Gambit LockPrivacy policy
Gambit Lock for iPhone, version 1.0. Last updated November 4, 2026.
The short version
- Gambit Lock doesn’t collect your personal data. There’s no account, no server of ours, no analytics, no ads and no third-party SDK in the app.
- What the app remembers, such as your rating and streak, is stored on your iPhone.
- Screen Time gives the app private tokens for what you lock, not a list of your apps, and the app doesn’t read how long you use them.
- Apple handles payments. We never see your card or your name.
- If analytics is added later, you’ll be asked first and this policy will change before it ships.
Who we are
Gambit Lock is an independent app, not part of a larger company. “We” in this policy means the people behind it. Questions go to support@gambitlock.com.
What we collect through the app
Nothing. The app has no networking code of its own and no third-party SDKs, so it doesn’t send us your data. Its privacy manifests declare no collected data and no tracking. We don’t sell or share personal data, and we don’t track you across apps or websites.
The app connects to Apple’s services for purchases, as described below. The puzzles are built in. The Terms and Privacy links open in your browser.
What stays on your iPhone
The app and its Screen Time extensions share a private storage area on your device, called an App Group. It holds:
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Screen Time tokens for the apps, categories and websites you picked | To apply the lock |
| Lock on or off, schedules, unlock length, when the current unlock ends and when you last asked for a puzzle | To lock and open at the right times |
| Your setup answers: your own estimate of daily screen time, chess level and goals | To build your plan and pick your first puzzles |
| Puzzle rating, puzzles solved, unlocks today, streak dates and which puzzles you’ve seen | To pick puzzles and show your progress |
| Whether setup is finished and whether the app has asked for a rating | To avoid asking twice |
| Your sound setting (stored in the app’s own settings) | To remember sound on or off |
Backups and deleting. Your device backups, such as iCloud Backup, may include this data, under your Apple settings. Deleting the app removes it from your iPhone. There’s no copy with us to delete. Copies in an older backup last as long as that backup does.
Screen Time
Gambit Lock uses Apple’s Family Controls, Managed Settings and Device Activity frameworks, with your permission.
- You choose apps in a picker drawn by iOS. The app receives opaque tokens, not a readable list of what you chose.
- iOS can show the names and icons behind those tokens on your screen. It also gives the lock-screen extension the name of the locked app or website, to draw a line like “Photos is locked”. The app uses that name only to draw that screen. It doesn’t store it or send it anywhere.
- The app doesn’t read how long you use your apps and has no activity reports. Device Activity is used only as a timer, for the end of an unlock and for lock schedules.
You can remove this access at any time in Settings › Screen Time.
Notifications
With your permission, the app creates notifications on your iPhone. There are two: “Your puzzle is ready”, which takes you from a locked app to a puzzle, and a reminder 2 days before a free trial ends. They don’t name the locked app. The app has no push notification service, so nothing passes through a server of ours.
Purchases and Apple
Purchases, subscriptions and restores go through Apple’s App Store. Apple handles your payment. The app sees only which plan your Apple Account owns, and uses that on your iPhone to turn on Pro.
Because the app is distributed by Apple, Apple may provide us with:
- Sales, subscription and download reports, and aggregated App Store statistics.
- Crash reports, if you chose to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone’s settings.
- Any rating or review you post on the App Store. The rating prompt in the app is Apple’s, and the app doesn’t see your answer.
- If you join a TestFlight beta: your tester details and any feedback you send.
Apple’s handling of your data is covered by Apple’s privacy policy.
If you email us
We receive your email address and whatever you write, and use them only to answer you. Our email provider stores them too. Ask us at any time to delete your messages, and we will, unless we have a legal duty to keep them.
This website
This site sets no cookies and has no analytics, trackers or third-party scripts. Its fonts and images are served from this site. The home page has one small script of its own for the pretend puzzle, which sends nothing anywhere. The company hosting the site may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses and pages requested, to run and protect the service. We don’t use them to identify visitors.
Children
Gambit Lock is for a general audience and isn’t directed at children under 13, or under the minimum age where you live. It has no accounts, ads or chat, and it doesn’t collect personal data from anyone, children included. It’s built for people managing their own phone, not for parents managing a child’s device. Purchases by children in a Family Sharing group follow Apple’s Ask to Buy settings. If you’re a parent with a question, or believe a child has emailed us, contact us and we’ll delete the message.
Your choices and rights
You control the app’s permissions in Settings, and deleting the app removes its data. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct or delete your personal data, or to complain to a data protection authority. Since the only personal data we hold is email you send us, contact us about that.
If analytics is added later
None of this is in the app today. We plan to add optional analytics in a later version, to learn where the app is confusing, and may add a service that helps manage purchases. Before any version that sends data off your iPhone is released, we will:
- Update this policy, naming each provider and what it receives.
- Update the app’s privacy details on the App Store.
- Ask for your choice in the app. Saying no won’t cost you any feature, including paid ones, and you can change your mind later.
Whatever is added, these limits stay: no Screen Time tokens, no app, category or website names, nothing per app, no analytics inside the Screen Time extensions, and nothing used for advertising or sold to data brokers.
Changes to this policy
We’ll post changes at this address and update the date at the top. If a change affects what the app does with your data, it will be posted before that version is released.