UnPull

Privacy

Effective October 18, 2026

UnPull has no account, no advertising, no analytics service, and no server of its own. What you write and do in it isn’t sent to the developer or anyone else.

What stays on your device

  • Your journal. Each check-in (the day’s mood, and any context or note you add) and the time of each pause you finish. On iPhone and iPad it’s protected by the device’s file encryption. On the Mac it’s kept in UnPull’s own folder with private file permissions. It’s left out of device backups.
  • Your progress and settings. Your steady start date, any slips, your longest stretch, what you’ve read in Roots, your if-then plans, and your choices in Settings. These are stored the way apps usually store settings, so they can be part of your device’s backups.
  • What UnPull’s own parts share. Protect’s settings (its schedule, your Screen Time choices, and any sites and words you add) are kept where UnPull’s blockers and widgets on your device can read them, along with the times your widgets show.

Protect

  • Safari. Safari applies UnPull’s list of adult sites itself. The Pause Page extension checks the address of each page against the list on your device, keeps no record of it, and sends nothing to any server. Safari’s settings warn that it could see your browsing history and send information to websites, as they do for any extension that can open one page in place of another; that’s what lets the Pause Page take a blocked site’s place.
  • Screen Time. On iPhone and iPad, UnPull uses Apple’s Screen Time to block the apps and sites you choose. Apple gives UnPull coded tokens for your choices rather than their names, and the blocking happens on your device.
  • Deep Block on the Mac. UnPull’s filter reads only the name of each site your browsers and apps open, checks it on your Mac against UnPull’s list and yours, and keeps no record. Other lookups go unchanged to the DNS server your Mac already uses, which is also asked for search engines’ SafeSearch addresses. When the filter turns a site away, it tells UnPull which app opened it, never the site.

Talk It Through

Talk It Through answers with Apple’s model that runs on your device. Apple’s cloud model isn’t used, and what you say isn’t sent to UnPull or anyone else. To help, it’s told your days steady, up to three short phrases from the context of your recent check-ins (never your notes), up to three of your plans, and whether Bible verses are on. The conversation is held in memory only and erased when you close it.

Apple Watch

  • What your Watch receives. If you use UnPull on Apple Watch, your iPhone shares with it the dates of your pauses and check-ins, your branch, your days steady if you show them, your anchor and reminder settings, and Protect’s status, and your if-then plans only if you choose to share them. Your notes, and the apps, sites, and words you block, stay on your iPhone.
  • What it sends back. Pauses you finish and check-ins you save on the Watch (the mood, and a context if you pick one) stay on the Watch until your iPhone has them. A context from the Watch fills in an empty one but never replaces words you wrote. They travel between your paired devices, never through a server of UnPull’s.
  • Heart-rate check-ins. These are off until you turn them on. With your permission, UnPull reads only Apple Watch’s high-heart-rate events from Apple Health, never your heart rate itself, to ask whether a moment would help. That health information stays on your Watch: it isn’t sent to your iPhone, iCloud, the developer, or anyone else, or used for advertising, and your answers aren’t kept. You can turn this off in UnPull on your Watch, or change Health access in your Watch’s settings, at any time.

iCloud

iCloud is off until you turn it on. When it’s on, UnPull keeps one record in your private iCloud database, which the developer can’t see, so your devices stay in step: your check-ins with their notes, your pauses, your steady count and slips, your Roots progress, and a few display choices. Protect’s settings and your plans stay on each device. When you set up UnPull on a device, it looks in your private iCloud database for an earlier copy so it can offer to bring it back.

UnPull Premium

Apple sells UnPull Premium through the App Store and handles your payment. UnPull checks on your device whether your Apple Account has a plan, and never receives your payment details, your name, or your email. If you start the free week, UnPull can schedule one notification on your device for the day before it ends.

Everything else

  • Reminders. The daily reminder is scheduled on your device, and a pause reminder you set on Apple Watch is scheduled on your Watch.
  • App Lock. Your device checks your Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode. UnPull never receives them.
  • Links to help. Therapist search, helplines, and groups open in your browser or phone. Those services have their own privacy policies.

Erasing your data

  • Erase Reflections and Progress, in Settings, removes your check-ins, notes, pauses, Roots progress, and steady count, including the iCloud copy if iCloud is on.
  • Reset UnPull also deletes the iCloud copy, and turns off Protect, the reminder, App Lock, and Bible verses.
  • Your if-then plans stay until you delete them.
  • On Apple Watch, Remove Unsynced Watch History, in UnPull’s settings there, removes Watch records your iPhone doesn’t have yet. Turning off the Apple Watch companion on your iPhone clears what it shared the next time your Watch connects.
  • On the Mac, removing the app doesn’t remove its data. Use Erase Reflections and Progress or Reset UnPull first.

Children

UnPull is meant for adults and isn’t directed to children.

Changes

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

Questions

Questions about privacy are welcome at support@unpull.app, or through the Support page.