Privacy policy.

Last updated: October 27, 2026

Refund ("the app", "we", "us") is a personal phone-overuse tool built by Sirru Technologies Inc., operating as Sirru Studio. This policy explains what data the app and this website touch, why, and where it goes.

Data the app uses

Refund asks for the following only to make specific features work. Each is used entirely on your device.

Screen Time (Family Controls)

Refund uses Apple's Screen Time framework to notice when you open apps you've chosen to watch, and to show a pause screen. The list of apps you choose and your use of them is handled on your device by Apple's framework and stored locally. Refund never sees the names of your apps as readable data, and this information is never sent anywhere.

Health (step count)

If you choose to put an app group behind walking, Refund reads your step count from Apple Health only to check whether you've reached the step goal you set. This is read-only. Refund doesn't write anything to Health, and your step data never leaves your device. If you don't use walking to unlock, this data is never accessed.

Contacts

If you add connection contacts, Refund opens Apple's standard contact picker. Refund doesn't ask for access to your contacts and never reads your address book: the picker runs outside the app and returns only the one person you tap. That person's name and phone number are saved on your device. Your contacts are never uploaded or shared.

Camera, microphone and photos

Refund lets you record short video or photo notes to your future self, or choose a photo from your library. These are saved on your device and never uploaded. Only you see them, inside the app. If you turn on Face in Pause screens, Refund shows your front camera live on some pauses so you can see yourself. That view is never recorded, saved or sent.

Notifications

Refund uses notifications for nudges and reminders. They're optional: saying no doesn't break the app.

Feedback you choose to send

Refund has a Send feedback screen in Settings, and a "Something's broken" step when you cancel Refund Pro. If, and only if, you write a message on one of them and tap Send, that message goes to the developer and is stored in a private spreadsheet.

• Nothing is sent unless you tap Send. The screen never opens by itself, and there's no background reporting.
• Bug reports also include your app version, iOS version, screen size, how many app groups you have, which levels you use, and whether Screen Time access is on. This is to reproduce the problem you describe.
• If you switch on Attach app state on a bug report, it also includes how your groups and locks are set up: levels, hours, budgets, your settings switches, active blocks, and how many apps are locked. You can read all of it first under See what's sent. It's off unless you switch it on.
• Bug reports never include your pause history, your identity statement, your notes to self, your contacts, or the names of the apps you watch.
• The email field is optional. Leave it blank and your feedback is anonymous: we have no way to identify you. If you fill it in, it's used only to reply to you.
• Feedback is kept until it's been acted on. To have yours deleted, email us at the address below.

Subscriptions

If you subscribe to Refund Pro, Apple handles the purchase with the payment details on your Apple ID. Refund never sees your card. To check and unlock your subscription, Refund uses RevenueCat, a subscription service. RevenueCat receives a random ID created for this install, your purchase records from Apple (which plan, when it started, whether it renews), and basic device details such as your country, app version and iOS version. It never receives your name, email, groups, pause history or anything else you do in the app. If you never subscribe, only the random ID and device details are sent, so the app can check you're on the free plan.

Trim (in-app browser)

Trim opens Instagram's website inside Refund, with some of its pages switched off, like Reels. You log in on Instagram's own login page, and Instagram keeps its login on your device, the way a browser does. Refund's code stays off that page: it isn't added to Instagram's login pages, and on any page with a password box it switches itself off. So Refund never sees your password or anything you type there. It never reads your messages or posts, and never stores or sends the web addresses you visit. On your phone, Refund looks at the address of each page to decide whether to show it and, for the reels limit in messages, at whether a full-screen video is playing (its size and an internal ID) so it can count reels. With Hide suggested posts on, it looks for Instagram's "Suggested posts" heading between the posts in your Home feed and hides the posts after it. It never reads text inside a post, a link or a button, so never captions, names or messages. None of this is sent anywhere. Refund keeps two things on your phone for Trim: your switch choices (like Block Reels), and a few yes-or-no notes so its first-time tips show once: whether you've seen them, and whether you've logged in once (Instagram's inbox only opens when you're logged in, so reaching it tells Refund). Separately, with the Bar in DMs switch on, Refund's code saves a copy of Instagram's bottom bar so it can show it on your chat list: each button's link and icon, and your profile photo's web address and your username. That copy is saved in Instagram's own website storage on your phone, not in Refund, and is never sent anywhere. Refund isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Meta; what you do on Instagram is covered by Instagram's own privacy policy.

