Privacy Policy
Contents
- Who We Are
- The Short Version
- Scope and Legal Framework
- Information Stored on Your Device
- Information We Do Not Collect
- Developer Access
- The FSRS Scheduling Component
- Local Notifications
- Apple Services and Device Backup
- The Legal and Support Pages on GitHub
- External Links
- Data Retention and Deletion
- Security
- Children's Privacy
- Tracking, Advertising and Universal Opt-Out Signals
- United Kingdom (UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018)
- International Users and Later Distribution
- United States State Privacy Rights
- California (CCPA and CPRA)
- Future Changes to BeanBrain
- Changes to This Policy
- Contact
1. Who We Are
BeanBrain ("the App", "BeanBrain", "we", "us", "our") is a spaced-repetition revision application for iPhone, developed and operated by Anthony Grisoni, an individual based in the United Kingdom ("the Developer"). The App is distributed through the Apple App Store.
2. The Short Version
This policy explains what that means in detail and sets out your rights under applicable law. Where a statement below depends on the version of the App you are using, it describes the App as audited at the date at the top of this policy.
3. Scope and Legal Framework
This policy covers the BeanBrain iOS app and the static legal and support pages that host this document. The Developer aims to comply with applicable data-protection and privacy law for the territories in which BeanBrain is distributed, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), other applicable United States state privacy laws, and Apple's App Store privacy requirements. BeanBrain is currently made available for the United Kingdom and the United States and is not being distributed through European Union App Store storefronts in this release.
Because BeanBrain does not collect or process personal data on any server, and study data stays on your device under your control, the obligations these laws place on the Developer as a controller or business are limited. This policy documents that position.
4. Information Stored on Your Device
BeanBrain stores the study material and history you create on your device, using Apple's on-device storage framework (SwiftData, which is built on Core Data). Depending on how you use the App, this can include:
- subjects, decks, cards (including prompts, answers, cloze text, comparison and application content), tags and card provenance or source notes;
- review schedules and scheduling state, including due dates and the difficulty and stability values the scheduling algorithm maintains;
- review history, including which card was reviewed, when, the rating you gave, and whether you used a hint;
- study sessions and effective-eligibility history;
- backlog information, which is derived from your review history and card states;
- interleaving sets you configure;
- mock exam questions and options you author, mock exam definitions, exam attempts (including per-question snapshots taken when an attempt began), your selected answers, and exam results;
- study analytics that BeanBrain computes from the above, such as streaks, a review heatmap, workload forecasts and retention-calibration figures;
- your notification preferences, such as whether reminders are on, your preferred reminder time, chosen days, a minimum-due threshold and quiet hours.
This data can contain whatever information you choose to type into your cards, questions and notes. It is created and held only on your device. It is not transmitted to the Developer or to any BeanBrain server, because there is no BeanBrain server.
5. Information We Do Not Collect
BeanBrain does not collect, and the Developer does not receive:
- your name, email address or other contact details;
- account credentials, passwords or login identifiers (there is no account);
- location data;
- device identifiers for advertising or tracking, such as the Identifier for Advertisers;
- IP address, network information or web-request logs generated by the native app;
- usage analytics, session recordings or behavioural data;
- purchase or payment information;
- camera, microphone, photo library, contacts or calendar data;
- cookies, pixels, beacons or similar web-tracking technologies (the App is a native iOS application and uses none).
6. Developer Access
The Developer cannot ordinarily view, retrieve, monitor, profile, analyse, sell or share your BeanBrain study data. It is on your device. The Developer has no server database of user information and no mechanism to reach the data on your device.
If you choose to contact the Developer, for example to report a bug, any information you include in that message is processed only to respond to you. Please do not send confidential study material in a support message.
7. The FSRS Scheduling Component
BeanBrain's review scheduling uses swift-fsrs, an open-source implementation of the Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler algorithm by Ben Smiley, used under the MIT Licence. This component runs entirely on your device as part of the App. It performs scheduling calculations locally. It does not connect to the internet, does not transmit your data anywhere, and is not a remote service. Its licence text is available within the App under Settings, then Legal, then Open Source Licences.
