PayRoot privacy policy

In short

PayRoot is an iPhone app for tracking tips, pay and bills, made by Brett Schuber. It keeps your records on your iPhone. There is no account to make, no analytics and no tracking, and PayRoot has no servers of its own, so nothing you enter is sent to us.

If you back up to iCloud, a copy goes to your own iCloud account, which we cannot see. Apart from that backup and files you export yourself, nothing leaves the phone.

What PayRoot keeps, and where

Everything you enter is saved in PayRoot’s own storage on your iPhone:

• the shifts you log: hours, tips, sales, tip-outs and notes
• your workplaces, positions and pay rates
• scheduled shifts, reminder settings, and the schedule screenshots you import
• paychecks you add
• your bills, which ones you’ve marked paid, and your goals and what you’ve put toward them
• the text of a revenue report you’ve scanned, so PayRoot recognizes that report’s layout next time
• your settings, such as appearance, Face ID lock and backup
• things you’ve deleted, for 30 days, in Recently deleted

Deleting the app deletes all of this from your iPhone, but not your iCloud copy (below). If you reinstall PayRoot on a phone signed in to the same Apple Account, it offers to restore from that copy when it first opens. Like any app’s data, it is also part of your iPhone’s own device backup (iCloud Backup or a computer backup) if you use one.

Backups

On your iPhone

PayRoot keeps a backup of your records inside its own storage on the phone, along with a few earlier versions, so a mistake can be undone. These are deleted with the app; your iCloud copy is not.

In your iCloud

With Settings › Backup › Back up to iCloud on, PayRoot also keeps a copy in its folder in your iCloud Drive, which the Files app shows as iCloud Drive › PayRoot. It is on by default when you’re signed in to iCloud with iCloud Drive turned on.

• The copy holds the same records, including schedule screenshots, plus spreadsheet (CSV) copies of your entries, monthly summaries, bills and goals so you can open them without the app.
• It is stored by Apple in your iCloud account, under Apple’s terms and privacy policy. We have no access to it.
• It is a backup, not sync: PayRoot doesn’t keep two devices in step. It is what you restore from on a new or reset iPhone.
• It stays in iCloud after you delete the app.
• The Face ID lock protects the app, not these files. Anyone who can open your iCloud Drive can open them.

Exports

“Export a copy” and the income verification report create files only when you ask, and save them where you choose in the Files picker. Where they go from there — to a landlord or lender, say — is up to you.

Permissions

PayRoot asks for each of these only when you first use the feature that needs it. You can change any of them in the iPhone’s Settings app under PayRoot.

Camera

To scan a revenue report with Apple’s document scanner. The text is read on your iPhone with Apple’s Vision framework. PayRoot fills in the figures and keeps the text of the report’s lines to recognize its layout; it does not keep the photo.

Photos and files

To bring in a revenue report, a schedule screenshot or a pay stub from your photos (schedules and pay stubs can also come from the Files app). The iOS photo picker gives PayRoot only the photos you choose, never your library, and the text is read from them on your iPhone. Schedule images are kept in the app for reference and are included in backups (so in iCloud too, when iCloud backup is on). You can delete them in Settings › Schedule › Schedule & shift reminders › Manage stored screenshots. Report photos and pay stubs are not kept.

PayRoot also reads other files only when you pick them: a spreadsheet from another tip app (Settings › Import / Export › Import from another app), or an older backup to restore.

Microphone and speech recognition

For Voice Entry only, where you log a shift by saying it out loud. The microphone is used only while Voice Entry is open, and PayRoot does not save the recording; it keeps only what it fills into the entry.

Speech is turned into text on your iPhone itself, and never sent to Apple or anyone else. If your iPhone can’t do that, Voice Entry isn’t offered and you type the entry instead.

Face ID

The Face ID lock is off unless you turn it on in Settings › Privacy › Face ID lock. Your iPhone checks your face (or Touch ID or your passcode, where Face ID isn’t available) and tells PayRoot only whether it matched. PayRoot never sees your face or fingerprint.

Notifications

If you allow them, PayRoot schedules shift reminders on the phone itself, such as a reminder before a shift starts or to log your tips after it. No server sends them, and they don’t show amounts.

What we don’t do

• No account or sign-in.
• No analytics or tracking, and no third-party code in the app.
• No servers. PayRoot doesn’t connect to the internet itself; iCloud Drive, part of iOS, uploads the backup.
• We don’t sell, rent or share your information. We never have it to begin with.
• PayRoot doesn’t use your location, contacts, health data or advertising identifier.

Your choices

• Stop backing up to iCloud: turn off Settings › Backup › Back up to iCloud. Copies already in iCloud stay until you delete them.
• Delete the iCloud copies: in the Files app under iCloud Drive › PayRoot, or in the iPhone’s Settings app under your name › iCloud, in the storage list.
• Delete a record: a deleted shift, bill, goal or workplace goes to Settings › Recently deleted for 30 days, where you can bring it back, and is then removed for good. Backups made before you deleted it still hold it until they are replaced or deleted.
• Delete everything on the phone: delete the app. Your iCloud copy stays, so you can restore it if you reinstall. To remove that too, delete the iCloud copies as above.
• Permissions: change them any time in the iPhone’s Settings app under PayRoot.

Children

PayRoot is not directed at children under 13. It collects no information from anyone, children included.

TestFlight and Apple

If you test PayRoot through TestFlight, Apple runs that service, not us. Apple may share with us the name and email address you were invited with, basic information about the beta on your device (such as device model and iOS version), crash reports, and any feedback or screenshots you choose to send; see Apple’s TestFlight terms and privacy policy. Outside TestFlight, if you’ve chosen in iOS to share analytics with app developers, Apple may share crash reports and usage statistics with us. We use these only to fix and improve PayRoot.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If PayRoot ever starts sending your information anywhere new, we’ll say so here before that version is released.

This website

The claims above describe the PayRoot iPhone app. This website is separate from it. It sets no cookies, and the only personal information it collects is an email address you choose to give it. The app itself never contacts this website.

If you join the launch list, we keep your email only to tell you about PayRoot’s launch and updates. Unsubscribe anytime. The list is kept by Kit (kit.com), the email service that sends those emails; every one has an unsubscribe link.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your information: Brett Schuber, support@tiproot.app.