Legal
Privacy Policy
Excalibur is built to know as little about you as it can. This policy says exactly what the app and this website handle, where it goes, and how to delete it.
Last updated · Po polsku
1. Who we are
This policy covers the Excalibur iPhone app and this website, theexcaliburapp.com. “Excalibur”, “we” and “us” mean the person who makes Excalibur and decides how the data described here is used (the data controller under the GDPR):
- Paweł Potempa, a sole trader in Poland (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza)
- NIP (tax ID): 6751820942
- Address: as listed in the Polish business register (CEIDG) under NIP 6751820942
- E-mail: support@theexcaliburapp.com
For anything about your data, email us. We answer within one month, usually much sooner.
2. The short version
- There’s no account and no sign-in. Excalibur has no ads, no analytics and no tracking SDKs, and it doesn’t track you across other apps or websites.
- Which apps, categories and websites you lock, and how you use your iPhone, never leave your iPhone. We never see them.
- Buddies and gift codes work through Apple’s CloudKit, in Excalibur’s iCloud container. Only what’s needed for a buddy chat or a gift is stored there.
- Purchases go through Apple. RevenueCat checks them, using an anonymous ID.
- Your QR key and your NFC tag stay on your iPhone.
- We don’t sell your data, and we don’t share it for advertising.
3. Screen Time
Excalibur locks apps with Apple’s Screen Time API, which needs your permission. When you pick apps, categories or websites with Apple’s picker, Apple gives Excalibur opaque tokens, not the names of the apps or your usage. Excalibur stores those tokens on your iPhone, with your rules (your pulls, their length and your guardian), to put the locks up and take them down.
Excalibur doesn’t read Screen Time reports. Which apps you lock and how you use your iPhone never leave your iPhone, and they’re never sent to us, to CloudKit or to RevenueCat.
If a buddy is your guardian, a few facts about your pulls do go to them, because that’s how they agree: when you ask for a pull (with its minutes), and when you pull the sword. These go through CloudKit as buddy messages, described below. They never include which apps you lock.
4. Buddies (Apple CloudKit)
Buddies use Apple’s CloudKit, in Excalibur’s iCloud container (iCloud.me.ptmp.Excalibur), and both people need to be signed in to iCloud. Buddy records are kept in the container’s public database, which is how two people with different Apple Accounts share one chat. These are the records:
| Record | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Invite | Your 6-character invite code and a random pair ID. A code works for 48 hours. |
| Member | The name you type for yourself, your invite code (if you invited), and, if you’re a buddy, the bird and hat you picked. |
| Message | Buddy chat messages and the name of the person who sent them, pull asks and answers (with the minutes asked for), and short notes such as “I pulled the sword” or that someone joined or unpaired. |
| Report | A report made with Report and block: the pair it’s about and which side was reported. |
| Gift | Gift codes from Duo and Lifetime, see section 5. |
CloudKit also stores, with each record, when it was made and changed and an ID for the iCloud user who made it. That ID is made by Apple for Excalibur only. It isn’t your Apple Account, your email or your name, and we can’t use it to find out who you are.
To send buddy notifications, Excalibur asks CloudKit to tell your iPhone about new messages in your chats. Apple delivers these through its push service.
Buddy chats aren’t end-to-end encrypted. They’re stored by Apple in iCloud where Excalibur can read them (so, technically, could a modified copy of the app), and we can see them when we review a report. Please don’t send anything sensitive in a buddy chat.
Before a name or message is sent, Excalibur checks it on your iPhone against a list of words it won’t send. Nothing about that check leaves your iPhone. When someone reports a chat, we read it to decide whether to remove content or stop someone from using buddies.
5. Gift codes
Duo and Lifetime come with a gift code. The code is stored in the public CloudKit database with when it was made, until when it works (the end of the buyer’s paid Duo year, or no end for Lifetime) and when it was redeemed, so that each code works only once. A copy of the code you gave or received is also kept in your own private iCloud database, so your gift survives a reinstall. Gift codes need you to be signed in to iCloud.
6. Purchases (Apple and RevenueCat)
Apple handles payment for Premium. We never see your payment details. To check whether you have Premium, Excalibur uses RevenueCat, a subscription service. RevenueCat gets a random, anonymous app user ID made on your iPhone, your purchase history in Excalibur, and technical details that come with any request, such as your IP address, device model, iOS and app version, and App Store country. Excalibur doesn’t send RevenueCat your name, email or any other details. See the RevenueCat privacy policy and Apple’s privacy policy.
7. QR key and NFC tag
QR key. Excalibur makes your QR key’s secret on your iPhone and keeps it in the iPhone’s keychain. When you scan the key, the camera image is read on your iPhone and never saved or sent anywhere. The key leaves your iPhone only if you print it, save it to Photos or share it yourself. Excalibur asks for permission to add the key’s picture to Photos, and can’t see your other photos.
NFC tag. When you pair an NFC tag, Excalibur reads the tag’s ID and saves it on your iPhone only (as a salted hash, in the iPhone’s keychain), so it can recognize that same tag on later pulls. The tag’s ID never leaves your iPhone. Excalibur only reads the tag, and never writes to it.
iOS keeps keychain items after an app is deleted, and includes them in encrypted iPhone backups. They’re never sent to us.
