Hold OnPrivacy policy
Hold On (Hold On: No Contact Tracker) for iPhone and Android · Last updated 2 October 2026
In short: no account, no sign-up and no server of ours. Your notes, unsent messages, reasons, times and nickname are stored on your phone and never sent to us. The app sends anonymous usage events that contain no content, crash reports, and a random install id. No ads, no tracking across apps, no data sold. Your phone's own backup includes the app's data.
Who we are
Hold On is made by Ben Basha, an independent developer. Contact: holdon@benbasha.com (holdon@benbasha.com).
What stays on your phone
Everything you enter is stored in the app's private database on your device:
- your notes and unsent messages, and the writing prompts you used;
- your reasons;
- every moment you log: holding on, reaching out, practical contact, the other person reaching out, whether you replied, and the optional "what brought this up" tags;
- every time and date: when you started counting, when you reached out, durations and milestones;
- the optional nickname;
- reminder times, lock settings, theme, language and display settings.
None of this is ever included in anything the app sends. Widgets read a small file on the device that holds numbers only (days, next milestone), never text or the nickname. Reminders and milestone notifications are scheduled on the device with neutral wording ("Take a moment.", "30 days today."); there is no push server.
Face ID, Touch ID, fingerprint and face unlock are handled by your phone's operating system. The app only learns whether unlocking succeeded. No biometric data is stored or sent.
Backups
We keep the operating system's backup switched on, because losing your history would be the worst thing this app could do to you. That means:
- iPhone: the app's data is included in your iPhone backup (iCloud Backup or a backup on your computer), if you use one.
- Android: the app's data is included in your Google backup and in device-to-device transfer, if you use them. Your purchase status cache is excluded.
Those backups belong to your Apple or Google account and follow their terms. We have no access to them. If you do not want your history in a backup, turn off backup for Hold On (iPhone: Settings, your name, iCloud, Manage Account Storage, Backups) or use "Delete everything" in the app before backing up.
Export (Me, Your data) writes a file only where you choose to save or share it. That file is yours.
What the app sends
The app uses exactly two services, over encrypted connections (HTTPS):
1. Mixpanel: anonymous usage events
To see which features are used and whether the one-time upgrade works, the app sends these events and nothing else. Every event passes a filter in the app that drops anything not on this list, and every property is a fixed choice or a yes/no. No text you type, no times, no durations.
| Event | Extra detail (fixed values only) |
|---|---|
| app opened | none |
| onboarding completed | whether you picked a time or chose "Just now" (not the time), and whether you turned on the daily reminder (not its time) |
| paywall viewed | where it was opened from (setup, automatic, the Pro badge on Today, Me, widgets, history, share, reminders, theme) |
| purchase started / completed / restored | none (no price, product or transaction details) |
| purchase failed | "unavailable" or "error" |
| widget installed | which widget size |
| share card created | whether a Pro style was used |
| lock enabled | none |
| reminder added | none (not the time) |
| export done / import done | none |
| review prompt requested | first or second request |
| done tracking | none |
There is no event about the pause screen, holding on, reaching out, the other person reaching out, the support link, your notes, your reasons, the nickname, or any time or duration.
The Mixpanel software also attaches standard technical details to each event: operating system and version, device maker and model, app version, screen size and a timestamp (on Android also connection type and mobile carrier name). Mixpanel's location lookup from your IP address is switched off, so no city, region or country is stored. Automatic event collection is off.
2. Firebase Crashlytics (Google): crash reports
If the app crashes, a report is sent with the technical stack trace, device model, OS and app version, free memory and disk, and the time. We attach no logs, no custom fields, no user id and no screen names, so a crash report never contains anything you wrote or did. Google Analytics for Firebase is switched off in the app and never used.
3. A random install id
On first launch the app creates a random identifier and stores it on the device. It is used to count events from the same install together. It is not your advertising id, not a hardware id and not linked to your name, email, Apple ID or Google account. "Delete everything" in the app replaces it with a new one. The Mixpanel and Firebase software also keep their own random installation ids for the same purpose.
Purchases
Hold On Pro is a one-time purchase made through the App Store or Google Play. Payment happens entirely inside Apple's or Google's purchase screen; we never see your card, name or email. The app reads the store's record of your purchase to unlock Pro and keeps a small copy on the device. The only purchase information that leaves the device is the events above (started, completed, failed, restored).
No account, no ads, no tracking
- There is no sign-up and no login.
- There are no ads and no advertising software. On Android the advertising-id permissions are removed from the app.
- We do not track you across other apps or websites, so the app never shows Apple's tracking prompt.
- We do not sell or share data. Mixpanel and Google process the events and crash reports on our behalf only.
Links that open outside the app
"Need to talk to someone now?" opens findahelpline.com in your browser for the country you choose, and the Privacy and Terms rows open this website. Those sites have their own policies. The app sends them nothing else.
Deleting your data
- In the app: Me, Delete everything (you type a word to confirm). It removes your count, history, writing, reasons and reminders from the phone and replaces the random install id.
- Deleting the app deletes its data from the phone. Backups you keep in iCloud or Google follow their own settings.
- Usage events: because there is no account, we cannot connect an email address to an install. You can still write to holdon@benbasha.com and we will delete what we can match (for example by app version and time). Crash reports are kept by Firebase for 90 days.
Children
Hold On is made for adults (on Google Play the target audience is 18 and over). It is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone.
Health
Hold On is a self-help tool, not medical or mental-health care. It does not use Apple Health or Health Connect and makes no medical claims.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or UK GDPR), you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal data and to object to processing. Since nearly everything stays on your phone, you already hold it. For anything we or our processors hold, write to holdon@benbasha.com.
Changes
If what the app sends ever changes, this page changes first and the date at the top is updated.