A physical key for your attention.

SLAB shields the apps you choose until you tap your iPhone on a physical NFC tag. Nothing leaves your phone. This page says exactly what the app touches, and how to reach us.

What SLAB does

You pick apps, categories, or websites. You tap Block. Those apps are blocked behind Apple's Screen Time shield until you scan the tag you paired during setup, or spend one of five lifetime emergency unlocks. Leave the tag in another room and the apps stay shut. Distance is the feature.

Privacy policy

SLAB collects no data. There is no account, no sign in, no analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting service, and no third party code in the app. The only network use is the optional Friends feature described below, which is off until you turn it on.

Screen Time

SLAB asks for individual Screen Time authorization so it can shield the apps you choose. Apple's picker hands the app opaque tokens, not app names. SLAB never learns which apps you selected, and cannot see how you use your phone. Tokens stay on your device.

NFC tags

When you pair a tag, SLAB stores that tag's hardware identifier on your device so it can recognise the same tag later. It reads nothing else from the tag and writes nothing to it.

On-device storage

Your presets, paired tags, emergency unlock count, and bricked time history live in the app's own storage on your iPhone, shared only with the SLAB widget and shield screen on the same device. Deleting the app deletes all of it.

Friends (optional, off by default)

Friends is off until you turn it on, and nothing is written anywhere before that. When it is on, SLAB keeps one small record in Apple's iCloud (CloudKit) holding whether you are blocked or open, since when, the preset name, the session note you typed, and the name you chose to show. Never which apps. That record sits behind a long random key, and the only way anyone gets the key is if you accept their request. Removing a friend stops the app showing them anything; resetting your sharing key, from the Friends screen, cuts off anyone you have removed for good. Turning Friends off deletes the record outright.

Friend requests

Your code is a public handle. Someone who has it can send you a request and nothing else. A request carries only their code and the name they chose. You decide whether to accept, and declining tells them nothing.

Finding friends by phone number (optional, off by default)

If you turn this on, SLAB scrambles your phone number on your device using a one-way hash and stores only that scrambled value next to your code and name. Your actual number is never sent or stored. Someone who already has your number in their contacts can then find you. Be aware of the limit of this approach: because the set of possible phone numbers is small, a determined person with a copy of the stored values could work out which numbers are listed. They would learn that a number uses SLAB and could send it a request, nothing more. Turn the setting off and the entry is deleted.

Your contacts

If you let SLAB look at your contacts, it reads the names and numbers on your device, scrambles the numbers the same way, and checks which ones match people already listed. The matching happens against scrambled values only. Your address book is never uploaded, copied, or kept, and SLAB never sees a phone number of yours or theirs.

Shortcuts and Siri

The Brick action is available to Shortcuts so an NFC automation can shield your apps. Running it shares nothing with SLAB beyond the request itself.

Children

SLAB is a tool for adults managing their own attention. It uses individual authorization only, never parental or child controls, and is not directed at children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it.

Honest limitations

Deleting SLAB or revoking Screen Time authorization removes the shield. This is friction, not a jail. The emergency unlock counter never resets, on purpose.

Friends relies on Apple's iCloud. If you are signed out of iCloud, it will not work.

Support

Questions, problems, or a tag that will not pair: email xavnehme@gmail.com. Include your iPhone model and iOS version and we will reply within a few days.

Any ISO 14443 NFC tag works as a slab: a sticker, a transit card, a hotel key. NTAG213 and NTAG215 stickers are cheap and reliable.