PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy explains what Backmonkey collects. Backmonkey is a personal project operated by Sebastian Larsen, an individual, not a company ("we", "us"). It explains what we collect when you use the Backmonkey app and website, why, who sees it, and what control you have. It is written to be read. If anything here is unclear, ask us.
1. The short version
- We collect what we need to run the app: your account, your monkeys, your check-ins, and, if you pledge, the records needed to charge you correctly.
- We never see or store your card number. Stripe does.
- We do not sell your data, we do not run ads, and the app currently contains no analytics or tracking SDK.
- People you keep a monkey with can see your name and how the monkey is doing, including pledge amounts on paid crews. That is the product.
2. What we collect
2.1 Account
- Email address and a password hash, if you sign up with email.
- Your Apple user identifier and, if you share it, the name and email Apple passes to us, if you use Sign in with Apple.
- The first name and last initial you enter for your profile.
2.2 Monkeys and habits
- Each monkey's name, species, personality, and the habit it represents (what you want to stop, log, or build).
- The system you build for it: your cue, tiny action, friction, identity statement, and reward style.
- Everything you log: check-ins and their outcomes, slips, cravings caught, techniques used, rest days, weekly targets, proof labels, reflections, and notes (up to 250 characters each).
- Streaks, lives, comebacks, and the server's day-by-day judgment record for each monkey.
- Your device time zone, which the app uses to decide when a day starts and ends.
2.3 Pledges and payments
If you place a pledge:
- The pledge amount, mode, window dates, and the time zone frozen for it.
- The exact wording of the pledge terms you accepted and when you accepted them.
- The append-only ledger of each judged day and any corrections, and every settlement attempt and its outcome.
- Identifiers that Stripe assigns to you, your saved payment method, and each charge. These are reference tokens. Your card number, expiry, and security code go directly from your device to Stripe and never touch our servers.
2.4 Crews and tribes
Memberships, invites you create or accept, when you join or leave, your consent to shared-stakes rules, and nudges sent between members.
2.5 Notifications
If you allow notifications, a push token for your device and its platform, used only to deliver reminders and crew events. Crew events include a member's check-in, a nudge, a member leaving, a revival or re-invite, and a shared or tribe monkey dying. A death notification names the monkey and, where the crew can already see it, the day it fell.
2.6 Feedback and support
What you write when you send feedback, contact us in the app or by email, request a refund, or tell us you cannot pay a settlement, along with your account identifier so we can reply. A refund or can't-pay request also carries the pledge identifier, the monkey's name, the amount, and the charge date, so we can find the charge you mean.
2.7 Camera
Some check-ins let you snap a photo as a reset ritual. The image is shown on your screen and discarded. Photos are never saved or uploaded.
2.8 What we do not collect
We do not collect precise location, contacts, health data, advertising identifiers, or browsing history. We do not use third-party analytics or crash-reporting SDKs at this time. If we add one, we will update this policy first.
2.9 The website
Our website at trybackmonkey.com is a static site. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics. Its host keeps standard server logs (your IP address, browser type, and the pages you request) for a limited time to operate and secure the site. The site loads its font from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address when a page loads.
3. Why we use it
- To run the app: store your monkeys, judge days, keep streaks, and sync across your devices.
- To run pledges: save a payment method, calculate what you owe under the rules you accepted, charge it, send receipts, retry failed charges, and respond to disputes.
- To run crews and tribes: show members one another's progress and send crew notifications.
- To send reminders you asked for.
- To answer your feedback and support requests.
- To keep the Service secure and to enforce our Terms.
- To meet legal obligations, including tax and payment-network rules.
We rely on the performance of our contract with you for most of this, on your consent for notifications and camera access, and on our legitimate interests for security and dispute handling.
4. Who sees your data
4.1 Other users
- Crew members (people keeping the same shared monkey) see your first name and last initial, your identity statement, whether you checked in each day, your slip and miss status, notes you attach to the monkey, and, on a paid crew, the amount you committed, defended, and lost.
- Tribe members (people whose separate monkeys share a tribe) see your name, your monkey's progress, and your committed, defended, and lost amounts on any paid monkey in the tribe.
- Invite recipients see the monkey's name, habit, seat count, and, on a paid crew, the buy-in, before they accept.
Nobody outside your crews and tribes can see your monkeys.
4.2 Service providers
We use a small number of providers who process data on our behalf under contract:
- Supabase hosts our database, authentication, and server functions.
- Stripe stores payment methods and processes charges. Stripe's own privacy policy governs what it collects directly from you.
- Expo delivers push notifications to your device.
- Apple provides Sign in with Apple and app distribution.
- Notion stores feedback, support, and refund requests you send us so our team can respond.
- Vercel hosts the website and its DNS.
- ImprovMX and Google (Gmail) deliver and store email you send to our support address.
4.3 Legal and safety
We will disclose data when the law requires it, to respond to a valid legal request, to handle a payment dispute, or to protect the rights and safety of users and the public.
4.4 Business transfers
If Backmonkey is ever transferred to a company or another operator, your data may transfer with it under this policy.
We do not sell personal data and we do not share it with advertisers.
5. Retention
- Monkeys, check-ins, and notes stay until you delete the monkey or your account.
- Deleting a monkey permanently removes it and its proof, reflections, and notes. There is no undo.
- Pledge, ledger, and settlement records are kept for one year after settlement so we can answer a payment dispute, then deleted. Our payment processor keeps its own record of each charge under its policy. Deleting a monkey with an open or unpaid pledge is not possible until it settles.
- Push tokens are removed when you sign out or disable notifications.
- Feedback and support messages are kept while we may need them to help you. Refund and can't-pay requests are kept with the settlement records they concern.
6. Your choices and rights
- Delete monkeys any time from Settings.
- Delete your account from Settings. It is available once you have no open pledge and no pending charge. It leaves any monkey you keep with others, deletes the rest, and removes your account and its data, keeping only the payment records described above.
- Notifications can be turned off in your device settings at any time.
- Camera access can be revoked in your device settings; check-ins that use it will simply skip the photo.
- Payment method can be updated in the app.
- Transaction history is available in Settings, listing every completed and pending charge.
Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to access, correct, export, or erase your personal data, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to complain to a supervisory authority. Email us at support@trybackmonkey.com and we will respond within 30 days. We will not treat you differently for exercising a right.
7. Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Access to your records is enforced at the database level so that only you and the members of your crews and tribes can read what you are entitled to see; all writes that affect money, lives, or judgments run on the server, not on your device. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your login private and tell us if something looks wrong.
8. Children
Backmonkey is for adults. You must be 18 or older to use it. If we learn that we hold data from someone under 18, we will delete it.
9. International users
We operate from the United States and store data there. If you use Backmonkey from elsewhere, your data is transferred to and processed in the United States.
10. Changes
We will post any change here with a new effective date and, for material changes, notify you in the app. Adding a new category of data collection or a new type of sharing counts as material.
11. Contact
Backmonkey is operated by Sebastian Larsen.
You can also reach us from Settings in the app.