Privacy policy
This policy covers the Focus Fortress iPhone app and this website, focusfortress.app. Focus Fortress is made by Shizzo Limited, Malahide, Dublin, Ireland ("we", "us"). We are the data controller. For anything about your data, email support@focusfortress.app.
The short version: we collect as little as we can, we never sell your data, there are no ads, and most of what you tell the app never leaves your phone.
The website and the waitlist
If you join the waitlist we collect your email address, the date you joined, and the fact that you joined from this website. That's all. We don't ask for your name. This site sets no cookies and runs no analytics or ad trackers. Our fonts are served from this site, so no font service sees your visit.
We use your email to confirm it's really yours, to tell you when Focus Fortress launches, and to send the occasional update before then. Your email waits on our server until you tap the confirmation link. If you don't confirm within seven days, we delete it and you won't hear from us. To stop anyone flooding the list, we keep a scrambled form of your network address for up to a day, then delete it.
The app: what stays on your phone
Most of what you tell the app is stored only on your phone: your first name, birthday (day and month, no year), your answers to the setup questions, your fortress, your champion, your coins and your focus history. Deleting the app deletes it.
The apps you choose to lock. Focus Fortress uses Apple's Screen Time tools. When you pick apps to lock or allow, iPhone gives us an anonymous token instead of the app's name. We cannot see which apps you choose, which apps you use, or for how long.
The app: what leaves your phone, and why
- Your account. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive an account ID and the email address you share (Apple lets you share a private relay address instead). We use it to keep your account and progress linked to you.
- Emails. We send a few emails about using the app, such as getting started and your free trial ending. Marketing emails are only sent if you tick the box to say yes, and that box starts unticked. Every email has a one-tap unsubscribe link.
- "Focusing right now". While you're in a focus period, the app tells our server that one more person is focusing, so the home screen can show how many people are focusing worldwide. This uses a random code that is new for every session, with no name, email, account or device ID attached. To stop one connection faking many sessions, the server keeps a scrambled form of your network address that can't be turned back into the address. Both are deleted within a day.
- Usage statistics. The app may send a small number of anonymous events, such as the reason you chose when you stopped a session early and how many minutes in it was. These are short codes and numbers only: never your name, email, birthday or anything you type. They aren't linked to your account.
- Subscriptions. Payments are handled by Apple. We never see your card details. We receive a record of your subscription (trial, active, cancelled) so the app knows what you've unlocked.
Who processes data for us
We use a small number of companies to run Focus Fortress. They process data only on our instructions.
- Apple: App Store, payments, Sign in with Apple and Screen Time.
- Google: Sign in with Google, if you choose it.
- Supabase: our server and database, hosted in Ireland.
- Loops: stores email contacts and sends our emails.
- RevenueCat and Superwall: keep track of subscriptions and show the subscription screen.
- PostHog: anonymous usage statistics, hosted in the EU.
- Our website host: keeps standard server logs, such as IP addresses, for a short time to keep the site running and secure.
Some of these companies are based in the United States. Where your data leaves the EU or UK, it's protected by the safeguards those companies provide, such as the EU's standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
We don't sell your data, share it for anyone else's advertising, or show ads.
Why we're allowed to use it
- To provide the app you asked for (your account, subscription and service emails): because it's needed for our contract with you.
- Waitlist and marketing emails: your consent, which you can take back at any time.
- Anonymous statistics, "focusing right now", security and abuse prevention: our legitimate interest in running and improving the app, kept to data that doesn't identify you.
How long we keep it
- Unconfirmed waitlist emails: seven days at most.
- Email contacts: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
- Your account: until you delete it, or ask us to by email.
- "Focusing right now" records: deleted within a day.
- Subscription records: as long as the law requires us to keep financial records.
If you joined the waitlist and later sign up in the app with the same email, your waitlist entry becomes part of your account.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct, delete or export the data we hold about you, or object to how we use it. Email support@focusfortress.app and we'll respond within 30 days. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to your data protection authority. In Ireland that's the Data Protection Commission.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll update the date at the top and tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect.
Contact
Shizzo Limited, Malahide, Dublin, Ireland. support@focusfortress.app