to provide or erase there: it is already in your hands. If you have emailed us, write to support@slowcation.app and we will send you that correspondence or delete it, within one month. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
Changes to this policy
If Slowcation ever changes in a way that affects your privacy, for example by adding an optional online feature, we will update this page and its effective date before the change ships, and explain the change in the app's release notes.
Contact
Email support@slowcation.app. We aim to reply within a few working days.