← Back to StillTabs Illustration of interlinked hands passing keys and a magnifying glass, on a warm peach background — a picture of trust, access, and scrutiny.

Privacy Policy

Effective date: June 11, 2026
Last updated: September 28, 2026

StillTabs is a digital-wellbeing app that lets you use social-media websites without the addictive parts — infinite scroll, Reels, Shorts, autoplay, and algorithmic feeds. We built it to respect your privacy by default. This policy explains exactly what that means, what little data we process, and the choices you have. It covers the StillTabs iOS app and the stilltabs.com website.

1. Who we are

StillTabs ("we", "us") is developed and operated by Albert Major and Cesare Maria Dalbagno, who act as data controllers for the processing described in this policy. You can reach us at support@stilltabs.com. A postal address is available on request and is on file with Apple for trader-status disclosure under the EU Digital Services Act.

2. The short version

The app works entirely on your device. It sends data to us in exactly three cases, all under your control: usage analytics if you opt in (off by default), error reports under the same opt-in, and feedback messages you choose to write and send. The website stores your email if you join the waitlist. Everything we receive is stored on servers in the European Union. Whatever the app has sent, you can have deleted with one tap — Settings → Privacy → Delete my analytics data — without telling us who you are (§9). We never sell data, never show ads, never track you across apps or websites, and never see what you watch, read, search, or post on the platforms you use inside StillTabs. On launch the app also downloads a small settings file from stilltabs.com that lets us switch individual features off remotely if a platform objects to them; that request carries no identifiers, cookies, or data about you.

Separately, and not to us: to show you a video thumbnail, a profile picture or a story, the app asks the platform you are signed into for that picture or video, the same way the page itself would. Those requests go to YouTube, Instagram and the rest — never to us, and never to anyone else. See §5 and §6.

3. Data we collect, and why

3.1 Usage analytics (opt-in, off by default)

If — and only if — you enable analytics (during onboarding or in Settings), the app sends usage events to PostHog, our analytics provider, hosted in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany). We use this data solely to understand whether StillTabs works and to improve it.

Each event may include: which platform tab was used (for example "youtube"), the blocking mode in effect and whether it is one of your own custom modes, session duration in seconds, whether the mode changed during a session, which app screen was viewed, app open/close events, the local hour and weekday, app version, and a random session identifier.

A second group of events tells us whether the filtering itself is still working — platforms redesign their pages often, and when they do our filters can stop matching and the distractions quietly come back. These events carry which filter rule matched, the version of our rule set, and, when a page or our filters fail to load, the domain of that page (for example https://www.instagram.com) — never the full address, never the path, never anything you searched for or typed.

Our analytics SDK also attaches standard device context to every event: device model and manufacturer, device type, whether it is a simulator, operating-system name and version, app name, build and version, language, and timezone.

Events carry a randomly generated identifier created on your device. It is not your name, email, phone number, device serial, or advertising ID, and we never link it to your identity. IP-based location lookup is disabled. We collect no GPS or IP-derived location; the timezone named above is the only location-adjacent signal we receive.

We do not build profiles about you: nothing is ever attached to that identifier beyond the events described above — no interests, no traits, no scoring, no audience segments. Our analytics provider does keep one record per identifier on its side, and we mention it because it exists for a reason that works in your favour. Without it, a deletion request would have nothing to attach to and would quietly do nothing. See §9.

You can turn analytics off at any time in Settings → Privacy. Turning it off stops all transmission immediately and resets the random identifier, unlinking any future data from past data. That reset also severs our own ability to find the data already collected, so the app offers to delete it in the same step, while the link still exists. You can also reset the identifier on its own, without disabling analytics, using Settings → Privacy → Reset analytics ID.

One event type exists solely to serve your rights: when you ask us to delete your analytics data, the app records that request (deletion_requested) under the identifier concerned, so it arrives naming exactly what to erase. It carries nothing else — no message, no contact details — and you never have to read, copy, or email the identifier yourself.

Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), withdrawable at any time.

