Security & data

There's no TrialBell account

You don't sign up, there's no email or password, and there's nothing to log in to. That means there's no user record of you anywhere, and no database of TrialBell customers that could be breached, subpoenaed or sold. It also means we can't recover your data for you — see iCloud Backup below.

There's no bank or card connection

TrialBell doesn't integrate with Plaid or any other bank aggregator, at any tier. It never asks for a bank login and never sees a transaction. This is the deliberate design choice the whole app is built on, and it's also its main limitation: TrialBell can only track what you enter, so it can't surface a charge you've completely forgotten about. Apps that read your bank feed can do that; the trade is that they see everything else too.

Where your data is stored

In TrialBell's own storage on your iPhone, protected by iOS file protection and the device passcode like any other app's data. The things you type — service name, price, billing cycle, trial end, cancel-by date, a payment-method label, notes, a cancellation link — stay there.

Deleting the app deletes that local copy. With iCloud Backup on — the default — your subscriptions come back when you reinstall. If you have switched it off and have no iOS device backup, the data is gone; we have no copy to restore.

Backup in your own iCloud

iCloud Backup is free for everyone and on by default — it is not a Pro feature. Losing your renewal dates to a mistaken delete would break the one thing TrialBell promises, so it is not something we put behind a purchase. TrialBell mirrors your data through Apple's iCloud key-value store into your iCloud account — the same account your photos and messages use. That's what restores your subscriptions after a reinstall and lets them appear on another device signed in to the same Apple Account.

The data goes to Apple, under Apple's terms and your iCloud settings. It does not pass through any server of ours, because there isn't one. You can turn it off in Settings at any time, and the app then keeps your data on the device only. If you are signed out of iCloud, TrialBell says so plainly in Settings instead of implying your data is protected.

Local notifications, and why permission is required

Every reminder is a local notification — scheduled by iOS on your device from the dates you entered. Nothing is pushed from a server, so there's no device token, no push service and no way for us to know a reminder fired.

iOS still requires your permission to show any notification, which is why TrialBell asks on first run. Declining is allowed and the app keeps working as a tracker, but the reminders — the entire point — can't be delivered. You can change your mind any time in Settings → Notifications → TrialBell. Delivery also depends on Focus modes; the final-day alert is marked time-sensitive so iOS can surface it through most of them.

Cancellation links leave the app

When you tap a cancellation link, iOS opens it in Safari — or in the service's own app if it handles that address. It is a normal outbound link. TrialBell doesn't wrap it in an in-app browser, doesn't inject anything into the page, and gets nothing back. Once you're on Netflix's or Spotify's site, you're subject to their privacy practices, not ours, and TrialBell can't tell whether you actually cancelled — which is why you mark that yourself.

42 built-in cancellation routes ship with the app. We re-check them and publish the results, with the date, in our cancellation route audit.

What TrialBell does not collect

• No name, email address or phone number.
• No bank, card or financial account details.
• No contacts, photos, location or health data.
• No advertising identifier, and no advertising SDKs.
• No subscription names, prices, dates, notes or cancellation links — none of what you actually track ever leaves your iPhone.

TrialBell's App Store privacy declaration lists exactly two things, both marked not linked to you and not used for tracking: Product Interaction (the usage counts below) and a Device ID (the anonymous per-app identifier TelemetryDeck derives to count unique users). No tracking domains.

What TrialBell measures, and why

We think an app that sells itself on privacy owes you this section rather than a line buried in a policy. TrialBell counts anonymous product-usage events through TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service. The point is to answer three questions: do people get through setup, do reminders actually reach them, and is the app worth buying.

An event is a short name plus a few fixed labels. The labels are the whole vocabulary — there is no free-text field an event could smuggle anything into:

• whether the item was a trial, subscription or bill — never which service;
• which screen the action came from;
• whether the plan is free or Pro;
• a coarse range for how many subscriptions are tracked (0, 1–3, 4–10, 11+), never the exact number;
• whether something succeeded, failed or was cancelled.

What is never included: service or subscription names, prices, currencies, renewal or trial dates, notes, cancellation links, payment methods, your email or your Apple ID. Analytics is not used to build a profile of you, is not shared with data brokers, and is not combined with anything from other companies' apps or websites — which is why TrialBell doesn't need to ask for App Tracking Transparency permission.

To be complete rather than flattering: the SDK also attaches standard technical context to every event — app version and build, iOS version, device model, screen size, language, locale, region, time zone, system appearance, accessibility settings, and counters like how many distinct days the app has been used. And it derives an anonymous per-installation identifier so repeat use counts as one person instead of many. That's the Device ID on our privacy label. It isn't your Apple ID, it isn't the advertising identifier, and it means nothing outside TrialBell's own numbers.

We checked this rather than assuming it: before build 24 shipped we captured the actual payload leaving a device and read every field in it. The list above is that list.

The connections TrialBell does use

"On your device" doesn't mean the app lives in a sealed box. Four things reach outside it, and it's worth being precise about each:

How Face ID protection works

Face ID lock is a Pro feature, off by default. With it on, TrialBell asks for Face ID (or Touch ID, on devices with it) before showing your subscriptions. It uses Apple's LocalAuthentication framework, so the biometric check happens in the Secure Enclave — the app receives a yes or no and never sees biometric data.

It's a privacy screen, not encryption: it stops someone with your unlocked phone from reading your list. If biometrics aren't available or enrolled, the app deliberately doesn't lock you out of your own data.

How Apple handles purchases and restoration

Pro is an Apple In-App Purchase. Payment is processed entirely by Apple against your Apple Account — TrialBell never receives, sees or stores a card number, and there's no payment processor of ours in the chain. Entitlement is checked against your Apple Account, so Restore Purchases in the app's Settings brings Pro back on a new device signed in to the same account. Refunds are handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Questions we can't dodge

The formal document is the Privacy Policy. This page is the plain-English version of the same facts; if the two ever disagree, the Privacy Policy governs and we'll fix this page.