Privacy Policy

We wrote this policy to describe what the app actually does — nothing more, nothing less.

1.Who operates Pause

Pause is developed and operated by Renz Marion Dulay, an independent developer based in the Philippines ("Pause", "we", "us").

For any privacy question or request, contact:

Email: support.pauseapp@gmail.com

2.Information Pause collects

You can use most of Pause without creating an account. When you use Pause as a guest, your information stays on your device. When you sign in, certain categories below also sync to your account so your data can follow you across devices.

Account and authentication information

Signing in is optional. If you sign in with Apple or Google, our authentication provider (Supabase) receives and stores:

your email address
your name, if your sign-in provider shares it
a provider identifier and an account identifier created for your Pause account

Pause never sees or stores your Apple ID or Google password.

Profile and onboarding preferences

your preferred name, used to personalize greetings
your onboarding answers, such as your reasons for using Pause, what tends to get in the way, preferred moments in the day, preferred pause length, and an age range

Mood check-ins and wellness activity

mood check-ins (the mood category you select and when you selected it)
pause, breathing, and focus session records (session type, category, duration, completion state, and timestamps)
streaks, daily activity summaries, and aggregated weekly activity snapshots built from the records above

Journal entries

Journal entries you write in Pause are stored on your device. If you are signed in and you turn on the optional journal cloud backup setting (it is off by default), your journal entries are also backed up to your account. See "Journal privacy" below.

App settings and notification preferences

appearance, personalization, and feature settings
notification preferences and reminder times

Reminders are scheduled locally on your device. Pause does not use push-notification servers and does not collect notification tokens.

Subscription and entitlement information

If you purchase Pause Premium, Apple processes the payment. Pause never receives your full card or bank details. To manage your subscription status, our subscription provider (RevenueCat) receives purchase and transaction information from Apple (such as product, price, currency, purchase and renewal dates, and trial status) together with an app-user identifier — your Pause account identifier when you are signed in, or an anonymous identifier otherwise. Your current entitlement status is also mirrored to your Pause account so the app knows what you have access to.

Apple Music

If you choose to connect Apple Music, playback happens on your device through Apple's MusicKit. Pause checks your authorization status and subscription capability to enable the feature. Pause does not upload your Apple Music library, playlists, or listening history to its servers. You can revoke Apple Music access at any time in your device Settings.

Technical and diagnostic information

Pause does not include advertising SDKs, cross-app tracking, third-party product-analytics SDKs, or crash-reporting SDKs. Pause itself does not collect device identifiers in the background, and it does not build an advertising or tracking profile of you.

However, like any app that connects to the internet, Pause cannot make the same promise on behalf of the services it connects to. When the app communicates with a service provider (for example to sign in, sync, check your subscription, or — when you use an AI-powered feature with AI Personalization turned on — request generated text), that provider automatically receives limited service information needed to handle the request, which may include:

your IP address
request metadata, such as timing and the type of request
identifiers the provider itself generates for your account or session with it
authentication and operational status
security and error information

This information is used to operate, secure, and troubleshoot those services. It is not used by Pause for advertising or tracking.

If you choose to send feedback from Settings, the prepared email includes the app version, your iOS version, and your device model so we can help you. You can see and edit this information in the email before sending it.

AI feature inputs and outputs

When you enable AI Personalization and use an eligible AI-powered feature, Pause sends limited structured inputs to Google Gemini and receives generated text back. If you have not given that permission, nothing is sent to any AI provider. This is described in full in "AI processing" below.

3.Journal privacy

Your journal is the most personal part of Pause, and it is treated that way:

Journal entries are stored on your device. They are backed up to your account only if you are signed in and you have turned on the journal cloud backup setting, which is off by default.
Backed-up journal entries are protected by per-account access controls designed to prevent other users of Pause from reading them. Access by authorized provider or developer personnel is limited to what is needed to operate and secure the service, troubleshoot a problem, comply with the law, or respond to a request you make. We do not read your journals for any other purpose, and we do not use them to build features.
Raw journal entries are not sent to Google Gemini or any other AI provider.
Journal-derived information — including titles, excerpts, summaries, sentiment, classifications, and even the number of journal entries you have written — is not sent to any AI provider.
The "Journal AI Insights" feature shown in Settings is not active. It is marked "Coming Soon" and cannot be enabled.
If a journal-aware AI feature ships in the future, it will require your separate, explicit opt-in, and this Privacy Policy will be updated before any journal content is processed by AI.

