Privacy

What Bottou stores, and what it doesn't.

Last updated 14 July 2026

The short version

Bottou records what you tap: when a focus block started and stopped, why it ended, and how you rated it. That's it. There's no advertising, no analytics, no tracking, and nothing is sold or shared. An account is optional and exists only so your history can move between your own devices.

What the app records

Everything Bottou knows about you comes from your own taps. Nothing is measured in the background, and the app has no idea what you're actually working on.

• The start and stop times of each focus block
• Why you stopped, and the focus rating you gave
• Any tag you added, like "writing" or "admin"
• Your daily reflections
• App settings

Breaks are not recorded — they're computed from the gaps between blocks. Without an account, all of this stays on your device and is included in your own device backups.

If you create an account

An account is entirely optional and the app is fully usable without one. It exists for one reason: to carry your history between your iPhone and your Mac.

Creating an account stores your email address and a hashed password. Synced data is the same data listed above, held on servers operated for the Systems Atlas Project and used only to give it back to you on your other devices. Your email address identifies your account and sends password resets. It isn't used for marketing, and there's no mailing list.

What Bottou doesn't do

• No advertising, and no advertising identifiers
• No third-party analytics or tracking SDKs
• No selling, renting, or sharing of your data
• No profiling, and no use of your data to train anything
• No screen time monitoring, app usage tracking, or background measurement of any kind
• No access to contacts, photos, location, or health data

This website

This site sets no cookies and runs no analytics. It's served by Cloudflare, which processes standard request information such as IP address in order to deliver the page and protect against abuse.

Deleting your data

Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device. If you have an account, you can delete it from within the app, which permanently removes your account and everything synced with it from the server. Deletion is immediate and can't be undone.

Children

Bottou isn't directed at children under 13, and no data is knowingly collected from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted here with a new date above. Material changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or a request about your data: bottou@systemsatlasproject.com.