Arc Squads · Last updated: 11 September 2026
Arc Squads is a 90-day challenge app you do with your friends. This policy explains what it stores about you, why, who else sees it, and what you can ask us to do about it.
It is written in plain English on purpose. If anything here is unclear, email us at hello@arcsquads.com and we will explain it.
Want the short version? There is a plain-English summary of this policy at Your privacy, in short — the same facts, written to be readable by anyone old enough to use the app.
Who we are. Arc Squads is run by Graham Richard Paling. For UK data protection law I am the “data controller” — the person responsible for your information.
Contact: hello@arcsquads.com
ICO registration number: ZC225034
We collect as little as the app can work with. There is no advertising, no tracking and no profiling of any kind, and no analytics tool inside the app. We do look at our payment provider’s own subscription charts to see how many people subscribe.
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | It is your account. We send a 6-digit code to it so you can sign in — there is no password. | Contract |
| A handle (a display name you choose) | So your friends can tell who is who | Contract |
| Your date of birth | To check you are 13 or over. We ask once, when you sign up. We keep the date so we do not have to ask you again, and so we can show that the check was done. | Legitimate interests — keeping under-13s out |
Your email is held by our sign-in provider and is never visible to other users. Other people in your squad can only ever see your handle.
Apart from your date of birth, we do not ask for your real name, your phone number, your address, or a photo. The app has no camera or photo access and no face-rating of any kind — that is a deliberate design decision, not an oversight.
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| The programme you chose and any changes you made to it | It is the thing the app is for | Contract |
| The date you started | To count which day of 90 you are on | Contract |
| Which rules you ticked, and on which dates | Streaks, statistics, and your squad’s shared streak | Contract |
| A private note on a day you completed (optional, up to 500 characters) | Only if you write one. It is kept with that day so it survives a reinstall. Your squad never sees it. | Contract |
| An optional weight goal (a target number, and whether you want to lose or gain) | Only if you choose to set one. It never leaves your phone — see section 8. | Not uploaded, so we never hold it |
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Which squad you are in, and when you joined | To show you your squad | Contract |
| The squad’s name and invite code | So people can join it | Contract |
| “Embers” — a tap that encourages a friend in your squad, with the date | The encouragement feature | Contract |
| Blocks — who you have blocked, and when | So the two of you disappear from each other’s screens. The other person is not told. | Legitimate interests — keeping squads safe |
| Reports — who reported whom, the reason picked (harassment, inappropriate name, spam or other), an optional line of detail (up to 500 characters), and the date | So a person can look into a problem and act on it. Only we can read reports; nobody in the app can. | Legitimate interests — keeping squads safe, and our duties under the Online Safety Act |
If you subscribe, Apple takes the payment. We never see your card details, and Apple does not give them to us. We receive only whether your subscription is active, which plan, and when it renews or expires.
When the app stops working unexpectedly it sends a crash report so we can find the fault and fix it. The report says what the app was doing at the time, your device model and your iOS version. It is deliberately not tied to you: it carries no email, no handle and no account number, so we can see that a crash happened without knowing whose phone it happened on. This is the only thing the app sends that you did not type in yourself.
Your appearance choice, which day your week starts, when your day rolls over, your rule order, your gym programme, and a few “have you seen this yet” markers stay on your device and are never uploaded.
This is the part people most want a straight answer on, so here is exactly what the app shares — no more, and it is enforced in the database, not just the app.
They can see:
They cannot see:
Leaving a squad stops the sharing from that point on.
We use these companies to run the app. We do not sell your information to anyone, ever, and none of them may use it for their own purposes.
| Company | What they get | What for |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Your email, handle, arc, check-ins and squad data | Our database and sign-in system |
| Resend | Your email address only | Delivering your 6-digit sign-in code |
| ImprovMX | Only what you choose to put in an email you send us — nothing from inside the app | Forwarding mail sent to hello@arcsquads.com to our inbox |
| Sentry | Crash reports: what the app was doing when it stopped working, your device model and your iOS version. Not your email, handle or account. | Telling us the app crashed, so we can fix it |
| RevenueCat | Your account number — the same random number our own database uses — and your subscription status. Not your email or handle. | Checking whether your subscription is active |
| Apple | Your payment details | Taking the payment. Apple is the seller of record — we never see your card. |
| Expo | Nothing from inside the app. Expo builds the app for us; it never receives your data when you use it. | Building and updating the app |
Where your information is processed: your database is hosted in the United Kingdom (Supabase region: West Europe, London). Your email, handle, arc, check-ins and squad data stay in the UK. Resend, ImprovMX, RevenueCat, Sentry and Apple process data in the UK, EU and United States under standard international transfer terms.
Your information is kept for as long as your account exists. Delete your account and everything goes with it — including any block you set and any report you sent or that was sent about you. You can also email us at any time and we will delete it for you.
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
To do any of these, email hello@arcsquads.com. We will reply within one month.
Exporting your data works in the app. Settings → Export gives you everything the app holds about you as a readable file you can keep.
Deleting your account works in the app. Settings → Account → Delete my account permanently removes your account and everything attached to it from our servers — your arc, your check-ins, your handle, your squad membership. It asks you to confirm twice, and there is no undo. A separate option, Clear data on this device, only wipes this phone and leaves your account alone. You can also email us and we will do it for you.
Complaining. If you think we have handled your information badly, tell us first and we will try to fix it. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator, at ico.org.uk.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach ever put your information at risk, we will tell the ICO within 72 hours and tell you if you are likely to be affected.
Arc Squads is for people aged 13 and over. It is not designed for younger children and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email us and we will delete it.
Apple Health. If you add a walking rule, the app asks your permission to read your step count from Apple Health. It reads the number on your iPhone so the rule can show how many steps you have taken today. The number is never uploaded, never shown to your squad, and we never see it. The app only reads from Health; it never writes anything to it. You can take the permission away at any time in your iPhone’s Settings → Privacy & Security → Health, and the rule simply stops showing a count.
Your weight goal. The app lets you optionally set a target weight and whether you want to lose or gain. That never leaves your device. It is not uploaded to our servers, it is not visible to your squad, and we never see it.
It behaves like your gym programme: a private note on that phone. The trade-off is real and worth knowing — it will not follow you to a new phone.
Why it works this way: information about your body gets extra protection under UK law, and a target weight may count. Rather than ask you for a special kind of consent to store something we do not need, we simply do not collect it.
If we change how the app handles your information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Significant changes will be flagged in the app.