The app
You do not need an account
Using Skerrick needs no sign-up, no login and no email. You install it, pick a feed, and it works. The only part of the app that signs in is backup, which is off until you turn it on and is described in full below.
What the app knows
It knows when an app you chose to ration opens and closes, and how long it was open. On Android it learns that from usage access, which tells it which app is in front. On iPhone it learns it from two Shortcuts automations that setup walks you through for each feed, one that runs when the app opens and one that runs when it closes. That is the entire input. From it, the app works out whether your ration has run out, when it refills, and how many times you have pushed through today.
What the app does not know
- What any post, video or comment said. It does not read content.
- Who you follow, who follows you, or whose account you were looking at.
- Which screen you are on inside an app, which is why the ration covers the whole app.
- Anything in your messages. It cannot see inside another app at all.
- What is on your screen. It does not capture, record or transmit the display.
- Your location, contacts, photos or camera roll. None of these are requested.
Where the numbers live
On the phone. Your counts, your history, your weekly receipts and any reasons you type at bedtime are stored on the device and are not uploaded to us. Deleting the app deletes them. Unless you turn backup on, there is no copy for us to return or erase, because we never had one.
Backup, if you turn it on
Backup is off when you install Skerrick. It lives in the You tab, as a switch called “Back up my settings and receipts”, for moving to a new phone or coming back after a reinstall.
Turning it on signs you in, so the backup can follow you to a new phone. On iPhone that is Sign in with Apple, and Skerrick asks Apple for no name and no email. On Android it is your Google account. Google shares that account’s email address with our sign-in provider, Google Firebase, so on Android your email address is stored alongside the backup.
With backup on, our server holds an account id, your settings and your weekly totals, plus that email address on Android. It never holds what you watched, read or scrolled, because the app never had that to send, and the reasons you type at bedtime stay on the phone. The backup is kept in Google Firebase, in a database hosted in Europe.
Switch backup off and Skerrick asks whether to delete the copy. Deleting removes the copy and the account it was kept under from our server, and on iPhone it also tells Apple to stop sharing your Apple ID with Skerrick. You can delete it from the You tab whenever you like, and nothing on the phone is touched either way. Deleting the app alone does not delete the backup, so delete the backup first if you want both gone. Deleting your account covers every way to do it, including if you no longer have the app.
Paying for Pro
Purchases go through the App Store or Google Play, and we never see your card. To check whether a subscription is active, the app uses RevenueCat, a subscription service. RevenueCat receives an anonymous app user id and the store’s record of the purchase. It never receives your name, your email or your card.
The permissions it asks for
On iPhone, Skerrick asks for one permission, notifications, and uses it for one thing: the alert that says your ration has run out. It does not use Apple’s Screen Time permission. The Shortcuts automations run on your phone and tell Skerrick only that a feed opened or closed.
On Android it needs usage access, to see which app is in front, and display over other apps, to draw the cut-off. It may also ask to be left out of battery optimisation, so the phone does not stop it in the background. None of these hands us your browsing history, and what they show the app stays on the device.
We do not sell anything about you
There is no advertising in Skerrick, no analytics SDK inside the app, and no data sold. Nothing is shared beyond the services named on this page, and they get only what is described here. The part worth selling, what you actually look at, is never collected in the first place, so there is nothing here a change of policy could turn into a product.
This website
The waitlist
The one thing this site collects is an email address, and only if you type one into the waitlist form. We ask for nothing else. What gets stored is your address and the moment you sent it, and nothing else is attached to it.
It is used once, to tell you the app has shipped. It is not sold, not shared with advertisers, and not added to a marketing sequence. Every email we send will have a one-click way out, and you can ask us to delete your address at any time.
The list lives in a Google Firebase database hosted in Europe. Nobody can read it from this website, and it cannot be searched to find out whether a given address is on it. The form can only add to it, which is the only thing the form is for.
Cookies and tracking
This site sets no cookies. It runs no third-party analytics, no advertising pixels, no session recording and no fingerprinting. There is no consent banner because there is nothing to consent to.
Our hosting provider keeps ordinary server logs, which include IP addresses, for a short period for security and to keep the site running. That is standard for any website and is not used to build a profile of you.
Fonts and assets
The typefaces on this site are served from our own domain rather than from a font network, so loading a page here does not tell a third party that you visited.
Your rights
If you are in the UK or EU, you have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected, and to have it deleted. For almost everyone reading this the answer will be nothing, a single email address on the waitlist, or, with backup on, the account and totals described above.
You can delete a backup and its account yourself, at any time, from the You tab in the app. Deleting your account explains how, and what to do if you no longer have the app.
To ask what we hold, to correct it, or to have it deleted, email privacy@skerrick.app. To leave the waitlist, use the unsubscribe link in any email we send you.
Changes
If this notice changes in a way that matters, the change will be described here rather than slipped in.
September 2026. Rewritten to describe the app as it will ship. Using it still needs no account. Backup now signs in, with Apple on iPhone or a Google account on Android, where it used to use an anonymous id, and on Android that means your Google email address is stored with the backup. Deleting the backup now deletes the account too. On iPhone, Skerrick uses Shortcuts and a notification rather than Screen Time, and asks only for notifications. The notice now also names RevenueCat, which checks subscriptions, gives an address for privacy requests, and links to a page on deleting your account.