Privacy Policy
The short version.
- We never see which apps you block or what you do on your phone. Screen Time keeps that on your device.
- The people at your table can see whether you kept your phone locked. That is the point of the app.
- No ads, no selling your data, no tracking you across other apps.
- Your photos are visible only to the people who locked in that session.
- Delete your account and its data any time, in the app: Settings, then Delete account.
1. Who we are
SociaLock is operated by AppShark LLC, a Texas limited liability company ("we", "us"). This policy covers the SociaLock iOS app, its iMessage extension, widgets and Live Activities, and the website socialock.app. We are responsible for the personal information described here.
2. What we collect
| What | Details | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account | An account ID created automatically when you first open the app. Your username, display name and emoji. If you sign in with Apple: your name, and the email Apple provides, which may be a private relay address. Your language, time zone and the date you joined. | To run your account, show you to friends, and send notifications at sensible times. |
| Sessions | Sessions you host or join: activity, title, time, duration, entry setting, seat limit, who is invited and who joined, optional notes such as a dedication or stakes, and a repeating schedule if you set one. Solo locks are stored the same way. | To run sessions and show them to the people in them. |
| Place | If you add a place to a session: its name and map coordinates, as chosen in the place search. Your own device location is used only on your phone, to sort search results by distance, and is never sent to us. | To tell guests where to go. |
| Lock status | When your phone locked and unlocked, how many minutes you stayed locked, whether a lock was broken and how (for example ended early, Screen Time permission removed, or the app deleted), and how many times you tried to open a blocked app during a session. Never which apps. | This is the product: the table sees who kept their phone down. |
| Photos | Photos you take with the in-session camera, with a smaller preview copy, and who took them. | To share the moment with the people in that session. |
| Social | Friends, friend requests, crews, votes to end a session early, and your notification history in the app. | To connect you with people and keep you informed. |
| Stats | Hours locked, streaks and badges, calculated from your sessions. | To show your progress and the friends leaderboard. |
| Onboarding answers | Optional answers when you set up the app, such as how many hours a day you spend on your phone and with people, your goals, and how you heard about SociaLock. | To personalise the app and understand what brings people to it. |
| Subscription | Whether you have SociaLock Plus and until when, the plan, trial and renewal status, and Apple's transaction identifier. Offers you have been shown or used. No payment card details: Apple handles payment. | To give you what you paid for and apply offers fairly. |
| Notifications | Your device's push notification token, Live Activity tokens, and your phone's language. | To send you session updates and alerts. |
| App usage | Events such as screens reached, sessions created, locks started, paywall views and the reason you give if you tell us you're leaving, with the app version. Tied to your account ID. Kept for 90 days. | To understand what works and fix what doesn't. |
| Messages to us | Anything you send when you email us, and a card waitlist request if you make one. | To answer you. |
What we do not collect
- Which apps you use or block, or your screen time. Apple's Screen Time frameworks give the app only opaque tokens for the apps you choose, and your screen-time report is built on your phone and cannot leave it.
- Your contacts, messages or browsing.
- Advertising identifiers. We do not use the IDFA and do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
- Payment card details.
3. Who can see what
- People in a session with you see your name and emoji, whether you joined, and your lock status in that session: locked, unlocked, when, whether you tried to open a blocked app, and if your phone stopped responding. You can turn off alerts about reaching for your phone in Settings.
- People who locked in a session see the photos taken in it.
- Friends see your name, emoji, your locked hours on the leaderboard (unless you make your score private in Settings), and whether you're currently in a session.
- Anyone searching can find you by username and see your emoji.
- Anyone with an invite link or code can see that session's title, activity, time, duration, entry setting and the host's name and emoji, even without the app. Not the place and not the guest list.
- People nearby using the huddle feature: while a host is looking for phones over Bluetooth, nearby devices running SociaLock can see that session's title and the host's name.
4. How we use it
We use the information above to provide and improve SociaLock, keep it secure, send you notifications you've allowed, process subscriptions and offers, answer you when you contact us, and comply with the law. We do not sell or rent personal information, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not use it to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on you.
5. Service providers
We use a small number of companies to run SociaLock. They process data on our behalf and only for these purposes:
- Supabase: our database, sign-in, photo storage and server functions. It holds the data described above.
- Superwall: shows subscription offers in the app and measures them. It receives your account ID, purchase events, and device and app information needed for that. See Superwall's privacy policy.
- Apple: sign in with Apple, payments and subscriptions, push notifications, Live Activities, map search, and Screen Time, each under Apple's privacy policy.
- Cloudflare: hosts this website and handles our email.
- Google Fonts: this website loads its typefaces from Google, which receives your IP address when you visit.
We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect someone's safety, to enforce our Terms, or to a successor if AppShark or SociaLock is sold or merged, in which case this policy continues to apply to your information.
6. How long we keep it
- App usage events: 90 days.
- In-app notification history: 60 days.
- Everything else, including sessions, stats and photos: for as long as your account exists, so your history and streaks stay intact. You can delete your own photos at any time, and your whole account whenever you choose.
- When you sign out, the app starts a fresh guest account on your phone. Your previous account and its data are not deleted by signing out; sign back in with Apple to return to it, or delete it from Settings.
7. Deleting your account and your other rights
You can delete your account in the app: Settings, then Delete account. It happens straight away and removes your account and the data tied to it from our servers: your profile, friends, stats, notifications, the photos you took, and any sessions you host, which are cancelled for everyone invited, together with the photos taken in them. If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke SociaLock's access to your Apple ID. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription; Apple bills it, so cancel it in your iPhone's Settings first.
If you can't use the app, email privacy@socialock.app with your username and we will delete it for you within 30 days, once we've confirmed it's you. Copies in our backups are overwritten on the backup cycle of our database provider.
Depending on where you live, including the EU, UK, California and Texas, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, receive a copy in a portable format, or object to or restrict certain uses. Email privacy@socialock.app and we will respond within the time the law requires, usually 30 to 45 days. We will not treat you differently for exercising these rights. If you're in the EU or UK, you can also complain to your data protection authority.
You can also, at any time in the app: make your score private, turn off reach alerts, change your name and emoji, delete photos you took, leave sessions, remove friends, and turn off notifications in your iPhone's Settings.
8. Children
SociaLock is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email privacy@socialock.app and we will delete it.
9. Where your data is processed and how it's protected
AppShark is based in the United States, and our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where the law requires, we rely on appropriate safeguards for international transfers. Data is encrypted in transit, access to our database is restricted by per-user rules, and photos are stored privately and shown only through short-lived links. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
10. Changes
We will update this policy when what we collect or how we use it changes, and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.
11. Contact
Privacy questions and requests: privacy@socialock.app. Anything else: Contact.
AppShark LLC, Texas, United States.