1. Who is responsible
Carbon Lite is operated by Elias Branchereau, based in Sweden. This policy covers the Carbon Lite iPhone app and its pages under /lite on getcarbon.org and carbonapp.org. The separate Carbon app has different features and is not covered by this policy.
Privacy contact: eliasbranchereau@gmail.com.
2. Screen Time and app blocking
With your Screen Time authorization, Carbon Lite uses Apple’s Family Controls, Managed Settings and Device Activity frameworks to select and restrict apps, categories and websites. Apple supplies privacy-preserving selection identifiers. The app stores these identifiers, schedules, blocking preferences, and timing or allowance state locally so the rules can work, including through its iOS blocking extensions.
Carbon Lite does not upload your selection or app-usage state to the developer. It does not collect the contents of your messages, passwords or the pages you read. You can revoke Screen Time authorization in iPhone Settings; blocking features then cannot operate as intended.
3. Location and Apple Maps
Location rules use your precise location to check whether you have arrived at, entered or left a chosen zone. With Always location access, iOS can trigger checks in the background. The app saves each chosen place’s name, coordinates and radius, plus recent presence or completion state and timestamps. It does not build a travel-history log or send your live location to the developer.
The map, place search and address lookup use Apple Maps services. Search terms and coordinates used for map or address requests can be processed by Apple under its Maps privacy notice. You can change location access and Precise Location in iPhone Settings. Disabling them can prevent location rules from updating.
4. Apple Health
With your permission, Carbon Lite reads step counts, walking and running distance, and workouts from Apple Health to evaluate daily movement goals. Workout checks use the activity type, time and duration; manually entered samples are excluded. The app requests read access only: it does not add, edit or delete Health records.
Health queries run on the device and may refresh in the background. Carbon Lite saves the latest goal result, its date and the corresponding rule identifier locally, rather than copying your Health database. Health data and derived goal progress are not sent to the developer, used for advertising, or sold. Review or revoke access in the Health app or iPhone Settings. Revoking access stops future reads but does not erase previously saved goal results.
5. Local storage and deletion
Rules, selected places, movement targets, latest results, app-selection identifiers, schedules and preferences are stored in iOS preferences storage, including an App Group shared only by Carbon Lite and its blocking extensions. Carbon Lite does not provide its own cloud sync. Device or iCloud backups can include app data according to your Apple settings.
Settings and rules remain until changed, deleted or app data is removed. Latest progress and presence state may remain until replaced or cleaned up; the midnight reset of a goal is not a promise that every stored value is erased. Removing a rule stops it applying, subject to any active Hard Mode delay. Some cached state may remain locally. Delete the app rather than offloading it to remove its device data, and separately manage retained backups in Apple’s settings. This does not delete your original Apple Health records. The developer cannot remotely retrieve or erase data held only on your phone.
6. Analytics and Apple diagnostics
Carbon Lite includes no advertising, cross-app tracking, third-party analytics or third-party crash-reporting SDK. It has no account registration, social profile, or AI photo-verification service. Apple’s platform services are separate from this.
If you use a TestFlight beta, Apple automatically collects and shares crash logs, installation and usage information, and submitted feedback with the developer. It can include device and OS details and, depending on how you joined or submitted feedback, contact details and screenshots. We use it to diagnose problems and improve Carbon Lite. See TestFlight & Privacy.
For an App Store version, Apple may share diagnostics and aggregated app analytics according to your Apple sharing settings. You can manage these in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements. See Apple’s analytics privacy notice. Reports kept in Apple’s tools follow Apple’s retention and availability rules. Diagnostic copies kept with a support case follow the support retention period below.
7. When you contact support
If you email us, we receive your email address, any name you provide, message content and attachments. We use these to answer your request and troubleshoot. Messages are handled through Gmail (Google). Please avoid sending precise home addresses, private Health records or passwords.
Support messages and attached diagnostic copies are kept for up to 12 months after the request is resolved, then deleted, unless an ongoing dispute or legal requirement requires longer retention. You can ask us to delete them sooner, subject to those exceptions.
8. Website data and cookies
The Lite website is hosted through OpenAI Sites and delivered and protected by Cloudflare. Visiting it sends normal web-request information, such as IP address, requested URL, request time and browser/device headers, to the hosting and security providers for delivery, reliability and abuse prevention. This is separate from your app’s location and Health data. The website does not request access to either.
We have not added advertising pixels or a visitor-analytics service. Cloudflare uses bot-protection scripts and security cookies, including __cf_bm, which expires after 30 minutes of inactivity. Provider network data is retained according to their operational/security needs and published policies; our website code does not create a separate visitor database. See Cloudflare’s cookie notice.
Your language choice is saved in your browser’s local storage (carbon-lite-language) until you change it or clear site data. This preference is read in the browser and is not sent to a Carbon account. You can clear or block site storage in your browser settings; this may reset the language or affect security checks.
9. Service providers and international processing
Apple provides Screen Time, location, Maps, Health, distribution and diagnostics services. Google handles support email. OpenAI Sites and Cloudflare handle the website. These providers may process service data outside Sweden or the EEA. Their notices describe their own processing, retention and international-transfer arrangements: Apple, Google, OpenAI and Cloudflare.
We use these services for the purposes described above. We do not send your locally stored rules, location checks or Health goal results to a developer-operated server. Contact us if you need more information about a provider or the transfer safeguards applicable to your request.
10. Legal bases and your choices
Where the GDPR applies, the legal bases are providing the app functionality you request (performance of a contract), consent for optional location and Health features, including explicit consent for Health data where required, and legitimate interests in responding to support requests, fixing faults and securing the website. We may also keep information where legally required. Supplying data is not a statutory requirement; without the relevant permission, the corresponding app feature cannot work. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing already lawfully carried out.
Depending on applicable law, you can request access, correction, deletion, restriction or portability of personal data we hold, object to processing based on legitimate interests, and withdraw consent. Email the privacy contact above. We may need proportionate information to verify a request. For data held only on your iPhone, use the app and Apple’s controls; we cannot identify or export a remote copy that we do not hold. Blocking follows the rules you choose on your device; we do not use it for profiling or decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.
You can complain to Sweden’s privacy authority, Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY), or your local supervisory authority.
11. Changes to this policy
We will update this page and its date if Carbon Lite’s data handling changes. Material new uses of data or new optional permissions will be explained before they apply, with consent requested where required.