Privacy by the hearth

1. What this page covers

This note describes how EmberFocus handles information: focus sessions, the camp, categories, settings, optional notifications, optional Live Activity, and an optional tracking prompt. There is no account and no sign-in. Using the app means you accept this note. If you do not, delete the app.

2. What is stored on the device

• Session history — start and end times, focused seconds, planned duration, outcome, category, intention text, notes, grace saves, fade recovery, and flame tier while the fire ran.
• Custom categories — names and icon choices you add in Settings.
• Kindling — saved intentions, categories, and lengths you keep so you can start the same fire again.
• Settings — grace period, daily goal, campfire sound, haptics, keep-awake preference, notification toggles, and whether onboarding has finished.
• Camp — spark count and campfire boost timing for the Camp tab.
• Streaks — current and best streaks are calculated from your completed sessions on the phone; they are not sent anywhere.

Deleting the app removes this data from that phone. Apple may keep backups according to your iCloud or device backup settings; that is outside the app.

3. While a fire is burning

An in-progress session is saved locally so time can keep moving if you switch apps or the app restarts. That snapshot includes the same session fields above plus grace and fade deadlines. When the session ends, it is merged into your history on the device.

4. Notifications and Live Activity

Session alerts are off until you turn them on in Settings and iOS grants permission. If you allow them, EmberFocus schedules local notifications on the phone, for example when a timed fire is still running or when a fire went out while you were away. Turning those toggles off clears the pending alerts the app scheduled. Those local alerts do not include a tracking identifier.

On launch the app may also ask to send notifications. If you allow that, a push token can be used to deliver a message through the OneSignal software, omesignal.com, and Apple Push Notification service. That service may receive the push token, a user id, and an AppsFlyer identifier. It does not receive your sessions, intentions, or notes. You can decline and still use the hearth.

During an active session the app may start a Live Activity so you can see the timer on the Lock Screen or Dynamic Island. You can manage Live Activities in iOS Settings. Live Activity content is built on the device from your session; it is not a tracking beacon.

5. Features that stay on the phone

• Keep awake — optional setting to prevent the screen from dimming during a focus session. It does not run when no session is active.
• Campfire sound — optional loop from a file inside the app bundle. Nothing is streamed from the internet for sound.
• Haptics — optional vibration feedback for ignite, warning, recovery, and session end. Controlled by the Haptics toggle in Settings.
• Phone calls (CallKit) — the app observes whether a cellular or FaceTime call is active using Apple’s CXCallObserver, only on your device. While a call is in progress, grace and fade timers pause so a phone call does not unfairly end your fire. EmberFocus does not record audio, read phone numbers, upload call metadata, or add a calling feature.

The hearth itself does not ask for location, microphone, contacts, or background app refresh. A page opened in the in-app browser may ask before using the camera or photo library. You can decline that and keep using focus, camp, and your log.

6. What can leave the phone

This privacy page is loaded from the web when you open Privacy in Settings so it can be updated without waiting for an App Store release. The app may also request this same address on launch and send the bundle id, an AppsFlyer identifier, preferred language, time zone, a short description of the device, and either the advertising identifier or a blank id when tracking is off. Your session history, intentions, and notes are not part of that request. If the reply contains a web address, the app opens it in the same in-app browser and remembers that address on the phone.

Pages opened in that browser, including this policy, may set cookies. The app stores those cookies on the device and restores them the next time the browser opens. Closing the page uses a local link (http://localhost) that the in-app browser recognizes so the sheet dismisses. That navigation does not send your sessions to us.

Loading this page may leave ordinary technical logs on the web host, such as IP address, browser type, and the time of the request. Those logs are used to operate the website. Apple processes App Store downloads, updates, and device backups under Apple’s own privacy policy.

7. What you can do

• Leave session notifications off, or turn them off later in Settings.
• Decline the tracking prompt. The advertising identifier is not read. You can change this later in iOS Settings, under Privacy & Security, then Tracking.
• Decline notifications. A push token is not required to keep a fire. You can change this in iOS Settings for Ember Focus.
• Turn off campfire sound, haptics, or keep-awake if you prefer.
• Clear sample fires in Settings while keeping sessions you created.
• Load sample fires only if you want a preview of Home and Record.
• Delete the app to remove local session and camp data from that iPhone, including a remembered page address and in-app browser cookies.

Questions about this note can be sent to the address below.

8. Tracking, ads, and purchases

On launch the app may ask for permission to track across apps and websites owned by other companies. You can decline and still use EmberFocus. The prompt is Apple’s App Tracking Transparency request.

If you allow tracking, the app may read Apple’s advertising identifier (IDFA). If you decline, that identifier is not read. A separate vendor identifier and an AppsFlyer identifier can still be created on the device.

AppsFlyer measures installs and which visit led you to the hearth. It may receive the AppsFlyer identifier, the bundle id, device model, system version, app version, the vendor identifier, your tracking choice, and the advertising identifier only when tracking is allowed. Those events go to AppsFlyer. Your sessions are not included.

EmberFocus does not show third-party ads inside the focus, camp, or record screens, and it does not sell your log. There are no in-app purchases in the current version.

9. Sample fires

Example sessions may appear on first launch or when you choose Load sample fires in Settings. They are ordinary local records marked as demo data. Clear sample data removes only those preview fires; sessions you start yourself remain unless you delete the app.

10. Children

EmberFocus is a general productivity tool. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

11. Changes to this note

If the app’s handling of information changes, this page will be updated and the date at the top will change. The copy opened from Settings is loaded fresh without relying on an old cached page.