Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 October 2026

Operator: Aaron Alty

Support and privacy email: Support@clamfocusapp.com

About this policy

CLAM helps you protect moments and build a more intentional relationship with your phone. This policy explains the information used by the app, optional sponsored messages, purchases and external payment links. “We” means the operator named above. You do not need a CLAM account.

Your personal Moments, photos, intentions, reflections and progress are stored locally. CLAM has no cloud account, developer-hosted history service or remote AI processing. Optional advertising and payment providers process separate information as explained below.

Your Moments and preferences

CLAM stores your Instant Moments, saved Moments, Commitment Moments and schedules; names, types, icons and colours; selected apps, categories and websites; allowed selections where supported; durations, dates, blocking modes, automation settings and appearance preferences. These records let CLAM apply and restore your chosen protection, including after the app reopens.

Active timers, early-end requests, cooling-off dates, cancelled requests, completion state and optional reminder settings are also saved. CLAM stores only the settings and events needed to operate these features, rather than recording everything you do on your phone.

Photos, The Moment and reflections

Adding a photo is optional. Apple's photo picker gives CLAM the image you select, rather than access to your whole photo library. CLAM normally saves a resized copy locally. Apple's picker may retrieve an image from your iCloud Photos library according to your Apple settings.

Your written reasons, future-self letters and optional reflections are personal content. CLAM keeps your original commitment writing and may retain a snapshot of your photo, selections and intention in history after a Moment ends. Editing or removing a saved Moment does not automatically erase those earlier snapshots.

These images and words are not uploaded to CLAM, sent to advertisers or submitted to an AI service. Anyone who can access your unlocked phone may be able to view content within CLAM; choose what you save accordingly.

Moment history, Story and pearls

CLAM keeps local records of completed and early-ended Moments. Records include planned and actual dates, intended duration, estimated protected time, completion status, selections, mode, relevant commitment settings and original writing. Commitment history can include the original recurring schedule, cooling-off events and an optional later reflection.

The on-device Story framework uses history to identify meaningful chapters and aggregate milestones. It does not publish a story, create a public profile or send these records to a server. Ordinary Moments remain in history even when they do not become chapters.

Pearl totals, progress and recent Moments are saved locally. Protected-time statistics describe time a protection was active; they are not a measurement proving that you were away from your phone throughout that time.

Screen Time permission

CLAM requests Apple's Family Controls authorisation so it can protect the apps, categories and websites you select. Apple supplies privacy-preserving selection tokens. CLAM uses these selections to apply restrictions and schedules; it does not retrieve a readable, device-wide app-usage or browsing-history report.

The app shares relevant local settings and records with its own Screen Time extensions through an Apple App Group. Those extensions apply protections and record completion. They do not send your selections, photos, writing or history to Google or to a CLAM server.

You control Screen Time permission through iOS. Revoking it may prevent CLAM from applying your chosen protections. CLAM cannot set, read, verify or recover your iPhone Screen Time passcode.

Earlier versions offered a Trusted Person setup reminder. This version removes the locally stored name and setup flag when it first opens. Older commitment records may retain an unused local identifier until those records are rewritten. CLAM never collected that person's Screen Time passcode, and this update does not change any passcode set in iPhone Settings.

Drive, widgets and Shortcuts

Drive stores your selected apps, journey settings, passenger-access requests and optional intent-check time locally. The current app does not monitor your location, motion, car Bluetooth connection or CarPlay connection to decide whether you are a driver or passenger. Explicit Shortcuts actions can use your saved Drive settings.

CLAM's widgets and supported Shortcuts use relevant local settings, entitlement state and progress. A widget may display a Moment name, remaining time or protected-time total outside the app, including on your Lock Screen if you put it there. You decide which widgets to add and where they appear. CLAM+ users can add time to an active timed Moment from the widget. This uses the same on-device blocking engine and does not send Moment data to an external service.

Ocean Journal, Learn and notifications

Learn articles, conservation facts and species illustrations are bundled with the app. CLAM does not record article reading for developer analytics. External research and conservation links are governed by the websites you choose to open.

Ocean Journal stores pending and discovered species, earned pearl thresholds, illustration identifiers, fact versions and discovery dates locally. Reaching a threshold creates a waiting discovery; it is added to your journal only when you choose to add it.

With your notification permission, CLAM can send one silent local alert per newly waiting species. It does not send repeated discovery reminders. Optional Drive checks and commitment cooling-off or reflection notices also use local notifications. iOS controls notification delivery and visibility. CLAM uses no remote push server. You can change notification permission in iPhone Settings.

Planned features that are inactive today

The app includes local data structures reserved for possible future features. These are not active services in this version: direct Drive activation from Bluetooth, CarPlay, Apple Focus, location, time or calendar; adaptive scheduling; family or group sharing; advanced Story and annual-review experiences; and AI reflection. The current manual and Shortcuts Drive options, existing Moment schedules and on-device Story history work as described above.

CLAM does not currently request Calendar, Location, Contacts, Bluetooth or motion access for those plans, connect users into a group, or send private writing to an AI service. Reserved fields in local records do not mean that extra information is being collected. If a future release enables one of these features, we will explain its data use and update this policy before using new information, and request any permissions or choices that apply.

CLAM+ purchases

Apple handles CLAM+ subscription purchases, billing, cancellation and refunds. Through StoreKit, CLAM verifies purchase information such as the product, entitlement, expiry and revocation status. It caches access status and expiry locally so it can apply CLAM+ features. We do not receive your full payment-card details from Apple.

Restoring purchases checks the subscription associated with your Apple Account. It does not upload or restore your Moment history. Apple's processing is described in Apple's privacy policy.

