What we collect, and what we deliberately don't.

The short version

• Your journal entries, focus history, streaks, and app-blocking settings are stored only on your device. We never see them, and there is no account or server where they'd live even if we wanted to.
• When AI insights are available, the model reading your entries runs entirely on your device — Apple's on-device Foundation Models framework, or, on devices that don't support that, an open-weight model downloaded once and then also run on-device. Nothing you write is ever sent to Apple, to us, or to any AI company.
• We use Superwall to run subscriptions and process purchases. Superwall receives standard purchase- and device-related data (like your device model, app version, and subscription status) to do that job. It never receives your journal entries or your app-blocking selections.
• We advertise Resurface through Apple Search Ads (Apple's own attribution system, no separate SDK) and Meta (Facebook/Instagram). On iOS, this means an App Tracking Transparency prompt asking permission to use your device's advertising identifier for ad measurement — see "Advertising & attribution" below for exactly what that does and doesn't cover. We plan to add TikTok in a future update — this policy will be updated first.
• You can permanently erase everything Resurface has stored, on your device, at any time, from Settings → Delete Account & Data.

Data, by category

Below is every category of data Resurface touches, where it lives, and why.

Your journal entries ("why" you unlock)on-device only

Every time you write a reason to unlock an app, that text is saved locally on your device. It is never transmitted anywhere by Resurface — not to a server we run (we don't run one), not to Apple, not to any AI provider. If you have AI insights turned on (a Pro feature), the on-device model reads this text to generate observations, and that reading happens entirely on your device's own processor. We have no technical ability to see what you've written, and we've built the app so that remains true even if we wanted it not to be.

Focus sessions, blocking settings, streaks, and mood/situation tagson-device only

The apps you've chosen to shield, your focus-session history, streaks, and the mood or situation tags you attach to an entry are all stored locally on your device using standard app storage. None of it is sent to us.

App blocking is built on Apple's Screen Time (Family Controls) framework, which Apple designed so that the app itself is never told which specific apps you selected — only the operating system knows, and it's the one enforcing the block. We only ever learn how many apps are covered by a block, never which ones.

Subscriptions and purchasesshared with a processor

Payment itself is handled entirely by the Apple App Store — we never see your card number or billing details; Apple does. To run the subscription paywall and verify purchases, we use a third-party service called Superwall. Superwall receives data needed to do that job:

Superwall does not receive your journal entries, your app-blocking selections, or any other content you write in Resurface. Superwall does not use this data for advertising, and does not track you across other apps. See superwall.com for their own privacy practices.

Advertising & attributionshared with ad partners

We advertise Resurface on Apple Search Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram). These partners help us reach people who'd actually want this app, and tell us whether that spending is working at all.

Apple Search Ads uses Apple's own attribution system, built into iOS — it does not use a separate SDK inside Resurface, and it does not use your device's advertising identifier (IDFA) to track you across other apps.

Meta's SDK is present inside Resurface, and receives a small set of events — an app install, onboarding finished, a subscription started — so we can tell whether an ad actually led to someone using the app, not just clicking it.

On iOS, Apple requires us to ask permission before Meta can use your device's advertising identifier (IDFA) to measure ads across apps — that's the "Allow Tracking" prompt you'll see once, generally the first time you finish onboarding. Your answer is entirely up to you and is never required to use Resurface: declining does not lock, limit, or degrade a single feature — blocking, focus sessions, journaling, and AI insights all work exactly the same either way. If you decline or later turn tracking off (Settings app → Privacy & Security → Tracking), Meta falls back to Apple's own privacy-preserving attribution (SKAdNetwork), which reports in aggregate whether an ad led to an install without identifying you individually — it does not receive your advertising identifier, and does not link the events above to your activity on Facebook or Instagram.

We may add other ad platforms (for example TikTok) in a future update. If we do, this policy will be updated first to name the partner and exactly what it receives.

Whatever ad partners exist now or later, none of them ever receive your journal entries, your app-blocking selections, or anything you write in Resurface — the on-device promise at the top of this page does not change based on advertising.

The on-device AI model downloadone-time file request

On devices that can't run Apple's built-in Foundation Models, Resurface offers to download an open-weight model (Gemma) that then runs fully on-device, the same as Apple's. That's a one-time download of a public model file from a file host (Hugging Face, or our own mirror). It's a plain file request — the same kind your phone makes for any download — and carries no information about you or what you've written.

Photo library entitlementunused

iOS requires an explanation for this permission because a component of our subscriptions SDK links Apple's photo APIs internally. Resurface itself never opens, reads, or requests your photo library.

What we still don't collect, even with ad partners in place

• No account, no sign-in, no email address (unless you choose to email us for support)
• No location beyond the coarse, IP-derived country/region used for pricing (see above), or the same used by ad partners for ad delivery
• No camera, microphone, or contacts access
• No crash-reporting or analytics SDKs beyond Superwall, Apple Search Ads, and Meta, named above
• No advertising identifier (IDFA) shared with Meta unless you allow tracking when asked — declining is fully respected, with no effect on any feature
• No journal content, no app-blocking selections, and no on-device AI output ever reaches Superwall, Apple Search Ads, or Meta — that boundary doesn't move regardless of advertising

Your device's own backups

Because your data lives only on your device, it may be included in backup systems your device itself provides — like iCloud Backup, if you have that turned on. That's a setting you control at the operating-system level, not something Resurface sends anywhere; we simply don't intercept or exempt app data from your device's own backup behavior.

Deleting your data

Open Resurface → Settings → Delete Account & Data. This immediately and permanently erases everything stored on your device — journal entries, trends, focus history, blocking settings — and returns the app to first-time setup. There is no cloud copy to also delete, because there is no cloud copy. This cannot be undone. Uninstalling the app has the same effect.

Children's privacy

Resurface is not directed at children and is not intended for use by anyone under 13 (or the minimum age required by your country's law, e.g. 16 in parts of the EU). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your rights

For everything Resurface itself stores — your journal entries, block settings, trends, all of it — deleting your data in-app (above) fully satisfies any access, correction, or deletion request under laws like the GDPR or CCPA, because there is no copy anywhere else to also act on.

For data held by Apple (Search Ads), Meta, or Superwall, that data lives on their systems under their own privacy policies, so requests about it are best made directly to them — see Meta's Privacy Policy — or write to us and we'll forward the request. Turning off tracking (Settings app → Privacy & Security → Tracking, or the "Allow Tracking" prompt itself) is the most direct way to stop new advertising data from being linked to your device going forward.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll update the effective date above and note it in the app's release notes. Continuing to use Resurface after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Aris Eclarino
contact@eclarinollc.com