Last updated 8 October 2026.
Slate is a focus tool. It's built so that almost nothing about how you use it leaves your phone. This page explains, plainly, what that means.
Blocking is done entirely through Apple's Screen Time system (the Family Controls, Managed Settings, and Device Activity frameworks). When you pick apps to silence, iOS hands Slate opaque tokens, not names. Slate literally cannot read which apps you selected, and that selection is stored only on your device. It is never transmitted to us or anyone else.
Slate works fully without an account. If you choose to Sign in with Apple or continue with Google, we receive a stable account identifier and the name and email associated with it. We use this only to identify your account so your modes can follow you to a new device in the future. Signing in with Apple or Google also means that provider processes that sign-in under their own privacy policies.
Your blocklists, schedules, session history, and account identity are stored on your device (in Slate's app group container) and are not uploaded.
Separately, Slate's server (hosted on Netlify) keeps one small record per install so we can support you. It contains: a randomly generated Slate ID (a code like ABCD-EFGH that the app creates; it identifies the install, not you), how many emergency unlocks you've been granted and used, and your total focused time. This exists so we can top up your unlocks when you ask, and so your balance can follow your account to a new phone.
If you sign in, that record is linked to your account and includes your account identifier and email address, so support can find you by the address you write in from. If you never sign in, the record contains nothing that identifies you.
Slate does not collect analytics about which apps you block. Your total focused time is stored as described above, and site-wide we only look at anonymous totals (for example, hours saved across all users). The app contains no advertising or tracking SDKs, ever.
tapslate.co is a different matter from the app, because a website has to find out whether it works. We use Google Analytics to see which pages people visit and where they came from. When we run ads, the Meta and TikTok pixels tell us whether an ad led to an order, and Microsoft Clarity shows us anonymised recordings of how people use the page, with anything you type masked. These set cookies in your browser.
If you visit from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, none of those cookies are set until you accept, and you can change your mind any time from the Cookies link in the footer. Decline and the site works exactly the same.
When you pre-order, the checkout link carries a random visitor id and any ad click ids from your visit, so we can tell which ad or creator the order came from. After an order, we report its total to those same ad platforms, together with a hashed (one-way scrambled) form of the email and shipping details you gave the store, so the platform can match the order to the ad click. That is the standard way online shops measure advertising. It happens on the store side only, and never involves anything from the app.
Account → Delete account inside the app deletes your record from our server, including your email, and resets your local identity. Deleting the app removes all on-device data. You can also email hello@tapslate.co with your Slate ID and we'll delete your record by hand.
Slate is not directed at children under 13 and we don't knowingly collect data from them.
If we change this policy, we'll update the date above and, for material changes, note it in the app or on this site.
Questions about privacy: hello@tapslate.co.