Recess is a study app that guards the apps eating your day behind a few flashcards. This policy explains what data the app touches and what it does not. The short version: we run no ads and no tracking, we never sell your data, and the study material you upload is never stored on our servers.
Who we are
"Recess," "we," and "us" refer to the maker of the Recess iOS app and this website (studyrecess.com). You can reach us any time at support@studyrecess.com.
What we do not do
- We do not track you across other apps or websites.
- We do not use advertising or third-party analytics SDKs in the app.
- We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with data brokers.
- We do not store the notes, PDFs, slides, or photos you upload on our servers.
Your study content stays on your device
The decks, flashcards, study history, and streaks you build live on your device and sync through your own private iCloud (Apple's CloudKit) when you are signed in to iCloud. That data sits in your personal iCloud account, which we cannot read. We do not keep a copy on our own servers.
Making a deck with AI
When you ask Recess to turn your notes, PDFs, slides, Word or PowerPoint files, or pasted text into a deck, that material is sent to our backend and forwarded to our AI provider, Anthropic, which generates the cards. A few things to know about that:
- We store nothing. Your material is held in server memory only for the moment it takes to generate your cards, then discarded. There is no database, no disk write, and no cache at any stage.
- No identity travels with it. We do not attach your name, email, account ID, device ID, or IP address to the material we send to Anthropic.
- Anthropic's handling. Anthropic processes the material to generate your deck and may retain it for a limited period (currently up to around 30 days) for safety and security purposes, after which it is deleted. Anthropic does not use it to train its models under our API terms.
- Operational logs. Our servers record only anonymous operational data (that a generation happened and how many milliseconds it took) so we can keep the service healthy. These logs never contain your uploaded content.
Screen Time and blocked apps
Recess uses Apple's Screen Time framework (Family Controls) to shield the apps you choose. Apple hands the app opaque tokens for your selections, not the real app names, and that selection stays on your device. We never see which specific apps you block, and this information is never sent to our servers.
Subscriptions
Purchases and renewals are handled by Apple. We use RevenueCat to check whether your subscription is active. For that, RevenueCat receives an anonymous app-user identifier and your subscription status. It does not receive your name or email, and this is used only to unlock the features you paid for.
Sign in with Apple
Signing in is optional and only exists so your subscription and streak survive a reinstall or a new phone. If you choose Sign in with Apple, we receive an anonymous Apple user identifier. We do not ask for or collect an email address or password.
The website and waitlist
If you join the waitlist on this site, we collect the email address you enter and store it with Resend so we can tell you when Recess launches. We use it for nothing else, and you can ask us to remove it at any time by emailing support@studyrecess.com.
Children
Recess is a general-audience study tool and is not directed at children under 13. If you are under the age of majority where you live, please use Recess with a parent or guardian's involvement.
Your choices and rights
You can delete all of your Recess data from inside the app at any time, which clears your local content and the copy in your private iCloud. Because we do not keep your study content on our own servers, there is no server-side copy for us to hold. For anything else, including questions about data we may hold (like a waitlist email), email support@studyrecess.com and we will help.
Changes to this policy
If we change how Recess handles data, we will update this page and move the effective date at the top. Meaningful changes will be called out clearly.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email support@studyrecess.com.