Privacy

Who I am

The Buddy System publishes TeaBuddy, CoffeeBuddy, TransformationBuddy, T minus 90, BookBuddy and SwipeBuddy. You can reach me at support@thebuddysystem.dev about anything on this page, including a request to delete your data.

The iPhone and iPad apps

They do not collect anything. There is no account, no sign-up, no email field, no analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no advertising identifier, and no network call that carries your content. Everything you write is stored on your device.

If you turn on iCloud sync, your journal syncs through your own iCloud account under Apple's privacy terms. It goes to Apple, not to me, and I have no way to read it.

Three features talk to the internet, and only when you use them:

• BookBuddy's book search sends the title or author you type to the Open Library API to fetch book details and covers. It sends nothing else.
• Packet and bag scanning in TeaBuddy and CoffeeBuddy runs entirely on your device using Apple's on-device text recognition. The photo never leaves your phone.
• TransformationBuddy's barcode scanner sends the barcode number you scan to the Open Food Facts database to look up that product's nutrition facts. It sends only the barcode: no photo, no journal data, nothing about you. Scanning a nutrition label instead is read entirely on your device, and the app's built-in food search works offline.
• TransformationBuddy's Snap a plate reads a photo of your meal on your device to name the foods on it (Apple's on-device model on iPhones with Apple Intelligence, Apple's built-in image recognition on other iPhones). The photo is never stored or uploaded, and the calories come from the app's own food database.

Apple Health

TransformationBuddy can connect to Apple Health if you turn it on in the app's Settings. When it is on, the app reads your weight, waist, steps, sleep, water and workouts to pre-fill your daily check-in, and writes the weight, waist, water and food you log so they appear in the Health app. You choose exactly which types to share on the Health permission sheet, and you can change or revoke that any time in the Health app under Sharing. Health data is read and written on your device only. It is never sent anywhere, never used for advertising or any other purpose, and never stored in iCloud by the app.

Voice check-ins and Siri

TransformationBuddy can listen while you talk through your day. When you tap Talk, use the Control Center control or the Action button, the app asks for microphone access and turns your speech into text on your device using Apple's on-device speech recognition. No audio is recorded, stored or uploaded, and the app never sends your words anywhere. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, Apple's on-device model reads the text to fill in your check-in; on other iPhones, simple pattern matching does the same. The "Check in with TransformationBuddy" and "Log a meal" phrases go through Siri, so Siri handles the listening under Apple's Siri privacy terms, and the app receives only the text. You can turn microphone access off at any time in Settings; typing always works.

SwipeBuddy and Screen Time

SwipeBuddy limits short-video apps using Apple's Screen Time (the Family Controls framework). It still collects nothing, but it handles more sensitive information than the other apps, so here's exactly what happens to it:

• The apps and websites you pick come from Apple's own picker. Apple hands SwipeBuddy only opaque tokens, so the app never learns which apps or sites you chose. It uses them to tell iOS what to block. They only work on the device where you picked them, so they never sync.
• Your usage numbers (time per app, pickups, notifications) are drawn by Apple's Screen Time report view inside the app. Apple doesn't give those numbers to SwipeBuddy, and they never leave the device they were counted on.
• SwipeBuddy's own daily log powers Insights and the year in review. iOS tells the app each time you pass a few minutes of use, so the log holds an estimate of your daily use and when in the day it happened, when you hit your limit, your emergency unlocks, and the reason and note you give for each one. It's stored only on your device, isn't included in iCloud sync, and is deleted with the app. With sync on, it also notes how many minutes your other devices used each day, so Insights can show your combined total.
• iCloud sync, from version 1.1, lets your iPhone and iPad share one daily limit and one set of emergency unlocks. It's on unless you turn it off in SwipeBuddy's Settings. It keeps a small record in your own iCloud account using Apple's iCloud key-value storage: your daily limit and plan, your unlock rules and your Safari settings, and for each device a random ID, whether it's an iPhone or an iPad, its estimated minutes for each of the last 7 days, and the time and length of its unlocks from those days. The apps you picked, your per-app caps, the daily log, and the reasons and notes for your unlocks never sync. The record goes to Apple, not to me, and I have no way to read it.
• The Safari extension, if you turn it on, runs only on youtube.com, instagram.com and facebook.com. It looks at the page's address and layout to hide Shorts and Reels, and asks the SwipeBuddy app on your device which sites to change. It reads no other pages, records nothing, and sends nothing anywhere.
• Year in review images are made on your device. They're only shared if you share them yourself.
• SwipeBuddy Pro is bought through the App Store. Apple tells the app whether Pro is active and nothing else. I never learn who you are.

