Privacy · the app
What the Lampsill app knows about you.
In plain words. This covers the Lampsill app on your phone. The website has its own privacy notice.
Last updated 17 October 2026
In short
- What your phone senses stays on your phone. Steps, movement and when you use it are read and compared on the phone. We never receive them.
- We keep very little. Your account, the settings you choose, the names you add, a note for them if you write one, and one time: when your phone was last used.
- No location, microphone, camera, ads or tracking. Lampsill doesn’t ask for any of them.
- You can delete everything, in the app, in a moment.
Who we are
Lampsill runs the app and decides what is done with your details. You can reach us at hello@lampsill.com.
What the app does on your phone
Lampsill tells someone you chose when your phone has gone quiet for longer than you said. To know that, it notices when you use the phone: the screen coming on, the phone being unlocked, and, if you allow “physical activity”, your steps.
On an iPhone, which does not let an app hear the phone being used, our server wakes Lampsill quietly about once an hour. In those few seconds the phone looks at whether it was carried (its own step count, if you allow Motion & Fitness) or unlocked since it last looked, and if so tells us only “still here”. The steps themselves never leave the phone. Opening Lampsill, or tapping its daily hello, counts too.
- That is the only permission it asks for to sense anything. No location, microphone or camera, and it never reads your messages, photos or contacts.
- It shows a notification while it runs, so you always know it is there, and you can turn it off from there.
- The record stays on the phone. Fourteen days of movement are kept there and then rolled into a short daily summary. Signing out or deleting your account wipes it.
- Your notes, reminders and steps are kept on your phone only. We never receive them.
What we hold about you
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your name, email address and password (the password is kept scrambled) | To sign you in. A person who only agreed to be looked out for may have none of these, just a sign-in kept on their phone. |
| Your Lampsill settings: the time window you chose (1, 12, 24 or 48 hours), on or off, any pause | To run your clock. |
| One time: when your phone was last used. It is replaced each time, at most about once every ten minutes. It isn’t what you did, and it isn’t where you were | To know when your window has run out. |
| Your sleeping hours, if you set them (two times), and your phone’s time zone as a number of hours from UTC, refreshed each time your phone reports | So the clock doesn’t run out while you are asleep. The time zone is just a number, never where you are. |
| Whether your phone is allowed to show notifications | To tell you if an alert could not reach your own screen. |
| Whether your phone’s battery was nearly flat when it last reported: a yes or no, not a level | So an alert can say your phone may simply have run out, and nobody imagines the worst. |
| A note you write for the people you chose, if you write one (where the spare key is, who to ring) | Shown to them only while your phone has gone quiet. You can change or delete it at any time. |
| On an iPhone: when the phone last checked in. That is the phone being able to look, not you using it | So that, if it stops, we can ask you once to open Lampsill again. |
| The names, and numbers if you type them, of the people you add as contacts, the person you look out for, and up to three people near them. Kept encrypted | To tell the right people, and for the Call and Text buttons. Lampsill never calls or messages them itself. |
| A window that someone who looks out for you has suggested, until you say yes or no | So you can answer it with one tap. It changes nothing until you do. |
| The codes that link two accounts, and when each side agreed | So nobody is looked out for, or told, without having said yes. |
| A record of alerts: when a clock ran out, who was told, and when it was seen | To show what happened, and what did not. |
| For each phone with Lampsill on it: a device token and the app’s Firebase installation ID | To nudge a contact’s phone the moment there is news, and on an iPhone to ask “Still there?” and to wake it for its quiet look. |
Who sees what
- The people you choose see your name and a word or two: Normal, Paused, Phone gone quiet, Switched off or Permission lost. Never when you used your phone, never what you did. Only if your phone has gone quiet do they also see the note you left for them, and whether your battery was nearly flat.
- You are only looked out for if you say yes, on your own phone, after reading what the other person will and won’t see. You can stop it from your own phone at any time.
- A contact is only linked once they type the code you give them.
How people are told
Contacts are told inside their own Lampsill app. Today Lampsill doesn’t send text messages, make calls or send email on its own, and the Call and Text buttons open your phone’s own apps. If that changes, this notice changes first.
Lampsill isn’t an emergency service and can’t detect a fall or a medical problem. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
Who else handles it
We don’t sell or share your details. A few companies handle them for us:
- Google Cloud runs our server and database, in the United States.
- Cloudflare protects the connection and keeps an encrypted backup, which is deleted after 30 days.
- Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) carries the nudge to a contact’s Android phone. It says only that there is news. No name, no message, nothing about anyone’s phone use. The phone then asks our own server for it. Analytics is not included in the app.
That means your details are stored in the United States and looked after from India. Moving details between countries is allowed when the right safeguards are in place, and our providers’ terms include them.
Payments
The app doesn’t take payments, show prices or ask for card details. Lampsill is free until January 2027, and nothing is sold, in the app or on our website.
How long we keep it
- Until you delete it. Then it is erased straight away, apart from a backup that expires on its own within 30 days and isn’t restored for you.
- On your phone, movement is kept 14 days, then summarised.
Your rights
You can see what we hold, have it corrected, delete it, or stop us using it. Deleting is in the app: Settings → Delete everything, or follow these steps. For anything else email hello@lampsill.com from your account’s address. It’s free, and we’ll reply within a month. We don’t have an automatic export yet, so a copy is sent to you by hand.
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your details, tell us first. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.
Children
Lampsill is for adults. Please don’t use it if you’re under 18.
Changes to this notice
If we change it, the date at the top changes too. If a change affects what we do with details you’ve already given us, the app tells you before it takes effect.