The short version
There’s no account, and the app never sees which apps you picked. To improve it, we collect usage statistics, like which features get used, through analytics services. They’re tied to a random identifier, not to your name or contacts. Your email address is only collected if you choose to sign up for tips and updates. We don’t sell any of it.
What we collect
When you use the app, it sends usage statistics to the analytics services listed below:
- Feature usage. Events like finishing setup, creating a schedule, flipping the switch, opening the upgrade screen or making a purchase, and when they happened.
- Device and app details. Device model, iOS version, app version, language, and an approximate region worked out from your IP address.
- Identifiers. A random ID created by each analytics service, and Apple’s identifier for vendors. We only access the advertising identifier if you allow it when iOS asks.
- Install source. How you found the app, like which ad or link led to the download.
If you sign up for tips and updates, we also collect your email address. See Tips and updates by email.
We don’t collect your name, phone number, contacts or precise location. We don’t collect anything from inside your work apps.
What we can never see
Out of Office uses Apple’s Screen Time framework, which needs your permission the first time you open the app. When you pick your work apps, Apple hands the app an opaque token for each one. The token means “shield this”, never “this is Slack”, so the app can’t see which apps you chose, and neither can our analytics. Nobody else can either.
The app uses Screen Time only to shield the apps you picked, during the hours you set. It doesn’t read your app usage, your screen time totals or your browsing history.
What stays on your device
Your app picks, schedules, vacation ranges, switch durations and settings, like Strict mode, stay on your iPhone or iPad. They’re shared only between the app, its widgets and its Screen Time extensions, inside the same device. Deleting the app deletes them. Usage statistics may note that you made a schedule, but not what’s in it.
Who helps us
We use these services to measure how the app is used and where installs come from. They process data on our behalf, under their own privacy terms:
- AppsFlyer, for install attribution: AppsFlyer privacy policy
- Google Analytics for Firebase, for usage analytics: Google privacy policy
- PostHog, for product analytics: PostHog privacy policy
If you sign up for tips and updates, an email delivery service stores your address and sends the emails for us. It processes your address only for that purpose.
These services may store data in the United States or other countries. Where the law requires it, transfers are covered by safeguards like the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Why we use it
We use usage statistics to see which features help people switch off, find what’s confusing or broken, and learn which marketing works. Where the law requires a legal basis, we rely on our legitimate interest in improving the app, or on your consent where that’s required. We don’t use it to build an advertising profile of you, and we don’t sell your personal data.
Tracking and ads
If we ever need Apple’s advertising identifier, iOS will ask your permission first. Saying no doesn’t change how the app works. You can change your choice any time in SettingsPrivacy & SecurityTracking. If we run ads for Out of Office, AppsFlyer may tell the ad network whether its ad led to an install, so we know which ads work.
Notifications
If you allow notifications, the app schedules its heads-up reminders, 15 minutes before a session starts and ends, on your device. They’re not sent from a server and contain nothing about you.
Purchases
Purchases and subscriptions go through Apple’s App Store. Apple handles payment, and we never receive your name, email address or card details. Our analytics may record that a purchase happened, which plan and its price, so we can measure revenue. Apple’s own privacy policy covers the payment itself.
What Apple may share with us
If you’ve turned on Share With App Developers in SettingsPrivacy & SecurityAnalytics & Improvements, Apple may give us anonymous, aggregated crash reports and usage statistics. You can turn this off in the same setting.
How long we keep it
We keep usage statistics only as long as we need them for the purposes above, within each service’s retention settings, then delete or aggregate them so they no longer relate to a device.
This website
This website sets no cookies and runs no analytics, ads or tracking scripts. Fonts and images are served from this site, not from third parties. Like any web server, our host may briefly keep standard request logs, like IP address, browser type and the page requested, to keep the site running and secure.
Tips and updates by email
The app may ask whether you’d like occasional emails with tips and news about big updates. It’s optional, and saying no changes nothing in the app. If you say yes, we use your email address only to send those emails, and we don’t sell it or share it with advertisers.
Every email has an unsubscribe link. When you unsubscribe, we stop emailing you and delete your address, or keep it only on a do-not-email list so you don’t get emails again.
If you email us
If you write to us, we use your email address and message only to reply. We don’t add you to a mailing list. Ask us to delete your messages and we will.
Children
Out of Office is made for adults managing their own work apps. It isn’t directed at children under 13, or under 16 in the EU and UK, and we don’t knowingly collect their data. If you think a child’s data reached us, email us and we’ll delete it.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, laws like the GDPR and the CCPA give you rights to access, correct, delete or object to the use of your personal data, and to complain to your local data protection authority. Because there’s no account, we can’t look you up by name. If you signed up for emails, we can find you by that address. Email us and we’ll help you find and delete the usage data linked to your device. Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change means collecting a new kind of data, we’ll say so in the app before it happens.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email [email protected].