Privacy Policy

Last updated October 29, 2026

Ex-Tax is an iPhone app that helps you keep no contact with an ex. It swaps the number on your ex's contact card for the Ex-Tax line, a friend you trust holds your Screen Time passcode, and an Ex Pass puts the real number back for 30 minutes if you choose to buy one. This policy explains what we collect, what stays on your iPhone, who helps us run Ex-Tax, and how to delete your data.

The short version

Your ex's real numbers and email addresses, and the rest of your contacts, stay on your iPhone. They never reach our servers.
We keep your own phone number so the Ex-Tax line can recognize texts and calls from you.
When you text or call your ex's card, it reaches the Ex-Tax line. We keep the time and whether it was a text or a call. We never store what you wrote, and we ask our text provider, Twilio, to delete the message right after the line replies.
Ex-Tax can't see your other texts, calls, DMs or messages.
We never contact your ex.
We don't sell your data, show ads, or track you across other companies' apps and websites.
Urge messages are deleted from our servers after 24 hours.
You can delete everything at any time in the app with Settings > Delete account.
Urges, check-ins, slips and line hits could say something about your health, so our Consumer Health Data Notice covers them too, and the app asks for your consent to them separately.

1. Who we are

Ex-Tax is run by Pacey Vorderstrasse, an individual in California ("Ex-Tax", "we", "us"), who makes the Ex-Tax app and this website. Our mailing address is 5701 Tilden Ave, Apt. 1, Van Nuys, CA 91401. You can reach us at support@extax.app.

2. What we collect

Ex-Tax has two kinds of users: the person who signs a no-contact pact (the "owner") and the friends who join it. Friends use the same app for free. Here is what reaches our servers and why.

Account and profile

Sign in with Apple. Apple gives us a private account ID. The app asks Apple only for your name, not your email address.
First name. From Apple or typed by you. Your friends, and the people whose pacts you join, see it.
Birth year. To confirm you're 18 or older. Because we only know the year, it has to be at least 19 years ago.
Time zone. So your day count, danger hours, check-ins and the line's replies follow your local time.
Your phone number (owners only). During setup, your iPhone texts a short code to the Ex-Tax line. That links the number it came from to your account, so the line can recognize your texts and calls. One phone number can be linked to only one account.
Push notification token. From Apple, so we can send you notifications like a friend's reply, a pass request or a slip report.
Settings: quiet mode, and whether a friend may show your first name on their share cards.
Agreements: which version of the Terms of Use you agreed to, and which version of the consumer health data consent you gave, with the time of each.

Your pact

Pact settings: your danger hours, which exemptions you turned on (co-parenting or legal), the dates you signed it, started ending it and ended it, and which version of the rules you agreed to and when.
Your streak: when your current streak started, your best streak, your rank, and your price history, so the Ex Pass price follows the published rules.
Lock status: whether Contacts access is full, limited or off, whether your ex's card shows only the Ex-Tax line, whether Screen Time access is on, and the last time the app checked in. If the app goes quiet or access is turned off, we use this to let your friends know. It never reports which contacts you have.
Line hits: see The Ex-Tax line below.
Friends: the first names you give your friends, their roles (for example, keyholder), their invite links, whether they joined, and their guess of how long you'll last.
Passes: the kind of pass (paid, approved by a friend, co-parenting or legal, or safety), when it started and ended, whether your phone switched the card back, and for paid passes the price, the product and Apple's transaction ID. For co-parenting and legal passes we keep the reason you type. Your friends never see it.
Pass and app requests: the reason you type when you ask a friend for a free pass or to open a paused app, and their answer.
Urge messages: what you write to your friends instead of your ex, and their replies. We delete these after 24 hours.
Slips: when a slip happened and what kind it was (for example "texted" or "saw them"). If a friend reports one, we keep the day, how they know, their optional short note, and your answer: owned or disputed, with your reason and optional note.
Check-ins and savers: your daily yes or no answer, and how many Streak Savers you hold.
Cheers and the pact feed: short updates with their times, for example "Jess hit day 7". You and your friends see them in the app.
Reports to us: if you tap Report on an urge, reply or slip note, the app opens an email to us with what you report. We keep that email to handle it.

Purchases

Ex Passes, Streak Savers and Ex-Tax Pro are bought through Apple. Apple handles payment, and RevenueCat tells us what you bought, Apple's transaction ID, whether Pro is active and until when, and whether Apple refunded a purchase. We never see your card or bank details. If you reach day 90 and give a friend 3 months of Pro, we ask RevenueCat to add it to that friend's account.

3. The Ex-Tax line

The Ex-Tax line is one shared phone number. Ex-Tax puts it on your ex's contact card, so texts and calls you make to your ex by name reach the line instead. Twilio runs the line for us.

