Privacy Policy for Quartz for Android

The app stores the following data locally on your device:

• Focus, short break, long break, Free Roam and Flow sessions you start and complete — including the flow breaks a Flow session earns — when each began and ended, how long it was planned to run, how long it actually ran, how long it was paused, whether it completed or was skipped, which task it was attached to, and the model name of the device that recorded it
• Tasks you create, including the titles and notes you type — one of the two places in the app where text you have written is stored
• Saved presets. A saved preset stores a name you choose, plus the timer settings it holds: how long a focus session runs — or, if you set one up, a list of focus lengths with one for each focus session in the cycle — how long the short and long breaks run, and how many focus sessions come before a long break. A preset can also carry up to five optional extras, which it applies along with those timer settings: a theme, a light or dark preference, whether focus sessions start on their own, whether breaks start on their own, and whether a sound plays when a session ends. The name is the other place text you have written is stored
• Daily reminders — the time, the weekdays, and whether each is on
• Settings — timer durations, how many focus sessions before a long break, the list of focus lengths you are currently running if you have set one up, auto-start preferences, theme and light or dark preference, and completion sounds
• The extras a preset has applied. When you apply a preset that carries any of the five extras above, the values it applied are kept on this device separately from the settings you chose yourself, so that your own choices are not overwritten and come back when you change the setting again or apply a preset that sets none. These applied values stay on this device and are not written to the backup file.
• After you sign in, your Google account's email address and display name, so the app can show you which account is connected
• Sync bookkeeping — counters and timestamps recording what has already been uploaded, and a random identifier generated once for this installation

Your email address and display name are never transmitted by the app. They are written to the app's private storage and read only to draw the account row in Settings.

Signing in is optional. The app is fully usable without it, and sign-in exists only to enable Back up & sync.

If you turn on Back up & sync, the app writes a single file to the hidden application-data area of your own Google Drive. That file holds your finished sessions — completed or skipped — and records of ones you deleted; your tasks, including their titles and notes, and records of ones you deleted; your saved presets, including any list of focus lengths they hold and any of the five optional extras they carry, and records of ones you deleted; and your settings. A session still running or paused stays on your device, and so does the list of focus lengths you are currently running — only the copy saved in a preset leaves your device. Each record also carries a little sync bookkeeping: a counter used to decide which version is newest, and the installation identifier of the device that last changed it.

The file does not contain your email address, your display name, your reminders, or any access token.

Google describes this area as "only accessible by your app and its contents are hidden from the user and from other apps." It sits in your Drive, under your Google account. The developer has no access to this data, no ability to read it, and no way to retrieve it. There is no Quartz server and no administrator account.

The app makes network requests to exactly one destination, Google's Drive API, and only ever addresses that one hidden folder.

Google Play defines collection as data leaving your device, so the app's Data safety section declares this synced data on that basis — even though it travels only to your own Drive and reaches no one else.

To sync, the app asks your permission for one Google Drive scope and no others: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata, which Google describes as "View and manage the app's own configuration data in your Google Drive." That scope cannot read your Drive files, folders, photos or documents. It reaches only the app's own hidden area. The app requests no other Google permission of any kind. The access token Google issues is held by Google Play services and used in memory for the duration of a sync; the app never writes it to storage.

The use of data received from Google Workspace scopes will adhere to the Google User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

• The app does not collect analytics
• The app does not include crash reporting
• The app does not include any third-party SDKs or tracking libraries
• The app does not require an account or sign-in
• The app does not display advertisements
• The app does not send your data to any server controlled by the developer, because no such server exists
• The app does not sell your data or share it with a third party
• The app does not access your contacts, photos, location, microphone, or camera
• The app does not read your advertising ID, IMEI, IMSI, SIM serial, MAC address, ANDROID_ID or device serial number

Everything the app stores sits in private app storage, which other apps on your device cannot read. Transfers to Google Drive use encrypted connections, and the destination folder is hidden from other apps and from your Drive file list. The access token is never written to storage. Your account details — email address and display name — are explicitly excluded from Android's backup, so they are never copied off your device by any route.

Two identifiers travel in the sync file.

The device name is your device's hardware model, for example "Pixel 8". It labels which device recorded a session when you use more than one. It is a model name shared by every unit of that model, and it does not identify you or your particular device.

