Privacy Policy — Rouse

App: Rouse — "The alarm you get up to turn off."
Package: com.binarydatatechnology.rouse
Effective date: 2026-08-25
Last updated: 2026-08-30
Published by: Joseph Hagan, publishing as Binary Data Technology
Business address: 33 Gates Ave, Springfield, MA 01118-2302, United States
Contact: support@binarydatatechnology.com

The short version

Rouse's core alarm, mission and history features work on your phone without an account or
connection. Your labels, notes, written reason and raw sensor readings are never uploaded by
Rouse. You can use every core feature in airplane mode.

The Google release uses Google Play Billing and Google-hosted verification services to confirm
purchases and to give Google Play's app-review team temporary access to Rouse Pro without making a
purchase. It also offers optional Google-account cloud backup, Firebase Analytics and Firebase
Crashlytics. Backup and telemetry start off and send nothing unless you turn them on. Section 4
explains those choices; section 5 explains purchase verification and reviewer access.

We do not sell your data. We do not show ads. We do not use any advertising identifier.

1. What Rouse does with data by default

When you install Rouse and never change a setting, the following is true:

No account is required for core features. If you choose cloud backup, Rouse creates a Firebase
account linked to the Google account you select; section 4.1 explains the data and deletion scope.
Rouse never asks you to create a password or provide a phone number.

Rouse contains no advertising SDK or cross-app advertising tracker. The Google release
includes optional Firebase Analytics for first-party product analytics, including Play install
referrer/campaign attribution when available, but Analytics is off by default and sends nothing
until you enable it.

Choosing an alarm tone from your phone

If you pick a tone from your own phone, Rouse opens Android's own ringtone picker. Rouse
does not hold a storage or media permission and never browses your files: the system shows the
list, you pick one, and Android hands back a single reference to that one tone. Rouse stores the
reference alongside the alarm and plays it. Nothing about your other audio files is visible to
the app. Android's system backup may retain the reference; the optional Firebase copy described
in section 4.1 removes it.

2. Sensors and physical activity data

Some Rouse missions ask you to walk a number of steps or to shake the phone. To measure
that, Rouse reads Android motion sensors:

• Sensor.TYPE_STEP_COUNTER (the hardware pedometer), or
• Sensor.TYPE_STEP_DETECTOR, or
• if neither exists on your device, the raw accelerometer, processed by our own
  step-detection algorithm.

This requires the Android ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION permission on Android 10 and above.

What you should know about that data:

• All processing happens on your device. Sensor readings are analysed in memory, in
  real time, by code running inside the app.
• Raw sensor streams are never stored and never transmitted. They are discarded when
  the mission ends.
• What is saved is only the summary: how many steps were counted, how long the mission
  took, and whether it was completed. That summary is written to the local database.
• If you deny the activity recognition permission, Rouse does not break. The mission
  falls back to a non-motion mission (maths, typing or memory).

Rouse does not use the camera. It does not record video. It does not record audio. It
does not use fingerprint, face or any other biometric data. The app does not request
the CAMERA permission at all. No image, sound or raw sensor trace from a mission is ever sent
by Rouse. If you enable Google-account backup, the saved mission summary — including its final
counter value, duration and outcome — can be included in your encrypted backup as explained in
section 4.1. (Android's own device backup is a separate matter and is covered in section 3.)

Rouse does not collect location. It does not request ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or
ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION. On some Android versions the step sensor is grouped with
"physical activity"; that is not location and Rouse does not derive location from it.

Rouse does not read your other apps. It does not request QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES,
PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS or any accessibility service, and it cannot see what else is
installed or what you do outside the app.

3. Android's own backup — please read this one

This is separate from anything Rouse chooses to do, and it is on by default on most Android
phones.

Android has a system-wide backup feature that periodically copies app data to your Google
account so a new phone can restore it. Rouse takes part in it, because losing years of streak
history when you change phone is the single worst thing that can happen to a local-only app.

What that means in practice: your alarms, your morning history, your settings, your alarm
labels and the reason you wrote during setup may be copied to your own Google account.

Two things are worth being precise about:

• It does not go to us. We never receive it, cannot read it and have no access to it. It
  sits in your Google account under Google's terms, exactly like the data of any other app you
  have installed.
• You control it. Turn it off in Android Settings → Google → Backup, either for your whole
  device or for Rouse specifically. Rouse works identically either way; you simply lose the
  automatic restore on a new phone. You can still use Rouse's own export file instead.

Your subscription state is deliberately excluded from this backup.

4. Optional Google cloud and telemetry features

The Google release includes three optional Firebase features. Each is off when you install the
app and requires you to actively switch it on. The separate local development flavor contains no
working cloud or telemetry surface and is not the Play production package.

4.1 Cloud backup of your streak history

What it is: an optional scrubbed off-device copy of your alarms, mission history and
streaks that can be safely merged when you connect the same Google account on another device.

