Privacy Policy for the 15minutes App

Last updated: 16 August 2026

The short version

15minutes works without an account. You do not sign up, and you do not give us your name or your email address to use the app.

The app measures how long you spend in the apps you choose, so it can block them once your time budget runs out. That screen time information never leaves your device. We cannot see which apps you picked, how long you used them, or how often you were blocked. None of it is uploaded to any server of ours, and there is no first-party backend for it to be uploaded to.

If you use Premium place-based rules, the app also accesses your device’s location so it can notice when you enter or leave places you saved (for example “work” or “home”). Location is processed on your device for that purpose. Approximate location may briefly be shared with map and place-search providers when you pick a place on a map (Google on Android, Apple on iOS). Details are in section 4.

Subscription purchases are handled by Apple or Google and by our subscription provider, Adapty. Details are in section 5.

We do not run advertising, we do not use analytics SDKs, we do not build profiles of you, and we do not track you across other companies‘ apps or websites. We do not sell or share your data with data brokers.

1. Who is responsible

The controller responsible for the processing described here is:

This policy covers the 15minutes mobile app for iOS and Android (including its system extensions where the platform requires them), and nothing else. It does not cover the nikoala.de website generally, except where this page itself is hosted.

App identifiers for reference: Android com.nikoala.fifteenminutes; iOS com.nikoala.15minutes.

2. What the app does

15minutes is a screen-time limiter. You choose apps (or categories), set a shared time budget (by default fifteen minutes), and when that budget is used up the selected apps are blocked for a cooldown. Optionally you can define context rules such as Work, Free Time, and Sleep, including schedules and — with Premium — places that activate a context when you enter or leave them.

3. Information that stays on your device

The app stores the following in its own private storage on your device (and, on iOS, in a private app group shared with the app’s own Screen Time extensions). It is not transmitted to us, and it is not backed up to any server of ours.

• Your app selection. On iOS this is stored by the operating system as opaque tokens that the app itself cannot read: 15minutes only learns how many apps and categories you selected, never which ones. On Android the app stores the package names of the apps you chose.
• Your settings. Your time budget, pause/cooldown length, hold-to-override preferences, Work / Free Time / Sleep context rules, and schedule windows.
• Saved places (optional, Premium). For each place you add: a name, latitude and longitude, a radius, and which context it belongs to. These coordinates are used only to register on-device geofences and to show the places back to you in settings.
• Whether you are currently inside a saved place. Derived on the device from enter/exit events; used only to activate or deactivate the matching context rule.
• A local history log. For each of the last 60 days: roughly how many seconds were spent in the selected apps, how many times the budget ran out, and whether protection was switched on. This is what draws the weekly strip in the app.
• Housekeeping values. The date you first opened the app (which is what the free trial counts from), whether you have finished onboarding, whether reminders have already been scheduled, a local cache of subscription status, and your position in the fact deck.
• Diagnostics text. Generated locally for troubleshooting; see section 9.

All of this on-device data is deleted when you delete the app.

4. Location data

15minutes accesses location data only if you choose to use place-based context rules (a Premium feature). Location is not required for the core time budget, for schedule-based contexts, or for the free features of the app. You can refuse location permission and still use the app; place activation simply will not work.

4.1 What we access and why

• Precise location (and, where the platform provides it separately, approximate location) while you use the in-app place picker, so the map can centre on you and so you can save a place.
• Background / “always” location access, so saved places can activate Work or Free Time contexts while the app is closed. Without this permission, geofences are not monitored; schedule-based rules continue to work.
• Geofence enter and exit events for circular regions you define (typically between about 100 m and 2 km). The app monitors only the places you saved, up to the limits shown in the app (currently up to five places per context and a small overall maximum of monitored regions).

We do not continuously stream your GPS track to any server of ours. We do not sell location data. We do not use location for advertising or for building a movement profile about you.

Legal basis under the GDPR: Article 6(1)(a) where the platform requires consent for location access, and Article 6(1)(b) for processing needed to provide the place-based feature you turned on. You can revoke location permission at any time in the system settings; the app will stop monitoring places.

4.2 How location is processed on each platform

• On Android the app requests fine and coarse location, and — for places to work with the app closed — background location. Geofencing uses Google Play services on the device. When you search for or pick a place, the app may use Google Maps (map tiles) and the Google Places API (autocomplete / place details). Those requests go to Google and may include your search text and, depending on the request, location-related parameters needed to return relevant results. Google processes that data under its own privacy policy.
• On iOS the app requests “When In Use” location and, for places to work with the app closed, “Always” location. Region monitoring uses Apple’s Core Location circular regions. Map display and place search use Apple MapKit / local search, which may send search and map requests to Apple under Apple’s privacy policy.

Saved place names and coordinates remain in the app’s private on-device storage. They are not uploaded to nikoala.

4.3 Google Play Data safety / location disclosure

For clarity toward Google Play’s Data safety and User Data policies: the app accesses location data (precise location, and background location when you allow “all the time” / background access) for the in-app functionality described in this section — namely configuring and monitoring user-defined places that activate blocking contexts. Location is collected and used for app functionality. Location is not sold, not used for advertising, and not shared with third parties except as necessary for the map and place-search services described above when you use those screens, and as processed on-device by the operating system / Play services for geofencing.

5. Screen time measurement

To do its job, the app needs to know how long the apps you selected have been in the foreground.

