Ember Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how Ember ("Ember", "the app", "we", "us", or "our") handles information when you install and use the Ember mobile application on iOS and Android devices. Ember is a habit tracker paired with a daily motivational quote, and it is built to be private by design: it runs entirely offline and we do not operate any servers that collect, store, or process your personal information.

1. Who we are

Ember is developed by EJ Frias ("the Developer") as a personal project. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, you can reach us at ejsfrias@gmail.com.

2. Scope

This Privacy Policy applies to the Ember mobile application for iOS and Android. The Android app is distributed through Google Play; the iOS app is currently a personal build, with an App Store release to follow. This policy does not apply to any third-party websites, products, or services (such as Google Play itself, which is governed by its own privacy policy).

3. Data we handle

Ember handles only the small amount of information below, and all of it stays on your device. None of it is ever transmitted to the Developer or to any third-party server.

We do not collect: name, email address, phone number, location, contacts, photos, microphone audio, advertising identifiers, browsing history, or any form of account credentials. Ember never asks you to create an account or sign in.

4. How data is used

The on-device information is used exclusively to provide the app's features to you, on your device:

• Draw your heatmaps and compute streaks, bests, and totals.
• Show today's spark and remember which ones you've already seen.
• Fill the home-screen widgets and keep them current.
• Remember your theme, habit order, and reminder settings.

Ember does not use any data for advertising, profiling, behavioral analytics, or automated decision-making.

5. Device permissions

Ember does not use the camera, microphone, location, contacts, or your photo library, and it does not request internet access for any feature. The only optional permission is notifications (Android 13+ POST_NOTIFICATIONS, or the iOS prompt), requested solely if you turn on the daily spark reminder or a per-habit reminder — see section 8.

6. On-device storage

Everything Ember needs is bundled inside the app:

• The 368 curated sparks ship inside the app — nothing is streamed or downloaded at runtime.
• Your habits, logs, and sparks are stored in a local database on the device — SwiftData on iOS and Room on Android — using the operating system's standard app storage.
• Widgets read the same data through a shared app container (an App Group on iOS, DataStore on Android). That container stays on the device too.
• The app makes no network requests, so none of this information leaves the device.

7. On-device AI

On supported iPhones, Ember can generate new sparks using Apple's on-device foundation models (Apple Intelligence). This feature is strictly local:

• Prompts and generated text are processed on the phone by the operating system's on-device model — they are never sent to the Developer or to any cloud service by Ember.
• Generated sparks are stored in the same local database as everything else, and you can delete them at any time.
• On devices without on-device AI support, the feature is simply unavailable — Ember never falls back to a cloud model.

8. Notifications & reminders

Ember can show an optional daily spark reminder and optional per-habit reminders. They are off by default. To show them, the app may request notification permission — only if you turn a reminder on. All reminders are scheduled locally on your device; no schedule, content, or device data is sent anywhere.

9. Third-party services

Ember does not include any advertising, analytics, crash-reporting, or tracking SDKs, and it does not communicate with any backend operated by us or anyone else. The only third party involved is the store that distributes the app:

• Google Play (Android) — distributes and updates the app. Anything Google processes in that role (such as your download history or aggregated install statistics) is handled by Google under the Google Privacy Policy; Ember itself shares no personal data with Google Play.

10. Data sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade any information. We do not share data with advertisers, data brokers, or analytics providers. Because Ember collects no data and operates no server, there is simply nothing for us to share. If we were ever required to disclose information by law, we would have nothing to provide, since no data ever reaches us.

11. Retention & deletion

Because the data lives on your device, you control how long it is kept. Ember retains your habits, logs, and sparks for as long as the app is installed, or until you delete them in the app. To remove everything:

• Clear the app's storage in your device's system settings (Android), or
• Uninstall the app (iOS and Android) to remove all locally stored habits, logs, sparks, and preferences.

Because we do not hold a copy of your data, once you remove it from your device it is gone — there is nothing on our side to delete.

12. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under privacy laws such as the EU/UK GDPR or the California CCPA/CPRA — typically the right to access, correct, delete, or port your personal data. Because Ember does not transmit any data to us, you can exercise these rights yourself directly on your device — all data is local and you can clear it or uninstall the app at any time. If you believe you still need our help, please contact us using the details in the Contact us section.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the app or applicable law — for example, when Ember reaches the Apple App Store. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

14. Contact us

If you have any questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or Ember's privacy practices, please contact:

• Developer: EJ Frias
• Email: ejsfrias@gmail.com