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Slates Privacy Policy
The short version: Slates doesn’t collect anything. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising, and no server of mine for the app to talk to. Your slates and your lists stay on your device, or in your own iCloud if you turn that on.
What Slates stores
All of the following is kept locally, in the app’s own storage on your device. None of it is sent to me or to anyone else.
- Your slates. The reusable lists you create — their names, icons, groups, and the items and headings inside them.
- Your current list. The one list you have on the go, including which items you have ticked off and anything you added to it by hand.
- Appearance preferences. Your chosen theme and whether the app follows light mode, dark mode, or the system setting.
This is a single small file in the app’s container, plus a couple of preference values. If you use iCloud Backup or back your device up to a computer, it is included in that backup like any other app’s, and is covered by Apple’s privacy policy rather than this one. Deleting Slates removes all of it from your device.
iCloud sync
If you are signed in to iCloud, Slates keeps your slates and your current list in step across your devices using iCloud key-value storage. That means the data goes to your own iCloud account, which is Apple’s service under Apple’s privacy policy. It does not pass through any server of mine, and I have no access to it and no way to read it.
If you are not signed in to iCloud, or you have turned iCloud off for Slates in Settings, the app simply stores everything locally and syncs nothing. To remove the synced copy, delete Slates’ data from iCloud in Settings → [your name] → iCloud.
Import and export
Slates can write your slates out as a JSON or Markdown file, and read them back in. Both are entirely driven by you: exporting opens the system save sheet so you choose where the file goes, and importing opens the system file picker so you choose what it reads. The app only ever sees the one file you pick, it does not go looking through your documents, and nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Home Screen quick actions
Long-pressing the app icon offers up to four of your slates as shortcuts. To draw that menu, iOS needs their names, so Slates hands those names to the system. They stay on your device and are managed by iOS in the same way as any other app’s shortcuts.
When Slates uses the internet
It doesn’t, except for iCloud. Slates has no servers of its own. There is no update check, no telemetry, no crash-reporting service, no advertising, and no third-party code of any kind in the app. Apart from the iCloud sync described above — which is handled by the operating system, to your own account — the app makes no network connections at all.
What I never do
- No analytics, usage tracking, or fingerprinting.
- No advertising and no advertising identifiers.
- No selling, sharing, or brokering of your data — there is nothing to sell.
- No accounts, sign-ins, or email addresses collected.
- No third-party SDKs.
What Apple may tell me
Slates is distributed through the App Store. If you have opted in to sharing analytics with developers (iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements), Apple may make crash and usage reports available to me in aggregate. Apple also provides anonymous, aggregate App Store figures such as download counts. I cannot identify you from any of it, and Apple handles this under Apple’s own privacy policy.
Children
Slates collects no personal data from anyone, of any age.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR, the EU GDPR, the CCPA and similar laws you have rights to access, correct, and delete personal data held about you. Because Slates neither collects nor receives any, I hold nothing about you to produce, correct, or erase. The data described above stays on your device and in your own iCloud, under your control; deleting the app deletes the local copy.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, I will update this page and the date at the top of it. Anything material will also be noted in the app’s release notes.
Contact
Questions about this policy or about Slates: daniel@caddickbrown.com