Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-11-01 · Effective: 2026-11-01

Hook & Hour has no account, connects only to two Apple services, In-App Purchase and, once you allow it, Apple Weather (WeatherKit) for your local weather, and contains no third-party analytics, advertising or crash-reporting code. Your focus history, your Screen Time data and the screenshots you use as bait stay on your iPhone. We never receive them and cannot see them.

1. Who we are
2. In short
3. Data that stays on your phone
4. Screen Time and bait
5. System permissions
6. What you choose to share
7. Seals, trading, fish letters, shared casting
8. Shared pond
9. Access, export and deletion
10. Children
11. Changes
12. Contact

1. Who we are

Hook & Hour (一竿 in Chinese; its Home Screen name follows your system language: Hook & Hour in English, 一竿 in Chinese; "the app") is developed and operated by Inchfield Technologies Limited ("we") and offered outside mainland China. This policy explains how the app handles information about you.

The mainland China version, 一竿专注, is provided separately by a mainland entity under its own privacy policy. The two versions do not share data.

2. In short

• We do not collect personal data. The app sends nothing to our servers and hands nothing to third parties. One thing leaves your phone: once you allow it, your approximate location goes to Apple's WeatherKit to look up the local weather. It is not linked to you, and we never receive or store it. The App Store privacy label therefore lists one item: Coarse Location, used for App Functionality, not linked to you.
• No tracking. The app does not read the advertising identifier or track you across apps, so it never asks for tracking permission.
• No third-party SDKs. No analytics, advertising, crash-reporting, push or sign-in SDKs.
• No account. No sign-up, no sign-in, no phone number.
• Purchases are handled by Apple. Deep Water and Deep Water Lifetime are bought through the App Store; payment and Apple Account details are handled by Apple and never reach us. The app only uses Apple's StoreKit on your phone to check what you have bought; that and the weather below are the only network services it uses, and both are Apple's.
• Weather comes from Apple. Once you allow location, the app sends your approximate location (the approximate position iOS provides, never a precise one) to Apple Weather (WeatherKit) at most once an hour, and gets back the local sky: clear, overcast, rain, snow, fog or wind, which the fishing spot then shows. The location is not written to storage and never passes through our servers; only the latest weather result is kept on the phone. If you decline, are offline, or the lookup fails, the weather is worked out on the phone from the date, the hour and the solar term. The weather data sources are listed in the app under Fisher's Notes and About.

Under Apple's definitions, data that is processed only on your device and never sent to the developer or a third party is not "collected", and neither is content you send yourself through the system share sheet. Here is where each kind of data goes.

3. Data that stays on your phone

4. Screen Time and bait

"Bait" is optional: while a session runs, iOS Screen Time keeps the apps you picked shut. Everything else in the app works without it.

• Authorization: individual authorization, for managing yourself, not parental control. The system prompt appears only when you tap "授权" (Authorize) in the Bait Box. You can revoke access at any time in Settings › Screen Time.
• What the app receives: only opaque tokens from iOS. The app cannot tell which apps they stand for, and it does not read per-app usage.
• Where it goes: these tokens, any Screen Time data and the bait screenshots never leave your phone, and are never used for advertising, analytics or sale.
• Screenshots: taking the screenshot is a system action you add yourself in the Shortcuts app; Hook & Hour cannot take screenshots. The image passed in is used once, in memory only.
• Scheduled sessions (Deep Water members): you set your own time windows; when a window opens, the app starts a line for you. It counts as a session you started: like a line you cast by hand, it has a countdown and a Live Activity, and you can leave it at any time according to that line's mode (a normal line by long-pressing Leave, a Strict line through its emergency exit). Shields are only ever applied during a session you started or scheduled yourself, and iOS lifts them when it ends. Your time windows stay on your phone.

5. System permissions

Each permission is requested only when you first use the feature that needs it. Declining does not affect anything else.

From V1.2, seal exchange and shared casting also ask for Local Network, Nearby Interaction and Camera; see section 7.

6. What you choose to share

Share cards are rendered on your device and always previewed first, with three privacy levels: atlas only (default), the creature's notes, or including your own inscription. Once you choose to share, the card goes to the system share sheet and the app you pick (such as Messages or WeChat), which handles it under its own rules. We are not involved.

"Export records" creates a spreadsheet file of each session's time, length and bait, only when you tap it, and hands it to the destination you choose through the share sheet.

