Privacy policy

Effective 18 October 2026 · Applies to the Unshadow app for iOS and Android and to this website

The short version

No account, no sign-up. We don't ask for your email, phone number or password.
Your inner work stays on your phone. Journal entries, photos, intentions, moods, the beliefs you work on, your name and your hero's name are stored only on your device. They are never sent to us, to advertisers or to analytics.
Ads keep Unshadow free. Google AdMob shows the ads. You choose whether ads can be personalised, and on iPhone whether apps can track you.
Anonymous usage and crash reports (Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics) help us fix bugs and improve the app. They follow your consent, and you can turn them off any time in Settings.
You're in control. Delete everything in the app at Settings → Data → Delete all data, or by uninstalling.

1. Who we are

Unshadow is published by Lapaas, based in India ("we", "us"). We are responsible for the app and this website. If you have a question about privacy, write to [email protected].

2. Information that stays on your device

Unshadow works fully offline and has no accounts or servers of its own. Everything you create in the app is saved in the app's private storage on your phone, including:

your first name (if you give one), your hero, your hero's name and your progress (days, levels, items, Lumis and achievements);
your self-scan answers, the limiting beliefs you choose to work on, your intention and your ratings;
journal and reflection entries, letters, affirmations, wishes, moods and anything else you type;
photos you choose to add to journal entries or your vision board (the app keeps its own copy, picked through the system photo picker);
your settings and reminder times.

We can't see any of this, and we never send it to anyone. It is not included in ad requests, analytics events or crash reports.

3. Backups and moving to a new phone

Phone backups: your app data is included in your device's normal backup (iCloud Backup on iPhone, Google backup on Android) and in device-to-device transfer, if you have those turned on. Those backups are handled by Apple or Google under their own terms and your account settings.
Backup files: in Settings → Data you can export an .unshadow backup file and import it again later. The file contains your app data and photos. It is created only when you ask, and it goes wherever you choose to save or share it. Keep it somewhere safe, because anyone with the file can read its contents.

4. Advertising (Google AdMob)

Unshadow is free and supported by ads from Google AdMob. Ads never appear during onboarding, guided sessions, running tools, journaling, the vow, transformations or the backup and delete screens.

What Google may collect: to show and measure ads and to prevent fraud, the Google Mobile Ads SDK can collect device and app information such as your IP address (to estimate an approximate location), device model and settings, app interactions with ads, and, where you allow it, the device's advertising identifier (the Android advertising ID or, on iPhone, the IDFA).
Consent: we use Google's User Messaging Platform. Where the law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland) the app asks for your choices before personalised ads are shown. You can change them at any time in Settings → Ads & privacy → Privacy options.
iPhone tracking: the app asks Apple's App Tracking Transparency question once. If you choose "Ask App Not to Track", the IDFA isn't shared and you can still use every feature.
Non-personalised ads: if you don't consent to personalisation, Google shows ads based on context (such as the app itself) rather than your activity in other apps. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings.
Rewarded ads are always optional: you choose to watch one for an in-app bonus.

Google's handling of this information is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy.

5. Usage and crash reports (Firebase)

We use Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics to understand which features are used and to find and fix crashes.

Usage events: a fixed list of anonymous events, such as "a task was completed", "a session was finished", "a level was reached", the screen being viewed (by an internal screen code) and broad settings like the theme or 3D quality. Events never contain your writing, photos, moods, names, the beliefs you work on, your scan answers or ratings.
Crash reports: when the app crashes, Crashlytics records technical details (device model, OS version, app version, the code that failed, and the current screen code, program day, level and 3D quality setting).
Identifiers: Firebase uses an app-instance identifier that is created for the installation. We never set a user ID. On iPhone, Analytics doesn't read the IDFA unless you allowed tracking.
Your choice: collection follows the consent choices above. Where consent is required, nothing is sent until you have made your choice. You can switch it off any time in Settings → Ads & privacy → Share anonymous usage & crash reports. Turning it off stops collection immediately and deletes crash reports that haven't been sent yet.

See Google's Privacy and Security in Firebase for details.

6. Permissions the app uses

Permission	Why
Notifications	Reminders you set up (morning practice, evening reflection, showdown ready, 3-6-9, focus timer end). They're scheduled on your phone; no server sends them.
Internet / network state	Only for ads, ad consent and the anonymous usage and crash reports described above. Every feature works offline.
Advertising ID (Android) / App Tracking Transparency (iPhone)	Ads, as described in section 4, only as you allow.
Run at startup (Android)	To restore your scheduled reminders after the phone restarts.
Vibration	Haptic feedback, which you can turn off in Settings → Display.
Background audio (iPhone)	So narration and sleep audio can keep playing when the screen locks.

The app doesn't use your camera, microphone, contacts or precise location. Photos are chosen through the system photo picker, which shares only the photos you select.

We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't share it for anyone's own marketing. The only third party involved is Google (AdMob, the User Messaging Platform, Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics), acting as described above. We may disclose information if the law requires it, but because your personal content stays on your device, we don't hold it.

8. How long information is kept

On your device: until you delete it in the app, delete all data, or uninstall the app (and, for phone backups and exported files, until you delete those).
Google Analytics for Firebase: event-level data is kept for no longer than 14 months, after which Google deletes it.
Firebase Crashlytics: crash reports are kept for 90 days.
Google AdMob: according to Google's own retention policies.

9. Deleting your data

In the app, open Settings → Data → Delete all data and confirm. This wipes everything stored by Unshadow on the phone and cancels its reminders. Uninstalling the app also removes its data from the phone. To remove copies in phone backups, manage your iCloud or Google backups in your device settings. More on our data deletion page.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, laws such as the EU and UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA) and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 give you rights to access, correct, delete or move your personal data, to withdraw consent and to object to certain processing. Because we don't hold your personal content, most of these rights are exercised directly in the app (export, edit, delete) and through the privacy options in Settings. For data held by Google for ads or analytics, use the in-app controls, your device's advertising ID settings, or Google's tools. For anything else, email us and we'll reply within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Where the GDPR applies, the legal bases are: your consent for personalised ads and for analytics and crash reports where consent is required; and our legitimate interest in keeping a free app running, secure and working well for non-personalised ads and, outside consent regions, for anonymous usage and crash reports.

11. International transfers

Google may process ad, analytics and crash information in countries other than yours, including the United States, under its own safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

12. Security

Your data lives in the app's private storage, protected by your phone's own security (screen lock and device encryption). Network traffic from the app to Google uses encrypted connections. No method is perfectly secure, so please protect your phone and any backup files you export.

13. Adults only

Unshadow is for adults aged 18 and over, and the app asks for your age before you begin. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor is using the app, please contact us.

14. This website

This website doesn't use cookies, analytics or trackers and loads nothing from other sites. Like any web server, it briefly keeps standard access logs (IP address, browser type and the page requested) for security and reliability. Our hosting and content-delivery providers process these logs for us.

15. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update this page and the effective date above, and for important changes we'll also tell you in the app.

16. Contact us

Lapaas, India · [email protected]