Mr. Tapioca Privacy Policy

Short version

Mr. Tapioca is a personal focus & study timer. We collect as little as possible. Almost everything stays on your device, we don't show ads, we don't use third-party trackers, and we never sell your data. The apps you choose to block are handled entirely on your iPhone by Apple's Screen Time system, and we never see them.

1. Information stored only on your device

The following never leaves your iPhone and is not sent to us:

• Your progress, currency ("pearls"), streaks, achievements, drink collection, customizations, and settings. These live in your device's own storage.
• Your blocked-app selections. When you choose apps to block, you pick them through Apple's own Screen Time picker. Apple stores that selection privately on your device; the app uses it only to apply a "shield" during a focus session. We never receive, transmit, or even see which apps you selected. Apple keeps that information private by design.

2. Study Squad and your anonymous account

The app creates an anonymous account on first launch (no email, password, or real name required). It exists so that Study Squad and partner rewards work the moment you want them, and so your friend code is stable. It is not tied to your real identity. From your first launch, the following is stored on our backend under that anonymous account:

• A display name you choose.
• An automatically generated friend code.
• Basic focus stats: total focus minutes, minutes focused this calendar week, drinks completed, and day streak.
• Only if you turn it on: whether you are focusing, on a break, or idle right now, and when that last changed. This is the "Let friends see when I'm brewing" switch in Settings, and it is off unless you turn it on. While it is off, your record reports "idle" to everyone, including us, and no timing is stored. Turning it off takes effect on your next sync and immediately resets the stored status to "idle". A status you leave behind (for example if your phone dies mid-session) is reset to "idle" automatically after twenty minutes.

Only people you have shared your friend code with, and who added you, can see any of this. It is never shown to strangers, never used to build a profile, and never sold. You can delete this account at any time in Settings, which removes it from our backend.

Sharing a squad invite link puts your friend code, and the display name you chose, into that link so the person you send it to can see who invited them. Nothing looks a code up for a stranger: a code that has not been shared with you reveals nothing about its owner.

3. Anonymous drink counter

When you finish a drink, the app sends one small anonymous row to our backend so we can answer "how many drinks has Mr. Tapioca brewed?". That row contains:

• A random ID generated on this install, so separate devices can be counted. It is not your name, your email, or an advertising identifier, and it is not linked to anything else about you.
• The drink size, the number of minutes, and whether you were on the iPhone app or the web app.

That is the whole row. It carries no name, no email, no location, and nothing about which apps you block. We use it as a counter and nothing else.

4. Partner rewards

On the iPhone app, partner rewards use the same anonymous account described above. To calculate eligibility and let a shop verify a one-time reward, our backend stores:

• Your session start and end times, planned session length, whether the session came from the iPhone app, and the number of eligible focus minutes credited.
• Rewards issued to the anonymous account, including their status and expiration date.
• The partner shop you chose, the moment a reward was used, the exact wording of the offer that was honoured, and whether the attempt was accepted or refused.

Redeeming is one tap in your own app, signed in as your own anonymous account. There is no code to read out and nothing for the shop to install or log in to.

We use these records only to issue rewards, prevent the same reward being used twice, and provide that shop with an anonymous redemption count. They contain no real name, email, precise location, advertising identifier, or list of blocked apps, and are not used for advertising or tracking across apps or websites.

5. Location (boba map)

If you open the in-app map of nearby boba shops, the app asks for your device location to find shops near you using OpenStreetMap data. Your location is used on your device to run that lookup and is not stored by us. You can decline; the rest of the app works fine.

6. What we do NOT collect

• No real name, email, phone number, or contacts.
• No advertising identifiers; the app contains no ads.
• No third-party analytics or tracking SDKs. (The drink counter in section 3 is our own, goes only to our own backend, and is never used to track you across apps or sites.)
• No location history, and no record of which apps you block.

7. Service providers

Study Squad accounts and partner reward records are stored using Supabase (a hosted database). Map data comes from OpenStreetMap. We do not share your information with anyone for advertising or marketing.

8. Children's privacy

Mr. Tapioca is a personal self-control tool and is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

9. Data retention & deletion

Deleting the app removes all on-device data. If you used Study Squad, you can delete your anonymous cloud account in Settings → Delete account at any time. Your Study Squad profile, including any shared status, reward session records, and rewards that have not been used are deleted with that account. Past anonymous redemption attempt records remain so we can keep an accurate count for partner shops and investigate problems at the counter. After account deletion, those records are no longer linked to an account or Study Squad profile.

10. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

11. Contact

Questions about your privacy? Email mrtapioca.app@gmail.com.