• On iOS this uses Apple’s Screen Time frameworks (Family Controls, Device Activity and Managed Settings). You grant permission in a system dialog. Apple deliberately designs these frameworks so that usage information is processed on the device and is not readable by us. The app receives only threshold events, which is why the numbers it shows are approximate.
• On Android this uses the system usage-access permission (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS), which you grant on a dedicated settings screen, together with a foreground service that checks which app is in front. The app also requests permission to list installed apps (QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES) purely so it can show you a picker, permission to draw over other apps so the block screen can appear, notification permission for the protection status and local reminders, and boot-completed so protection can restart after a reboot.

This usage information is used only on your device, only to enforce the limits you set. It is never transmitted to us, and we have no access to it.

6. Subscriptions and purchases

15minutes is offered with a free trial and a paid subscription. Two other companies are involved when you subscribe.

6.1 Apple and Google

The purchase itself is made through the App Store or Google Play. Payment is processed entirely by Apple or Google under their own privacy policies. We never receive your payment details, card number, or billing address.

6.2 Adapty

We use Adapty Tech Inc. („Adapty“) to manage subscriptions: to check whether your subscription is valid, to unlock paid features, and to see aggregate revenue figures. Adapty acts as a processor on our behalf under a data processing agreement. When you open the app or make a purchase, the following may be processed:

• A device identifier, such as Apple’s Identifier for Vendor or an Android advertising identifier where the platform supplies one, used to recognise the same installation across launches so a purchase stays associated with it.
• An identifier assigned to your profile by Adapty.
• Purchase and subscription history, including which product was bought, the store transaction, the price and currency, renewal and expiry dates, and whether a trial was used.
• Basic technical information sent with those requests, such as your IP address, device model, operating system version, app version, store country and language.

We do not send Adapty your name, your email address, your phone number, or any other contact details, because the app never asks you for them. We also do not send Adapty your location, your app selection, or your screen-time history.

The legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR, performance of the contract, since without this we cannot tell whether you are entitled to the paid features. For the aggregate revenue figures the basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest in understanding whether the product is viable.

Adapty is based in the United States, so this involves a transfer outside the EEA. It is covered by the Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the European Commission. Adapty’s own notice for end users is published at https://adapty.io/end-users-privacy/.

6.3 What this means for store privacy labels

Consistent with the above, store disclosures cover purchase history and identifiers used for app functionality and for analysing whether the product sells, and — where place rules are offered — location used for app functionality. They declare no tracking for advertising.

7. No advertising and no tracking

The app contains no advertising SDKs, no analytics SDKs, and no attribution or marketing SDKs. We do not ask for permission to track you across apps and websites, and we do not link anything collected in this app with data from other companies‘ apps or websites for advertising. Because we never present Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt, the iOS advertising identifier (IDFA) is not used by us for tracking. We do not sell personal data and we do not share it with data brokers.

8. Notifications

The app can send local reminders, for example before your free trial ends or shortly afterwards. Notifications are scheduled locally by your device’s operating system. There is no push notification service operated by us, no device token is sent to our servers, and we cannot see whether you opened a notification.

9. Diagnostics

The app has a diagnostics screen showing the current state of the blocking machinery, for troubleshooting. This text is generated and kept on your device. It is never uploaded automatically. It reaches us only if you deliberately copy it and send it to us.

10. If you contact us

If you email us for support, we process your email address and whatever you write, in order to answer you. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries, and Article 6(1)(b) GDPR where your message concerns the subscription. We keep support correspondence for as long as needed to deal with it and to comply with our record-keeping obligations.

11. How long data is kept

• On-device data, including the 60-day history log and any saved places, is deleted when you delete the app. The history log also discards entries older than 60 days by itself.
• Subscription records held by Adapty are kept for as long as we use the service to manage your entitlement, and afterwards only where we are required to retain records for tax or accounting purposes.
• Purchase records held by Apple or Google are subject to their own retention policies.
• Map and place-search requests processed by Google or Apple are subject to those companies‘ retention policies.

12. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to request access to your personal data, its correction or erasure, restriction of processing, and portability, and the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests. Where processing rests on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting processing that already took place.

In practice:

• To erase everything held on your device, delete the app. To stop location processing without deleting the app, revoke location permission in the system settings and/or remove saved places.
• For subscription data, email us at 15m@nikoala.de. Because the app is account-free, we have no way to look you up by name or email, so please include the store transaction identifier from your purchase receipt so we can identify the right record.
• To manage or cancel the subscription itself, use the subscription settings in the App Store or Google Play.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the country where you live or work. For Germany, that may be the supervisory authority of the state where the controller is established, or the authority of your place of residence.

13. Children

15minutes is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from children. The app uses Apple’s Family Controls framework, which is also used by parental control apps; that does not change what is described above, and in particular does not give us any usage data.

14. Security

Data on your device is held in the app’s private storage, protected by the operating system’s sandbox and, on iOS, shared with the app’s own extensions through a private app group. Network traffic related to subscriptions and to map/place search travels over encrypted HTTPS connections where the platform and provider support it.

15. International users

The controller is based in Germany. If you use the app from outside the European Economic Area, information processed by Adapty, Apple, or Google may be processed in the United States or other countries, as described by those providers. Where we transfer personal data ourselves, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the Standard Contractual Clauses.

16. Changes to this policy

If we change how the app handles data, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Where the change is significant, we will point it out in the app or in the release notes.

17. Contact

Questions about this policy or about your data: 15m@nikoala.de.

Hosted for the app at: https://nikoala.de/privacy-15m.