8. Notifications
If you allow notifications, Excalibur uses them only for:
- buddy messages, asks and answers (sent through CloudKit and Apple’s push service, with the sender’s name and the message);
- “1 minute left” before a pull’s time runs out;
- “Your emergency unlock is ready” when the 5-minute wait ends.
The last two are made on your iPhone. When your buddy picks a new bird, Excalibur may also get a silent notification so their bird can change on your stone.
9. On your iPhone
Excalibur keeps everything else on your iPhone: your rules, the Screen Time tokens, today’s pulls, the world’s settings, and a cache of your buddy chats so they open fast. The sky follows the real sun and moon using your time zone and a built-in table of places, so Excalibur never asks for your location.
10. This website
This website has no cookies, no analytics, no ads and no forms, and it doesn’t store anything on your device. It’s hosted by Cloudflare, which processes technical request data (such as your IP address, browser and the page asked for) to deliver the site and protect it from attacks. SeeCloudflare’s privacy policy.
11. Email to us
If you email us, we use your email address and what you write to answer you, and to handle a complaint or a report if that’s what you sent. Email tosupport@theexcaliburapp.com is forwarded by Cloudflare Email Routing to our inbox at Fastmail. Please don’t send us your QR key or other secrets.
12. Why we use data, and for how long
| What for | Legal basis (GDPR) | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Buddies: names, chats, asks, birds | Providing the feature you asked for (Art. 6(1)(b)) | Until you or the other person unpair, or you ask us to delete them |
| Gift codes | Providing the gift (Art. 6(1)(b)) | While the gift can be used or lasts, so each code works only once |
| Checking Premium (RevenueCat) | Providing what you paid for (Art. 6(1)(b)) | While you use Excalibur, and as long as the law requires purchase records to be kept |
| Reports and keeping buddies safe | Our legitimate interest in a safe service (Art. 6(1)(f)), and our duties under the EU Digital Services Act (Art. 6(1)(c)) | Up to 12 months after we close the report |
| Answering your email | Our legitimate interest in helping you and handling complaints (Art. 6(1)(f)) | Up to 3 years after our last message, or longer if a legal claim needs it |
| Delivering and protecting this website | Our legitimate interest in a working, secure site (Art. 6(1)(f)) | Cloudflare keeps request logs briefly, under its own policy |
You don’t have to give us any data. Without a name you can’t use buddies, and without an email address we can’t answer you. Excalibur makes no decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects, and it doesn’t profile you.
13. Who else handles data
We use a few providers who process data for us, under contracts that require them to protect it. We don’t sell your data or share it for advertising.
| Provider | What they do | Where, and the safeguard |
|---|---|---|
| Apple (Apple Distribution International Ltd., Ireland, and Apple Inc.) | The App Store and payments, CloudKit storage for buddies and gifts, push notifications | EU and United States, under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses |
| RevenueCat, Inc. | Checks your purchases with an anonymous ID | United States, under Standard Contractual Clauses |
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Hosts this website and forwards email | Worldwide, under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses |
| Fastmail Pty Ltd | Our email inbox | Australia and the United States, under Standard Contractual Clauses |
You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards. We may also have to give data to authorities when the law requires it, for example to the police when a chat suggests a threat to someone’s life or safety.
14. Deleting data
- On your iPhone: deleting Excalibur deletes its data, apart from the keychain items described in section 7. You can delete Excalibur while your apps are open (after a pull or an Emergency unlock).
- Unpairing (in the buddy chat, under the … button) deletes your messages, your Member record, your invite and your notification subscriptions. A short note that you unpaired stays in the chat. The other person’s messages are deleted the next time their Excalibur loads its buddies, unless you used Report and block: then the chat is kept for our review.
- Deleting the app doesn’t delete your CloudKit records. Unpair first, or ask us.
- Gift codes are kept so a code can’t be used twice. Your private iCloud copy can be deleted in the Settings app under your name › iCloud › Manage Account Storage, if Excalibur is listed there.
- Reports and reported chats are kept up to 12 months after we close the report.
To delete everything Excalibur keeps about you in CloudKit, email support@theexcaliburapp.com from any address with your buddy name or invite code, and we will delete it by hand. To delete your RevenueCat data, email us too, and we’ll ask RevenueCat to delete it.
15. Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of your data and tell you how we use it;
- correct it, or delete it;
- restrict how we use it, or give it to you in a format a computer can read so you can move it;
- stop using it where we rely on our legitimate interest, if your situation gives you a reason to object.
Email support@theexcaliburapp.com. Because Excalibur has no accounts, tell us your buddy name or invite code so we can find your CloudKit records. You can also complain to a data protection authority: in Poland that’s the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (Prezes Urzędu Ochrony Danych Osobowych, ul. Stawki 2, 00-193 Warszawa, uodo.gov.pl), or the authority where you live or work.
16. Children
Excalibur isn’t made for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal data from them. If you’re under 16, use buddies only with a parent’s permission. If you think a child has used buddies or sent us data, email us and we’ll delete it.
17. Changes
If this policy changes, we’ll update it here and change the date at the top. If a change matters, we’ll also tell you in the app before it applies.