Risepal Privacy Policy
Last updated: 11 October 2026
Risepal: Buddy Alarm Clock ("Risepal", "the app") is made by Workaholic Developers ("we", "us"). This policy explains what the app does with information, in plain words. The short version: your alarms, tones, missions, steps, photos and calendar stay on your phone. The optional buddy features use an anonymous account with a display name, and we keep only what they need to work. There are no ads, no tracking and no analytics SDKs, and we never sell data.
What stays on your phone
These never leave your device and we never see them:
- Alarms and settings: times, repeat days, labels, tones, volume, snooze and mission settings, and your wake-up history and statistics. (If you switch on Tell my buddies for an alarm, some of it is shared; see below.)
- Tones and recordings: built-in tones, voice recordings you make for yourself, imported audio and text-to-speech messages.
- Wake-up missions: maths, memory, typing and the other puzzles run on the phone. For photo missions, the reference photo of your chosen spot and every photo taken while dismissing are compared on the device; reference photos never leave the phone. Barcode/QR matching is on-device too.
- Step counting for the walking mission uses the phone's motion sensors, on the device.
- Calendar: if you allow it, the morning briefing reads today's events on the device to show them to you. They are never uploaded.
- Sleep sounds and the bedtime reminder work entirely on the device.
Permissions, and what they are used for
| Permission | Used for | Leaves the phone? |
|---|---|---|
| Alarms / exact alarms, notifications | Ringing your alarms | No |
| Calendar | Today's events in the morning briefing | No |
| Camera | Photo and barcode missions | No |
| Microphone | Recording your own tones, voice nudges and voice tones | Only a voice nudge or voice tone you choose to send to a buddy |
| Motion and fitness | Counting steps and shakes for missions | No |
| Location (approximate) | The weather card | Rounded coordinates only, see below |
Every permission is optional: Risepal asks when you first use the feature that needs it, and works without it.
Weather (morning briefing)
If you allow location for the weather card, the app sends approximate coordinates to our server. The server rounds them to two decimals (about 1 km), forwards only those rounded coordinates to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway) without any identifier, and caches the forecast so nearby people share it. Coordinates are not stored per user, are not linked to your account, and our web server logs leave them out. The weather proxy only answers Risepal installs, so turning the weather card on also creates the anonymous device account described below (no name is needed beyond the one you chose in the app). If you don't allow location, the briefing simply shows no weather.
Buddy features (optional)
Buddies, nudges, voice tones, group alarms and parent mode need our server. They are off until you use them. When you do, the app creates an anonymous account bound to your device: no e-mail address, phone number or password, and no access to your contacts.
What the server stores, and why:
| Information | Why |
|---|---|
| Display name, avatar colour and icon | So buddies recognise you. |
| Time zone and app language | To work out "today" for you and to write notifications in your language. |
| Push notification token (Apple / Google) | To deliver buddy notifications to your phone. |
| Your privacy switches | Share times, share snoozes, share labels: what buddies may see. |
| Shared alarms: time, repeat days or date, label, snooze settings, mission type, group | Only alarms with Tell my buddies on, and group alarms. Used to show "sleeping", "missed" and "who's up". |
| Wake-up events: rang, snoozed, woke, still-awake check, skipped, missed, with times, snooze count and mission | So buddies see that you're up, and for streaks and the group leaderboard. |
| Buddy links, parent-mode links and group memberships | Who you share with. |
| Nudges: who sent them to whom, an optional short message, and an optional voice clip of up to 15 seconds | To deliver them. |
| Voice tones a buddy records for you (up to 30 seconds) and their titles | To deliver them. |
| Invite codes | So others can join you; they expire after 7 days. |
Voice clips (nudges and voice tones) and message texts are encrypted at rest. Only the sender and the recipient can download a clip.
What buddies see depends on your switches: with share times off they don't see your alarm or wake-up times; with share snoozes off they don't see how often you snoozed; with share labels off they don't see alarm labels. Members of a group you join see your status for that group's alarm and your place on its weekly leaderboard (points, days up, snoozes).
Parent mode: if you accept a parent-mode (guardian) invite, the person who invited you sees your wake-ups for the alarms you share including times, snoozes and labels, whatever your privacy switches say. The app tells you this before you accept, and you can unpair at any time.
How long we keep it
- Wake-up events: 60 days.
- Nudges and voice tones, including their voice clips: deleted after 90 days (or earlier when you delete a voice tone).
- Expired invite codes: 30 days after they expire.
- Push delivery records (which device, when, whether it worked; never the message text): 30 days.
- Everything else: until you delete your buddies account.
Deleting your account
In the app go to Settings → What buddies see → Delete buddies account. This immediately deletes, on our server, your account, devices, buddy and parent-mode links (from both sides), group memberships, shared alarms, wake-up events, nudges and voice tones you sent or received, and their voice files. Groups you own pass to the longest-standing member, or are deleted if you were the last one. Deleting the app alone does not delete the server account, so please use the button first. If you can no longer open the app, e-mail us and we will help.
Notifications
Push notifications (for example "Rohan woke up at 6:02 AM" or a nudge) are delivered through Apple Push Notification service on iPhone and Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android. They carry the notification text and the ids the app needs to open the right screen.
No ads, no tracking
Risepal shows no ads and contains no advertising or analytics SDKs. We don't use advertising identifiers, don't build profiles and never sell or share data for marketing. Our website sets no cookies and loads no third-party scripts or fonts.
Who processes data
- Workaholic Developers runs the Risepal server (hosted in a data centre operated by our hosting provider).
- Apple and Google deliver push notifications.
- MET Norway receives rounded coordinates, without identifiers, for weather forecasts.
Children
Risepal is not directed at children under 13. Parent mode is meant for a parent or guardian helping their own child wake up for school; the parent sets it up and the child accepts it on their own phone.
Your rights
You can see and change your display name, avatar and privacy switches in the app at any time, and delete everything with Settings → Buddies account → Delete. For any other request, or a question about this policy, contact us.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, we will say so in the app before the change applies. The date at the top shows the latest version.
Contact
Workaholic Developers · info@workaholicdevelopers.com