Apple's rules for Screen Time apps are strict, and SwipeBuddy follows all of them: this data is only ever used to give you the limits you asked for. It is never used for advertising, never shared, and never sold.

Notifications and widgets

Some of the apps can remind you: TeaBuddy's steep timer, CoffeeBuddy's brew timer and rest-day reminders, TransformationBuddy's daily reminder, T minus 90's sidekick nudges, BookBuddy's reading reminders, and SwipeBuddy's "10 minutes left" heads-up and emergency unlock prompt. Every one of them is scheduled on your device from data that's already there. I run no push server, and nothing about a reminder leaves your phone. (If you turn on iCloud sync, Apple sends its own silent background signals to keep your devices in step. That's part of iCloud, not something I operate or can see.) T minus 90's home-screen and lock-screen widgets read the same on-device data, shared only between the app and its own widget.

Deleting your data on iPhone

Delete entries inside the app, or delete the app to remove everything stored on the device. Deleting SwipeBuddy also removes its Screen Time access and lifts any blocks it set. SwipeBuddy's iCloud record only ever holds your settings and the last week of minutes and unlocks, and it drops older days as it goes. If you stop using SwipeBuddy, what's left stays in your own iCloud account, which I can't reach. For the other apps, if you turned on iCloud sync, also remove the app's data in Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage. I can't delete it for you, because I never had a copy.

The web apps

Your journal

Everything you enter into a web app (sessions, brews, entries, weights, photos, notes) is written to your browser's local storage on the device you're using. It is not uploaded, I keep no copy of it, and I cannot read it. It does not sync between your devices.

Two consequences worth understanding before you rely on it:

• If you clear your browser's site data, use private browsing, or switch to another browser or computer, your journal will not be there. Use each app's Export JSON button to keep your own backups.
• Anyone with access to your unlocked device and browser profile can read it. I can't add a lock I'd have to hold a key for.

What the web apps send anywhere

The same features as on iPhone, and only when you use them:

• BookBuddy's book search sends the title or author you type to the Open Library API, and loads covers from it.
• TransformationBuddy's barcode lookup sends only the barcode number to Open Food Facts.

The site and the web apps also load their typefaces from Google Fonts, so Google receives the standard request details (your IP address and browser) when a page loads. No cookies are involved.

No accounts, no cookies

There's nothing to sign up for, so I don't store your email address, your name, a password, or a profile of what you do in the apps. I don't set any cookies: no session cookie, no analytics, no advertising, nothing third-party. That's why there's no cookie banner.

If you subscribed before November 2026

The web apps used to be a subscription, which needed an account: your email address, which plans were active, and a Stripe customer ID. Those old account records are still deleted 12 months after the subscription ended, as this policy promised, and Stripe keeps invoice records for as long as tax law requires. Ask me to delete yours sooner and I will, usually within a few days.

Logs

My host, Cloudflare, keeps standard, short-lived request logs (IP address, timestamp, URL, user agent) for security and abuse prevention, as any web host does. I don't build profiles from them and I don't export them anywhere.

Who I share it with

Cloudflare hosts the site and the web apps. Beyond the lookups above, which you start yourself, nothing about you goes anywhere else. I do not sell personal data, share it with advertisers, or use it to train anything.

Your rights

Depending on where you live you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, to object to processing, or to complain to a regulator. Since I hold no account data, most of these come down to a single email to support@thebuddysystem.dev. I'll respond within 30 days.

Your journal content isn't included in an export request for the simple reason that I don't have it. It's in your browser or on your phone, and each app's own export gives you the complete file immediately.

Children

These apps aren't directed at children under 13, and I don't knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

If I change this policy in a way that affects what I collect, I'll update the date above and say what changed at the top of this page.