Privacy Policy

NIX Scoreboard is a free iPhone app from NIX Development LLC (“NIX,” “we,” “us”). It turns spending less time on your phone into a competition: your screen time is scored in tokens, you add friends and form groups, and the lowest score wins. We wrote this policy to be read, not to hide behind. Our rule is simple: collect as little as possible, use it only to run the game, and never sell it.

How screen-time numbers work

NIX Scoreboard uses Apple's Family Controls framework in individual mode, meaning it is self-tracking on your own device, for yourself. It is not parental monitoring, and it does not let anyone else watch your phone. When you grant Screen Time access, you sort your apps into categories using Apple's own picker. The picker runs inside Apple's system; we never see which specific apps you chose.

On your device, Apple's framework watches for usage milestones in each category and tells the app the approximate minutes you have spent (rounded figures, not minute-by-minute usage). The app sends those minutes to us automatically, and we turn them into your score. There is no manual entry and no honor system. Earlier versions of the app let you attach a screenshot of your iOS Settings as proof of a figure. The app no longer offers this; a screenshot attached back then stays with your account until you delete it.

Categories and your token score

There are five categories: social, games, entertainment, neutral, and productivity. Minutes in each are priced at a different rate to produce a daily token score (NX), where a lower score is better. Time your phone reports that does not fall into a category you have set up is priced as an unclassified remainder. To do this we store, for each day, how many minutes fell into each category, the resulting token score, and which categories you have set up.

We store the category totals, never the app list behind them. Which specific apps you put in “social” is chosen inside Apple's picker and is never revealed to us. We only learn that, for example, ninety minutes of your day were social. Categories lock once you are competing, so regrouping apps mid-race cannot juice a score; if you need to re-sort, support can open a short re-selection window for your account.

Focus mode

Focus mode lets you book a session of 5 to 120 minutes during which the app blocks every other app on your phone using Apple's Screen Time controls. Phone, Messages, FaceTime, Maps, and anything on your phone's Always Allowed list stay open. The block runs entirely on your device. It never reports which apps you tried to open.

For each session we store when it started, its planned and actual end, how many minutes were focused, your score when it began, the credit it took off your day, the finish bonus if you completed it, and whether it was finished or ended early. Older versions of the app also sent whether a social app was used during a session; that no longer affects anything. While a session runs, friends and group members can see that you are focusing and roughly how long is left. The Focus countdown on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island is drawn by your phone from data that stays on the phone.

Phones down

Phones down is Focus for a group, with one shared end time. When you host or join one, your display name and profile photo, whether you are the host, when you joined, whether you are still in, and when you picked up can be seen by everyone in it and, while it is open or running, by anyone invited to it. That includes people who are not your friends. Anyone signed in who has its code can see the host's display name and how many people are in it. If someone ends early, the others still in get a notification naming them, and the first one out is marked. People who are invited but have not joined are never shown to anyone. Joining turns on the Focus block on your phone right away; leaving from the app before it starts lifts it.

We store who hosted, who joined and when, who was invited, the shared end time, who picked up and when, and whether they ended it or turned off Screen Time access. For 7 days after a Phones down starts, people who were in it together can send each other a friend request.

Adult website filter

From version 1.3, granting Screen Time access also turns on Apple's adult website filter on your phone, the same one found in Settings under Screen Time as “Limit Adult Websites.” It applies in Safari and in other browsers built on Apple's web engine. Apple does the filtering on your device. We never see which sites you visit or which ones were blocked, and nothing about your browsing reaches us. The filter is part of using the app and has no switch of its own. It comes off when you turn off Screen Time access for NIX Scoreboard in iOS Settings or delete the app.

Open hours

From version 2.3, Open hours lets you choose the times certain apps, categories, or websites are open. At other times on the days you pick, your phone blocks them using Apple's Screen Time controls. You choose them in Apple's own picker, so we never see which ones you picked. Your rules and their times are stored only on your phone and never reach us, and the app never reports which apps you tried to open. While you have a rule, your phone keeps its date and time set automatically. Signing out leaves your rules in place. Deleting your account also removes your Open hours rules from that phone.