3.2 Error and crash diagnostics (same opt-in)

Under the same analytics opt-in, the app reports technical errors so we can fix bugs: unexpected app errors, embedded-page loading failures (for example, a platform page returning a server error), and failures of the app's own filtering scripts. These reports contain the technical error message, the affected platform tab, the same random identifier, and — where a page failed to load — the domain of that page but never its full address. They never contain the content of pages, your searches, messages, or anything you typed. If analytics is off, no diagnostics are sent.

Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

3.3 In-app feedback (only when you send it)

The feedback form in the app lets you write a message to us. Feedback is delivered through the same EU analytics channel and therefore requires analytics to be enabled: if it is off, the send button is labelled "Enable & send" and pressing it turns analytics on — nothing is ever sent silently. Along with your message we attach non-identifying context: the active platform tab (or "launcher"), blocking mode, app version, and device language. We use feedback exclusively to improve StillTabs.

Please don't include personal details in feedback messages; if you do, we will not use them for any purpose other than reading your feedback, and you can ask us to delete them. Feedback travels under the same random identifier as everything else, so the one-tap deletion in §9 removes it along with the rest.

Legal basis: your consent, given by the act of sending (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

3.4 Website waitlist (only if you sign up)

If you enter your email on stilltabs.com to join the waitlist, we store the email address and the signup date on our server in order to notify you about StillTabs availability and launch updates. We use it for nothing else, and we do not share it. You can leave the waitlist at any time by emailing support@stilltabs.com, and we will delete your address.

Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

3.5 Home-screen shortcut pages (only if you add one)

stilltabs.com offers small shortcut pages that open a platform straight into the StillTabs app. If you add one to your home screen, that page stores a copy of itself in your browser's cache so it still opens when you are offline. It contains no identifiers, sets no cookies, and sends us nothing. Nothing about adding a shortcut is transmitted to us beyond the ordinary web request your browser makes to fetch the page.

4. Data that stays on your device

The app stores the following locally, on your device only. None of it is transmitted to us. You can erase all of it at any time via Settings → Privacy → Erase all StillTabs data, or by deleting the app.

That last item is the one place the app keeps a record of something you have watched. It never leaves your phone, and the Erase function removes all of it.

The home-screen widget receives a small payload through Apple's App Groups mechanism: the list of platforms you have visible, their display names and colors, and your theme. This never leaves your device.

Camera, microphone, and photo library. StillTabs asks for these permissions only so you can take or upload photos and videos to the platforms you use inside the app (for example, posting a story). The media goes directly from your device to the platform you are posting to. We never receive, store, or analyze it.

5. Data we do not collect

We never collect or transmit:

There is no fingerprinting, and no data broker is involved, ever.

Two clarifications, because we would rather be exact than flattering:

That list describes what reaches us, or any third party. It does not restrain the platform you are signed into. To draw a video thumbnail, a profile picture or a story, the app requests that image or video from the platform's own servers — so YouTube sees which video's thumbnail you are looking at, and Instagram sees whose story you opened, just as they would if you had opened the same page in Safari. You are using those services directly and under their terms; see §6.

"Collect" here means leaving your device. A few things are kept on your phone so the app can work — which stories you have already seen, your screen-time counters — and those are listed in §4. They stay on the device and we never receive them.

6. The embedded platforms

StillTabs displays social-media websites inside Apple's WKWebView. When you sign in to YouTube, Instagram, X, Reddit, or Facebook inside the app, those sites set cookies and other browser storage on your device — exactly as they would in Safari. That data is managed by iOS WebKit and belongs to your relationship with those platforms, not to us. We do not read, collect, or share it. The Erase function removes every cookie, login token, and cache entry stored by the embedded sites, using Apple's WKWebsiteDataStore API.

By signing in to a platform through StillTabs you are using that platform directly, and you agree with that platform to its terms and conditions, its privacy policy, and its use of cookies and similar storage — exactly as if you had opened it in Safari. That agreement is between you and them; StillTabs is not a party to it and cannot vary it.

