Surgency
Privacy Policy
Surgency is a focus-timer app. In short: your sessions, notes and projects stay on your device. The app sends only anonymous usage statistics, such as how many people open it and finish a session.
Surgency is made and published by Dan Shilov, an independent developer in the United States. "We" and "us" below means him. This policy covers the Surgency app and this website, getsurgency.com.
What the app stores on your device
The app saves the following locally on your device only, using Apple's on-device storage:
- Your focus sessions — durations, timestamps, effort ratings, and notes.
- Projects you create — names and colors.
- Your display name and app preferences.
This information stays on your device. It is never sent to us or to anyone else, and we have no access to it.
Anonymous usage statistics
To understand how many people use Surgency and where it can improve, the app sends anonymous usage statistics to TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service. They record:
- When the app is opened, including the first time.
- When a focus session is started, finished, or discarded, with its planned length and any overtime.
- The effort level you pick when you rate a session, and whether you attached a project — not which one.
With each of these, TelemetryDeck includes general information about the app and your device: the app version, device model, iOS version, language, region, time zone, screen size, display and accessibility settings (such as text size), the time of the event, and simple counts such as how many days you've used the app.
Your device is identified only by a one-way hash of an ID that is unique to Surgency on that device, so we can count devices without knowing who you are. The statistics are not linked to your identity, and they are never used for advertising or to track you.
Like any internet request, each report reaches TelemetryDeck from your device's IP address. TelemetryDeck says it keeps no copy of IP addresses, in its logs or anywhere else. The statistics are stored and processed on TelemetryDeck's servers in Germany, inside the European Union.
Why we may do this: we rely on our legitimate interest in understanding how the app is used (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). We don't ask for consent for these statistics because they cannot identify you.
Never sent: the notes you write, the names of your projects, or your display name.
Stopping them: there is no setting in the app to turn usage statistics off. Deleting the app stops them.
TelemetryDeck processes these statistics on our behalf. You can read TelemetryDeck's privacy policy for how they handle data.
No accounts, no ads, no tracking
- There is no account or login.
- There is no advertising, and the app does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
- Apart from the anonymous usage statistics above, the app includes no third-party services.
Notifications and the Lock Screen timer
With your permission, the app schedules local notifications on your device — for example, when a session finishes or a weekly summary is ready. These are generated on your device and are not routed through us. The same goes for the timer on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island (a Live Activity): it is drawn on your device and sends nothing anywhere.
Sharing you initiate
The app lets you export your data (such as a CSV file), share a weekly-summary image, or email feedback. These actions happen only when you choose them, using Apple's standard share sheet and Mail — you control what is shared and with whom. We never receive a copy.
This website
The app sends nothing to this site. The site collects the following:
- Waitlist. If you join the waitlist, your email address goes to Kit (formerly ConvertKit), the newsletter service we use, so we can tell you when Surgency launches and send occasional news about it. Nothing else is collected with it. Every email we send has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing removes you from the list; you can also write to us and we'll delete your address.
- Support form. What you type — your email address, your message, and any device details you choose to include — is delivered to us by Netlify, which hosts this site, so we can reply. We keep support messages only as long as we need them to help you; ask, and we'll delete them sooner.
- Visit recordings, only if you allow them. When you arrive on the home page, a banner asks whether we may record your visit with Fullstory, a session-recording service, so we can see how people use the page and fix what trips them up. Nothing is recorded until you choose Allow. If you do, while you're on the page it records what happens there: what the page showed you, where you click, tap and scroll, and how the pointer moves. Each recording also includes your browser, device type, screen size, the site that sent you, and your IP address, which Fullstory uses to estimate your city and country. The email box is excluded, so nothing you type into it is recorded. Recordings aren't linked to your name or your email address.
- Hosting. Like any web host, Netlify keeps brief server logs (such as IP addresses) for security and reliability.
Kit, Netlify and Fullstory process this data on our behalf and under their own privacy policies, linked above.
Cookies: only if you allow recording, Fullstory sets three first-party cookies on getsurgency.com: fs_uid recognizes a returning browser, fs_lua notes your last activity so a visit is recorded as one session, and fs_cid stores a consent setting. They last up to a year. Fullstory also keeps copies of these in your browser's local storage, plus an ID for the open tab that clears when you close it. To remember your answer either way, the site keeps one entry, recording-consent, in your browser's local storage: it holds only your answer and when you gave it, never leaves your browser, and lapses after six months, when we ask again. This site sets no other cookies, and it uses no advertising or cross-site trackers.
Where recordings go: recordings are stored on Fullstory's servers in the United States and kept for up to 12 months, then deleted.
Why we may do this: your consent (GDPR Article 6(1)(a)). Without it, nothing is recorded and no Fullstory cookies are set.
Changing your mind: choose Cookie settings at the bottom of the home page at any time. Choosing Don't allow stops recording straight away and removes Fullstory's cookies and stored data from your browser; recordings already made are deleted on the schedule above, or sooner if you ask. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, the recorder never loads and you aren't asked.
Data retention and deletion
Because your sessions, projects and notes live only on your device, you are in full control of them. Deleting the app removes all of them from your device.
Usage statistics carry no name, account, or readable identifier, so we have no way to tell which statistics came from you. We keep them, in aggregate, for as long as we maintain Surgency, and because they cannot be traced to a person there is nothing we can look up or delete for an individual request. Deleting the app stops any more from being sent.
Your waitlist address stays on the list until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it. Support messages are kept only as long as it takes to help you. Recordings of visits to the home page are deleted automatically after 12 months.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask what we hold about you (for the website, that is at most your email address, your support messages, and recordings of your visits), ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how we use it. Recordings aren't tied to your name, so to find yours we may need roughly when you visited and from which device. Email dan@getsurgency.com and we'll answer within a month. If you are in the EU or UK you can also complain to your data-protection authority.
We do not sell or share personal information, and we never have.
Children
Surgency is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us an email address, write to us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we will update this page and revise the effective date above.
Contact
Questions about this policy? Use the support form or contact Dan Shilov at dan@getsurgency.com.