What we keep: for each text or call from your linked number, the time, whether it was a text or a call, and the pass price at that moment. We call these line hits. They make up "Seen by Ex-Tax" in the app, your stats, and the heads-ups your friends get.
What we never keep: the words. Our server reads a text only to reply to it, including checking it for crisis words. It never stores or logs the text. Right after the line replies, we ask Twilio to delete the message. If that fails, Twilio's own retention applies. Calls are never recorded.
Crisis texts: if a text has crisis words in it, the line replies with help lines only, whichever number it came from. If it came from your linked number during your pact, we record that a text came in, marked as a crisis text, so it's never shown to your friends or counted in your stats. See how we handle crisis words in our crisis protocol.
Emergency alerts: if an automatic emergency alert from your iPhone (like Emergency SOS, Check In or a crash alert) reaches the line from your linked number, the reply says it reached Ex-Tax, not your ex, and how to update emergency contacts in the Health app. Nothing about it is recorded for your friends.
Calls: a call counts as yours only when your mobile carrier has verified the caller ID. Calls are never recorded.
Other numbers: texts from numbers not linked to an account get no reply, except a reply to a line test code or, for a crisis text, the help lines. Calls from them hear a short message. We don't record any of it.
Twilio's records: like any phone company, Twilio keeps its own records of texts and calls to the line, such as the phone numbers and the time, under its own retention settings. Replies from the line and call records stay with Twilio under that retention too.
The line never texts you first, and it never sends anything to your ex.
The number stays ours. We don't give up the line's number while any ex's card might still point at it, so texts to it can't reach a stranger. If Ex-Tax ever shuts down, we'll first update the app so it puts your ex's real numbers back, and keep the number for at least 12 months after that. See the terms.

4. What stays on your iPhone

These never reach our servers:

Your ex's contact card. Ex-Tax saves the card's original phone numbers and email addresses in your iPhone's Keychain, so it can put them back for a pass or when your pact ends. Keychain items can stay on the iPhone after you delete the app, so a reinstall can restore the card. Your ex's name and numbers are never sent to us. We never message, call, charge or notify your ex.
Your contacts. With Contacts access, Ex-Tax reads cards on your iPhone to swap your ex's numbers and to switch back a number that was saved again. Nothing from your address book is sent to us. Ex-Tax also saves a "Help lines" contact on your iPhone.
Your "why". The reason you wrote for doing this stays on your iPhone.
AI coach conversations. The coach runs on Apple's on-device model. Your words are not sent to us or to any AI company.
Screen Time data. The apps and categories you choose to shield, and any app usage, stay on your device, except that we learn when you open a paused app after the wait or ask a friend to open one. Apple's Screen Time system doesn't share the apps with us. Your Screen Time passcode is set by your keyholder and never reaches Ex-Tax.
Widgets, share cards and debug logs. They're made on your iPhone. Nothing is ever posted for you, and debug logs stay on your iPhone unless you choose to send them to us.

5. What your friends see

Your friends see your first name, day count, rank and best streak, milestones, your counts of texts avoided and urges sent, when a text or call reached the Ex-Tax line (the time, never what it said), when you used a paid or approved pass, that you used a free pass (never whether it was co-parenting or legal, and never your reason), slips and their status, the requests and urge messages you send them, and whether your pact is ending. They're also told when you open a paused app anyway, when the app goes quiet for 48 hours, when you turn off Screen Time or Contacts access, when your ex's number was saved again, when a card wasn't switched back after a pass, and when you ask to be released. They never see your ex's name or number, your safety passes, crisis texts or emergency alerts, or what a pass cost.
Notifications to friends say less than the app. A text or call to the line shows only "Heads-up about Jess. Open Ex-Tax to see it." on their lock screen, and a notification about an urge never includes what you wrote.
If you join a friend's pact, they see the first name they typed for you, your role, whether you joined, your guess, your replies, cheers and reports.
Share cards show a friend's first name only if that friend allowed it.

6. How we use your data

To run Ex-Tax: your pact, the line's replies, passes and their prices, friends, requests, urges, slips and check-ins.
To send notifications to you and your friends.
To check purchases with Apple and RevenueCat, and to handle refunds.
To keep Ex-Tax secure, prevent abuse and fix problems.
To follow the law and respond to valid legal requests, such as a court order. We don't hand over data just because someone asks, and where the law allows, we tell you before we do.

We don't use your data for advertising, and we don't build profiles about you.

7. Who helps us run Ex-Tax

These companies process data for us, only to provide their service:

Supabase Database, sign-in and server functions. Stores the account and pact data described above.
Twilio Runs the Ex-Tax line. Receives texts and calls to the line, including the phone number they came from and, for texts, the words until we ask Twilio to delete them after the reply.
RevenueCat Manages purchases. Receives an app user ID and your purchase history from Apple, and tells us about renewals and refunds.
Cloudflare Hosts this website and the friend invite pages. Handles standard web request data, like IP address and browser type.
Apple Sign in with Apple, push notifications, App Store purchases and the on-device AI model. Handles your Apple sign-in, push tokens and payments. Apple's push service carries the text of each notification. The AI model runs on your iPhone.

