Privacy Policy
The short version. WakeAlert has no accounts, no servers, and no analytics. It never sends your data anywhere, because it contains no code that sends data anywhere. Your alarms, settings, wake history, and any Health data it reads stay on your iPhone and Apple Watch, and are removed when you delete the app.
Contents
1. Who we are
WakeAlert is developed and published by TimeDesert, a company registered in the State of Utah, United States ("TimeDesert", "we", "us"). This policy explains how the WakeAlert iPhone app, its Apple Watch app, and its widget and Live Activity extensions handle information.
This policy applies only to the WakeAlert app. It does not cover anything Apple does with your information as the operator of the App Store, which is governed by Apple's privacy policy.
2. Information we do not collect
WakeAlert does not collect personal data. Specifically, the app:
- Has no user accounts and no sign-in of any kind.
- Operates no servers or backend services. There is nowhere for your data to be sent.
- Contains no analytics, advertising, attribution, or crash-reporting SDKs, and no third-party code libraries that transmit information.
- Does not track you across apps or websites, and never requests App Tracking Transparency permission.
- Does not request or use your location. The app does not include location functionality at all.
- Does not use the microphone or camera.
- Does not sell, rent, or share personal information with anyone, because it never receives any.
These statements match the privacy manifests bundled with the app, which declare no collected data types and no tracking.
3. Information stored on your device
To do its job, WakeAlert saves information locally, using Apple's standard on-device storage. This information stays on your iPhone and Apple Watch and is not transmitted to us or anyone else. It includes:
- Your alarms — times, repeat days, chosen sounds, and whether each alarm is enabled.
- Your settings — snooze length, re-alarm interval, wake-window length, wake-challenge preferences, and similar options.
- Your wake history — a record of past mornings, including when the alarm fired, when you silenced it, whether you fell back asleep, and (if your Apple Watch was involved) a summary heart-rate figure for that wake window.
- Your premium status — a cached record of whether you have an active WakeAlert Premium entitlement, so the app works correctly offline.
- Onboarding state — whether you have completed first-run setup.
Some of this information is stored in a shared app group so that the iPhone app, the Apple Watch app, the watch complication, and the Live Activity can all read the same alarm state. That sharing happens entirely between apps on your own devices.
If you use iCloud Backup or an encrypted device backup, this on-device data may be included in that backup. Those backups are controlled by you and Apple, not by us.
4. Health data (HealthKit)
WakeAlert can read heart-rate information from Apple's Health app in order to tell whether you are awake or have fallen back asleep after an alarm. This is optional: the app asks for your permission first, and it continues to function as an alarm if you decline.
What we read
- Heart rate and resting heart rate, read only around the time an alarm fires and during the wake window that follows.
What we write
WakeAlert does not write any health measurements to the Health app. On Apple Watch it requests permission to start a workout session, which is the mechanism watchOS provides for keeping heart-rate sensing active in the background. No workout is ever saved to your Health data — the session is started and ended solely to keep the sensor running during your wake window.
Our commitments regarding health data
Health data read by WakeAlert is used only to determine whether you are awake and to show you your own wake history inside the app. We do not use it for advertising, marketing, or any similar purpose. We do not sell it. We do not share or disclose it to any third party, service provider, data broker, or information-resale platform. It is not used for data mining. It never leaves your device.
Where it goes
Heart-rate values are read on your Apple Watch, summarized, and passed to your iPhone over Apple's encrypted device-to-device Watch Connectivity link. The summary is stored with the matching entry in your wake history on your phone. No health data is transmitted off your devices.
5. Motion and fitness data
On Apple Watch, WakeAlert uses wrist-motion data to detect whether you are moving around (awake) or lying still (likely asleep) during a wake window. Motion data is processed live on the watch to make that determination and is not stored as a raw record, transmitted, or shared.
6. Notifications and audio
WakeAlert asks for notification permission so it can deliver alarms, including time-sensitive alerts that can break through Focus modes. Notifications are scheduled locally on your device by iOS. There is no push server, and no notification content is sent through us or any third party.
The app also plays audio in the background so an alarm can sound while your phone is locked. No audio is recorded.
7. Purchases and subscriptions
WakeAlert Premium is sold through Apple's In-App Purchase system. All payment processing is handled by Apple. We never see or receive your name, email address, payment card, or billing details.
The app asks Apple's StoreKit framework whether your Apple Account currently holds a WakeAlert entitlement, and stores the yes/no answer on your device so the app works without a network connection. That check contains no personal information about you.
Apple provides us with aggregate, anonymized sales and subscription reports in App Store Connect. Those reports do not identify individual users.
8. Third parties
WakeAlert integrates no third-party services, SDKs, or trackers. The only external party involved in your use of the app is Apple, in its role as the operator of the App Store, iOS, watchOS, HealthKit, and In-App Purchase.
We may disclose information if required to do so by law — but as a practical matter we hold no user data that could be produced in response to such a request.
9. Children
WakeAlert is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Because the app collects no personal information from anyone, it collects none from children either.
10. Your choices and how to delete your data
- Health access: you can grant or revoke WakeAlert's access to heart-rate data at any time in the iOS Health app under Sharing → Apps, or in Settings → Privacy & Security → Health. Revoking access disables pulse-confirmed wake detection; the rest of the app keeps working.
- Motion access: can be revoked in Settings → Privacy & Security → Motion & Fitness on your Apple Watch or paired iPhone.
- Notifications: can be managed in Settings → Notifications → WakeAlert. Alarms require notification permission to sound reliably.
- Deleting your data: deleting the WakeAlert app removes its alarms, settings, and wake history from that device. Deleting the app from your iPhone also removes the paired Apple Watch app and its data.
Because we hold no copy of your information, there is nothing for us to delete on our end, and no data-access request we could meaningfully fulfill. If you live somewhere that grants you rights of access, correction, portability, or deletion — such as under the CCPA/CPRA or GDPR — the practical answer is that all of your WakeAlert data is already in your sole possession on your own devices. You are welcome to write to us with any question about this.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change how WakeAlert handles information, we will update this page and revise the "Last updated" date above. Material changes will also be described in the app's App Store release notes. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.
12. Contact us
Questions about this policy or about privacy in WakeAlert:
TimeDesert · Utah, United States