4.AI processing

Current status

Pause sends information to Google Gemini only when you have chosen to turn AI Personalization on and you use an eligible AI-powered feature. That permission is off by default, so if you have never turned it on, nothing about you leaves your device for AI purposes.

The standard grounding messages shown without AI Personalization are selected from a library of messages written by us and stored in the app; no external AI service is involved in them, and the app never labels them otherwise.

What the AI features are

Pause uses Google Gemini, an external AI service provided by Google, for two Premium features:

deeper personalized grounding messages, and
weekly reflections, after enough activity to have something to reflect on.

Pause accesses Gemini through a paid Google Cloud project with billing enabled. Requests are sent from Pause's own server, not from the app.

Your permission comes first

Pause will not send anything to Google Gemini unless you have given explicit permission for it, through a dedicated screen that explains what would be sent. That permission is off by default.

Buying Pause Premium does not give this permission.
Accepting these documents does not give this permission.
You can withdraw the permission at any time in Settings under "AI Personalization". Withdrawing it stops future AI requests. It does not cancel your subscription or affect any other feature.
If we materially change what is sent or what it is used for, we will ask you again rather than rely on your earlier permission.

What is sent

When an AI feature runs with your permission, Pause sends only the following categories:

the mood category you selected
a broad time-of-day bucket (such as morning or evening) — never an exact time
bounded, aggregated statistics about your recent activity: your mood-category distribution, mood changes represented as category-to-category pairs, counts of completed pauses and their categories, breathing and focus session counts, total and average session duration, a completion rate, broad time-of-day buckets, the number of days covered and days you were active, a count of meaningful activity events, and indicators of how much data there is
an aggregated indication of whether pauses have tended to help
short fixed labels for patterns Pause itself computed from those statistics (for example, a label meaning "breathing sessions were often followed by feeling a little lighter"), so the AI can only refer to patterns Pause calculated — it is not given raw records to find patterns in
your onboarding preferences as fixed categories (such as your preferred pause length), never as free text
the requested output language, and generic tone, safety, and formatting instructions

What is never sent

journal entries or any journal-derived information — including titles, excerpts, summaries, sentiment, classifications, and even the number of journal entries you have written
your name, preferred name, or nickname
your email address
your Pause account identifier, Apple or Google account identifiers, or subscription identifiers
device identifiers, notification tokens, or authentication credentials
payment or receipt information
your precise location
exact timestamps, where a broad time bucket conveys what the feature needs
any other free text you have written

What Google does with it

Google processes what is submitted in order to generate the text the feature shows you.
Google states that prompts and responses submitted through its paid services are not used to improve its general products. Pause uses the paid service.
Google may retain the prompt, contextual information, and the generated output for up to 55 days for abuse monitoring, safety, policy enforcement, and required legal or regulatory disclosures. This retention happens regardless of your Pause account, and withdrawing your permission does not reach records Google has already created.
Content flagged by those checks may be reviewed by authorized Google personnel.
Google also receives the technical information any online service receives in order to serve a request, such as an IP address and request metadata.

Important limits

The inputs above are designed to exclude direct identifiers, but information about your moods and patterns may still be considered personal information in some places, and we treat it that way rather than calling it anonymous.

AI-generated content may be inaccurate, incomplete, or repetitive. It is offered for general wellness and personal reflection only. It is not medical, psychological, psychiatric, crisis, legal, financial, or other professional advice, and it is not a substitute for a qualified professional.

AI features are available to adults only. Because our AI provider's terms require it, Pause does not make AI features available to anyone under 18.

Journals and AI

No journal content or journal-derived information is sent to any AI provider in this version of Pause. The "Journal AI Insights" feature shown in Settings is not active and cannot be enabled. If a journal-aware AI feature ships in the future, it will require your separate, explicit permission, and this policy will be updated before any journal content is processed by AI.

5.Purposes of processing

Pause uses your information to:

provide the app's core features (mood check-ins, pauses, breathing and focus sessions, journaling, insights)
personalize your experience, such as greetings, suggested pauses, and mood-based themes
sync your data across devices when you are signed in
manage subscriptions, trials, and purchase restoration
generate grounding messages and weekly reflections through the AI processing described above
deliver the local reminders you have enabled
maintain the security and reliability of the service
respond to your support requests and meet legal obligations

6.Service providers

Pause shares information only with the service providers needed to run the app:

Supabase — provides authentication and hosts your Pause account and the data synced to it (profile, settings, mood and session history, weekly insight data, and journal backups when you enable them). Supabase also hosts the Pause server function that makes AI requests when you use an AI-powered feature with AI Personalization turned on.
RevenueCat — handles subscription and entitlement information so your Premium access works reliably. This works with an anonymous app-user identifier when you are not signed in, and with your Pause account identifier when you are.
Apple — processes payments through the App Store, and provides Sign in with Apple and Apple Music/MusicKit.
Google — provides Sign in with Google; the Gemini paid API described in "AI processing" above, used only with your AI Personalization permission; and the Gmail-hosted mailbox that receives support email.

