Privacy policy

In effect from October 24, 2026

Who runs Daybook

Daybook is made by Jeff Smith, an independent developer. Questions about this policy or your information go to jeffreydsmith.cs@gmail.com.

Without an account

Everything you put in Daybook (your log of urges and slips, check-ins, notes, your journal, your plan, lessons, reviews and settings) is stored on your device only, or in your browser's storage when you use Daybook on the web. Daybook does not receive any of it. (The anonymous counts below, feedback you choose to send, and a tip you choose to leave, are not part of your log.)

With an account

An account is optional. When you make one, Daybook keeps:

• Your email address and password, to sign you in and, once you have confirmed it, to send you a code if you forget your password. The password is handled by Amazon Cognito and stored in a form that cannot be read back.
• If you sign in with Apple: Apple's ID for you (a random code Apple makes for Daybook) and the email Apple gives (your own, or a Hide My Email address if you chose that), kept on your account in place of a password. Daybook checks Apple's sign-in each time and keeps nothing else from Apple. When you delete the account, Daybook asks Apple once more and tells Apple to end Daybook's sign-in.
• Your records, so they are safe if you lose your phone and the same on every device: your log (times, what set things off, what helped, notes, the feelings you name, including before and after a slip), the plans you make in Talk it through and after a slip, check-ins (how you felt, how strong urges were, and how you slept), your answer to “How are you feeling today?”, your journal (each entry's feeling, what you wrote, the question it answers, and when), your plan and reasons, setup answers (which can include how much faith matters to you), Sunday reviews, lesson progress (which lessons you finished, and when), and settings.
• An account ID, a random number that your records are stored under.
• Your supporter record, if you tipped or had an account before tips opened sync (see Tips).

Your records are used for one thing: sending them back to you, on your devices, when you are signed in. They are not viewed, analyzed, sold, shared, used for ads, or used to train anything.

What Daybook never collects

• Your location, contacts, photos, browsing, or any advertising identifier.
• Tracking of any kind, and no ad or tracking code from anyone else. The only counts are the anonymous ones below, which no one can trace back to you.
• Voice notes. They stay on your phone, with or without an account.
• Anything about your reminders. Daybook's reminders are made on your phone, and the count of which ones help stays on your phone and is never sent. To time them, the phone keeps the times the app was opened for 28 days; those times stay on your phone too. The lesson reminder comes at about the time you finished your last lesson, read from your own records on the phone.

Anonymous counts

Daybook is built by one person, who needs to know whether people use it. So, without asking, the app sends two basic counts: that it was opened on a day (the act_ names below) and how far setup got (the setup_ names). Every other count below is kept on your phone and sent only if you say yes, in More, Anonymous counts. That page also turns all counts off, after which nothing is counted at all, and shows exactly what was sent last.

Once a day your phone sends, for days that are over, a short list of names and small numbers (each from 1 to 50), plus whether it is an iPhone, Android or the web and the app's version. The server adds them to totals for everyone, per day, and keeps nothing else: not who sent them, not your internet address, not the request. No count can be traced back to you, even by Daybook. These are every name that can be sent:

• act_0, act_1, act_2_6, act_7_13, act_14_29, act_30: Daybook was opened that day, and how many days after it was first opened on this device.
• back_1, back_2_3, back_4_7, back_8: Daybook was opened again after a slip, and how many days later.
• slip_logged, urge_logged: a new slip or urge was logged (only that it was, never when, why or anything written).
• sos, talk_done, lesson_done, checkin, sunrise, rk_small, rk_phone, feedback: SOS was opened, Talk it through finished, a lesson finished, a check-in saved, the sunrise check done, a Rekindle step done, feedback sent.
• tool_ and the tool's name (breathe, ground, stack, curious, pause, thought, feel, forward, move, bed, surprise, halt, message, reasons): that tool was used.
• setup_ and a setup page's name (hello, how, aim, years, freq, mins, faith, b0, b1, b2, b3, b4, heard, costs, guess, hours, when, wave, breathe, loop, person, tour, curve, tried, tries, slip, goal, reasons, ifthen, so, becoming, review, remind, account), and setup_done: how far setup got, sent once for each page.

Never sent: anything you write, what led to an urge or slip, any time of day, your log, check-ins or plan, your name, email or account.