If you turn it on:

• Rouse opens Google's account chooser and exchanges the resulting Google ID token with
  Firebase Authentication. Firebase provides a user ID and may provide the selected account's
  email and basic profile information. Rouse displays/uses only the UID and email for this feature;
  it does not receive your Google password.
• A scrubbed copy of your alarm settings, mission attempt history and streak records is
  copied to Google Cloud Firestore, stored under that Firebase UID.
• Firestore security rules restrict each document so that it can only be read or written
  by the authenticated UID that owns it. Listing the backup collection is denied.

What is not backed up: alarm labels, your setup commitment or reason, custom sound
URIs, or raw sensor data. Raw sensor data is never stored anywhere.

Legal basis (UK/EU): your consent, given by switching the feature on. You can
withdraw it at any time.

Where it is stored: Google Cloud infrastructure. Depending on the region configured
for the project, this may include servers outside your country, including the United
States. Google is the data processor for this storage; see Google's privacy
documentation at https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy.

How to turn it off and delete it: Settings → Your data → Cloud backup → turn off. Rouse
then deletes the Firestore document and the Rouse Firebase account. This does not delete your
Google Account and does not cancel or refund a Google Play purchase. If the network prevents that
deletion, Rouse keeps backup disabled, shows a retry control, and sends nothing new. Your local
data on the phone stays untouched.

4.2 Analytics

What it is: the Google build includes optional Firebase Analytics integration, intended
to understand which features are used and where people get stuck. The production Firebase project
is linked to Google Analytics, but Rouse keeps Analytics collection off until you explicitly enable
it in Settings.

If you turn it on, Rouse records event names and counts — for example "alarm created",
"mission completed", "paywall shown". Firebase Analytics also collects standard technical
information such as device model, operating system version, app version, coarse
country-level region and a randomly generated app instance ID.

What is never sent to analytics: your alarm labels, your commitment text, anything you
type into a typing mission, your step counts, your streak values, or any raw sensor data.

Legal basis (UK/EU): your consent.

How to turn it off: Settings → Your data → Anonymous usage statistics → off. Turning it
off stops future collection and resets the app's local analytics identity; it does not promise
individual deletion of events Firebase already received, which follow the retention period below.

4.3 Crash reporting

What it is: optional Firebase Crashlytics, used to find and fix crashes.

If you turn it on, and the app crashes, Rouse sends a crash report containing the
stack trace, the device model, the OS version, the app version and a random installation
identifier. Reports are content-scrubbed: we do not attach alarm labels, user-typed text
or history.

Legal basis (UK/EU): your consent.

How to turn it off: Settings → Your data → Crash reports → off. This stops future reports
and deletes reports still waiting on the device; reports already received follow the retention
period below.

5. Purchases and Google Play Billing

Rouse Pro is sold as a subscription through Google Play Billing.

• We never see or handle your payment details. Card numbers, billing addresses and
  payment processing are handled entirely by Google Play. That data never reaches Rouse
  and never reaches us.
• What Rouse receives from Google Play is a product ID, purchase token and entitlement state.
  The Google release sends the product ID, product type and token over TLS to a Firebase callable
  function protected by Play Integrity App Check. The server verifies and acknowledges the
  purchase through the Google Play Developer API. It stores a SHA-256 hash of the token and the
  resulting entitlement state, not the raw token, card details or billing address. Google Play
  real-time developer notifications update renewals, expiry, refunds and revocations.
• Google's own handling of your purchase is governed by the Google Play Terms of Service
  and Google's Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Rouse contains no advertising. There is no ad SDK and no ad revenue, on the free tier
or any other tier.

5.1 Temporary access for Google Play reviewers

Google Play reviewers need to inspect subscription-only features without making a real purchase.
The Google release therefore includes a review-only access screen under Settings → Subscription.
It is not an alternative subscription or a public promotion.

• A reviewer can enter the private code supplied separately in Google Play Console. The app masks
  the code and sends it over TLS to a Cloud Function protected by Firebase App Check with Play
  Integrity and a limited-use attestation token.
• The Rouse application does not persist or log the submitted code. The function compares it in
  memory with a secret held in Google Secret Manager; it does not write the code or a hash of it to
  a database, include it in application logs, or return it to the device.
• A successful response contains only an active status plus server and expiry timestamps. The app
  stores those two timestamps in its private reviewer-access preferences so it can honour the
  temporary grant offline. That preferences file is excluded from Android backup and device
  transfer. No Google sign-in or reviewer account identifier is created for this feature.
• A grant lasts no more than 72 hours. The app removes the timestamps when the reviewer ends access,
  clears Rouse's entitlement data, or next checks an expired grant. Review-access server requests
  create no per-reviewer database record for Rouse to retain or delete.

The private server secret is access-controlled separately from the app and must be rotated after a
review cycle or immediately if exposure is suspected. Rotation revokes the old code for future
redemptions; it does not extend an already-issued grant. This reviewer path does not create,
acknowledge, cancel, replace or otherwise alter a Google Play purchase or subscription.

6. What we never do

• We never sell personal data.
• We never share your data with data brokers, advertisers or ad networks.
• We never use your data to train machine-learning models.
• We never record camera, video, screen or microphone.
• We never collect biometric identifiers.
• We never collect location.
• We never require an account for core alarms. Google-account sign-in is required only if you
  choose cross-device cloud backup. We never require a phone number.

