Last updated: 31 October 2026
This policy is the same in the app and on the web at dotspan.app/privacy. The terms of use are at dotspan.app/terms.
Dot Span collects no personal data. Everything you do in the app stays on your iPhone, or in your own private iCloud if you turn on iCloud sync. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking, and the app has no analytics of its own. The only personal data we ever see is what you choose to send us in an email.
Dot Span is made by the developer named as its seller on the App Store. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean that developer.
What the app keeps on your phone
To run your 66-day journey, the app saves these on your iPhone, in its own private storage, which other apps can't open:
- Your answers from the first run: what's hardest for you, what you want your attention back for, and how long you can focus.
- Each session: when it happened, the journey day, which exercises and passages you had (so nothing repeats), how long you stayed with each step, your scores (such as how many recall questions you got right) and how many times you left the app.
- Your urges to stop: how many there were, what pulled you away, and the times you stayed.
- What you write in Think, Ideas first, Uses for…, Three shapes and My project (with your project's name), what you pick in Reflect, and your answer to "How did it feel?" after a themed day.
- Your if-then plan and whether it helped, the missions offered to you, whether you took them on and how they went, your reminder time and your settings.
- A session in progress, so you can resume it if iOS closes the app, until it ends.
- Your Laser Focus blocks: what you worked on (a choice from a short list, never your own words), how long, and how many times you picked the phone up or left the app. Laser Focus turns on the iPhone's proximity sensor only while it waits for the phone to be turned over and while a block runs, to tell whether the phone is face down. Nothing from the sensor is kept except what the block measures: how long the phone stayed face down and how many times you picked it up.
- Your Train your brain rounds: which game, when, and the result.
None of this leaves your phone unless you turn on iCloud sync.
Backups
If you use iCloud Backup or back up your iPhone to a computer, what the app keeps is part of that backup, like the rest of your phone. A backup belongs to you and your Apple Account, and we cannot see it. Restoring one brings back what the app had when the backup was made.
What the app never does
- It never sends what you do in the app to us or to anyone else. We have no servers.
- It has no analytics, advertising or tracking code, and no third-party code.
- It never tracks you across other apps or websites, and we never sell or share your information.
What the app sends to Apple
The app talks only to Apple: to the App Store, to show the plans and to buy, restore and check your subscription; and to iCloud, to see whether you're signed in and, when you turn on iCloud sync, to keep your journey in your private iCloud. Apple's privacy policy covers both: apple.com/legal/privacy.
iCloud sync
iCloud sync is off until you turn it on in Settings, under Your data. When it's on, the app keeps the same information in your private iCloud database, so your journey stays the same on each iPhone where you use Dot Span with the same Apple Account and turn sync on. That database belongs to your Apple Account: we cannot see it, and Apple's privacy policy covers it.
Turning sync off stops syncing. This iPhone keeps what it has, and the copy in your iCloud stays there. To delete that copy, erase your data while sync is on (see Deleting your data).
Notifications
The app schedules every notification on your phone; nothing is sent anywhere to make them appear.
- The daily reminder, if you turn it on: at most one a day, at the time you choose.
- During a free trial that's set to renew: one reminder two days before it ends.
- When an Away block or a Laser Focus block runs: one "Time's up" when its time is over.
You can turn them off at any time in the Settings app, under Notifications.
Subscriptions
Purchases are handled by Apple through the App Store. The app asks Apple whether your subscription is active, so it knows which days to open, and during a free trial when the trial ends, to time its reminder. We never see your name, email address or payment details. You manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings; deleting the app doesn't cancel it.
What Apple may share with us
If you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple may send us crash reports and figures such as how many devices opened the app. Apple says this information doesn't identify you. You can stop it in the Settings app, under Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements → Share With App Developers. Apple also gives us sales and subscription reports, which never include your name, email address or payment details.
Our website
Our website, dotspan.app, uses no cookies, analytics, advertising or scripts from other sites. Cloudflare hosts it: like any host, it receives your IP address and the details your browser sends with each request, to deliver the pages and keep the site safe from attacks (in legal terms, our legitimate interest in running a working, safe website). Cloudflare's privacy policy covers this, including its handling of data in other countries such as the United States (cloudflare.com/privacypolicy). From Cloudflare we see only totals, such as how many visits the site had and from which countries.
If you write to us
If you write to us, we see your email address and what you write, and use them only to answer you, never for marketing. An email started from the app's Settings also includes the app's version and your iPhone's iOS version, to help us help you; you can delete them before you send. Mail to hello@dotspan.app passes through Cloudflare, which forwards it to our Gmail account, run by Google; both may handle it in other countries. We keep a conversation only as long as we need it to help you, and delete it sooner if you ask.
Exporting your data
Settings → Your data → Export data makes a file only when you choose to share it, and you decide where it goes. It has one line for each session: the date and day, whether you finished, the main exercise, how long you focused, your urges and the ones you stayed through, the times you left the app, the day's theme and your "How did it feel?" answer. It never includes what you wrote.
Deleting your data
Settings → Your data → Erase all data deletes your answers, sessions, writing, plan, missions, Laser Focus blocks and Train your brain rounds, any session in progress, and the reminders the app scheduled. A few settings stay as they are, such as Appearance and iCloud sync. When iCloud sync is on, it also deletes the copy in your iCloud and on your other devices. It doesn't cancel your subscription, which belongs to your Apple Account.
Deleting the app deletes everything it kept on this phone, but not the copy in your iCloud. If you use iCloud sync, erase your data in the app first. If the app is already gone, install it again and turn on iCloud sync; once your journey is back, erase it.
Backups you made earlier keep what they held until you delete them or they're replaced.
How long it's kept
The app keeps your data until you erase it or delete the app, and your iCloud keeps its copy until you erase it. Apart from emails you send us, we hold no personal data about you, because nothing you do in the app reaches us. That's also why we can't look up, export or delete your app data for you: the app gives you every choice, from turning sync off to erasing everything.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us what personal data we hold about you (at most, emails you sent us) and ask us to correct or delete it, by writing to hello@dotspan.app. If you're in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you can also complain to your data protection authority.
Children
Dot Span collects no personal data from anyone, children included. If a child writes to us, we use the message only to reply, then delete it.
Changes
If we change this policy, the new version will be here and in the app, with its date. If a change ever affects what happens to your data, it will be in this policy before the change reaches you.
Questions
Write to hello@dotspan.app. You can also visit dotspan.app/support, or use the support link on the Dot Span page in the App Store.