Privacy Policy

PixelThoughts is a collection of short calming experiences built by Marc Balaban. Everything works fully without an account, and there's no tracking beyond what's listed here. On the mobile app you can optionally sign in with your email to save your meditations across devices. We keep things simple. This policy covers pixelthoughts.co, connectedbreath.co, and our mobile apps.

What we collect

When you meditate, the thought you type is saved anonymously. No account, no name, just the text. We also store:

• An anonymous identifier (UUID) with no personal information attached
• Your approximate location (country and city), looked up from your IP address at the time. The IP itself is not stored.
• Which platform you used (web, iOS, or Android)
• How you found us (referrer URL and query parameters)

If you sign in on the mobile app, we also store your email address and link it to the meditations created on your device, so we can restore them when you sign in again. Signing in is always optional.

We collect this to provide the meditation experience and understand how people use PixelThoughts. The legal basis under GDPR is legitimate interest for anonymous meditation data, and consent for your email address and any emails we send you.

What stays on your device

On the mobile app, your meditation history, settings, and reminder preferences are stored locally on your device. It stays there unless you sign in, in which case your meditations also sync to our servers so we can restore them on a new device.

Accounts and sign-in

The mobile app lets you create an account by entering your email and confirming a one-time code we send to it. This is optional. We use it to verify the email is yours and to link your meditations to that account so they follow you across devices. There are no passwords.

When you sign in, we add your email to a list of account holders so we can occasionally send you product updates and early access to new features. Confirming the code proves the email is real, but it isn't consent to receive these emails on its own. By signing in you agree to receive them, and every email includes a one-click unsubscribe. You can opt out at any time without affecting your account or your saved meditations.

Email updates

If you sign up for email updates on the website, we store your email address and send a confirmation link you have to click before we add you. We use Amazon SES to deliver all emails. You can unsubscribe at any time from any email we send.

AI features

The Custom Meditation feature uses an AI assistant (Anthropic's Claude) to help craft your meditation from the thought you share. Your data is kept private, and is not used to train AI models.

Connected Breath

Connected Breath is a group breathing session. While you're in a session, other participants can see your country as a small flag. Just the country, nothing else. We also save a record of each session, like how long you breathed and how many people were there, under your anonymous identifier.

Cookies and analytics

On our websites, we use Google Analytics (GA4) which sets cookies (_ga, _ga_*) to understand how people use PixelThoughts. Things like how many meditations are completed and which pages are visited. We only look at this data in aggregate. The mobile app doesn't use cookies. It uses Firebase Analytics, which reports the same kind of anonymous usage events, and Firebase Crashlytics, which sends us a crash report if the app crashes. You can learn more about how Google handles this data in Google's privacy policy.

We also use Google Signals in Google Analytics. For visitors who are signed in to a Google account and allow ad personalization, Google gives us rough totals like age ranges and gender. We only see totals, never anything about you, and we don't run ads. You can turn this off in your Google Ad Settings or with Google's opt-out add-on.

We also use PostHog to find the spots where our app and websites are hard to use. It's anonymous. On Android and the web app, it keeps short screen recordings of some visits, with every word hidden before it leaves your device. Your thoughts never appear in them, whether you're typing one or looking back through Activity, and recording pauses while you meditate.

Third parties

We don't sell your data. We share information with these services only:

• Google Analytics and Firebase for usage statistics and crash reports
• PostHog for anonymous usage stats and screen recordings with every word hidden
• Amazon SES for email delivery (only if you sign in or sign up for emails)
• ip-api.com for approximate location lookup. Your IP is not stored.

Data retention

Anonymous meditation and breathing session data is kept until you ask us to delete it. If you have an account or signed up for email, your email address is kept until you request deletion. Unsubscribing stops the emails; ask us to delete the address itself and we will.

Your rights

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your data at any time by contacting us. If you're in the EU, you also have the right to data portability and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Data and account deletion

Delete your account. In the mobile app, open Settings and tap Delete Account. This removes your account and the data tied to it: your email address and the meditations linked to your account on our servers. You can also request account deletion by emailing us at the address below, and we will delete it within 30 days.

Delete your data without deleting your account. In the mobile app, tap Clear Data in Settings to remove everything stored on your device. To delete server-side data such as your meditation text or email, reach out at the address below.

Children

PixelThoughts is for all ages. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. If you believe a child has provided personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

Changes

If we update this policy, we'll post the changes here with a new date. We review this policy at least once a year.

Contact

Questions or deletion requests: [email protected]