7. Children's privacy

Rouse is not directed at children under 13 (or under the equivalent minimum age in
your country — for example 16 in some parts of the EEA under GDPR Article 8, or 14 or 15
where a member state has set that age).

The app is designed for a general audience of adults and older teenagers. We do not
knowingly collect personal data from children below that age. We do not use the app in
any child-directed advertising or content programme, and Rouse contains no ads at all.

If you believe a child below the applicable age has enabled cloud backup, turn Cloud backup off
in the app to delete its document and Rouse Firebase account. If the app is unavailable, contact
support@binarydatatechnology.com from the selected Google account so we can explain the
authenticated deletion process.

Because Rouse involves walking and shaking a phone, and because it is an alarm clock
intended to manage a person's own sleep schedule, we consider it unsuitable for young
children regardless of data handling.

8. How long we keep things

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have rights over your personal data. Because Rouse
collects nothing by default, in most cases there is nothing for us to hold — the data is
on your phone and under your control.

If you are in the UK or the EEA (UK GDPR / EU GDPR)

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectify inaccurate data.
• Erase your data ("right to be forgotten").
• Restrict or object to processing.
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that already happened.
• Complain to your local supervisory authority (in the UK, the Information
  Commissioner's Office, ico.org.uk).

Practically: the in-app export produces a versioned JSON file containing all of your
local data — that is your portability right, exercised without asking us. The in-app
Cloud backup switch is your erasure control for anything in Firestore.

Data controller: Joseph Hagan, publishing as Binary Data Technology, 33 Gates Ave,
Springfield, MA 01118-2302, United States.
Data protection contact: support@binarydatatechnology.com.
No separate EU or UK representative is currently designated. Contact the data protection
contact above for privacy inquiries.

If you are in California (CCPA/CPRA)

You have the right to know what personal information is collected, to request deletion,
to request correction, to data portability, and to not be discriminated against for
exercising those rights.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context
behavioural advertising. There is no "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information"
action needed because neither happens. Rouse contains no advertising and no advertising
identifiers.

In the twelve months before the effective date of this policy, the only categories of
personal information Rouse can collect are: (a) a Firebase user ID, selected Google-account
email/basic profile and your scrubbed alarm/streak records, if you enabled cloud backup;
(b) device and usage identifiers, if you enabled analytics or crash reporting; and (c) purchase
history needed to verify Rouse Pro. Google Play's reviewer code is a developer-supplied credential,
not an end-user account identifier, and is processed only as described in section 5.1. Core alarm
content is not collected if you enable neither backup nor telemetry, but purchase verification
still applies when you buy or restore Pro.

Other jurisdictions

If your local law gives you rights not listed here, contact support@binarydatatechnology.com and we will
honour them where they apply.

How to make a request

Email support@binarydatatechnology.com from the Google account selected for Rouse backup.
If you cannot delete through the app, describe the problem and we will explain the authenticated
steps needed to locate the Firebase account. We aim to respond within 30 days.

10. How to delete your data

Everything on your phone: uninstall Rouse. Android deletes the app's database,
preferences and files. Alternatively, in Android Settings → Apps → Rouse → Storage →
Clear storage. Or use the in-app Settings → Data → Delete all data.

Anything in the cloud (only exists if you enabled backup): Settings → Your data →
Cloud backup → turn off. After confirmation, this removes the Firestore document and the Rouse
Firebase account. It does not delete your Google Account and does not cancel or refund a Play
purchase. If deletion fails while offline, use the retry control shown in the same section.

If the app will not open: email support@binarydatatechnology.com and describe the
problem. Contact us from the selected Google account so we can use an authenticated process;
use the in-app deletion control whenever you can.

Note that uninstalling the app does not by itself delete a cloud backup you chose to
create — delete it in-app first, or email us.

11. Security

• Local data sits in the app's private storage sandbox, which other apps cannot read on a
  non-rooted device. Android's own file-based encryption protects it at rest on modern
  devices.
• If you enable cloud backup, data travels over TLS/HTTPS. Firestore encrypts data at
  rest on Google's infrastructure.
• Firestore security rules scope each document to the authenticated Firebase UID that created it,
  deny collection listing and deny reads after the recorded expiry.
• No system is perfectly secure. We do not claim any security certification and Rouse has
  not been independently security-audited.

12. Third-party services we rely on

Google acts as our processor for Firebase services. If you enable none of the optional features,
never buy or restore Pro, and are not a Google Play reviewer using the private review-access path,
Rouse does not send backup, analytics, crash-reporting, purchase-verification or reviewer-access
payloads to these services.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the "Last updated" date above. If a change
materially affects how your data is handled — for example if a new category of data
starts being collected — we will tell you inside the app before the change takes effect,
and where the law requires it we will ask for your consent again.

Previous versions are available on request from support@binarydatatechnology.com.

14. Contact

Email: support@binarydatatechnology.com
Postal: 33 Gates Ave, Springfield, MA 01118-2302, United States
Data controller: Joseph Hagan, publishing as Binary Data Technology