Ember is an app for iPhone and Apple Watch that helps you cut down or quit through gradual reduction: you log the cigarettes you smoke, and the app shows you analytics of your progress. This policy describes how the app handles your data. In short: your data never leaves your devices (your iPhone and your paired Apple Watch).
The app does not collect or sell any data - personal or anonymous - and does not send it to us or to anyone else. There are no analytics, no ads, no trackers, no third-party SDKs, and no accounts. The app itself makes no network requests: it has no server side, and the developer has no access to your records.
There is one thing worth spelling out. Settings, the "About" section, links to this policy and to the support page. Tapping either one hands you off to your browser, and it is the browser - not the app - that makes the request. These pages are hosted on GitHub Pages, so at that moment GitHub sees your IP address, exactly as any website you visit would. Nothing from your records in the app is sent along.
Your smoking log, resisted cravings, settings, custom reasons, milestones, and wellbeing diary entries (mood, tagged withdrawal symptoms, and notes) are stored only on your iPhone, in a protected container shared by the app and its widget. Nothing is ever uploaded anywhere.
The widget reads that same data from that same device: if you place it on your Home Screen, it shows today's count, the time since your last cigarette, and a quick log button. The widget sends nothing anywhere either.
If you have an Apple Watch, Ember on the watch shows today's count, your goal and the time since the last cigarette, and lets you log a cigarette with one tap. The watch and the iPhone exchange data only with each other, over the system channel for paired devices (WatchConnectivity): the iPhone sends the watch a daily summary (the day's count, today's and tomorrow's goals, the time of the last entry, and service data: the day's boundaries, when the summary was made and a change counter, and identifiers of the entries made on the watch), and the watch sends the iPhone the entries made on it and their undos. This exchange runs between your own devices, with no servers of ours - the app has none, and we receive nothing. The journal is still stored only on the iPhone; the watch keeps only a service file: the last summary received from the iPhone and the latest entries and undos made on the watch, with their times and service identifiers. How the system moves data between paired devices is decided by iOS and watchOS, not by the app.
The app offers optional wellbeing check-ins: a mood scale, a checklist of common withdrawal symptoms, and a free-text note. This is private self-observation - no diagnoses, no scores, no advice. Because these entries are especially sensitive, they stay on the device: the app never uploads them, and they are not part of the CSV export. They are included in the full data export described below - a file you create yourself and hand to a recipient you choose. The check-in frequency and its optional reminder are set in Settings.
Settings, the "Data" section, offers two exports, and both are started by you alone; each file is handed to the recipient you choose through the system share sheet, and the app itself never sends the file anywhere. The app writes the file into a temporary folder inside its own sandbox and never deletes it from there. iOS reclaims such folders at its own discretion, with no promise about when, so the file may sit there for a while. It is gone for certain once you delete the app; to clear it sooner, remove the copy you shared with its recipient and reinstall the app.
"Export to CSV" writes your smoking history only: timestamps, the "backdated" flag, and the reason for each entry. The wellbeing diary is not part of this file.
"Export all data (JSON)" writes a single file with everything the app keeps about you: smoking entries, cravings you rode out, your wellbeing diary (moods, symptoms, and notes), your milestones, and your settings, including the reason names you wrote yourself. It exists so that your data survives events the app cannot control - a new device, a reinstall, or a change of the developer account the app's shared container is tied to. There is no import for that file: it is readable, and the CSV import is what brings the smoking log back. Keep that file somewhere you consider private: it contains your wellbeing notes in readable form.
Like any app's data, Ember's data may be included in your device backup (iCloud or computer) if backups are enabled. This mechanism is managed by iOS, not by the app; you control it in your device settings.
There are two independent reminders: a daily nudge to check in, and the wellbeing diary reminder. Both are optional, both are off by default, and both are scheduled on the device itself - the app has no server. It asks for notification permission only when you turn one of them on, and works fully without them.
Individual records can be deleted in the History tab, and check-ins in the Diary. The "Erase smoking history" button in Settings, the "Data" section, removes every smoking entry at once; your wellbeing diary, resisted cravings, milestones, and settings stay. To leave nothing behind, delete the app from your iPhone - all of its data is removed from the iPhone with it. If you use Ember on Apple Watch, the watch keeps only Ember's service file, and it goes away together with the watch app; you can remove the watch app from the watch, for example in the Watch app on your iPhone. Export anything you need first - deleted data cannot be recovered.
The app is intended for adults (18+) who already smoke and want to cut down or quit. It is not intended for children and does not encourage smoking.
If this policy changes (for example, when new features appear), the updated text will be published on this page with a new date.
Privacy questions: intromen@icloud.com