The short version.
Effective August 12, 2026. WindDown is an iOS app that recommends movies and shows and tells you exactly when to start watching so you hit your bedtime. Here's everything it collects, how it collects it, and every use it's put to, in plain language.
No account, no personal identifiers
There's no sign-up. No email, no name, no password. When you first open WindDown, the app creates an anonymous, device-scoped ID — a random string — so usage limits and subscription entitlements work correctly. That ID isn't tied to your identity in any way. Nothing about you personally is collected.
No health data
WindDown does not read, store, or transmit health or fitness data of any kind. Earlier versions read sleep analysis from Apple Health; that feature was removed in August 2026 and the app no longer includes HealthKit at all. Bedtimes are calculated purely from the wake time you type in.
The AI companion, and the permission it needs
The “Tonight” companion is an AI chat. It is powered by Claude, made by Anthropic, PBC — a third-party AI service, not a model running on your phone. Because answering you requires sending data to Anthropic, WindDown asks for your explicit permission first and sends nothing at all until you grant it. You are asked during onboarding and again on the chat screen itself if you declined, and you can withdraw permission at any time with the “Use the AI companion” switch in Settings. Withdrawing stops all transmission immediately. The rest of WindDown — recommendations, start times, reminders — works normally without it.
When you have granted permission, each message you send to the companion transmits the following to Anthropic, and nothing else:
- The text of the messages you type in the companion.
- Titles you have rated or watched in WindDown, and your star ratings for them.
- A short summary of your inferred taste, plus any notes you have asked the companion to remember.
- The streaming services you have selected and your wake/bedtime schedule.
- The shortlist of titles WindDown is considering for you tonight.
It does not transmit your name, email, or any account identity (WindDown has no login), your location, contacts, photos, or any health or fitness data.
Anthropic processes this data as a service provider to WindDown, solely to generate the reply. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, this data is not used to train their models, and it is retained only as long as needed to provide and secure the service. Anthropic's own privacy commitments are at anthropic.com/legal/privacy. WindDown does not store your chat transcripts on its servers — the transcript lives on your device, and the taste preferences and memory notes derived from it are stored on your device too. Message content is never sold and is never used for advertising.
What's stored on WindDown's servers
Just the anonymous device ID, a per-day count of messages sent, running token/cost totals (so we can catch abuse and protect against runaway billing), and your subscription status. No names, no emails, no chat transcripts, no health data, no location.
What stays on your device
Your ratings, watch history, episode progress, preferences, and chat transcripts all live on your device and don't leave it, aside from what is sent to Anthropic to generate a companion reply — and only after you have granted permission, exactly as itemised above.
Third parties
A short list of who else touches data, and why:
- TMDB — supplies the movie and show catalog. No user data is sent beyond the search/browse request itself.
- Anthropic, PBC — the AI service behind the companion. Receives the data itemised above, only after you grant permission, solely to generate replies. Not used to train their models.
- RevenueCat and Apple — handle subscription purchases and receipt validation.
- Supabase — hosts the anonymous usage and subscription records described above.
No advertising, no selling, no tracking
WindDown has no ad SDK. We don't sell or rent data, run analytics SDKs, or track you across other apps or websites.
Deleting your data
Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device. The anonymous server record can be deleted on request — email us and we'll take care of it. Because that record holds nothing identifying, it's not something we can tie back to you if you don't tell us which one is yours.
Children
WindDown is not directed at children under 13.
Contact
Questions or deletion requests: drop@weekly.thedropnewsletter.com