Privacy Policy

The short version: ImpulseShield has no accounts and we run no servers that collect your activity. What you log stays on your device and, if you enable it, in your own private iCloud account that only you can access. If you turn on Family Mode and share items with a household, those shared items live in a household iCloud area the people you invited can read — but still only you and them, through Apple, never us. Either way we can't see any of it. If you opt in to Apple's “Share With App Developers” setting, Apple collects anonymized, aggregated usage and diagnostic data on our behalf — never anything that identifies you. The app integrates two Apple services — App Store purchases and iCloud sync — handled by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy. The one time the app reaches the internet on its own is when you share a product link into it: it fetches that page once, directly from the retailer, to read the price for you. This website separately stores any email or message you choose to send us.

What the app stores

The items, prices, notes, categories, settings, savings history, and savings goals you create live on your device. We have no accounts, logins, or profiles, and we operate no server that receives this data. The app contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs. Two parts of the app do involve the network, both described below: optional iCloud sync (through Apple) and an optional price lookup when you share a link.

iCloud sync

If you are signed into iCloud and have it enabled, ImpulseShield uses Apple's CloudKit to sync your data across your own devices and back it up. This data is stored in your private iCloud database, governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. We cannot see, access, or retrieve it. If you use Family Mode, items and goals you add to a household instead live in a shared iCloud area that your household members can read — the next section explains exactly what that covers — but it stays inside Apple's iCloud, and we still cannot see, access, or retrieve any of it. To keep your devices up to date, Apple may deliver silent background sync notifications through its own push service; these are part of how CloudKit works and are not something we send or see. If you are not signed into iCloud, the app simply stores everything locally on your device.

Family Mode & households

Family Mode is an extension of that same iCloud story: instead of syncing only to your own devices, you can share a household with people you invite, so you can weigh purchases and save toward goals together. Here is exactly what that shares — and what it doesn't.

When you add something to a household — an item (its name, price, category, any notes, and the decision you reach on it) or a savings goal (its target and how far along you are) — it becomes visible to the other members of that household. Your personal items and goals are never swept in: a given item or goal lives in exactly one place, either private to you or in one household, and it never silently crosses from one to the other. The household itself also carries a name, and optionally a picture, that you choose when you set it up; these are stored alongside the shared items so everyone sees the same household, and you can change them at any time.

Because Apple runs the sharing, the members of a household can see each other's name and Apple Account identity, the way you would on a shared album or a shared note. This works through Apple's CloudKit sharing (CKShare) — the same mechanism behind Apple's invitations — and the invites themselves are Apple-hosted share links on icloud.com. The shared data lives in the household organizer's own iCloud, not on any server of ours.

If you leave a household, or the organizer removes you, your access to that household's shared items and goals ends. And to be completely clear: Augodore can't see any of this. A household is shared between you and the people you invited, through Apple — full stop. We run no server that receives it and we have no way to read it.

Choosing who to invite

When you invite someone to a household, ImpulseShield can open your device's standard contact picker so you can tap a person instead of typing their details. That picker is run by the system, not by us: it shows outside the app, we never see your contacts list, and the only thing the app receives is the single person you choose — used then and there to address the invitation. We don't store your contacts, and none of your address book is sent to us or to iCloud. You can always skip the picker and enter an email or phone number by hand.

Fetching prices from links you share

When you share a product link into ImpulseShield (for example, from Safari or a shopping app), the app makes a single, best-effort request to that web page so it can read the item's title and price and fill them in for you — the same thing your browser does when you open the link. This request goes directly to the retailer's website (such as an online store you chose to share from), not to any server of ours, so that site sees the request and your device's IP address, just as it would for any ordinary visit. We do not receive, log, or store anything from this lookup; the result simply prefills fields you can edit or clear. The request is optional and time-limited — if the page is slow or unreachable, the app gives up and you can still type the details in yourself. The app makes no other network connections of its own.

