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, we never sell your data, the study material you upload is never stored on our servers, and the analytics we do collect use an anonymous ID and are limited (see below).
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 run advertising 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 (in the app, or from a computer at studyrecess.com/create), 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.
Analytics and crash reporting
The app uses PostHog as our analytics and crash-reporting processor, to see what is working and catch bugs. Here is exactly what that means:
- A closed set of events, not free tracking.The app sends a small, fixed list of product events (like completing an onboarding step or viewing the paywall) plus PostHog's own SDK lifecycle events. There is no free-form logging, and none of these events can carry your study content.
- An anonymous ID, not your identity. Each install is assigned a random, anonymous distinct ID. We do not attach your name or email to it.
- No IP address or location. PostHog is set to discard IP addresses, so analytics data carries no IP address and no location worked out from one.
- Joined to your subscription status. That same anonymous ID (as
$posthogUserId) is shared with RevenueCat, and RevenueCat sends your subscription events (like a trial starting, converting, or being canceled) back to PostHog under it, so we can see which anonymous users become subscribers. PostHog keeps a person profile for that ID holding your current subscription status. It is not linked to your name, email, or any other personal information. - Crash and diagnostic data. If the app crashes, PostHog collects a crash report to help us fix it. These reports do not contain your study content.
- Processed in the United States. PostHog processes this data in its US region by default.
What we deliberately turned off: PostHog's session replay is disabled, screen-view capture is disabled, autocapture of taps and UI elements is disabled, and the app never identifies you to PostHog by name, email, or account. We do not use this data for advertising, and it is never sold.
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. Our backend also receives that identifier when you make a deck, to confirm your subscription and apply a daily generation limit. It is held in server memory only and never stored.
No account
Recess has no account or login. Your subscription is tied to your Apple ID through Apple, and we never ask for 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.