Privacy Policy

Ember (listed as “Ember: Study & Focus Timer”, and shown on your phone as “Ember Focus”) is developed by Abuzar Munir, an independent developer. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean the developer, and “Ember” or “the app” means the Ember app for iPhone and Android.

This policy covers the app and this website. It applies alongside the Terms of Use (EULA).

To do its job, Ember saves the following on your phone:

• Your plan. Tasks and time blocks, with their titles, times, lengths, colours, icons, subtasks, notes, alerts and repeats.
• Your sessions. The activity, start and end time, length and mode (countdown, timer or Pomodoro) of each focus session.
• Your activities and goals. Activity names, your daily target, streaks, and the answers you give in onboarding to build your focus profile.
• Your preferences. Clock face, colours, sounds, brightness, theme, language, 12/24-hour time, the city chosen for the desk clock, and reminder times.

This information is stored only on your device. We don’t run servers that collect or hold it, and we can’t see it. It is included in your device’s own backups if you use them, and removing the app from your device erases it.

• Ember has no accounts. We don’t ask for your name, email address, phone number or date of birth.
• Ember doesn’t access your contacts, photos, camera, microphone, calendar or health data.
• Ember doesn’t read your location. The world clock uses a city you pick yourself.
• Ember doesn’t include a separate analytics or session-recording tool.

Every feature in Ember is free, supported by ads from Google AdMob. Ads appear only at natural breaks, such as after a session ends or when you close the clock, and never during a session.

What AdMob may receive

To serve and measure ads, AdMob may collect or receive information such as your device’s advertising identifier (where you allow it), IP address, general location derived from that address, device and app details, and how you interact with ads. Google handles this under its own policy: How Google uses information from apps that use its services.

Your say over ads

• iPhone. Ember may ask for permission to track (App Tracking Transparency). If you decline, ads still appear but aren’t personalised using your advertising identifier. You can change this in iOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.
• EEA, UK and Switzerland. You’re asked for consent before ads are shown, and you can change your choice at any time in Ember under Settings › About › Ad privacy choices.
• Android. You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your device’s settings, usually under Privacy › Ads.
• Ad-free pass. Watching an optional rewarded video gives you a stretch of time without ads. Ember remembers that time on your device only.
• Ember Pro. A Pro subscription removes ads entirely.

Ember Pro is bought through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google processes the payment, and we never receive your card number or full billing details.

We use Adapty to check whether your Pro subscription is active. Adapty receives a random identifier that Ember creates on your device the first time it opens, your purchase receipt and subscription status, and basic device and app details such as model, operating system version, country and app version. The identifier isn’t your name, email or phone number, and we don’t link it to your identity. See Adapty’s privacy policy.

If you allow notifications, Ember uses them to tell you that a session, Pomodoro round or break has ended, to remind you of tasks, and to send the optional daily nudge and focus-time reminders. These are scheduled on your device, and their timing is worked out on your device from your own history.

When notifications are allowed, Ember also registers with Firebase Cloud Messaging, a Google service, so that we can send occasional notifications about Ember. Registering creates a device token and an installation identifier held by Google. They aren’t linked to your name or contact details. See Privacy and security in Firebase. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device settings.

• Live Activities (iPhone). A running session can appear in the Dynamic Island and on your Lock Screen. It shows the session’s name and time, so anyone who can see your Lock Screen can see it. You can switch this off in Ember’s settings.
• Widgets (iPhone). Widgets read your clock settings from storage shared between the app and its widgets on your device.
• Floating clock (Android). This needs the “display over other apps” permission. Ember uses it only to draw the clock, and doesn’t read what other apps show.

Apple and Google may share aggregated statistics and, if you have opted in on your device, anonymised crash reports with developers. We use these to fix bugs. They don’t contain your plans or sessions, and they are handled under Apple’s and Google’s privacy policies.

We don’t sell or rent personal information. Information leaves your device only through the services described above:

• Google AdMob, to show and measure ads in the free version.
• Adapty, with Apple and Google, to deliver and verify purchases.
• Firebase Cloud Messaging, to deliver notifications we send.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it. Your plans, sessions, activities and goals never leave your device.

What Ember stores on your device stays there until you delete it or remove the app. We hold no copy of it. Information held by Google, Apple and Adapty is kept for as long as their own policies describe.

You stay in control:

• Delete any task, session, activity or goal in the app at any time.
• Remove the app to erase everything it stored on your device.
• Decline tracking, change your ad consent, or reset your advertising ID as described above.
• Turn notifications, Live Activities or the floating clock off in the app or in your device settings.
• Subscribe to Ember Pro to remove ads.

Privacy laws such as the GDPR, the UK GDPR and the CCPA give you rights over personal data held about you, including the rights to access, correct, delete and port it, to object to or restrict its use, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. Because your Ember data is on your device and we hold no copy, most of these are things you can do yourself in the app. For information held by Google, Apple or Adapty, you can use their tools, or contact us and we’ll help you direct your request. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

Ember is a general-audience app and isn’t directed at children under 13, or under the minimum age that applies where you live. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information through Ember, contact us and we’ll help.

What Ember stores is protected by your device’s own passcode and encryption. The services we use apply their own safeguards. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we can’t promise absolute security.

Google, Apple and Adapty may process information in countries other than yours, including the United States, under the safeguards their policies describe.

This website doesn’t use cookies, analytics or advertising. Our hosting provider may keep standard server logs, such as IP address and browser type, for security and reliability. If you contact us, we use your message and contact details only to reply.

If this policy changes, the updated version will appear on this page with a new date. Significant changes will also be noted in the app.