8. Local Notifications
If you turn review reminders on, BeanBrain:
- stores your reminder preferences on your device only;
- asks iOS for permission to send notifications at the point you enable the feature, and not before;
- schedules reminders locally using Apple's UserNotifications framework, based on your review workload.
There is no BeanBrain push server, and no third party is involved in delivering these reminders. BeanBrain does not record or analyse whether a notification was delivered, shown or opened.
9. Apple Services and Device Backup
Downloading and using BeanBrain requires an Apple Account and is subject to Apple's terms and privacy policy. Apple may independently process information connected with the App Store download or purchase, device services, notification infrastructure and device or iCloud backup, under Apple's own policies. The Developer has no access to that information and does not receive it.
If you have iCloud Backup or a local device backup enabled, your BeanBrain app data may be included in that backup, in the same way as other apps' data. This is controlled by Apple and by your device settings. BeanBrain does not use CloudKit or any iCloud sync, and does not need to for an ordinary device backup to include its data. The Developer has no access to your backups.
10. The Legal and Support Pages on GitHub
BeanBrain's Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy and the Support page are published as static web pages using GitHub Pages, at https://agrisoni.github.io/beanbrain-legal/. The BeanBrain app itself does not send any study data to GitHub.
When you choose to open the Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy or the Support page from within the App, or visit these pages directly, your browser makes an ordinary web request to GitHub's servers. As part of serving a web page, GitHub may process standard request information such as your IP address, user-agent string and the page requested, under GitHub's own privacy statement. The Developer does not add analytics, tracking, cookies or scripts to these pages, and does not use them to build any profile of you. Opening a hosted web page is not a zero-data event, but no BeanBrain analytics or tracking is involved.
11. External Links
The App or these documents may contain links to external websites, for example a source reference you added to a card, or GitHub's privacy statement above. Those websites are operated independently under their own terms and privacy practices. Once you choose to open an external website, its own practices apply, and the Developer is not responsible for them.
12. Data Retention and Deletion
The Developer retains no server-side study data, because none is collected. Your BeanBrain data stays on your device until you delete it within the App or remove the App. Deleting the App from your device normally removes its local app-container data, subject to any backup you have kept through Apple. You can also delete individual subjects, decks, cards, tags, mock exams, questions, exam attempts and interleaving sets within the App.
13. Security
Because your BeanBrain data stays on your device and is not transmitted to the Developer, its security depends mainly on your device: your passcode, Face ID or Touch ID, and Apple's on-device encryption. Keep your operating system up to date and use device-level security. No method of storage is completely secure, and the Developer cannot guarantee absolute security.
14. Children's Privacy
BeanBrain is not directed at children under 13, and the Developer does not knowingly make it available to them. Because BeanBrain collects no personal data on any server from any user, there is no server-side collection of children's data to address. If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has used the App, be aware that no personal data has been collected or transmitted by the Developer; you can remove all App data by deleting the App from the device. The Developer does not sell or share the personal data of any person, including anyone under 16.
15. Tracking, Advertising and Universal Opt-Out Signals
The BeanBrain app performs no tracking and shows no advertising. It contains no advertising software development kit, no analytics software development kit, no behavioural analytics and no crash-reporting service, and it does not present an App Tracking Transparency prompt because it does not track you.
Because the native app does no tracking, there is nothing in the app for a "Do Not Track" signal or a Global Privacy Control signal to switch off. Those signals relate to web browsing; if you visit the legal pages in a browser, that browser and GitHub handle any such signals according to their own practices, which is separate from the app.
