Privacy Policy
Loch helps you put a wall in front of the apps you keep opening by reflex. It has no account, no server, and no analytics. This page explains exactly what happens to information while you use it. There is a separate policy for Loch on Android, because the two versions ask your phone for different things.
The short version. The list of apps you block never leaves your device, and it is never visible to us. The only data that goes anywhere is what Google's ad service needs to show an ad, and a tip is handled entirely by Apple.
What stays on your device
The apps you block
You choose those apps in Apple's own picker. iOS hands Loch opaque tokens rather than names or bundle identifiers — even inside the app, the choices cannot be read as a list of apps. Those tokens, your schedule, your unlock history, and your settings are stored on the device in Loch's app group container, shared only with Loch's own Screen Time extensions. None of it is transmitted, backed up to us, or readable by anyone else.
Notifications
Loch schedules local notifications, such as the warning a minute before an unlock ends. They are created and delivered by iOS on your device. There is no push server.
Advertising
Loch is free, and ads inside the unlock wait pay for it. Ads are served by Google AdMob, together with Google's User Messaging Platform for consent.
- Google may process your device's advertising identifier, IP address, approximate location derived from it, and interactions with ads, in order to deliver and measure them. This is described in Google's business data policy.
- Where the law requires consent — the EEA, the UK, Switzerland and similar regions — a consent form appears before any ad is requested. You can reopen it any time from Ad privacy choices in the tip sheet.
- Separately, iOS asks whether Loch may track you across other companies' apps and websites. If you decline, ads still appear but are not personalised. You can change this in Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.
- Loch itself never sends Google, or anyone, information about which apps you block or unlock.
If you leave a tip, ads are switched off permanently and Loch stops requesting them at all.
Tips
Tips are Apple in-app purchases. Apple processes the payment; Loch never sees your name, card, or address. All Loch records is that a tip exists, so that ads stay off — kept on your device and, through your Apple Account, restorable on your other devices. Apple's handling of the transaction is covered by the Apple Privacy Policy.
What we collect
Nothing. Loch has no user accounts, no sign-in, no crash reporting, no analytics SDK, and no backend of its own. We cannot identify you, and we receive no usage data. Aggregate, anonymous figures about ad performance and downloads are visible to us in Google's and Apple's dashboards, and neither identifies individual people.
Children
Loch is rated 4+ and is designed for people setting limits for themselves. It is not directed at children under 13, we do not knowingly collect information from them, and ad content is restricted to Google's General rating.
Your choices
- Turn off personalised ads: decline the tracking prompt, or change it in Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.
- Change your consent answer: tap Ad privacy choices in the tip sheet, where that form applies.
- Remove ads entirely: leave any tip.
- Delete everything: delete Loch. Its container, including every app selection and all history, is removed with it. Nothing of yours remains anywhere else, because nothing was sent anywhere else.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and a material change will be noted in the App Store release notes.
Contact
Questions about privacy in Loch: justanotherflyingmount@gmail.com.