Privacy Policy
Puffin Flow has no account and no server of its own. Your boards live on your device and in your own iCloud, where we cannot read them. The free version on iPhone and iPad shows a few ads from Google AdMob; Pro removes them. Ads never see your boards, and the app never asks to track you.
Your boards
- Where they live. Spaces, cards, milestones, comments and attachments are stored on your device. If you are signed in to iCloud, they sync through your own iCloud account using Apple's CloudKit, so they follow you to your Mac, iPhone and iPad.
- Who can see them. Only you, and anyone you choose to share a Space with. Nothing you write is sent to us, and we have no way to open it.
- Without iCloud. The app works fully offline; everything simply stays on the device.
Sharing a Space
When you share a Space, Apple's standard iCloud sharing sends the invitation and keeps everyone's copy in step. To show who assigned or commented on what, the app displays each participant's name as iCloud provides it. It never asks for your contacts. The owner of a Space can remove anyone at any time, which ends their access immediately.
Comments are visible only to the people in that Space. There is no public feed and no way to reach someone you were not invited to work with.
Purchases
Purchases and subscriptions are processed by Apple. We receive no payment details, no card numbers and no billing address.
To know whether Pro is active on each of your devices, the app uses RevenueCat, a purchase service. It receives your transaction history and basic device information (model and system version) under a randomly generated ID. No name, email or account is sent with it — Puffin Flow has no account system. This is the only server the app talks to that is not Apple's. RevenueCat's own policy is at revenuecat.com/privacy.
Ads in the free version — Google AdMob
On iPhone and iPad, the free version shows a small banner at the bottom of the Space list and the Overview page, an occasional full-screen ad when you leave a Space, and — only if you tap it — a short video you can watch instead of upgrading to use Analytics or CSV export once. The Mac app has no ads. Banners and full-screen ads only start three days after you first install the app. With Pro (early-access or regular), the ad service is never started and no ad is requested.
Ads are served by Google AdMob. To choose and measure an ad, Google’s SDK receives your approximate location derived from your IP address, an identifier for this app on your device (not the advertising identifier — the app never asks for permission to track you, so that identifier stays unavailable), how you interact with the ad, and basic diagnostics such as the device model, system version and whether an ad loaded. No ad request contains anything you wrote: no card, Space, track, milestone or comment, and no name. Google’s policy on how it uses this data is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Google’s consent form asks for your choice before the first ad is shown, and you can change it later. Whatever you choose, the app works the same.
Usage counts
To learn which features earn their place, the app keeps a handful of simple counts — for example, how many milestones were archived, whether shared Spaces are created and accepted, and which limit of the free tier led someone to the upgrade screen. They are plain numbers attached to that same random RevenueCat ID. They never contain your board content, card titles, Space names or anyone's name, and nothing is counted in the sample Space. This data is not linked to you and is never used for advertising.
What we do not collect
No tracking across apps or websites, no advertising identifier, no precise location, no contacts, no photos, no camera, no health or financial data. Attachments are added only through the system file picker, and only the file you choose is read. Reminders are scheduled as notifications on your own device.
If you have opted in to share analytics with Apple, crash reports reach us through Apple in anonymous form.
Children
Puffin Flow is suitable for all ages and collects nothing that could identify a child. It has no public content and no way to contact strangers.
Your rights
Your boards are yours to change or delete at any time: deleting a Space in the app removes it from your devices and your iCloud. You can also remove all of the app's iCloud data in your device's iCloud settings. If you want the purchase record and usage counts held under your random ID erased, write to us and we will ask RevenueCat to delete them. To stop seeing ads, upgrade to Pro; in the EEA, UK and Switzerland you can also withdraw or change ad consent from the app’s settings.
Changes
If a future version of Puffin Flow collects anything new, this page will be updated before that version ships, and the date at the top will tell you when.