7. Seals, trading, fish letters, shared casting from V1.2

These features arrive in V1.2. They work directly between devices, or through a messaging app you choose, and never pass through our servers; they add nothing to the privacy label. People can only send each other sentences built from a fixed set of phrases. There is no free text, and no images or links.

• Exchanging seals: when two phones touch or scan a seal code, they exchange fisher names (built from a word list, not your real name), the seal's pattern seed, two public keys, and the year and solar term of the exchange. No time of day, no location.
• Trading fish: only the card of the one item each of you chose: its catch note (two-hour period, solar term, fishing spot, how many quarter-hours you sat), inscriptions and hand-over history. No date, location or task.
• Fish letters: a letter contains only the ID numbers of phrases, is end-to-end encrypted, and travels through a messaging app you choose or in person. In letter links the ciphertext sits after the "#", which browsers never send to any server; our website hosts only a static page and the association file Apple requires, and keeps no record of link contents.
• Shared casting: before the cast, phones exchange fisher names, seal seeds, a temporary Nearby Interaction token and a protocol version, and agree on the moment of the cast. After the cast they stop talking to each other. No lengths, baits or results are exchanged.
• Your seal key stays on this phone: the private key lives in this device's keychain. It is not uploaded, not synced through iCloud and not restored from backups. After switching or erasing your phone you will need to exchange seals with friends again in person, and fish letters you had not yet opened can no longer be opened. This way no server ever holds your identity.
• Deleting: deleting a friend's seal removes it from your phone only. They are not told.
• New permissions: Local Network (to find nearby phones), Nearby Interaction (to tell when two phones touch), Camera (to scan a seal code; frames are used only to read the code and are never saved). Each is asked the first time you open the trading or shared-casting page; if you decline, you can scan codes instead.

8. Shared pond from V1.2

The shared pond uses Apple's iCloud sharing. The pond lives in the owner's iCloud and is shared with members through iCloud, a service provided by Apple. We cannot see it and keep no copy. We never write user data to iCloud's public database. Using a shared pond requires being signed in to iCloud; without it, everything else still works.

Pond members can see

• The pond name (built from a word list) and each member's fisher seal. The app never shows Apple Account names.
• Fish you put into the shared pond, with their catch notes: the two-hour period, solar term, fishing spot and quarter-hours sat for that session. A confirmation page comes first; whether to put a fish in is up to you.
• The pond's total "full-session person-days": a single count that only goes up, with no minutes in it.
• Whether you completed a full session today: one yes-or-no per person per day, with no length, time or count, overwritten the next day. Tapping your rod shows a small "sat in full today" seal only if the answer is yes.

Pond members cannot see

• The length or time of sessions you did not put into the pond, how many sessions you did, whether you are fishing right now, or whether you left a session early.
• Your bait, which apps you shielded, or which apps you use.
• Anything you wrote under "this line was for".

What timing can reveal

• iCloud records carry a modification time that members' devices can read. So the daily yes-or-no is not written when you reel in, but at the next boundary of the traditional two-hour periods (odd hours). Members can tell at most which two-hour period it was, not when you reeled in or how long you sat.
• Putting a fish into the shared pond is written immediately, so members see it right away, and the sync time of that record roughly reveals when that session ended.

Inviting, leaving and closing

• Invitations and member management use Apple's system sharing screens. There, Apple may show the owner an invitee's iCloud contact details or name. This is an iCloud feature; Hook & Hour itself shows only fisher seals.
• You can leave a shared pond at any time and take the fish you put in with you. When the owner stops sharing, the pond is closed.

9. Access, export and deletion

Because your data is on your phone, you can see it directly in the app.

• Export: export your records in Settings.
• Delete: clear the backdrop image in the Bait Box; deleting the app deletes all of its data from your phone. If you use iCloud Backup, manage the backup copy in Settings › Apple Account › iCloud.
• Revoke: Screen Time, Photos, Notifications, Location and other permissions can be turned off at any time in iOS Settings.
• We do not hold your data, so we cannot look it up, correct it or delete it for you. If you have questions, please contact us.

10. Children

The app is rated 4+ and collects no personal data from anyone, including children. Its Screen Time feature is individual self-management, not a parental control tool. Children using iCloud-based features such as the shared pond should do so with a parent's consent and guidance.

11. Changes

If the app later adds downloaded content, anonymous analytics or accounts, we will update this policy and the App Store privacy label before that version is released, and let you know in the app. The version on this page is the one in force.

12. Contact

Developer: Inchfield Technologies Limited
Email: [email protected]
We reply within 15 business days.