Paddle Past is not medical care. It is not a medical device, it does not diagnose or treat anything, and it is not a substitute for a doctor, a therapist or a crisis service. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US. For help finding treatment, the SAMHSA National Helpline is on 1‑800‑662‑4357. It is not a crisis line.
1. What the app is
Paddle Past offers short exercises drawn from published research on urge surfing and craving. The exercises are a general self-help tool. The underlying studies are small, mostly short-term, and mostly conducted with students on cigarettes, alcohol and food; the research page says so in more detail. We make no claim that the app will reduce your cravings, change your behaviour, or produce any particular outcome for you.
2. Who may use it
You must be old enough to form a binding contract where you live, and at least the age shown on the App Store listing. If you are using it under the age of majority, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms on your behalf.
3. The blocking feature, and its limits
Paddle Past can ask iOS to shield apps you choose, for a length of time you choose, using Apple's Screen Time system. Three things about it are worth stating plainly, because they are the difference between a tool and a trap:
- You choose what to block, and you are responsible for that choice. Do not block anything you may need urgently. We cannot see your selection, so we cannot check it for you.
- It can fail. It depends on iOS behaviour outside our control — permissions, Low Power Mode, system updates, and Apple's own framework. It may fail to start, or end at a different moment than the one displayed. Never rely on it where failure would be harmful.
- You are never locked in. A block can always be ended. Revoking Screen Time permission in iOS Settings takes the shields down while permission is off. Deleting the app ends a block for good. See Support for every way out. No failure in Paddle Past is intended to leave you without a way out, and if you ever find one that does, tell us at support@paddlepast.com and we will treat it as the most serious kind of bug there is.
4. Your data
What the app stores, and where, is described in the Privacy Policy. In short: it stays on your device, and we do not receive it. That also means we cannot recover it for you. If you delete the app, lose your phone, or restore without a backup, your history is gone and we have no copy.
5. Purchases
Any purchase is made through Apple, under Apple's terms, and Apple handles billing. Prices are shown before you buy. Refunds are requested from Apple, not from us — we cannot issue them — though if something has gone wrong we would still like to hear about it.
Promotional codes, where we issue them, are offered freely and with no obligation attached. We do not ask for, pay for, or reward reviews.
6. Licence
The app itself is licensed to you under Apple's Standard End User License Agreement, which applies automatically to apps downloaded from the App Store. We have not replaced it with one of our own. This section describes that licence and does not override it; if the two ever disagree, Apple's governs.
In summary: you have a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use Paddle Past on Apple-branded devices you own or control, as Apple's Usage Rules permit — which includes sharing it with your Family Sharing group. You may not copy, sell, sublicense, reverse-engineer or redistribute the app, except where that restriction is unenforceable under the law that applies to you. We keep all rights not expressly granted, including in the name, the wave mark and the copy.
7. Acceptable use, where you may use it, and other services
Do not use the app to break the law, or attempt to interfere with it in ways that could affect other users. There is not much scope for either, because there are no accounts and no shared services — which is deliberate.
You also confirm two things Apple requires us to ask. You are not in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated by the US Government as supporting terrorism, and you are not on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. And where you use the app alongside someone else's service, you keep to that service's own terms as well as these.
8. No warranty
The app is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any block will function as intended on your device.
If the app nonetheless fails to conform to any warranty that applies to it, you may tell Apple, and Apple will refund what you paid for it. Beyond that refund, Apple has no warranty obligation at all, and anything further is our responsibility rather than theirs.
9. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Focus Pocus LLC is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the app. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for the app in the twelve months before the claim, or USD 50.
Nothing here excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law — including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusions above, so they may not apply to you, and this section does not affect your statutory consumer rights.
10. Apple
These terms are between you and us, not with Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app or its content. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.
We are solely responsible for supporting the app; Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for it. We are also the ones to address any claim about the app — including product liability, any failure to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection law. If a third party claims the app infringes their intellectual property, that is ours to investigate, defend and settle, not Apple's and not yours.
11. If someone else brings a claim because of you
If your use of the app breaks these terms or the law and that causes a claim against us, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of dealing with it. This is not meant to catch ordinary use, or a claim that the app itself was faulty — that one is ours, and section 10 says so.
12. Agreeing electronically
Downloading or using the app is how you accept these terms; there is nothing to sign. Anything we are required to tell you we will publish on paddlepast.com, and that counts as being in writing. We have no email address for you unless you have written to us — the app never asks for one — so the website is the channel that actually works, and it is your responsibility to check it rather than ours to reach you.
13. If part of this does not hold
If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still stands and the unenforceable part is narrowed only as far as it must be. Not enforcing something once does not waive it.
These terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Apple's Standard EULA, are the whole agreement between us about the app, and replace anything said before.
14. Changes and termination
We may update these terms. Material changes will be reflected in the date at the top of this page, and continuing to use the app after that means you accept them. You may stop using the app at any time by deleting it. We may suspend or discontinue the app, or any part of it, at any time.
15. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules, and the courts of the State of New York have exclusive jurisdiction — except where the law of your country of residence gives you the right to bring proceedings there instead.
16. Contact
Questions, complaints and claims about the app go to us, not to Apple:
Focus Pocus LLC · support@paddlepast.com · 418 Broadway STE N, Albany, NY 12207, USA · +1 329-206-3921