Optional CLAM+ Access Pass

CLAM saves completed sponsored-message identifiers and progress, activation and expiry dates, availability dates and a local clock checkpoint. Three completed optional rewarded ads activate 24 hours of CLAM+, available once every three days. Partial progress remains on the device. An Access Pass does not create a paid subscription.

Google AdMob and the User Messaging Platform supply these messages and privacy choices. When used, these services may process your IP address and approximate location, device or app identifiers, app and device information, consent choices, advertising views and interactions, diagnostic logs and performance information. These providers may use this information for ad delivery, fraud prevention, measurement and related purposes. This is separate from your private CLAM Moment content.

CLAM requests non-personalised ads and does not request Apple's App Tracking Transparency permission. Non-personalised does not mean that no data is processed. CLAM does not provide your Screen Time selections, photos, intentions, history or Ocean Journal records to the advertising SDKs.

Before a sponsored message, CLAM asks which age group you are in: under 13, 13–17, or 18 or over. It stores this choice locally, not your birthday. Sponsored messages are unavailable if you select under 13. For 13–17, the ad request carries Google's teen age-treatment setting. You can change your choice in Access Pass. This is based on the age group you provide; CLAM does not independently verify your age.

Consent information is requested when you choose your first sponsored message, refreshed on subsequent requests and quietly refreshed on later launches once you have used the feature. Where required, Google's form presents your choices before an ad can be requested. You can reopen sponsored-message privacy choices from Access Pass when Google makes that option available. Refusing or withdrawing a choice may affect ad availability; the free Moment tools remain available.

Ads only start at your request and do not interrupt an active Moment. Development builds use test ads, which do not generate revenue; the SDK can still process technical data. See Google's privacy policy and Google's Mobile Ads data disclosure for its processing practices.

External payments and conservation links

Impact offers an optional external Stripe payment link for Split Donations and a separate link to donate directly through the Marine Conservation Society. Opening a link lets that website receive ordinary web information such as your IP address and browser information. Completing a payment provides the payment provider with the details requested at checkout.

For payments made to CLAM through Stripe, we may receive payer and transaction information available in our merchant account, such as name, email, amount, payment status and limited payment-method details. We use this to administer payments, answer queries, handle refunds or disputes, prevent fraud and maintain required business records. The CLAM app does not store your full card details or send your Moment data to the checkout.

A direct donation through the charity's website is handled by the charity and its providers; CLAM receives no share through that link. See Stripe's privacy policy and the Marine Conservation Society privacy policy. External websites may have cookies and choices separate from CLAM's.

Support and reasons for processing

If you contact us, we receive the contact details, message and attachments you choose to send. Please avoid including personal reflections, passcodes or other sensitive information unless necessary for your request.

Where data protection law applies to our processing, we use information needed to provide the service you request on the basis of performing our contract with you. We use support and security information where necessary for our legitimate interests in resolving queries and protecting the service, subject to your rights. Required accounting and payment records are processed to meet legal obligations. Where advertising-related processing requires consent, the applicable privacy choices are obtained through Google's consent tools; you may withdraw them where available. Apple, Google, Stripe and external websites also explain their own purposes and legal bases in their policies.

We do not sell your personal Moment content or use it for advertising profiles. The current app has no separate developer analytics or third-party analytics integration for your Moments. We do not use your private writing to make automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.

Storage, retention and backups

Moment history, original writing, Story records, pearls and journal discoveries are designed to remain available locally over many years. Other preferences and active state remain until changed or removed. CLAM uses Apple's app sandbox and App Group storage; security also depends on your device security, Apple software and backup settings. We do not promise that any storage system is immune to loss or unauthorised access.

CLAM does not offer its own cloud sync or cloud backup. Local app data may be included in an iCloud or computer device backup controlled by your Apple settings. Restoring a backup may restore earlier app data. Reinstallation without a suitable backup may lose local history and Access Pass progress.

Remove or change individual settings where the app provides that option. To remove the app's local data from the device, delete CLAM rather than offloading it. Offloading keeps app data. Deleting CLAM does not remove copies in device backups, cancel an Apple subscription, change a Screen Time passcode or erase payment records held by Apple, Google, Stripe or the charity.

Support correspondence is retained only as long as needed to resolve the request and meet applicable obligations. Payment and accounting records may be kept for periods required by law or needed for disputes. Advertising providers and external services apply the retention periods explained in their policies.

International processing and your rights

CLAM does not send your private Moment content abroad. Optional advertising, payment and support services may process information outside your country. Their policies describe processing locations and applicable transfer safeguards. Device backups are governed by your Apple settings and Apple's policies.

Depending on where you live and the processing involved, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of personal information, restrict processing, object to processing or withdraw consent. Rights are subject to applicable legal conditions. Contact us using the support details below for information we hold. We cannot remotely retrieve your on-device Moments or photos, and do not ask you to upload them to exercise a right.

You may also contact the provider responsible for information held by Apple, Google, Stripe or the charity. In the UK, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. Elsewhere, you can contact your local data protection authority.

Children

CLAM is not directed to children under 13. Optional sponsored messages and payments are subject to the applicable age requirements of the provider and your location. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us so we can review it. Use CLAM only where you meet its App Store age requirements and Apple's applicable rules.

Changes and contact

We update this policy when the app or its data practices change, and update the effective date above. A privacy policy is information about our practices; it is not blanket consent to new advertising or other optional processing.

Contact us at the support and privacy email above with questions or complaints about how we use your information. You can also use Privacy help in More to open an email. We will acknowledge a data-protection complaint within 30 days and respond without undue delay. You can still complain to the ICO as described above.