Ballast · Daily scripture for men

Privacy policy

Effective September 25, 2026

Ballast stores your reading on your phone. We don't collect it, we don't see it, and there is no Ballast account to attach it to. This page says exactly what the app keeps, where it lives, and how to delete it.

What Ballast keeps

• Your progress. Which readings you have completed, on what date, and whether you read or listened. How much narration you have played.
• Highlights and notes. The verses you highlight, the notes you write, and any tags you put on them.
• Where you are in a program. Which program is open, when you started it, and whether you have started it again.
• Settings. Appearance, text size, translation, verse numbers, the streak switch, the reminder time, playback speed, and whether you have seen the opening screens.

That is the whole list. The app does not ask for your name, email, location, contacts, photos, or anything else.

Where it lives

On your device. Everything above is stored in the app's own container on your iPhone or iPad.

In your iCloud, if you use it. If you are signed in to iCloud, the app keeps a copy of your progress, highlights and notes in your own iCloud private database so your iPhone and iPad stay together. That database belongs to your Apple Account. Apple stores it; we cannot read it, and no one at Ironside Labs can reach it. If you are not signed in to iCloud, nothing leaves the device. Settings in the app shows which of the two is true, and iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Ballast is the switch.

On this phone's search index. So that Spotlight can find a reading or a note, the app writes reading titles, references, and the text of your highlights and notes to the on-device Spotlight index. That index stays on the phone.

In the widget. The home screen widget reads a small summary of your progress that the app saves on the device. It goes nowhere else.

What the app never does

• No account. There is nothing to sign into and nothing to sign up for.
• No server of ours. Ballast makes no network requests to us. Apart from your own iCloud and Apple's App Store, nothing leaves your phone.
• No analytics, no tracking, no ads. There is no analytics kit, no advertising kit, and no third-party code in the app that reports anything to anyone. We do not track you across other apps or websites.
• No selling or sharing. We hold no data about you, so there is nothing to sell, share, or hand to a third party.

If you have allowed iOS to share crash reports with developers, Apple may pass us a crash report. It does not contain your reading, your notes, or anything that identifies you, and the app itself sends nothing.

Purchases

The free program needs no purchase. The subscription is bought through Apple's App Store. Apple handles the payment; we never see your name, email, card, or billing address. Whether the subscription is active is checked on the device with Apple's StoreKit. You manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings, not with us.

The reminder

The daily reminder is optional and off until you turn it on. It is a local notification scheduled on your phone. It is not sent from a server and it does not report back.

Sharing and export

When you share a verse card or export your ledger, the app opens the iOS share sheet and you choose where it goes. What you send, and to whom, is your choice; the app keeps no record of it.

Deleting your data

• On the device: delete the app. Everything it stored on the phone goes with it, including the one-time backup copy the app keeps inside its own container.
• In iCloud: on your iPhone or iPad, open Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Storage (or Manage Account Storage), find Ballast, and delete its data. That removes the synced copy from your Apple Account.

There is no account to close and nothing to ask us to erase, because we hold nothing.

Children

Ballast is not directed at children under 13, and it collects no data from anyone.

Changes

If the app ever starts doing something this page says it does not, this page changes first and the effective date at the top moves. It will not happen quietly.

Contact

Ballast is made by Ironside Labs LLC. Questions about this policy: ironsidelabs@icloud.com.