WhyNot Privacy Policy

WhyNot is a Home Screen widget app made by This is E. It is built to collect as little as possible: no accounts, no analytics, no tracking. Two widgets use your location and your calendar, on your terms, and this page says exactly how. This Privacy Policy explains, in plain words, what that means in practice.

1 What WhyNot collects

Nothing about you. WhyNot has no accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind. We do not see how you use the app, and we have no way to. The only data that ever leaves your phone is an approximate location sent to Apple Weather, described in section 4.

2 Where your data lives

The drawers you build and the settings you choose are stored only on your device, in the app's private storage. If you delete the app, they are deleted with it. They are never sent to us.

3 App icons

When you choose the Native style, WhyNot asks Apple's public iTunes Search API for the official icon of each app in your drawer. These requests contain only the identifier of the app whose icon is needed. They are handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy. WhyNot does not send anything about you.

4 Location and weather

The Console and Golden widgets show the weather, sunrise and sunset for where you are. If you allow it, WhyNot reads your approximate location (to about a kilometre) and sends it to Apple Weather to fetch the forecast. Apple handles that request under Apple's privacy policy and Apple Weather's data sources. Your location is stored only on your device, is never linked to you, and is never sent to us. You can turn it off any time in Settings, and the widgets will simply stop showing weather.

5 Calendars and reminders

The Console and Frontpage widgets can show what is next on your calendar, and Frontpage can print your next reminders. If you allow it, WhyNot reads events from the calendars you choose and your incomplete reminders, on your device only. Nothing from them leaves your phone, and you can revoke access any time in Settings.

6 New widget notes

Off unless you turn it on. When it is on, WhyNot checks a small text file on thisise.tech about once a day and shows one notification when a new widget has been released. Nothing else, ever. The request carries nothing about you, and there is no push service or account behind it. You can turn it off any time in WhyNot's settings or in iOS Settings.

7 Headlines

The Frontpage widget can show headlines from a news source you choose. When it is on, WhyNot fetches that publisher's public feed directly from the publisher, a few times a day, and keeps only the headlines and links on your device. The publisher sees an ordinary web request from your phone and nothing from us. Pick "No news" and nothing is fetched.

8 Purchases

WhyNot Pro and the widget packs are sold through Apple's in-app purchase system. Apple processes the payment; we never see your payment details.

9 Children

WhyNot does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children. There is nothing in the app that could.

10 Changes

If this policy ever changes, the new version will be published on this page with an updated date.

11 Contact

Questions about privacy go to one person, the same one who made the app: iskren@hey.com.

Support is one guy. So is privacy.