Anonymous analytics

To learn whether the app is working for people, Refund sends a small set of anonymous events to PostHog, an analytics service, stored in the European Union. The events are: opening and closing the Refund Pro screen, picking a plan, tapping buy or restore and whether it worked (and whether a purchase was a test one or started a free trial), which setup screens you reached, what you did on the screen for your first app group (opening Apple's app list or closing it with nothing picked, seeing the free plan's one-app message and which button you tapped, saving your pick as the group, tapping Later, leaving the app, and whether you watched the short film after saving it), finishing setup, creating your first app group (only its level), starting and finishing the walkthrough shown on your first group, opening Instagram in Trim and how often a page there is switched off (only the site's name, never a web address), the steps of cancelling Refund Pro (the reason you pick from a fixed list of five, which of two price offers you were shown and whether you took it, and whether you turned on the one-month check-in), that you opened Refund on a given day (sent once a day at most, with nothing about what you did in it), making, changing or removing an app group (each step, and where it stopped if it did, with only the group's level), starting Block now and whether you extended it or ended it early (not how long it ran), the free plan's limit message, which button you tapped, and whether it offered the free trial, whether you allowed Screen Time and notifications during setup, and, if a step of setup didn't work as it should, which step (one of a fixed list, never your apps or what you picked). If Refund breaks, it sends which screen it was on and whether the app closed, never what you were doing or any details of the error. Each event carries a random ID created for this install, basic device details (device model, iOS version, app version, language, time zone), and whether this copy of Refund is a test copy (from TestFlight or Apple's review, or a phone we marked as one of ours), so tests can be left out of the numbers. Your IP address is discarded. Events never include your name, identity statement, notes, contacts, the apps you watch, the pages you visit in Trim, why you picked up your phone, or your pause history. We don't record your screen, and nothing is used for advertising or shared with anyone else.

App updates

Refund can get small fixes without a new App Store version, using Expo (the toolkit Refund is built with). Each time you open the app, it asks Expo's update server whether there's a newer version, and downloads it if there is. The request includes a random ID the update system creates for this install, which version and release of Refund you have, and that your phone runs iOS. If the app hit a serious error the last time it ran, it also includes a short technical description of that error, so a broken update can be spotted. Like any request over the internet, it carries your IP address. It never includes your name, groups, notes, pause history or anything you do in the app.

Where your data is stored

Everything Refund creates (your groups, settings, identity statement, notes, pause history) is stored on your device. Refund doesn't use any advertising network or cross-app tracking, and there's no account to sign in to. Apart from the details described above and feedback you choose to send, we have no way to access anything on your device.

Data deletion

Deleting Refund deletes your groups, settings, notes and pause history. iOS keeps one small record after the app is deleted, in your iPhone's Keychain: when Refund was first installed, which versions you've had, when Refund Pro first started, and how many times it's been reinstalled. Refund uses it to recognise a returning install. It never leaves your phone.

The only things we hold are feedback you chose to send and, if you joined them, the Android waitlist or the Time Thief beta list (below). To have any of it deleted, email us.

This website

sirrustudio.com and therefundapp.com are the same site, hosted by Cloudflare. It doesn't use cookies or ads, and it doesn't follow you to other sites.

Visiting the site

Like any website, our host receives your IP address and basic browser details when you load a page, to deliver it and to protect the site from attacks.

Prices for your country

On the pricing page, Cloudflare tells the site which country you're in (worked out from your IP address) so it can show your local prices. We don't store it.

Visitor counts

We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics. It doesn't use cookies, doesn't store anything on your device and doesn't follow you across other sites. It records the page you visited, the site that linked you here, your country, your browser, device type and operating system, and how quickly the page loaded.

What we count on the site

To see which posts and ads bring people to Refund, the site counts two things: a page visit, and a tap on an App Store link. Each count goes to our own server first, which passes it on to PostHog, the same analytics service the app uses (stored in the European Union).

A count records the page, where you came from (like Instagram, TikTok or Website), any campaign tags in the link you followed (the utm_ labels some links carry), which button you tapped, and whether you're on an iPhone, an iPad, an Android phone or a computer. It also carries a random number that links a visit to a tap on the same page. The number is made fresh on every page and never stored.

Nothing else is sent. PostHog never receives your IP address, doesn't work out where you are, and makes no profile of you. Nothing is stored on your device.

Short links

Our short links, like therefundapp.com/get, send you to the App Store. On the way, our server counts the tap the same way: which link, the app or site you opened it from (like TikTok or Reddit), and whether you're on a phone or a computer.

Where downloads come from

The site's App Store links carry a short label saying where you came from, like TikTok, Reddit or Website. The page works it out in your browser, from the ad you tapped, the app you opened the site in or the site that linked you here. If you tap the link, Apple shows us how many downloads came from each label, as totals only. The label doesn't identify you, and nothing is stored on your device.

Android waitlist

If you join the Android waitlist, we store your email address and the time you joined, in a database at Cloudflare. We use it only to email you when Refund is on Android, and we don't share it. It's kept until you ask us to remove it or the waitlist closes. To be removed, email us.

Time Thief beta list

If you join the Time Thief beta list, we store your email address, the time you joined and which version of the sign-up wording you agreed to, in a database at Cloudflare. We use it only to email you about the Time Thief beta, and we don't share it.

Every email we send you has an unsubscribe link. If you use it, we won't email you again. To have your email removed from the beta list completely, email us.

Children

Refund isn't directed at children under 13 and doesn't knowingly collect data from anyone.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new "Last updated" date.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your privacy: support@sirrustudio.com