Privacy Policy
Last updated September 29, 2026
The short version: your countdowns stay on your iPhone. There are no accounts, no ads, and no tracking. The app counts a few anonymous things, like how many chains get made, so we can tell which parts people use. Nothing it counts can be traced back to you.
What stays on your iPhone
Everything you put into Paper Chain stays on your phone and is never sent to us or anyone else:
- your chains: their names, dates, lengths, paper, and patterns
- your rooms and their looks
- the scraps on your floor, and what you've torn and when
- your reminder times
When you share a chain, its video is made on your phone and goes only where you send it. We never see it.
The app's widgets read the same information from your phone. Reminders are scheduled by your iPhone itself; there's no server behind them. There is no sign-in and no sync. If you delete the app, your countdowns go with it. Your iPhone's own backup, if you use one, includes them the way it includes any app's data.
Purchases
The Party Pack is bought through Apple. Apple handles the payment; we never see your card, your name, or your Apple Account. The app only asks the App Store whether this phone's Apple Account owns the Party Pack. Family Sharing works the same way.
The anonymous counts
To learn which parts of Paper Chain people use, the app sends a few anonymous counts to TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service. These are the only things it counts:
- the app being opened
- a chain being made, with what kind it is (a number, or days or weeks to a date), which paper, whether it has its own color pattern, and a rough length range, like "15 to 30"
- a link being torn, a chain being finished, and a chain being shared
- a room being made, and which look a room is given
- the Party Pack being shown, bought, or restored
Along with each count, TelemetryDeck includes general details that aren't about you:
- the app version, the iOS version, the kind of iPhone, and its screen size
- your language, region, and time zone settings, light or dark appearance, and accessibility settings such as text size or Reduce Motion
- the hour and weekday the count was sent
- general usage patterns: how many times and on how many days the app has been opened, how long a visit lasts, and the day it was first opened
It never sends the names of your chains or rooms, any date you chose, anything you type, your contacts, your location, your photos, or anything else about you.
How it stays anonymous: to tell how many different people use the app without knowing who they are, TelemetryDeck uses a code made from an identifier Apple gives each app on each phone. That code is scrambled one way on your phone, with a secret of our own, and scrambled again on TelemetryDeck's servers. Neither we nor TelemetryDeck can turn it back into your phone or you. See TelemetryDeck's privacy policy for how they handle the connection itself.
The counts are used only to improve Paper Chain. They're never used for advertising, never used to track you across apps or websites, never sold, and never combined with any other information.
Children
Paper Chain is made for everyone, including kids counting down to a birthday. Because it collects no personal information from anyone, it collects none from children either.
Your choices
You can turn reminders on or off for each chain, or for the whole app in your iPhone's Settings. Deleting the app deletes everything it stored. Because the anonymous counts can't be connected to you, there's no personal information about you for us to show you, correct, or delete, but you're welcome to ask us anything.
Changes and questions
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top. Questions? Email chris@ribbescobb.com.
Paper Chain is made by Ribbescobb Labs, LLC.