1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how AppPulse: Screen Time Tracker ("we", "us", or "our", package name: com.appdata) handles your information when you use our Android mobile application. We believe digital privacy is a fundamental human right. Our app is engineered to function entirely on-device without remote servers, tracking SDKs, or cloud synchronization.

2. Data We Access & How We Use It

To deliver real-time screen time statistics, app launch analytics, and digital wellbeing insights, AppPulse accesses system metrics provided by the Android Operating System:

• Usage Access (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS): We query Android's native UsageStatsManager to calculate foreground duration, screen-on time, and application launch counts across custom time intervals (today, yesterday, past 6 hours, 7 days, 30 days).
• Installed App Information (QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES): We query the system PackageManager to resolve friendly application names and display their native application icons within your local analytics charts.

3. How Your Data Is Stored

All aggregated statistics and user preferences are stored strictly inside your phone's private application sandbox (using local SQLite and Android SharedPreferences):

• Data never leaves your physical device.
• No data is transmitted over the internet or sent to external servers.
• No third-party analytics trackers, advertising networks, or user profiling SDKs are integrated into AppPulse.

4. Android Permissions Explained

In full compliance with Google Play Developer Policies, here is why specific permissions are requested:

• PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS: Required to compute foreground screen time and open frequencies. You must explicitly grant this in Android Settings via the system permission flow.
• QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES: Required to list installed applications, retrieve friendly display names, and bind their launcher icons to your usage breakdown charts.
• POST_NOTIFICATIONS: Optional permission used solely to deliver local on-device usage alerts if you configure daily limit warnings.
• RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED: Allows the app to reinitialize local tracking services after a device reboot.

5. Third-Party Services & Advertising

AppPulse does NOT include:

• Third-party advertisement networks (No AdMob, Unity, AppLovin, etc.).
• Remote behavioral tracking or analytics libraries (No Firebase Analytics, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, etc.).
• Data brokers or cloud storage integrations.

6. Children's Privacy

AppPulse does not knowingly collect or solicit any personal information from children under the age of 13 (or under the applicable age of digital consent in your jurisdiction). Because the app operates purely offline without remote data gathering, no child data is ever collected or transmitted.

7. User Rights & Data Deletion

Because all usage data is stored exclusively on your device, you maintain full and immediate control over it at all times:

• You can clear all cached usage data at any time from within the app: Settings → Clear Cached Stats.
• You can clear all application data via Android System Settings: Settings → Apps → AppPulse → Storage & Cache → Clear Storage.
• Uninstalling the app permanently purges all local databases and preferences from your device.

For detailed step-by-step instructions on data deletion, please view our dedicated User Data Deletion Page.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or Android policy updates. Any revisions will be published on this page with an updated "Effective Date".

9. Contact Us