Scales privacy policy
Effective October 27, 2026
Scales is an iPhone app made by Graham DeNoyer ("we"). This policy explains what Scales does with your information. The short version: your principles stay on your iPhone, there is no account, and we do not sell, share or advertise with anything you write.
What stays on your iPhone
Everything you write in Scales stays on your device: your principles, their collections and authors, your replies, your history of moves, your settings and any backup files you make. We cannot see it. Deleting Scales deletes it.
What leaves your iPhone, and why
Quotes. To show a quote from today's thinker, Scales asks Wikiquote, run by the Wikimedia Foundation, for that thinker's page, either directly or through our server, which keeps a copy of public quote pages to reduce load. Only the thinker's name is sent, never your principles. Wikimedia's privacy policy applies to that request.
AI features. Scales asks before it sends anything to an AI service. If you agree, and only when you use a feature that needs it, Scales sends the text of the principle on screen, how many times you have skipped it, the candidate quotes, and anything you write in Talk it through. This goes through our server to Anthropic, which writes the reply. Our server passes the request on and does not store its content. Anthropic processes it under its commercial terms, which do not allow it to train models on this content, and keeps it only for a limited time for safety and abuse monitoring, as its privacy policy describes. You can turn AI features off at any time in Settings.
On-device AI. On iPhones that support Apple Intelligence, some questions are written by Apple's on-device model. That happens entirely on your iPhone.
App check. So that only the real Scales app can use our server, your iPhone proves it is running a genuine copy of Scales using Apple's App Attest. This does not identify you.
Purchases. Apple handles subscriptions and payment. We learn whether a subscription is active; we never see your name, Apple Account or payment details.
Reminders. Reminders are scheduled on your iPhone. Nothing is sent to us.
What we do not do
No accounts. No advertising. No tracking across apps or websites. No selling or sharing of your data. No data brokers.
Children
Scales is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Your choices
Turn AI features off in Settings. Export or delete your data from Settings, or delete everything by deleting the app. Manage or cancel a subscription in your iPhone's Settings under your Apple Account.
Security
Requests to our server and to Anthropic are encrypted in transit. Our server keeps no copies of what you write.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update the date above and describe the change in the app's release notes.