Two features go further than a browser would: the Instagram notification badge reads your unread counts in the background, and the story viewer fetches and marks stories on your behalf. Both run on your device with your own login and nothing from them reaches us — but Instagram's terms do not allow that kind of access, and Instagram may restrict an account for it (see the Terms).

Your activity on those platforms is governed by their own privacy policies and terms:

7. Processors and international transfers

We use one processor: PostHog EU (PostHog, Inc., data hosted in Frankfurt, Germany) for the opt-in analytics, diagnostics, and feedback described above, under a data processing agreement. The waitlist is stored on our own EU-hosted web server. We transfer no personal data outside the European Economic Area. Your IP address is technically visible to any server your device contacts; we do not store it, use it to locate you, or attach it to analytics events.

8. Retention

Analytics and diagnostics events are retained for no longer than 12 months, after which they are deleted or reduced to aggregate statistics that contain no event-level data. Feedback messages are kept until processed and no longer than 12 months. Waitlist emails are kept until you unsubscribe or until shortly after launch communication ends, whichever comes first. Data on your device stays until you erase it or delete the app.

9. Your rights

Under the GDPR (and UK GDPR), you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, object to, and port the personal data we hold about you, the right to withdraw consent at any time, and the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.

Deleting your analytics data. In the app: Settings → Privacy → Delete my analytics data. That deletes everything held under your random identifier — usage events, diagnostics, and any feedback you sent — within one month, and usually much sooner. You do not need to tell us who you are, send us the identifier, or email anyone: the app attaches it for you. Your identifier is then reset, so nothing sent afterwards is linked to what came before, and analytics stays on unless you also turn it off. The same deletion is offered when you switch analytics off, and is included automatically in Erase all StillTabs data.

Two things worth knowing, because we would rather be exact than flattering:

Ask before you switch analytics off, not after. Turning it off resets your identifier immediately, and that identifier is the only thing connecting the data already collected to your device. Once it is gone, nobody — us included — can pick your events out of the pile, so there is nothing left for us to delete on request. The data is then no longer linked to anything that exists, and it is erased at the 12-month retention limit at the latest. This is why the app asks whether to delete first.

The request needs a connection. It is sent when you tap, not queued. If it fails, the app tells you and leaves your identifier alone so you can try again.

For waitlist emails, feedback, and any other request under the rights listed above, contact support@stilltabs.com and we will honour it within one month.

We do not sell or share personal information within the meaning of the CCPA / CPRA.

10. Children

StillTabs is not directed at children under 13, and where local law sets a higher age of digital consent (up to 16 in some EU member states), it is not directed at children under that age. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. The platforms accessible through StillTabs have their own age requirements.

11. Security

All transmission to our analytics provider and our server uses TLS encryption. Analytics data is pseudonymous by design: events are linked only to a random identifier generated on your device, never to your name, email address or social-media accounts, and we never try to connect that identifier to a real person. Access to the waitlist and to the PostHog project is restricted to the StillTabs team. In the unlikely event of a breach involving personal data, we will notify the competent supervisory authority within 72 hours and affected users where required.

12. Tracking and advertising

We do not track you across apps or websites as defined by Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework, and we therefore never show the ATT permission prompt — there is nothing to ask about. We show no advertisements and share no data with advertisers or data brokers.

13. The StillTabs browser extensions

The StillTabs extension for Chromium browsers makes no network requests of its own and collects nothing. It stores your settings in your browser's extension storage — and that storage is the kind your browser replicates to your browser account when you are signed in with sync enabled, so your StillTabs settings may travel with your browser profile. That copy is held by your browser vendor under their privacy policy, never by us.

A second, much smaller extension ships inside the iOS app, for Safari. It watches for YouTube and Instagram addresses you open in Safari and hands them to the StillTabs app so the page opens filtered. It stores nothing, and it sends nothing anywhere.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change anything material — especially anything that sends new data off your device — we will update the date above and surface a notice in the app before the change takes effect.

15. Contact

Questions about privacy? Email support@stilltabs.com. See also our Terms of Service, of which this policy forms part.