If you email support, Google processes that message as the host of our support mailbox. That includes your sender email address, the contents of your message, any attachments you include, and any diagnostic details you choose to send (such as the app, iOS, and device information pre-filled by the in-app feedback option).

Pause does not sell your personal information, and it does not share your information for targeted advertising.

7.Data retention and deletion

Data on your device stays there until you delete it in the app or remove the app from your device.
If you use Pause as a guest, there is no Pause account holding your data in the cloud, so there is nothing on our servers to delete. Your guest data stays on your device and is removed when you delete it in the app or remove the app. (A purchase you make as a guest is still handled by Apple and RevenueCat as described above.)
Pause keeps each person's on-device data separate. Guest data and each signed-in account's data are stored in their own space on the device, and only the one you are currently using is readable in the app. If more than one person signs in on the same device, one account cannot see another account's journals, mood history, sessions, name, onboarding answers, custom pauses, insights, settings, or AI permission.
If you have been using Pause as a guest and then sign in for the first time on that device, the guest data already on the device is associated with the account you signed into, so you can carry on where you left off. This happens once, only for the first account to sign in on that device, and it does not by itself upload anything — journals are still only backed up if you turn on journal cloud backup. Data is never combined between two different accounts.
Signing out does not delete the data stored on your device for that account. It hides it: the app returns to guest mode, and that account's data becomes readable again only when the same account signs in again on that device.
Data synced to your account is kept while your account remains active.
You can permanently delete your Pause account from inside the app: open Settings and choose "Delete account." This deletes your account and the data synced to it — your profile, onboarding responses, mood history, pause, focus and breathing records, weekly insight data, saved settings, and any journals you chose to back up. After the account deletion succeeds, the local Pause data on your device — including local journals and drafts — is removed. If you cannot access your account, email support.pauseapp@gmail.com and we will help.
Deleting your Pause account does not cancel an active App Store subscription — manage or cancel that in your Apple ID settings. Deleting the Pause app also does not cancel a subscription.
Records of purchases may be retained by Apple and RevenueCat as required for accounting, fraud prevention, and legal compliance; deleting your Pause account does not delete Apple's or RevenueCat's own transaction records.
When you use an AI feature with your permission, Google may retain what was sent and generated for up to 55 days for abuse monitoring, as described in "AI processing". Deleting your Pause account or withdrawing your AI permission does not shorten that period or reach records Google has already created.
If you email support, your message stays in our support mailbox for as long as needed to respond to you, keep a record of the request, prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations.

Account deletion runs immediately when you confirm it in the app, and your synced data is removed as part of that operation. We have not set a separate published timeframe for backup expiry, so this policy does not state one rather than name a period we cannot stand behind.

8.Security

Pause relies on reasonable technical safeguards: data is encrypted in transit, synced data is protected by per-account access controls, and the app is built so that provider secret keys live on the server rather than inside the app. AI requests are made by our server — the app never holds an AI provider key. No app or service can guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your information and to minimize what is collected in the first place.

9.International processing

Our service providers (Supabase, RevenueCat, Apple, and Google) may store and process data on servers located in other countries, including the United States. Where they do, your information is handled under their applicable safeguards and terms.

10.Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live — including under the Philippine Data Privacy Act and similar laws elsewhere — you may have rights to access, correct, or delete your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent you have given.

You can exercise many of these choices directly in Pause where a setting exists — for example, permanently deleting your account in Settings under "Delete account," turning AI personalization on or off in Settings under "AI Personalization," turning journal cloud backup off, disabling notifications, or revoking Apple Music access in device Settings. For anything else — access, correction, deletion help when you cannot access the app, withdrawal of consent, or general privacy questions — email support.pauseapp@gmail.com and we will respond as soon as we reasonably can.

11.Children

Pause is intended for adults. The app is designed for people aged 18 and older, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has provided personal information through Pause, contact us and we will delete it.

12.Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy — for example, if a new feature processes new categories of data — we will update the effective date above and communicate the change in the app before it applies. Questions and requests can always be sent to support.pauseapp@gmail.com.