App Privacy Policy

This page says what the ANKOR app for Android and iPhone does with your data. The Android version is not yet publicly available. Most of what ANKOR knows never leaves your phone. The parts that do are the ones you switch on yourself: Friends, ANKOR Family and ANKOR Member.

Who is responsible

ANKOR, Aliothstrasse 40, 4142 Münchenstein, Switzerland. support@ankor.one

The short version

Without Friends, Family or Member, ANKOR sends only one thing: once a week, how many hours your phone was ANKORED the week before, with no name, account or device number, so we can show the total of everyone together. You can switch this off. If you use Friends or Family, a small amount of data is stored with Google Firebase in Zurich so your phones can reach each other. We never see what you do on your phone, which apps you open or what you read or type.

What stays on your phone

The apps you chose to pause, your session history (start, end, duration), your profiles, schedules and settings. Deleting the app deletes them. The three minute pause and the emergency exit work on your phone alone and send nothing. The only thing that can outlast deleting the app is how many emergency exits you have left, so that reinstalling does not reset it.

Your phone time (Analysis)

On iPhone, with your permission for Apple’s Screen Time, ANKOR notes when your phone time reaches steps of 15 minutes during the day. On Android, with your permission for usage access, ANKOR reads how long you used your phone and which apps, and how often you picked it up. ANKOR uses this to show your usual days and what changes on days with ANKOR, and to send you a notice when you have been on your phone for about an hour almost without a break. These times stay on your phone. They are never uploaded or shared, and we cannot see them. The list of apps and minutes in “Your apps today” is shown only to you, inside the app. Deleting the app deletes all of it.

The shared total (anonymous, can be switched off)

Once a week the app sends one number to our server: how many hours your phone was ANKORED the week before (Monday to Sunday), counted the way the app counts, at most 8 hours a day and without locks a schedule started. It goes with the week, the platform (iPhone or Android) and a random code that changes every week and only stops the same week from being counted twice. It carries no name, account, device number or anything else that points to you or your phone, and the weekly codes cannot be linked to each other. The server adds the number to the week’s total and keeps only the sums. The weekly codes are deleted after about five weeks. A week without any ANKORED time is not sent. In Settings, “Count towards the total” switches it off, and then nothing is sent.

Friends (only if you sign in)

You sign in with Google or with Apple. We store:

• your name as it comes from Google or Apple, which you can change in the app, and a six character friend code;

• the account identifier and email address Google or Apple give to Firebase Authentication, used only to sign you in;

• whether your phone is ANKORED right now, when the current session started, when the app was last active, the minutes you were ANKORED this month, and the status you chose to show (for example “Reading”);

• your friend requests and connections.

Only you and friends you accepted can read your status. Someone who knows your code sees your name and nothing else. You can hide your status from friends at any time.

Friends can nudge you or cheer you on. When they do, we store with your account who it was (account and display name) and when. For a cheer we also store when your current time on the ANKOR started. The app shows you the notice once and then deletes it. A nudge always comes from a friend and never from ANKOR.

Notifications

If you allow notifications and are signed in, we store a notification address (a push token from Apple or Google) for each of your devices, together with the platform, the language of the device, the version of the app, the time of the last update and your setting for whether you want to hear when friends anchor. Your friends cannot read this. When Apple or Google report an address as invalid, we delete it at once.

Notifications are sent by a small program on our server (Google Cloud Functions in Zurich). It hands the text and the notification address to Apple for iPhones and to Google for Android devices, which deliver the notification and see its text. The text contains at most a first name and one short sentence, for example that a friend nudged you or that a child in ANKOR Family used the emergency exit. So that nobody is flooded, we remember the time of the last notification between two accounts and per family.

ANKOR Family (only if you pair two phones)

Family needs no sign in. Each phone gets an anonymous identifier. We store the rules the parent sets (anchor times, the apps left open), the name the parent gives the child’s phone, and on the child’s phone: whether it is on the ANKOR, the evening streak, when it was last in contact, whether the emergency exit was used, and whether blocking is switched on. The parent never sees which apps the child opens or what the child does on the phone.

ANKOR Member and purchases

Member (monthly, yearly or forever) and single emergency exits are bought in the app through Google Play or the Apple App Store, which handle the payment. We receive no card or payment details. The app only learns from the store whether a subscription or purchase is active.

Member can also be bought in our online shop, where Shopify handles the order and the payment. The order confirmation contains a code. You redeem it on ankor.one, signed in with Google or Apple. We then store with the code which account redeemed it and when, and with your account until when Member is valid and which codes were redeemed. The app only reads until when Member is valid for your account.

Messages from the team

The app reads short notices we publish (for example when something is broken) and the shared total. Reading them sends nothing about you.

Where the data is and who processes it

Friends, Family and Member data and the shared total are stored in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, Firebase Authentication and Cloud Functions), in the region europe-west6 (Zurich). Google acts as our processor. We use no analytics, no advertising identifiers and no tracking, and we do not sell or share data. The shared total is a sum, not a record of you.

How long we keep it

Until you delete it. Friends: “Delete account” in the Together tab removes everything stored with your account for good: your profile, friend code, connections and open requests, notification addresses, nudges and cheers from you and to you, a Member from the shop, and your sign in. The only thing that stays is that a redeemed Member code is used, so that it cannot be redeemed a second time. Orders in the shop stay with Shopify for as long as the law requires. Family: leaving or dissolving the family removes its data. Anything left from an unused anonymous Family identifier is removed on request. You can also write to support@ankor.one and we delete everything within 30 days.

Special permissions on Android, and what they are for

Accessibility (Focus Shield): Android tells ANKOR the package name of the app that has just come to the front. During a session, or during anchor time on a child’s phone, ANKOR brings its own screen to the front if that app is paused. ANKOR does not read the contents of apps, does not see what you type and never acts inside another app. This information is used in the moment and never stored or sent.

Notification access: ANKOR sees which app posted a notification, to hold back notifications of paused apps during a session. It does not read their text. Calls and alarms are never affected.

Notifications: the ring in the status bar while you are ANKORED.

Internet: needed for Friends, Family, Member, team notices and the shared total only.

NFC: to react to your ANKOR and to program it.

Alarms: to start and end scheduled sessions at the right time.

Children

ANKOR is made for adults. With ANKOR Family a parent can install it on their child’s phone. The child’s phone then stores only what is listed under ANKOR Family above, and it never shows prices or purchases.

Your rights

You can ask what we store about you, have it corrected or deleted, at support@ankor.one. You can also complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

Changes

If this policy changes, the date above changes with it.