SmilingEyes

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 21 July 2026

SmilingEyes is a Mac and iPhone app that helps you rest your eyes, reduce strain, and build healthier screen habits. We designed it to work without collecting your personal data on our own servers. This policy explains what the app does and does not do with your information.

Information we do not collect

• The app has no accounts. It never asks you to sign up, and never asks for a password.
• We do not run third-party advertising or tracking SDKs.
• We do not sell or share personal data with anyone.

The one place we do ask for your name and email is the support form on this website, and only because we need somewhere to send the reply — see Contacting support below.

Camera (Blink & Posture features)

If you enable the optional Blink & Posture reminders, SmilingEyes uses your Mac's camera to detect blink rate and head posture entirely on-device. The camera feed is processed in real time and is never recorded, stored, or transmitted off your device. You can disable these features at any time, and macOS shows the camera indicator whenever they are active.

Calendar (optional meeting detection)

If you turn on calendar detection, SmilingEyes checks whether an event is happening right now so it can hold a break instead of interrupting your meeting. To do that it reads the title of the event currently in progress, and shows it on screen so you know why breaks are paused. It reads nothing else — not attendees, notes, locations, or any other event. The title is used in the moment, is never stored, synced, or transmitted, and the whole feature is off unless you enable it and grant calendar access.

Keyboard & mouse activity (idle detection)

SmilingEyes watches for mouse movement to tell whether you're at your Mac, so it can pause the break timer while you're away. If you grant Accessibility permission, it also notices keystrokes for the same purpose. No text, keys, or content are ever read, logged, or stored — only the fact that some input happened, used to update a timestamp in memory. If you don't grant Accessibility access, SmilingEyes simply falls back to mouse-only detection; nothing else changes.

Screen sharing detection

If you enable call/screen-share detection, SmilingEyes uses macOS's Screen Recording permission to check whether any window on your Mac is currently being shared or recorded, so it can hold your break instead of popping up mid-presentation. This check only reads whether sharing is happening — it never captures, records, or stores anything you or anyone else can see on screen. The feature is off unless you enable it and grant Screen Recording access.

Wellness data and iCloud sync

The app stores your settings and wellness statistics (such as break history and streaks) locally on your device. If you are signed in to iCloud and enable sync, this data is stored in your private iCloud database through Apple's CloudKit. It is protected by your Apple account and is not accessible to us. If you disable iCloud sync, data stays only on your device.

Purchases

SmilingEyes Pro is sold through Apple's App Store using StoreKit. Payments, subscription management, and receipts are handled entirely by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy. We do not receive or store your payment details.

Optional iPhone app blocking

If you use the Focus / app-blocking feature on iPhone, the list of apps you choose to limit is managed on-device through Apple's Screen Time (Family Controls) framework. This selection is stored on your device and, if you enable sync, in your private iCloud database. We never receive it.

Contacting support

The support form on this website asks for your email, and optionally your name, device, and app version, alongside your message. We use these only to understand the problem and reply to you.

The message is delivered to our inbox by Resend, an email provider acting on our behalf, and is held in our email account for as long as we need it to help you and keep a record of the conversation. It is never used for marketing, never added to a mailing list, and never sold or shared. If you would rather not use the form, email [email protected] directly — it reaches the same place.

Children

SmilingEyes is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes to this policy

If we update this policy, we will revise the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email [email protected].