If you choose to share crash reports and app analytics with developers in your iPhone settings, Apple shares that information with us.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a merger or sale of Ex-Tax, in which case this policy would continue to apply to your data.

8. No selling, no ads, no tracking

We don't sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising. Ex-Tax has no ads and no third-party analytics or advertising tools, and it doesn't track you across other companies' apps and websites.

9. How long we keep data

Words you text to the line: never stored by us. We ask Twilio to delete each message right after the line replies.
Urge messages and replies: deleted after 24 hours.
Line hits: deleted after 365 days.
The pact feed (heads-ups, cheers and other updates): kept for up to 365 days.
Line test codes expire after 15 minutes.
Unanswered requests expire after 30 minutes. The record of the request stays with your pact history.
Everything else is kept while your account exists, so your streak, prices and history stay accurate.
Server logs kept by our providers for security and reliability are deleted on their normal schedule.

10. Deleting your data

In Ex-Tax, go to Settings > Delete account and type DELETE to confirm. In this order, it:

deletes your account and everything tied to it from our servers: profile, phone number, pacts, friends, passes, line hits, requests, urges, slips, check-ins and savers, and asks RevenueCat to delete your purchase record there;
ends your pacts and lets your friends know;
removes all app shields from your iPhone and turns off Ex-Tax's Screen Time access;
puts your ex's real numbers and email addresses back on their card, then removes the saved copy from your iPhone's Keychain;
signs you out and removes your why from your iPhone.

A few things to know:

During a pact, Ex-Tax checks that it can put the number back before it deletes anything. If it can't, nothing is deleted unless you choose Delete anyway.
If Ex-Tax can't put the number back (for example, Contacts access is off), the number stays saved on your iPhone, so you can put it back later.
If a pact from another account on this iPhone may still be on, Ex-Tax leaves your ex's card on the Ex-Tax line, and the number stays saved on your iPhone.
Deleting the app alone doesn't delete your account, and it doesn't put your ex's number back on their card. Use Delete account first.
The Screen Time passcode your keyholder set stays until they remove it.
Ex-Tax Pro is billed by Apple. Cancel it in your iPhone's Settings.
If you joined someone's pact, the first name they typed for you, and your name on items in their pact feed (like cheers or reports), can stay in their pact history until they delete their account or the feed item is 365 days old.
Copies in our providers' backups are removed as those backups expire on their normal schedule.

You can also email us to ask for deletion.

11. Security

Data travels over encrypted connections. The app can't read our database directly: every request goes through our server, which checks who you are and what you're allowed to see. The line only accepts requests signed by Twilio. Your ex's original numbers are kept in the iPhone Keychain. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data and limit what we collect in the first place.

12. Adults only, US only

Ex-Tax is for adults 18 and over, and at launch it's available only in the United States. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you think someone under 18 is using Ex-Tax, contact us and we'll delete their account.

13. Your choices and rights

See or correct your data: most of it is shown in the app. For a copy of what we hold, email us.
Delete your data: use Delete account in the app, or email us.
Notifications: turn them off any time in your iPhone's Settings.
Contacts and Screen Time access: turning either off in your iPhone's Settings lets your friends know.

Depending on your state, you may have other privacy rights, such as the right to know, correct or delete your personal information. We honor these requests for everyone, and we won't treat you differently for using them. Email us to make a request. We may need to confirm it's your account first, so include anything that identifies your account, like your first name in Ex-Tax and the phone number you linked.

14. This website

This website has no ads, analytics or tracking, and we don't set cookies. Cloudflare, which hosts it, may use strictly necessary security cookies and keeps standard request logs. Pages load nothing from other sites, except that invite pages and the waitlist form contact our server, which Supabase hosts. When you open a friend invite link, the page asks our server for the inviter's first name, whether the invite is still open, and whether it's for the keyholder or another friend. Opening the page doesn't create an account or store anything about you.

We don't track you across sites, so we treat all visitors the same whether or not their browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal.

The launch waitlist

If you join the waitlist on this website, we keep your email address, when you joined, and which version of the waitlist wording you agreed to. We use your email only to tell you about Ex-Tax's launch, and every launch email includes an unsubscribe link. To limit signups to 5 an hour from one place, we keep a scrambled, one-way code made from your internet address, never the address itself, and we erase that code after 30 days. Supabase stores the list for us. The waitlist isn't linked to an Ex-Tax account. To be removed, email support@extax.app and we'll delete your email from the list.

15. Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.

16. Contact us

Questions or requests: support@extax.app.