What we collect

• Account info: your email address, a display name, your birth year (used only to confirm you are 13 or older), your time zone (so a “day” lines up with your local day), and the version of the app you are running (so support can tell what you are seeing).
• Your password, stored as a hash. We never store the password itself and cannot read it. If you ask to reset it, we create a single-use, expiring token and email you a link to set a new one. Signing in issues a session token that stays valid until you sign out, reset your password, or delete your account.
• Profile photo, if you add one. Optional. Chosen from your photo library, resized on your device, and stored with our hosting provider. See “Who can see your information” below for an important detail about how it is served.
• Screen-time entries: for each day, your tracked minutes, the minutes in each category, the token score, when your phone last reported, and the Focus credit taken off that day. Entries from older versions may also carry the milestone your phone confirmed and a fair-play flag.
• How many times you opened the app each day (a count, with no times or screens).
• Focus sessions: the session details listed under Focus mode above, and for Phones down, the details listed under Phones down.
• Tracking status: whether your phone has revoked Screen Time access, and when your last entry arrived. Friends and group members see this as a small “Tracking off” or “No recent data” badge on your row, so a missing score is not mistaken for a perfect one.
• Your personal daily goal, if you set one, and the streak of days you stayed under it. The goal is yours; it is not shown on anyone else's board.
• Results: badges you earn, the days you won on each group board, your rank and totals for each finished competition period, and comeback records (the rank you climbed from and to).
• Social graph: friend requests you send and receive, the friendships that result, which friends you star as favorites (never shown to them), group invites you send and receive (who invited whom, to which group, and when), the groups you belong to, which group you lead, and each group's settings: its name, any reward text a leader writes, the competition period, which categories it scores, its jab allowance, and for one-time races, the end date.
• Jabs: the one-tap emoji reactions you send to competitors. We store who sent it, who received it, the emoji, which board it came from, and when. Jabs are emoji only; there is no free text.
• Device token and push log: if you enable notifications, an Apple push token, plus a record of which kinds of notification we sent you and when, so we can cap how often each kind fires.
• Reset requests: if you ask in the app to sort your categories again, we store the request, anything you type under “What went wrong?” (up to 300 characters), and a short check your phone runs on your saved picks: how many categories, apps, and websites each pick holds, and whether a pick looks empty, too broad, or overlaps another. It never includes which apps or websites you picked. We also record when support grants or dismisses the request.

We do not collect your real Apple Screen Time data, per-app usage, your contacts, your location, or your browsing. The app has no advertising or analytics software in it.

On your device only

A few things the app does never touch our servers. The Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, the Focus Live Activity, and the Siri shortcuts read from storage on your phone: your own numbers, and for the standings widget, the top three names and scores on your group's board. Focus blocking and Open hours are enforced by your phone.

One clipboard check. If you install the app from an invite link, the invite page copies the link so the app can finish the invite after install. On the first signed-out launch, the app checks your clipboard for a NIX Scoreboard invite link. iOS shows its paste notice when this happens. The app acts only on our own invite links, reads the clipboard once, and never sends anything else it finds there anywhere.

How we use it

• To run your account and sign you in.
• To compute boards, ranks, streaks, badges, day wins, period results, and Focus credit.
• To show your friends and group members your number, rank, breakdown, and status, as described below.
• To send notifications you have turned on: when you pass someone or someone passes you, the final hours of a close race, jabs from competitors, friend requests and accepted requests, being invited to a group (or, on an older version of the app, being added to one), Phones down invites and updates about a Phones down you are in, a nudge to put your phone down the first time in a day your social, games, or entertainment time reaches 30 minutes and again at 60, your first full day's score, a reminder to finish setup, a note when your period closes, a note when support unlocks your categories, and, if support sees your tracking has stalled, a nudge to reopen the app. We do not send pushes between midnight and 6am in your time zone, except Phones down invites and updates about a Phones down you are in. You can turn them off any time in iOS Settings, and the put-down nudge also in the app.
• To email you a password reset link when you ask for one.
• To support you. Our support staff can view your account details and entries, correct a day's score, or open a category re-selection window when you ask. When you send a reset request from the app, our support staff get a notification on their phones with your display name and what you wrote.
• To keep the competition honest and the service running: request rate limits and error logs.
• To understand, in aggregate, whether NIX Scoreboard is helping people spend less time on their phones, and to improve it. We may also share what we learn publicly, for example “most people used social apps less by their fourth week,” on our website, in ads, articles or interviews. These are counts and medians across many people. They never identify you, we never use them to study any one person, and we never sell or hand over the underlying data.

