Last updated: August 26, 2026
The short version
InwardFocus has no account, no login, and no server of our own holding your data. Everything the app needs to work — your schedules, the apps you chose to block, your pickup counts, your affirmation themes — is written to your iPhone and stays there. Deleting the app deletes all of it.
We do use Firebase Analytics to understand how people move through the app, so some usage events are sent to Google. The section below lists every one of them, including the parts most privacy policies leave vague.
What stays on your device
The following is stored inside the app's private container and its App Group on your iPhone. It is not uploaded to us, and we have no way to read it:
- Your focus schedules — the name you give each one, its start and end times, days, chosen affirmation theme and intention prompt.
- Your blocked-app selections.Apple's Screen Time framework hands the app opaque tokens, not app names. Even on your own device, InwardFocus cannot read which apps you picked — it can only ask the system to block them. Nothing about your selection is ever transmitted.
- Your pickup counts — how many times you opened a blocked app, used to show the number on the block screen.
- Your block-screen customisation — any title, subtitle or button text you have written.
- Your affirmation theme choice and where you are in its rotation. The affirmation text you see is bundled in the app; which line you were shown is never recorded off-device.
- Your onboarding answers and the Screen Time summary the app read during setup.
- Your unlock history — when you asked for a temporary break and the reason you tapped.
What is sent to Firebase Analytics
We use Firebase Analytics, a Google service, to see which parts of the app people use and where they get stuck. This is the complete list of what leaves your device:
- Onboarding — which onboarding screens you viewed, the focus-time preference you chose, how many apps you selected to block, and whether you finished.
- Schedule activity — when you create, rename, edit, enable, disable or delete a schedule, along with its duration and chosen theme. This includes the name you typed for the schedule. Please avoid putting anything private into a schedule name — use "Mornings" rather than anything you would not want recorded.
- Counts of what you block — how many apps and how many categories a schedule blocks. Never which apps — we cannot see those, as explained above.
- Unlock behaviour — when you request a temporary break, which reason you tapped, and whether you disabled or deleted a schedule while it was actively blocking.
- Standard Firebase data — a pseudonymous app-instance identifier, your device model, iOS version, app version and coarse country. This identifier is not linked to your name or email, because we never collect either.
- If and when we introduce subscriptions — whether a paywall was shown or dismissed, and which product was purchased. No payment details ever reach us; Apple handles those.
Firebase data is governed by Firebase's Privacy Policy. We do not use it for advertising, we do not enable Google's advertising signals, and we never share it with data brokers. Apple's Family Controls terms also prohibit us from using Screen Time data for advertising or ad measurement, and we comply with that.
What we never collect
- Your name, email address or phone number (the app has no sign-up)
- The identities of the apps you block
- The affirmation text shown to you
- Precise location, contacts, photos, microphone or camera
- Browsing history or the content of anything on your phone
- Payment or card details
We have never sold, rented or traded any user data, and we will not.
How long it is kept, and how to delete it
- On-device data — kept until you remove it. Deleting a schedule removes that schedule. Deleting the InwardFocus app removes everything the app stored, immediately and permanently. We hold no copy, so there is nothing for us to delete on your behalf. Note that if you use iCloud device backups, Apple's backup may contain app data; that is under your control in iOS Settings.
- Firebase Analytics events — retained for 14 months, then deleted automatically by Google. You can ask us to delete your app-instance data sooner by emailing support@inwardfocus.app. Reinstalling the app generates a new app-instance identifier with no link to the old one.
- Website early-access sign-ups — your email and the coarse metadata below are kept until you ask us to remove them, or until we no longer need them.
Apple Screen Time and Family Controls
InwardFocus uses Apple's Screen Time / Family Controls framework to enforce blocks. Two consequences worth understanding:
- Blocking is carried out by iOS itself, on your device. Your app selections are represented as opaque tokens that neither we nor any third party can resolve back into app names.
- Apple governs this framework under its own terms. See Apple's Privacy Policy.
Our website
If you sign up for early access on inwardfocus.app, we collect your email address plus limited technical context: referral domain (hostname only), coarse country code such as TH or US, and device category (mobile, tablet, desktop or bot). We do not store precise location, and we avoid storing raw IP addresses. This is used to contact you about the app and to understand which channels bring people here.
Children's privacy
InwardFocus is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Your rights
Depending on where you live you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, and to object to certain processing. Because almost everything lives on your device, deleting the app is the fastest and most complete way to exercise that.
For anything we do hold — Firebase analytics events or a website sign-up — email support@inwardfocus.app and we will respond within 30 days.
You can also limit analytics at the system level in iOS Settings under Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date above. If a change materially expands what we collect, we will say so in the app's release notes rather than quietly amending this page.