Scratchy Moments
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Privacy Policy

Effective date:

This policy explains what happens to your data when you use the Scratchy Moments app for iPhone and Android and the website scratchymoments.com. The short version: the app has no account and no server of its own, and what you put into it stays on your phone. The exceptions are the ads that keep the app free and the app stores that sell Scratchy+, and both are explained below.

1. Who we are

The controller responsible for your data under this policy is Adam Daniel Szalai, the independent developer of Scratchy Moments, based in Hungary. For anything related to privacy, write to hello@scratchymoments.com.

2. The short version

  • No account, no sign-in, no pairing between phones, no cloud sync.
  • Your names, deck, notes, ratings, photos and places are stored only on your device. We cannot see them.
  • The app contains no analytics and no crash-reporting tools.
  • Free users see ads from Google AdMob. Scratchy+ subscribers see no ads, and the ad software is not started for them.
  • We never sell personal data.

3. Data stored on your device

The app saves the following in its private storage on your phone. It is used only to run the features you see, and it never leaves the device through us:

  • Couple profile: the two names you enter, the optional “together since” date, and your onboarding answers (ideal weekend, typical budget, whether you have a car, drink alcohol or enjoy cooking).
  • Your deck: which cards are sealed, scratched, completed or skipped with a joker, the custom cards you write, and the dates you schedule.
  • Memories: the note, rating, mood and “do it again?” answer for each finished date, the day you finished it, and, if you allow location, the approximate coordinates of where you were.
  • Photos (Scratchy+): a downscaled copy of each photo you choose for a memory. The app only receives the photos you pick in the system photo picker.
  • Settings and progress: appearance, tone of voice, haptics, notification preference, joker balance, badges, and a cached record of what you have purchased.

4. Backups

This data is kept as one data file plus app preferences. If you use your phone’s own backup (iCloud or a computer backup on iPhone, Android device backup on Android), it can be included in that backup under Apple’s or Google’s terms.

5. Permissions and what they are for

  • Location (approximate, only while you use the app): requested when a card shows its “Near you” place ideas, and when you finish a date. On iPhone, the search for places near you is sent to Apple’s MapKit together with your approximate location, and the results are shown in the app. On Android, the app hands the card’s search keyword and your approximate location to the maps app installed on your phone, which runs the search itself. The location pinned to a memory stays on your device. You can refuse or revoke this permission at any time; everything else keeps working.
  • Calendar: on iPhone, write-only access, used only to add a date you schedule. The app cannot read your calendar. On Android, the app opens your calendar app with the event filled in and needs no calendar permission. If you choose Google Calendar instead, a link with the date’s title and time opens in your browser and Google handles it from there.
  • Photos: the system photo picker, which gives the app only the photo you select.
  • Notifications: reminders are scheduled locally on your phone (date day, a Friday nudge, anniversaries, looking back at a past date). There is no push server and no notification token.
  • Tracking (iPhone, free users only): the App Tracking Transparency prompt, explained in the next section.

6. Advertising: Google AdMob

Free users see a banner on the date screen and an occasional full-screen ad. These ads are served by Google AdMob, provided in the EEA by Google Ireland Limited. Ads only start after onboarding. Before any ad loads, Google’s User Messaging Platform shows a consent form where the law requires one (for example in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland). On iPhone, the app then asks for permission to track under Apple’s App Tracking Transparency.

Depending on your choices, AdMob may process your device’s advertising identifier, IP address, approximate location derived from it, device and app information, and your interactions with ads, in order to show, limit, measure and personalise ads and to prevent fraud. If you do not consent, Google shows non-personalised or limited ads. Google explains how it uses this data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Scratchy+ subscribers see no ads, and for them the ad software and the consent form are not started at all. You can limit ad tracking or reset your advertising identifier in your phone’s privacy settings at any time.

7. Purchases

Scratchy+ and the Spicy pack are sold and billed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). They handle your payment details and account under their own privacy policies; we never see your card details, your name or your email address. The app only receives confirmation of what you own, which it stores on your device to unlock features. From the stores we receive sales and subscription reports that do not identify you.

8. When you contact us, and this website

If you email us, or use the form on the support page (it simply opens your own email app), we receive your email address, your name if you give it, and what you write. We use it only to answer you and to fix what you report.

This website is a static site hosted by Netlify, Inc. It sets no cookies and uses no analytics or tracking. Like any web server, the host processes technical data such as your IP address and browser type in short-lived logs, for security and to deliver the pages. Fonts are served from this website, not loaded from Google.

9. Third parties

These providers process data as described above, each under its own privacy policy:

10. Legal bases (GDPR)

  • Personalised ads and tracking: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), given in the consent form or the App Tracking Transparency prompt. You can withdraw it at any time.
  • Non-personalised ads, ad measurement and fraud prevention in the free version: our legitimate interest in offering the app for free (Art. 6(1)(f)).
  • Answering your emails: our legitimate interest in helping you (Art. 6(1)(f)), or taking steps you ask for in connection with the app (Art. 6(1)(b)).
  • Website server logs: our legitimate interest in running a secure website (Art. 6(1)(f)).
  • Data stored on your device is handled by the app on your phone to provide the features you use (Art. 6(1)(b)); we do not receive it.

11. How long data is kept

  • Data on your device: until you delete it in the app or uninstall the app.
  • Emails to us: as long as needed to deal with your request, and no longer than two years after our last exchange, unless the law requires otherwise.
  • Ad data: as set out in Google’s policies.
  • Website logs: for a short period set by the hosting provider.

12. Deleting your data

In the app, go to Settings → Start over → Wipe & replay onboarding. This deletes your profile, the deck, every memory and the saved photos. Uninstalling the app also removes everything it stored. There is no account on our side to delete.

Copies inside your own phone backups are controlled by you through iCloud or your Google account. To have your emails with us deleted, write to hello@scratchymoments.com.

13. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, correct, delete and port your data, to restrict or object to processing, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier processing. Because the app keeps your data on your device, most of these you can exercise directly in the app. For anything we hold, such as emails, write to hello@scratchymoments.com and we will reply within one month.

You can also lodge a complaint with the Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (NAIH, 1055 Budapest, Falk Miksa utca 9-11, naih.hu, ugyfelszolgalat@naih.hu), with the supervisory authority where you live, or go to court.

14. Children

Scratchy Moments is made for adult couples and is not directed at children under 16. The Spicy pack is for adults only and asks you to confirm you are 18 or older. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

15. International transfers

Data you keep in the app does not leave your device through us. Google, Apple and Netlify may process the data described above outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. They rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and/or the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses for these transfers.

16. Security

On your phone, the app’s data sits in storage that other apps cannot read, protected by your device’s own encryption and lock screen. This website is served only over HTTPS.

17. Changes to this policy

If the app starts handling data differently, we will update this page before the change ships and change the effective date above.