SHSAT Prep privacy policy

Last updated: September 18, 2026

SHSAT Prep: Practice Tests is made by Simple Tree LLC. It is a study app for the New York City Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, which means most of the people using it are thirteen and fourteen years old. We built it so that we never learn anything about them. The short version: the app collects nothing, because it has nowhere to send it.

This policy covers both builds of the app — the iPhone and iPad version on the App Store, and the Android version on Google Play. They behave the same way; where a platform does something differently, such as how your work syncs or how a purchase is handled, that difference is spelled out below.

The short version

• No account, no sign-up, no email address. We don't know who you are, and there is nothing to sign in to.
• The app contains no networking code of our own. Nothing you type, draw, answer or read is sent to us, because the app has no way to send it and we run no server to receive it. On Android, Google's billing library brings network access of its own; that is explained in full below.
• Your answers, your study plan, your error journal and your scratch work are stored on your device. On iPhone and iPad, if you are signed in to iCloud, they also sync to your own private iCloud account; on Android, they may be included in your own Google backup. We cannot read either one.
• No ads. No analytics. No trackers. No advertising identifier. Nothing you do is profiled, scored, or sold.
• Nothing you write or draw is ever shown to another person. There is no leaderboard, no sharing, no comments, no public content of any kind.

No accounts

SHSAT Prep has no sign-up and no login. You never give us a name, an email address, a phone number, or a password, and there is no profile on our end to attach anything to. When you open the app for the first time it asks two questions — which test you are sitting, and roughly when — so it can build a study plan. Those answers live on your device. They are not sent anywhere.

The app does not talk to us

This is the part most privacy policies cannot say plainly, so we will: the app contains no networking code of our own. It makes no web requests, to us or to anyone else. It has no analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no advertising library, and no "anonymous usage statistics." The maths renderer is open-source and network-free on both platforms — SwiftMath on iPhone and iPad, JLaTeXMath on Android.

One honest exception, on Android only. Selling the pass on Android requires Google's Play Billing library, and there is no version of it that does not pull in Google's own telemetry transport. That transport is why the installed Android app carries the INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE permissions: they are contributed by Google's code, not ours, and we cannot remove them and still sell anything. What travels over them is Google reporting its own billing library's usage to Google, on the same footing as the payment itself. None of your answers, your working or your progress is part of it — that data never leaves your device, because nothing in our code can send it. On iPhone and iPad the equivalent work is done by StoreKit, which is part of iOS itself, so the absolute holds there.

The practical consequence is worth stating: even if we wanted to know how many questions you got wrong, or which topics you struggle with, or how long you study, we could not find out. That information never leaves the device you typed it on.

What is stored, and where

• On your device. Your answers, your accuracy and streak, your study plan and test date, your error journal, and the handwritten working from the scratch pad. Deleting the app removes all of it.
• On iPhone and iPad: in your own private iCloud. If you are signed in to iCloud, that same information syncs between your devices using Apple's CloudKit, in the private database attached to your Apple Account. This is the same mechanism that syncs Notes or Reminders. We are not a party to it: we cannot read that database, we cannot list who has one, and we receive no copy. If you would rather it did not sync, turn iCloud off for SHSAT Prep in iOS Settings and everything stays local.
• On Android: in your own Google backup. If you have Android's backup turned on, the app's data may be copied into the backup attached to your own Google Account, in the same way as any other app on the device. That is a service between you and Google; we are not a party to it, we cannot read it, and we receive no copy. If you would rather it did not happen, turn backup off for SHSAT Prep in Android Settings and everything stays local.
• Nowhere else. There is no third destination.

Permissions we never ask for

The app asks you for no permissions at all. It has no camera, microphone, photo library, contacts, calendar, health, Bluetooth, or location access, and it cannot acquire them silently — both iOS and Android require an app to declare each one in advance, and SHSAT Prep declares none of them on either platform. If your phone or tablet ever shows you a permission prompt attributed to this app, something is wrong and we would like to hear about it.

To be exact rather than merely reassuring: the Android build does declare three install-time permissions, and you can see them on the Play listing. One is billing, so the pass can be sold. The other two — network access and network state — arrive with Google's billing library, as described above. Install-time permissions of this kind never prompt you and grant no access to anything personal on your device; Android reserves prompts for the sensitive permissions, and this app declares none of those. The iPhone and iPad build declares nothing at all.

Purchases

SHSAT Prep is free to use, with a paid option that unlocks the full question bank, the lesson library and the full-length practice tests for a year. It is a single payment with no auto-renewal — nothing recurring, nothing to cancel, and no reminder emails, because we have no email address to send them to.

The purchase is handled entirely by the store you bought it from — Apple on iPhone and iPad, Google Play on Android. We never see your card, your billing address, or your Apple or Google Account. The store tells the app one thing: whether a valid purchase exists. Restoring a purchase asks the same question again. Refunds are the store's process: reportaproblem.apple.com for Apple, and Google Play's refund process for Android.

One wrinkle worth naming: Google Play files a one-off prepaid purchase under Subscriptions, so that is where you will find it listed. It still does not renew, there is nothing to cancel, and you will not be charged a second time.

No ads, no tracking

There is no advertising in SHSAT Prep and there will not be. The app uses no advertising identifier on either platform — not Apple's IDFA, not the Android Advertising ID — and participates in no tracking network. On iPhone and iPad it will never present you with the App Tracking Transparency prompt, because it has nothing to ask permission for, and its privacy manifest declares no tracking and no tracking domains. On Android, the Google Play Data safety section reports no data collected and no data shared, for the same reason.

Children

This app is written for students preparing for an exam they sit in eighth or ninth grade, so we assume children use it. That is exactly why it is built the way it is: we collect no personal information from anyone, and that includes children. There is no account to create, no name to enter, no way for a child to publish anything, and no way for a stranger to contact them through the app. There is nothing for a parent to opt out of, because there is nothing being gathered.

The app is rated 4+ on the App Store and Everyone on Google Play, and contains no advertising, no in-app browser, no external links inside the study material, and no user-to-user contact of any kind.

What we don't do

• We don't sell your data. We don't have your data to sell.
• We don't share anything with advertisers, data brokers, or analytics companies.
• We don't build a profile of you, your school, your scores, or your weaknesses.
• We don't email you, because we never learn your address.
• We don't use your work to train anything.

Your choices

• Stop the sync: on iPhone or iPad, turn off iCloud for SHSAT Prep in iOS Settings; on Android, turn off backup for SHSAT Prep in Android Settings. Your work stays on the device.
• Delete everything: delete the app. To also remove the synced copy, use Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Account Storage on iPhone or iPad, or your Google Account's backup settings on Android.
• Ask us anything: see Contact, below. You do not need an account to ask, and we will not ask who you are.

Changes to this policy

If the app ever changes in a way that affects this page — and we have no plans for it to — we will update this page and change the date at the top before that version ships. We will not quietly broaden it. If a future version ever collected anything at all, it would be described here in the same plain language, and the store disclosures would change to match — Apple's privacy label on the App Store listing, and the Data safety section on the Google Play listing.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about anything the app does, can go through the support page. A person reads every message, and you do not need an account to send one — we will not ask who you are.

Simple Tree LLC

This policy describes what SHSAT Prep actually does, written in plain English on purpose. It is not legal advice.