16. United Kingdom (UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018)
This section applies to residents of the United Kingdom. UK GDPR is not irrelevant to BeanBrain; rather, the way BeanBrain is built means that personal data within the App's scope stays on your own device, under your direct control, and the Developer does not act as a server-side controller of your study content.
| Right | Position for BeanBrain |
|---|---|
| Right to be informed | This policy and the in-app links provide the information. |
| Right of access | Your data is on your device; you can view it directly in the App at any time. |
| Right to rectification | You can edit your data directly in the App at any time. |
| Right to erasure | You can delete your data, or the App, at any time. |
| Right to restrict processing | The Developer carries out no server-side processing to restrict. |
| Right to data portability | The Developer holds no copy to port. The current App does not include an export feature. |
| Right to object | The Developer carries out no server-side processing to object to. |
| Rights relating to automated decision-making | The scheduling and analytics calculations run on your device, are not used by the Developer to make decisions about you, and have no legal or similarly significant effect. |
If you have a concern, contact the Developer using Section 22. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
17. International Users and Later Distribution
BeanBrain is currently made available through the Apple App Store for the United Kingdom and the United States, and is not being distributed through European Union App Store storefronts in this release. This Policy does not set out a jurisdiction-specific compliance regime for territories where BeanBrain is not distributed.
Wherever you are, if the mandatory law of your own jurisdiction gives you privacy rights that apply to you, BeanBrain will respect those rights to the extent they apply. In practice, because the Developer runs no server and receives no personal data, the personal information within the App's scope is on your own device and under your direct control: you can view, change, export by your own means, or delete it, or delete the App, at any time.
If BeanBrain's distribution or data practices later expand into a jurisdiction that requires additional disclosures, notices or protections, this Policy and the App's App Store privacy information will be reviewed and updated before or alongside that change as required. This Policy does not claim prospective compliance with laws that have not actually been reviewed for BeanBrain.
18. United States State Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live in the United States, you may have privacy rights under state law, for example in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas and other states with comprehensive privacy statutes. Because BeanBrain does not collect, sell, share or process personal data on any server, these apply only in the narrow sense set out below.
| Right | Position for BeanBrain |
|---|---|
| Confirm whether we process your personal data | We do not process your personal data on any server. |
| Access your personal data | We hold none. Your data is on your device. |
| Delete your personal data | We hold none. You can delete your data or the App. |
| Correct inaccurate personal data | We hold none. You can edit your data in the App. |
| Opt out of sale of personal data | We do not sell personal data. |
| Opt out of targeted advertising or profiling | We conduct neither. |
| Non-discrimination for exercising rights | We do not discriminate. |
To exercise a right or to confirm this position in writing, contact the Developer using Section 22.
19. California (CCPA and CPRA)
This section supplements the above for California residents.
Notice at collection. The Developer does not collect personal information from users of BeanBrain. The following summarises the position by category.
| Category of personal information | Collected | Sold or shared |
|---|---|---|
| Identifiers (name, email, IP address, account identifiers) | No | No |
| Personal or commercial characteristics, purchase records | No | No |
| Internet or network activity information | No | No |
| Geolocation data | No | No |
| Biometric information | No | No |
| Inferences drawn to create a profile | No | No |
| Sensitive personal information | No | No |
Your study content stays on your device and is not "collected" by the Developer. Your California rights to know, delete, correct, opt out of sale or sharing, and limit the use of sensitive personal information apply against the Developer only to the extent the Developer holds such information, which it does not. The Developer does not sell or share personal information and does not process it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is no opt-out mechanism to provide. The Developer does not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct-marketing purposes.
20. Future Changes to BeanBrain
This policy describes BeanBrain as it currently works: local storage, no account, no server, no analytics, no tracking. If a future version of BeanBrain begins to transmit study data off the device, add cloud storage or sync, add accounts, add analytics, or otherwise process new personal data, this Privacy Policy and the App's App Store privacy information will be updated to describe that accurately before or at the same time as the change, as required by applicable law. This policy is not, and should not be read as, advance consent to any future collection that it does not describe.
21. Changes to This Policy
The Developer may update this policy to reflect changes to the App, the law or practice. The current version is always at the address in Section 10, and the "Last updated" date at the top shows when it last changed. Please review it from time to time. For a consumer, changes apply to your use of the App after the update takes effect.
22. Contact
For any question or request about this Privacy Policy, or to exercise a privacy right, contact:
Anthony Grisoni
United Kingdom
Email: beanfitapp.com.oxidizing930@passfwd.com
This single contact address is used across the Bean family of apps, including BeanBrain. Please mention BeanBrain in your message. The Developer aims to respond within 30 days.