Feedback

If you send feedback from More, Daybook keeps your words, whether you were on an iPhone, Android or the web, the app's version, and when it arrived. No name and no email are sent, unless you type an address to get a reply. Feedback is read only by the person who builds Daybook and is deleted after 180 days.

Where it is kept, and how it is protected

Account records are stored with Amazon Web Services in the United States. They travel only over encrypted connections and are encrypted where they are stored. Each request is checked against your sign-in, so one person's records can never be sent to another. The server keeps short technical logs (the time of a request and any error, never the content of your records) for 14 days, to keep it running. The counts and feedback have their own store, apart from the records, with technical logs kept for 7 days.

On your phone, you can lock Daybook with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode in Settings.

Tips and supporters

Daybook is free. A tip of $5 or more makes you a supporter, which opens sync, a safe copy of your log and the deeper stats. Everything for hard moments stays free for everyone. On iPhone you can tip with Apple's in-app purchase or on the web tip page; on the web, on the web tip page. Apple or Stripe handles the payment, under their own privacy policies (Apple, Stripe). Daybook never sees or keeps your card or bank details.

What Daybook keeps about a tip:

• Your supporter record: that it is a tip, the amount, the date, and where it came from (Apple, the web tip page, or an account from before tips opened sync). It is kept on your device, in your settings, and, if you have an account, under your account, where it decides whether your account can sync.
• The payment's reference (Apple's purchase number, or Stripe's checkout number), with the account it opened and when, so the server can check the payment with Apple or Stripe and one payment opens one account. Apple's signed receipt is checked and not kept.
• When you are signed in, your account ID goes with the tip to Apple or Stripe, so the tip opens your account. Nothing else about you or your log is sent.
• For a tip on the web tip page, the owner can see in Stripe what Stripe gives a seller: the amount, and the name and email you enter there, used only to keep records and to answer you. Apple gives the owner no name or email.

Delete my account removes your supporter record and the references linked to your account. The supporter record on your device stays after Delete everything, so a tip is never lost; deleting the app removes it.

Other companies

Amazon Web Services hosts the website and the account service. Apple and Google distribute the app. Apple and Stripe handle tip payments, and Apple handles Sign in with Apple if you use it. If you have chosen in your phone's settings to share crash reports with app developers, Apple or Google may send Daybook anonymous crash reports. No one else receives anything.

Ratings

At the end of setup, Daybook asks once whether you like it so far. Your answer is kept with your settings, only so it is not asked again, and is never sent as a count. If you say yes, the phone may show Apple's or Google's own rating sheet. A rating you leave there goes to the App Store or Google Play under their privacy policies; Daybook sees only what the store shows publicly.

How long it is kept, and deleting it

• On your device: until you delete it, or delete the app. On the website, your log is kept by your browser, which may clear it (on an iPhone, after about a week with no visit, unless Daybook is on your Home Screen).
• In your account: until you delete it.
• One entry: open the day in Pattern, tap the entry, then Delete. It is removed from your device and your account; the rest of your log and your account stay. The day keeps only a short code that says nothing about the entry, so your other devices do not bring it back. A journal entry is the same: open it in the journal, then Delete entry.
• Delete everything (in Settings) clears your log from your device and your account. Your account keeps a copy for 7 days in case it was a mistake or someone else did it, and then it is gone.
• Delete my account (in Settings, under Sync) removes your sign-in, your records and that copy. The database's own protective backups roll over and are fully gone within 35 days.
• You can also write to us and we will delete your account.

Your choices

You can see everything Daybook keeps in the app itself, and save your days and entries as a spreadsheet from Settings. You can change or delete any of it at any time. Wherever you live, if you want a copy of your information, a correction, or a deletion, write to us and it will be done, usually within a few days and always within 30.

Teenagers and children

Daybook is for anyone 16 or older who wants to change a habit, teenagers included. Information from people under 18 is kept and protected exactly as this policy says for everyone: never sold, shared, shown to anyone or used for ads. If you are under 18, a parent or another adult you trust can be a real help, if you choose to tell one.

Daybook does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. Without an account it collects nothing at all, and accounts are for people 16 and older. If you believe someone under 16 has made an account, write to us and it will be deleted.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version is posted here with a new date. A change to what is kept or who can see it is also told to you in the app first, and never applied to what you already gave without your yes.