What we never do

• We never sell your data or share it with data brokers.
• We do not run ads or ad tracking.
• We do not build advertising profiles about you.
• We do not pull your Apple Screen Time data off your device. Apple does not permit it and we do not try.

Who can see your information

Your email address, birth year, password, personal daily goal, and push token are private to your account. Other users never see them. Your Focus sessions are private too, except for what the next paragraph and the Phones down section list.

Visible to your friends and the members of your groups: your display name, profile photo, daily number, token score, your per-category breakdown, rank, badges, day wins and streaks, your tracking-status badge, and whether you are focusing right now and roughly how long is left. When you send a jab, the recipient sees your name with it. Group leaders see the same things members do, plus the group's settings. Your friends also see how many minutes you focused and the tokens Focus took off your score. If you share your friend invite link, anyone who opens it sees your display name, and anyone who opens it in the app becomes your friend right away. From version 2.2 you can reset your link on the Add friend screen: your old link and QR code stop working, and friends you already have stay. A group's invite link shows the group's name, and opening it in the app joins the group.

When a member invites you to a group, you see the group's name, how many people are in it, and who invited you. Until you accept, your numbers do not appear on that group's board, and your name and photo show on the pending invite only to members of the group who are already your friends. The group's leader can see that an invite is pending, who sent it and when, and can cancel it, as can the member who sent it. If you decline, no one gets a notification; the invite just goes away. An invite is deleted when it is accepted, declined or cancelled, when you join through the group's link, when the member who sent it leaves the group, when the two of you stop being friends, or when the group or either account is deleted.

Period results can be shared from the app as text through your phone's share sheet. That is your choice each time, and the app sends nothing anywhere on its own.

One honest technical detail about photos. Profile photos are stored with our hosting provider at a long, randomly generated web address. That address is not listed anywhere and is not guessable in practice, but it is not password protected either, so anyone given the exact link could open the image. Please do not upload anything you would not want seen outside the app. Removing a photo from your profile removes it from the app.

Service providers

We use a small number of vendors strictly to operate the app. They process data only on our behalf and may not use it for their own purposes.

• Neon for the database that holds your account and entries.
• Vercel for hosting, for the scheduled jobs that close periods and send notifications, and for storing profile photos.
• Resend for password reset email.
• Apple for the Screen Time framework, push notifications if you turn them on, and the App Store.

We do not use analytics or advertising SDKs. There is no third-party tracker in this app.

Security

Passwords are hashed, traffic to our servers is encrypted, and support tools never expose password hashes or session secrets. No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, and we cannot promise otherwise, but we keep the amount of data at risk small on purpose.

Data retention & deleting your account

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from inside the app (Profile, then Settings, then Delete account).

When you delete, your account is deactivated immediately and stops appearing to other users. Your data, including your entries, Focus sessions, jabs, results, and push records, is then permanently purged after a 30 day grace period. A deletion cannot be undone. If you lead a group, leadership passes to another member or the group is disbanded. Backups roll off on their own schedule shortly after.

Children & age

NIX Scoreboard is for people 13 and older. We ask for a birth year at sign-up for that reason. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, or delete your information, to receive a copy of it, and to object to certain processing. You can exercise the core of these rights directly in the app (edit your profile, delete your account) or by emailing us. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. We will not treat you differently for exercising a right.

If you are in California, the rights above include those under the California Consumer Privacy Act; email us to exercise any of them and we will verify the request through your account. If you are in Canada, you may also ask us how your information is handled and challenge its accuracy. The app is offered in the United States and Canada, and your information is stored in the United States.

Changes

If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the effective date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.

Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@nix.management. NIX Development LLC, Michigan, USA.