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Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 31, 2026

Screen Star is built by Nam Bui, a solo developer, operating as a sole proprietor based in New York. There is no team, no parent company, and no investors with access to your data. This policy explains, in plain English, what Screen Star collects, what it doesn't, and what you can do about it.

Short version: your Screen Time data never leaves your iPhone. The only things sent to a server are anonymous product analytics, crash reports, and your subscription status — none of which include which apps you use or how long you use them.

1. The Screen Star iPhone app

Screen Star is an iOS app that uses Apple's Screen Time framework to help you understand and reduce how much time you spend in apps you want to spend less time in. It runs on your device. There is no account. There is no login. You don't give us your name or email to use the app.

What the app stores on your device

• The list of apps and categories you chose to monitor (stored only as Apple-issued opaque tokens — see Section 2)
• Your daily time budget and any settings you change
• Your selected mascot tone (Gentle, Sassy, Stern, or Cheerleader)
• Local progress data: daily usage history, streaks, mascot mood state
• Your subscription status, cached locally for up to 24 hours

This data lives in an on-device database (SwiftData) inside Screen Star's sandbox and in an App Group container shared with Screen Star's own widgets and extensions. Deleting the app deletes this data. We cannot access it.

2. Screen Time data (what Apple does, what we don't)

To work, Screen Star asks for permission through Apple's Family Controls system prompt. You grant this permission for your own device — the same individual-use authorization Apple uses for its own Screen Time controls, not the parent-child variant.

What this permission lets the app do:

• Show you Apple's app picker so you can choose which apps and categories to monitor
• Be notified by the system when you cross a usage threshold you set
• Display Apple's block screen (the "shield") on apps you chose to block, with our custom message and tone
• Render aggregated usage charts inside a sandboxed Apple extension

What this permission does not let the app do, and what we do not do:

• We do not see the names or bundle IDs of the apps you selected. Apple gives us only opaque encrypted tokens. There is no way for us to translate those tokens back into "Instagram" or "TikTok."
• We do not see what you do inside those apps, who you message, what you watch, or where you go.
• We do not see your browsing history or website data.
• We do not transmit your Screen Time usage minutes, app selections, or shield events to any server, ours or anyone else's. This data stays on your device.
• We do not sell, rent, license, or share your Screen Time data with anyone, including advertisers, data brokers, or Apple itself beyond Apple's own on-device frameworks.

Per Apple's developer agreement and App Store guideline 5.1.5, apps using Family Controls and DeviceActivity may use this data only to provide the service you asked for. That rule binds us, and we follow it.

3. Subscriptions and payments

Screen Star offers an auto-renewable subscription. Payment is handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never see your card, bank details, Apple ID, name, or billing address.

To know whether your subscription is active, we use RevenueCat, a third-party subscription infrastructure service. When you subscribe, restore a purchase, or open the app, RevenueCat receives:

• A randomly generated, anonymous user ID (it cannot be used to identify you)
• The product you purchased and whether the subscription is active
• Standard receipt validation data from Apple
• Basic device metadata: model, OS version, app version, country, locale

RevenueCat does not receive your Screen Time data, your settings, your usage history, or any personally identifying information. RevenueCat's own privacy policy: revenuecat.com/privacy.

Refunds and cancellations are handled by Apple. Manage or cancel your subscription at any time in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on your iPhone.

4. Analytics and crash reporting

To understand which features are useful and to fix bugs, Screen Star uses two third-party services. Both receive anonymous, aggregate data only. Neither receives your Screen Time data.

PostHog (product analytics and feature flags)

What's sent:

• Anonymous device-scoped ID
• Named app events (e.g., "completed onboarding," "set daily budget," "viewed paywall") — the names are fixed strings chosen by us and contain no usage data
• Feature-flag exposures (which A/B variants you saw)
• Basic context: app version, OS version, device model, country, locale, timezone

What is not sent: which apps you monitor, how long you used them, when you opened them, your budget number, your mood, your streak, your shield-block events.

PostHog's privacy policy: posthog.com/privacy.

Sentry (crash and performance monitoring)

If Screen Star crashes or runs noticeably slowly, Sentry receives a crash report containing:

• A stack trace identifying where the bug occurred
• The app version, OS version, device model, and locale
• An anonymous device-scoped ID
• Limited breadcrumb metadata (e.g., "user navigated to Progress tab") with no content

Sentry's privacy policy: sentry.io/privacy.

Apple-platform diagnostics

If you've opted into "Share With App Developers" in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements, Apple may also send us aggregate crash and energy reports through its own pipeline. This is governed by Apple's privacy policy, not ours.

5. Notifications

Screen Star sends notifications (e.g., "you're 5 minutes into your last hour" or your mascot reacting to a milestone). These are scheduled and delivered locally on your device via Apple's UserNotifications framework. We do not run a push-notification server. We do not collect your push token. We do not send marketing pushes.

6. The waitlist on this website

If you joined the waitlist at getscreenstar.com before the app launched, we collected:

• Your email address
• The date you signed up
• If you arrived from an ad, the campaign source (so we know what's working)
• Optionally, the age range and screen-time number you entered into the homepage quiz, used only in aggregate to size demand

This data is stored in our database hosted on Cloudflare. It is used once, to email you when the app ships. We do not run a newsletter. We do not sell or share the list.

The website itself uses:

• Cloudflare — hosting and database; may set a security cookie and process IP addresses for routing and abuse prevention
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Pixel — measures whether our ads work, governed by Meta's privacy policy

The Meta Pixel is only on the website. The iOS app does not include the Meta SDK.

7. Your rights and how to use them

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under the EU GDPR, the UK GDPR, the California CCPA/CPRA, or similar laws. Specifically, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, export, or restrict processing of your personal data, and to object to certain uses.

How to actually exercise these rights with Screen Star:

• For Screen Time, settings, and on-device data: delete the app. Everything goes with it. We cannot delete it because we don't have a copy.
• For your subscription record at RevenueCat: email us and we will request deletion of your anonymous user record. (Apple will still retain the purchase record on its side.)
• For analytics events at PostHog: email us with your anonymous device ID (we'll tell you how to find it in the app's About screen) and we'll request deletion.
• For the waitlist: email us and we'll delete your email and associated row.

We do not sell personal information and do not engage in "sharing" as defined under the CCPA/CPRA. If you are a California resident, you may still submit any of the requests above.

8. Children

Screen Star is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. The app uses Family Controls in its individual-use mode — a user managing their own device. It is not designed as a parental-control product. The App Store rating reflects this.

9. Changes to this policy

If we materially change what data is collected or how it's used, we'll update this page, change the "Last updated" date at the top, and surface a notice inside the app the next time you open it. If you keep using Screen Star after a change, you accept the updated policy.