The installation identifier is a random value the app generates once, the first time it needs one. It exists only to decide which edit wins when the same record is changed on two devices. It is not derived from your hardware, your Google account, or an advertising ID, and it is not used for tracking, profiling or advertising.

Neither identifier reaches the developer, because there is no server to receive it.

If you grant notification permission, the app schedules local notifications on your device for your daily reminders and for the alert when a focus or break period ends. Notification scheduling is handled entirely by Android; no notification content is sent through any external server.

Four things, asked for by Quartz itself:

• Notifications, to show your daily reminders and the alert when a session ends. This is the only permission Android puts a prompt in front of you for; the rest are granted when the app is installed.
• Exact alarms, so a session ends at the right second even when your phone is idle — the core function of a timer. This appears twice in the app's permission list, once for Android 13 and later and once for the two versions before it, because Android renamed it.
• Run at startup, so your reminders and a running timer survive a restart, since Android clears scheduled alarms when a phone reboots.
• Internet, used only for Back up & sync and only to reach Google Drive.

The app's full permission list is longer than those four, because Android merges the declarations of every library an app includes into one list. The rest are declared by Google's own libraries rather than by Quartz. They are set out here because they ship in the app, not because the app uses them:

• Wake lock, network state and foreground service arrive with WorkManager, the Android scheduler that runs a sync in the background. They let a sync survive the screen turning off and be held back until you are online.
• Biometric and fingerprint arrive with a library that the Google sign-in components depend on. Quartz has no biometric lock, never asks for your fingerprint or your face, and calls nothing in that library. They are present because the sign-in library brings them, and for no other reason.
• One further permission is named after Quartz itself and is generated by an Android support library. It exists so that receivers the app registers while running are not exposed to other apps on your device. No other app can hold it, and it grants access to nothing outside Quartz.

None of these give the app your contacts, photos, location, microphone or camera. The app declares no such permission, and it could not gain one without this list changing.

Separately from anything the app does, Android backs up app data to your Google account by default. This is a feature of your phone, controlled in your device's settings rather than in Quartz.

Where it is switched on, it can include the app's local database — your sessions, tasks, presets and reminders — along with your settings. This happens whether or not you have signed in, and whether or not you use Back up & sync. Your account details are excluded, so your saved email address and display name are never included.

You can see and remove these backups in the Google Drive app for Android, under Settings, where your backed-up apps are listed. Each device keeps its own backup dataset — two devices produce two of them, and a factory reset starts a new one — so removing a backup applies to that device's dataset rather than to all of them at once. Google deletes obsolete backup datasets after a period of inactivity.

The developer holds nothing, so there is nothing on the developer's side to retain or delete. Your data lives in two places you control: your device, and — if you enabled sync — your own Google Drive.

Deleting a task hides it throughout the app immediately. So that the deletion also reaches your other devices, the record is kept and marked as deleted rather than erased, which means its title and notes remain in the file until the file itself is removed. When a preset is deleted, its name and any extras it carried — the theme, the light or dark preference, the two auto-start preferences and the completion-sound preference — are removed from the synced record. The row still travels — that is how the deletion reaches your other devices — but the text does not. Deleting a reminder erases it outright.

To remove everything from a device, uninstall the app, or open Settings, then Apps, then Quartz, then Storage, and choose Clear storage. Either wipes all local Quartz data on that device.

To remove the copy held in Google Drive, open Google Drive, then Settings, then Manage apps; find Quartz, open Options, and choose Delete hidden app data.

Two things are worth knowing about that. Turning off Back up & sync stops future uploads but does not delete the file already in your Drive. And disconnecting Quartz from Drive is not the same as deleting the data — disconnecting stops the app reaching the folder, while deleting the hidden app data is the separate step above. The deletion step is the one that removes the file.

To revoke the app's access to Drive, use Google Drive, then Settings, then Manage apps, then Options, then Disconnect from Drive; or the third-party access settings on your Google account.

If any of this does not work for you, write to support@getquartzapp.com and you will be talked through it.

The app is not directed at children. It asks you for no personal details, has no social, messaging or user-to-user features, and shows no advertising. It is rated for a general audience.

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this URL with a new "Last updated" date. If the app begins handling data differently, the policy is updated before that change ships.

For questions about this privacy policy, or to request deletion of your data, contact: support@getquartzapp.com