Purchases

ImpulseShield offers optional in-app purchases — a Pro unlock ($4.99), a Family Mode upgrade ($12.99), and an “Everything” bundle ($16.99) that unlocks both — processed entirely by Apple through the App Store. Each is a one-time purchase; ImpulseShield never uses subscriptions. Apple handles the payment; we never see or receive your name, payment card, or billing details. The app receives only Apple's confirmation that a purchase was verified, so it can unlock the relevant features. Verification happens on your device, and the Store and Settings screens include a Restore Purchases option, as the App Store requires.

Notifications

If you allow it, ImpulseShield can send you notifications of two kinds. Most are local reminders — for example, a nudge when a cooling-off wait is up — scheduled and delivered entirely on your device by the system. The other kind appears only if you use Family Mode: when someone in your household acts on a shared item or goal, Apple can deliver a notification to the rest of the household through CloudKit's push service, so everyone stays in sync. Either way, these are not push messages from us — we don't send them and we receive nothing when one fires. You can turn notifications off any time in your device's Settings.

Analytics & diagnostics

ImpulseShield itself collects and stores no personal data. The app contains no third-party analytics, no advertising, and no tracking technologies; we do not use cookies in the app, we do not access the advertising identifier (IDFA), and we use no tools that follow you across apps or websites. We run no analytics servers of our own, so there is no record of your in-app activity for us to receive.

There is one optional exception, and it belongs to Apple rather than to us. Every iPhone, iPad, and Mac has a setting called Share With App Developers (in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements). If you turn it on, Apple may include your device in the usage and diagnostic reports it prepares for developers — for example, how often the app is opened, session length, and crash and performance data. Apple gathers this on our behalf and shares it back with us only in aggregated, anonymized form, using privacy techniques that keep individual users unidentifiable. We can see that the app was launched or crashed a certain number of times; we never receive anything that identifies you or reveals what you logged. This sharing is off unless you choose to enable it, you can turn it off at any time in that same Settings screen, and it is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Email and messages you send us on this website

The app itself sends us nothing — but this website lets you contact us, and when you do, we keep what you submit:

• Notify-me / waitlist forms (for example, to hear when the app launches or when Family Mode arrives): we store the email address you type, which list you joined, and the date, so we can email you about that one update.
• Contact and bug-report form (reachable from the app's Settings and from this site): we store the email address and message you submit, along with any device note and language you include, so we can reply and fix problems.

This data is stored on our own server, in a local database; we use it only to respond to you and never sell or rent it. When a message comes in, we send ourselves an alert through a push-notification service (Pushover) so we notice it — for contact and bug-report messages, that alert includes your email address; for waitlist sign-ups it does not. The site is served through Cloudflare's network, which routes the traffic and can see your IP address as part of delivering the page; our own server uses your IP address only momentarily, in memory, to rate-limit form submissions against spam, and does not store it. Ask us at [email protected] any time to have your email and messages deleted.

Data sharing

We do not sell, rent, or share your information, and we have no advertising or analytics partners. We don't collect your in-app activity in the first place. (Family Mode sharing, described above, is something you initiate between yourself and the people you invite, through Apple — it is not sharing by us, and we never see it.) The Apple services above (App Store, iCloud, and — if you opt in — App Analytics) are operated by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy; the retailer page you ask the app to read, and the Cloudflare and Pushover services that run this website, see only what is described in their sections above.

Your control and data deletion

You are always in control of your data:

• Delete individual items at any time from within the app.
• Deleting the app removes the data stored on that device.
• Data synced to iCloud can be managed or removed in your device's Settings under your Apple ID → iCloud, or via iCloud storage management.
• In-app purchases are managed through your Apple Account; refunds are requested from Apple.
• To remove an email or message you sent us on this website, contact us and we'll delete it.

Children's privacy

ImpulseShield is not directed to children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. The App Store and iCloud are Apple services with their own age and account requirements, governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above and post the revised version on this page. Material changes will be reflected here before they take effect.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach out at [email protected].