Privacy policy

Last updated 21 September 2026 · DeskReps for macOS and iPhone

DeskReps is a break timer that uses your camera to check you actually did the exercise. That makes the camera the whole privacy question, so here it is plainly: the video never leaves your device, and it is never stored.

What we collect

No account, no sign-in, and no advertising or tracking. What you actually do in the app — your sessions, your streak, your routines, your settings — stays on your device.

Three things do leave your device, and all three are worth naming precisely:

• Your history and settings sync through your own iCloud account — see “Your data and iCloud” below. That is Apple’s storage, tied to your Apple Account, and we cannot read it. There’s nothing to sign up for; if you are not signed into iCloud, the app simply keeps everything locally.
• Crash and performance reports go to Sentry, our error-reporting provider, so we can fix the app when it breaks — see “Crash reports” below.
• First-run setup reports, also to Sentry: while you are setting DeskReps up for the first time, it records which setup step you reached and how that step went, so we can see where setup confuses people — see “Crash reports” below.

Your camera is not in that list, and never will be.

How the camera is used

• During a routine, the app opens the camera and passes each frame to Apple’s Vision framework, which runs entirely on your device.
• Vision returns measurements: head angle, eyelid position, shoulder position. The app uses those to count reps.
• Frames are held in memory only long enough to be analysed, then discarded. They are not written to disk, not saved to your photo library, and not transmitted.
• The camera is on only while a routine is running, usually under a minute, and switches off when it ends. Your Mac’s or iPhone’s camera indicator light shows exactly this.

Face data

The camera checks use Apple’s Vision framework, which detects a face in a frame. It is not face recognition, and DeskReps cannot identify anyone. Because face data is sensitive, here is exactly what happens to it.

• What is collected: nothing is collected. While a routine is running, each camera frame is handed to Vision on your own device, and Vision hands back numbers: where the face sits in the frame, the head’s yaw, pitch and roll angles, how open each eyelid is, and where the shoulders are. The app reads those numbers to count reps, and that is the whole use.
• No faceprint and no identification. DeskReps does not create, derive, request or store a face template, faceprint, face embedding or any other biometric identifier. It cannot tell one person’s face from another’s, cannot match a face against anything, and never attempts to. It only asks “is a face there, and which way is it pointing”.
• Retention: none. A frame and the measurements taken from it are held in memory for the fraction of a second the analysis takes, then discarded. No image, video or face measurement is written to disk, added to your photo library, put in a log, or kept once the routine ends. What the app saves about a completed break is a date and a rep count, with nothing from your face in it.
• Storage: nowhere. Since nothing is retained, there is no face data on your device, none on any server of ours (we run none), none in iCloud, and none in a backup. Face data is explicitly excluded from the iCloud sync described below.
• Sharing: never, with anyone. No face data, and no image or video from your camera, is transmitted off your device: not to us, not to Sentry (our crash reporter), not to Apple, not to any third party, for any purpose, including improving the app or training a model. Crash reports carry no images and no camera data of any kind.
• Deletion: nothing to delete, and you can stop it at any time. Because nothing is kept, there is nothing to request deletion of. Revoking camera access in your system settings stops the analysis immediately; break reminders and the timer keep working without it.

Your data and iCloud

Your settings and history are stored on your device, and synced through your own iCloud account so the Mac app and the iPhone app are one app rather than two:

• Your chosen break interval, routine, coach voice, desk days, and pinned routine.
• A record of the breaks you’ve completed and the verified effort you’ve done, used for the streak count and the weekly total.
• Any routines you’ve built yourself.

Whether a work session is currently running, and when your next break is due, stay on the device they belong to — those are about the machine in front of you, not about you.

This sync uses Apple’s iCloud key-value storage. That means:

• It lives in your Apple Account, not ours. The data sits in your own iCloud storage. We have no console, no API and no key with which to read it.
• It needs iCloud. If you are signed out of iCloud, or have iCloud Drive turned off, the app keeps everything locally and works exactly as it always has.
• Deleting the app does not delete the iCloud copy. Apple keeps key-value data with your Apple Account. To remove it, use Settings → iCloud → Remove iCloud data in the app before you delete it, or afterwards on any other device that still has DeskReps installed. That deletes the synced copy and leaves each device’s own local data alone.

If you have iCloud backups enabled, your device backup may also include the app’s local data, which is controlled by Apple and by you, not by us.

Camera frames are not part of any of this. They are processed on your device, never stored, and never transmitted — not to us, not to iCloud, not anywhere.

Crash reports

When DeskReps crashes or misbehaves, it sends a technical report to Sentry, an error-reporting service, so the bug can be found and fixed. A report contains the app version, the device model and OS version, and a stack trace of where the code went wrong. It does not contain your name, your email, your history, your routines, or anything from your camera: the app explicitly disables the collection of personally identifying information.

Sentry also receives timing measurements from the same reports — how long a screen took to appear, where the app stalled — for the same reason: an app that hangs is a bug we cannot fix without knowing where.

First-run setup is the one part of ordinary use that is measured. While you set the app up, each setup step sends a small record naming the step and its outcome: that a step was shown, that camera access was granted or declined, that a trial was started or skipped. It is how we find out that, say, most people stop at the same screen. These records carry no name, no email, no history and nothing from your camera, and they stop once setup is done — nothing you do in the app afterwards is measured.

Notifications

DeskReps schedules break reminders locally, through the operating system. No notification is routed through a server of ours, because there isn’t one.

Third parties

DeskReps includes no advertising and no tracking, and does not follow you across other apps or websites. The only things that leave your device are the ones named above: your history and settings, through your own iCloud account, and crash, performance and first-run setup reports, to Sentry (see “Crash reports”). Nothing else is shared with anyone. The app is distributed through Apple’s App Store, and Apple provides us with aggregate, anonymised sales and crash statistics under Apple’s own privacy policy.

Children

DeskReps is not directed at children, and collects no personal information from anyone, including children. The diagnostic reports described above identify a device and a build, not a person.

Purchases

DeskReps Plus is sold through the App Store. Apple processes the payment; we never see your payment details, name, or email.

Whether you have Plus is determined on your device, from the purchase record Apple stores in your Apple Account. Nothing that identifies your purchase is sent to us, and we add no advertising or attribution SDK to the app. Camera frames work the same as ever: processed on your device, never stored, never transmitted.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date above changes with it, and the current version always lives at this address.

Contact

Questions about privacy: admin@anapps.biz.