Privacy Policy

Effective 8 August 2026

Read this before signing up. chud works by showing other people your screen time. Once a day, your daily total is shared with the friends you have accepted. Sharing your data with other users is the purpose of the app, not a side effect of it.

Information we collect

Apple or Google account: Used to create and sign you in, through our authentication provider Clerk. We receive and store your email address and a stable user ID. If you use Apple's Hide My Email, we only ever see the relay address. We never see your Apple or Google password.
Display name: The name you choose during setup. It is shown to your friends, to anyone you send or receive a friend request from, and to any chud user who has your email address or phone number saved in their contacts (see "Being found by others" below).
Screen Time data: A single number representing at least how much time you spent in the apps and categories you selected during setup. It is never exact: Apple only tells us that a usage threshold was crossed, so we know "at least 3h 30m" and never the true total. How precise that number is depends on your device, typically between 5 and 60 minutes. This number is uploaded to our servers so your friends can see it. We never receive or store which apps you used — no app names, no bundle IDs, and no per-app or per-category breakdown ever leaves your device.
Date of birth: Collected during sign-up solely to confirm you are at least 13, which our Terms require. We store it so we can re-check it if the rules change. It is never shown to other users and is never used for anything else.
Phone number (optional): If you add one, it is stored as part of your account and used so that people who have your number in their contacts can find you. It is optional, you can remove it at any time, and it is never displayed to other users — only your display name is.
Contacts: If you choose to find friends from your address book, we read the email addresses and phone numbers from your device contacts and send them to our server to check which of them already have chud accounts. Your contacts are used only to run that check and are then discarded — we store neither your contacts list nor the results.
Push notification token: If you allow notifications, we store your device's Apple push token so we can tell you when a drop happens. It is deleted when you delete your account.
Usage metadata: Timestamps of drops and your friends list, used to power the feed.
Blocks and reports: If you block or report someone, we store who blocked or reported whom, and for reports, the reason text you write. Used to prevent abuse.

Being found by others

Other people can discover that you use chud:

Any chud user who has your email address — or, if you provided one, your phone number — saved in their phone's contacts will see your display name listed as someone they can add. This happens before any friend request. You can prevent phone-based discovery by removing your number in Settings; email-based discovery cannot currently be turned off other than by deleting your account.
Anyone you send a friend request to, or who sends one to you, sees your display name while the request is pending.
Your screen-time numbers are never visible to anyone until a friend request has been accepted.

How we use your information

Authenticate you and keep your session secure.
Display your screen time totals to your accepted friends.
Match your device contacts against chud accounts so you can find and add friends already using the app.
Send push notifications for new drops (APNs; no marketing messages).
Act on block/report submissions to keep the friend graph safe.

We do not use your data for advertising. We do not sell it. We do not track you across other apps or websites, and chud contains no advertising or analytics SDKs.

Who your data is shared with

Your friends: People you've added and who've accepted see your display name and your screen-time number for each drop. This is the core function of the app.
Service providers: Clerk (authentication), Render (application hosting), Neon (database hosting), and Apple's Push Notification service. Each processes your data only to provide that service to us. We do not sell your personal information.
Legal requirement: We may disclose data if required by law, court order, or to protect our users from harm.

Where your data is processed

Our servers and database are hosted in the United States. If you use chud from outside the United States, your data is transferred to and processed there.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit using TLS, and access to production systems is restricted to authorized personnel. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your data in line with the sensitivity of what chud handles.

Photos

chud does not use your camera and does not accept photographs at all. There is no profile photo, no photo reaction, and no upload of any kind. The app never asks for access to your camera or your photo library, and holds no images of you. Your friends see your name and your number, nothing more.

Data retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. Screen-time history is deleted within 90 days. If you delete your account, everything we hold about you — your profile, friendships, blocks, reports, push token, and screen-time history — is erased from our database immediately as part of that request, not queued for later deletion. We also request deletion of your authentication record from Clerk; in rare cases that step may take longer, and you can contact us to confirm it completed.

Your rights

Depending on your jurisdiction you may have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data. You can delete your account at any time from inside the app, under Settings — it is immediate and permanent, with no recovery and no copy kept. To exercise any other right, or to ask a question about your data, email [email protected].

Children

chud is not directed at children under 13. We ask for your date of birth during setup and refuse to create an account for anyone younger. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email us and we will remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we do, we will update the effective date above, and significant changes will be surfaced in the app.

Contact

[email protected]