Thicket

Privacy

Thicket collects nothing about you. This page explains what that means in practice, and the few places your data does go.

Last updated 12 September 2026

What Thicket stores on your device

• Your focus sessions — when they started, how long they ran, whether the tree lived
• The tags and notes you write
• Which species and garden pieces you have earned, and your settings
• The groves you have made or joined, and what the other people in them have planted
• If you turn it on, a short diagnostic log — see Diagnostics

Deleting the app deletes all of it from this phone. If iCloud backup is on, the copy described below outlives the app — see Your rights for how to remove that too.

iCloud backup

This is on unless you turn it off. Your grove — sessions, tags, notes and all — is copied to your own iCloud account, in Apple's private database. It is stored under your Apple Account, subject to Apple's privacy policy.

We have no access to it: there is no server of ours involved, and no account with us to have one. It travels encrypted and is stored encrypted on Apple's servers. Whether Apple itself can read it is Apple's business rather than ours — it becomes end-to-end encrypted, so that they cannot, if you switch on Advanced Data Protection.

It exists so that losing your phone does not mean losing a year of your work. You can turn it off in Me → iCloud backup at any time.

Files you export

“Back up to a file” writes your grove to a file and hands it to the iOS share sheet. Where it goes after that is entirely your choice. Nothing is uploaded anywhere by the app.

Groves you share

Only the people you invite can join a grove you share. You invite each person yourself, and Apple checks that the person who accepts is the one you invited, so a forwarded invitation lets nobody else in. There is no directory and no search: nobody can find a grove, and a stranger who comes by the link cannot ask to join or even learn that it exists. In Apple's own sharing screen you can make somebody else an administrator, and then they can invite people too; nobody can do that unless you choose it. Thicket never learns who anyone is, and no server of ours sits in between.

What the people in a grove see, for each tree you plant there: the species, when you planted it, how long you planned and how long you focused, and whether it grew or withered. They also see the garden things you place there, and the name you choose to be called in that grove.

What they never see: your tags, your notes, your other groves, which apps you block, or anything else on your phone.

A shared grove is stored in the iCloud account of the person who made it, in Apple's CloudKit. We cannot read it.

If you leave a grove, your phone stops receiving it. The trees you already planted there stay in the grove for the others, and on your own phone. To have them removed from the grove, ask the person who made it: they can delete the grove, and then it disappears for everyone in it.

App blocking

Thicket uses Apple's Screen Time to keep the apps you choose closed while a tree grows. You choose them in Apple's own picker, which gives Thicket a sealed reference to each one, not its name. Thicket knows how many apps you chose and never which ones. Nothing about the apps you use leaves your phone.

Diagnostics

If you turn on Record diagnostics, Thicket keeps a short log on your phone of when sessions start, stop and are interrupted. It holds times and counts, never your tags, your notes or anyone's name. It leaves your phone only if you share it yourself.

Purchases

Purchases are handled by Apple. Thicket never sees your payment details, your name or your email address — only whether this device is entitled to the full version.

What Thicket does not do

• No third-party analytics, advertising or tracking SDKs — none at all
• No advertising identifier, and no tracking across apps or websites
• No selling of data, and no sharing of it with anyone. The only things that ever reach another person are what you put in a grove you share, and only the people you invited see them
• No account, no email address, no sign-up

Children

Thicket is rated 4+ and is suitable for children. Nothing is collected and no account is created, so there is no personal information for a child to give away to us.

A shared grove is the one place anything reaches another person. A child who joins one is seen only by the people invited to it: the name they choose and the trees they plant there reach those people through Apple, and nobody else. Nobody can join a grove without being invited to it.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have rights of access, correction, deletion and portability over personal data a company holds about you. We hold none. Your data is on your device: you can export it at any time from Me → Back up to a file, and delete it with Me → Reset everything or by deleting the app.

Me → Reset everything → Erase everywhere removes the iCloud copy as well. Deleting the app does not: if iCloud backup has ever been on, remove that copy in iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage → Thicket, or it is used to restore your grove the next time the app runs.

Erase everywhere also deletes the groves you made, for everyone in them, and takes you out of the groves you joined. Your trees in a grove somebody else made stay there, as they do when you leave; the person who made it can delete it.

If this changes

If Thicket ever starts collecting anything — for example anonymous usage counts to understand which features are used — this page will be updated before it ships, it will be described plainly, and it will be switchable off.

Contact

Questions about privacy: uros.gruber@gmail.com