lights out
privacy policy
last updated · 10 september 2026
lights out is built offline-first. the short version: your sleep data never leaves your phone, and there is no lights out server for it to leave to. this page is the long version.
what stays on your phone
everything you create in the app lives in a local database on your device only: your schedules and blocks, wind-down history, sleep and morning journal entries, worry notes, stats, and your override passcode (stored in the device keychain / encrypted storage). none of it is uploaded, synced, or backed up to us. if you delete the app, this data is gone and we cannot recover it. you can export a copy yourself at any time from settings.
what leaves your phone (the entire list)
- your purchase receipt, sent to RevenueCat and the app store, so we can tell whether your subscription or lifetime unlock is active. this is tied to your app store account, not a Lights Out account.
- nothing else. no analytics, no crash reports, no advertising identifiers, no third-party trackers, no usage telemetry.
sleep data (optional, off by default)
lights out can read sleep durations onlyfrom your phone’s health store, so your stats can show how much of your phone curfew became real sleep. on iphone that is apple health; on android it is health connect.
- it is read-only. lights out never writes to apple health or health connect, and never reads any other category of health data.
- it is opt-in and off until you turn it on in settings.
- the sleep data stays on your device. it is never uploaded, never shared with us, and never shared with any third party.
- you can revoke access at any time in settings, or in apple health / health connect directly. revoking it stops the reading immediately and removes it from your stats.
permissions
the app asks for the system permissions it needs to do the blocking, and nothing beyond them. on iphone that is screen time / family controls. on android that is the accessibility service, usage access, and “display over other apps”.
the android accessibility service, in plain terms
lights out uses android’s accessibility service for one purpose: to notice which app is currently in the foreground, so the shield can appear over an app you chose to block and stay out of the way of every app you didn’t.
- it reads the package name of the app in front(for example “com.instagram.android”) and nothing else.
- it does not read, collect, log, or transmit the text content of any app. not your messages, not your passwords, not what is on your screen, not form fields, not anything you type.
- it does not record your screen, take screenshots, or capture keystrokes.
- nothing it observes leaves your device. there is no server to send it to.
- you can turn it off at any time in android settings, which disables blocking on android.
usage access is used to show you how long you have spent in an app, so daily limits and your stats can work. the overlay permission is what lets the shield draw on top of a blocked app.
deleting your data
because nothing is stored off your device, deleting the app deletes everything. you can also clear it from inside the app at any time (settings, then delete all data), which wipes your schedules, history, journal entries and passcode without uninstalling. your purchase history is held by apple or google, not by us, and is restored from your store account.
children
lights out is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.
changes
if this policy changes, we’ll update the date above. since we hold no contact details, the current version always lives here.
who makes lights out
lights out is published by Betterdays Studio, the app studio behind johnnybuildstech, based in the united kingdom.
contact
questions? the support page has the best way to reach a human.