Privacy policy

Who makes BrainGuard

BrainGuard is made by Tom Ridley in Bristol, England. In this policy, “I” and “me” mean Tom Ridley.

For the small amount of personal data described below, I am the “data controller” under UK data protection law: the person who decides why and how it is used.

You can reach me at hello@brainguard.io. Use that address for anything in this policy, from a question to a request about your data.

The extension

BrainGuard is a Safari extension for iPhone. To hide parts of a web page it has to run on the sites you enable it for, so it can see those pages in order to hide parts of them. That happens on your iPhone, and only there.

What it does

• Runs on the websites you have enabled it for, and hides or changes the parts of the page that you have switched on.
• Keeps your switch settings in a container on your device, so they are still there next time you open Safari. That is the only thing it stores.

What it does not do

• It has no network permission. The extension ships without one, so it cannot make a request to any server, mine or anyone else’s. You can check this yourself in Settings.
• It does not collect, record or keep anything about the pages you visit, what is on them or what you do there.
• It has no account, no sync, no crash reports and no analytics. Nothing is collected, synced or shared.

You download BrainGuard through Apple’s App Store and browse in Apple’s Safari. Both are covered by Apple’s own privacy policy, not this one. Like any developer I can see the aggregate figures Apple provides, such as how many people have downloaded the app, but nothing that identifies you.

This website

• It sets no cookies, so there is no banner to click through. There is nothing to accept.
• It runs no analytics and embeds nothing from third parties: no trackers, no social widgets, no ad networks, no maps or video players.
• The fonts are hosted on this site, so your browser never contacts a font service.
• If you use the light and dark theme toggle, the site saves that one choice in your browser’s localStorage so it can remember it next time. It stays in your browser and is never sent to me or to anyone else. You can clear it at any time in your browser’s site data settings.

Hosting

The site is served by its host, Cloudflare Pages. As with any web host, Cloudflare processes technical information about each request, such as your IP address, to deliver the pages and keep the service secure. It does this as my service provider, under Cloudflare’s own privacy policy. I add no tracking on top of that.

My legal basis for this is legitimate interests: a website cannot be delivered securely without it.

The newsletter

The newsletter is optional. It is the one place where I ask for an email address.

• The only thing I ask for is your email address.
• The form on this website is a plain form. It loads no script from Kit, and your browser only contacts Kit when you press Subscribe.
• Kit stores your address and sends the emails for me, as my service provider. How Kit handles data is set out in Kit’s privacy policy. Kit may process your address outside the UK.
• I use your address for one thing: a short email about once a month. I do not sell it or share it with anyone other than Kit, and I do not use it for anything else.
• The emails contain no tracking pixels, and every one has an unsubscribe link at the top.

My legal basis is your consent, which you give by subscribing. You can withdraw it at any time with the unsubscribe link. I keep your address until you unsubscribe or ask me to delete it. If you want it deleted entirely, email me and I will remove it.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR, and under the EU GDPR if you live in the EU, you have rights over personal data that I hold about you. In practice that is only a newsletter email address, or an email you have sent me. In plain words you can ask me to:

• tell you what I hold about you, and give you a copy (access);
• correct it if it is wrong (correction);
• delete it (erasure);
• stop using it, or limit how I use it (objection and restriction);
• give you your data in a form you can reuse (portability).

You can also withdraw your consent whenever you like. That does not affect anything I did before you withdrew it.

To ask, email hello@brainguard.io. The law gives me one month to respond. I may need to check that a request really comes from you. Because the extension collects nothing, there is nothing about your use of it that I could show you, correct or delete.

If you are unhappy with how I have handled your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. If you live elsewhere in Europe you can complain to your own data protection authority instead. I would appreciate the chance to put things right first, but you do not have to come to me before you go to them.

Children

BrainGuard is not aimed at children, and I do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. The extension collects nothing from anyone. If you think a child has subscribed to the newsletter, email me and I will delete the address.

Changes to this policy

This policy was last updated on 19 September 2026. If I change it, the new version will replace this one on this page, with a new date. If a change affects how I use newsletter email addresses, I will also say so in the newsletter.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request about your data: email hello@brainguard.io. I am Tom Ridley, in Bristol, England.

If you email me, I see your email address and whatever you choose to write. I use it to reply, and keep the message only for as long as I need it to deal with what you asked.