Privacy Policy — Work & Life

Last updated: 24 September 2026 Policy version: 1

Work & Life (“the app”) is a planner for shift and irregular-schedule workers. This policy explains, in plain language, exactly what the app does with your information. It describes the app as it is today. If that ever changes, this policy changes first, and for any material change you will be asked to agree again inside the app before it continues.

1. Who makes the app, and what they can see

Work & Life is made and published by Kalakandan. There is no server and no cloud storage: everything you enter stays on your phone and is never sent to the developer, who has no way to see it.

The one thing that leaves your phone is the limited device data Google uses to show the ad banner (section 4). Because the app includes that banner, its publisher is the responsible party for that data under privacy law, and the person to contact about it.

Contact: imkalakandan@gmail.com

2. Short version

• Everything you enter stays on your phone. There are no accounts, no logins, no server and no cloud storage of ours. We cannot see your data, because we never receive it.
• The only reason the app uses the internet is to show one banner advertisement, served by Google AdMob.
• To show that ad, Google collects limited device data, described in full in section 4.
• The app asks you before any of that happens (section 8).
• The app contains no analytics, crash-reporting or tracking software. The only third-party software in it is Google’s ad software.

3. What you enter, and where it lives

Everything you enter — your shift pattern, schedule changes, leave, notes, habits, tasks, spending, pay settings, reminders and sleep preferences — is stored only in the app’s private storage on your own phone.

• The database holding it is encrypted, with the key kept in your phone’s own secure key store.
• A small amount of app state sits alongside it without that extra layer, protected by Android’s app sandbox instead: the answers you give during setup before you finish it, the details of an alarm you have snoozed, your app-lock and ad-consent choices, and a few housekeeping flags (for example, which “What’s new” note you have already seen).
• The app keeps its own local safety copy of the database in its private folder, encrypted, so a failed update cannot wipe your data. It never leaves the phone.
• The app writes a small local diagnostics log (at most about 200 KB) when something goes wrong inside it. It records only the type of error, where in the app’s code it happened, and the app version — never anything you typed, and no amounts, names or dates. It stays on the phone unless you choose to share it (section 12).

None of this is ever uploaded, because there is nowhere to upload it to. The app’s backup rules exclude all of it from Android’s cloud backup and device-to-device transfer, so it does not travel with your Google account either.

If your phone’s secure key store is unavailable when the app starts (rare, usually after a system fault), the app keeps working with reduced protection — the database may run unencrypted, or its key may be kept without the key store’s protection — and it tells you so in Settings → About. It re-secures itself automatically once the key store recovers. Even then, nothing leaves the phone.

4. Information collected automatically (advertising only)

The app shows one banner ad, using Google AdMob. To select and measure that ad, Google’s ad software collects and processes:

• your device’s advertising ID (a resettable identifier used for advertising);
• your IP address, from which an approximate (city-level) location can be inferred;
• basic device information (model, operating system version, language, screen size);
• ad-interaction data (that an ad was shown, viewed or tapped);
• diagnostics about the ad software itself (for example, that an ad failed to load).

This is collected by Google as a third party, under Google’s own policies. It is never combined with anything you enter in the app — that data never leaves your phone.

Google AdMob is the only third party that receives anything from this app. There is no mediation network, no ad exchange and no other third-party software.

To be precise about “analytics”: the app contains no analytics or crash-reporting software of ours — no Firebase, no Google Analytics, no Crashlytics, nothing that reports your use of the app to us. We receive no reports at all. Google’s own ad software does perform its own measurement of the advertising data listed above, for the purposes in section 5.

Google’s policies:

• How Google uses information from sites and apps that use its services: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
• Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

5. Why it is collected, and the legal basis

The data in section 4 is collected only for the advertising that keeps the app free, and only by Google. Google uses it to:

• select and display the banner advertisement;
• measure advertising performance (whether an ad was shown, seen or tapped);
• detect fraud and invalid traffic (for example, fake or automated ad taps).

These are the same purposes declared in this app’s Data safety section on Google Play; the two are meant to be read together. The data is used for no other purpose, is not used by us, and is never used to build a profile of you for anything other than the ad above.

Where the GDPR applies, the legal basis is your consent, obtained before any ad request is made. Elsewhere, we rely on the choices you make in the prompts described in section 8.

6. International transfers

Google processes advertising data on servers outside your country, including in the United States, under Google’s own safeguards (such as EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU–US Data Privacy Framework), as described in Google’s privacy policy linked above.

7. How long it is kept

We keep nothing — there is no server and we receive no data, so we have no retention period to state. What you enter lives on your phone until you delete it or uninstall the app; uninstalling removes all of it. Advertising data described in section 4 is kept by Google under Google’s own retention policies.

8. Your choices

• Before any ad loads, on first launch, the app shows you a disclosure and asks you to agree. Nothing is requested from Google — not even the check for whether a consent form is needed — until you do. If you do not agree, the app closes; there is no version of the app without the ad.
• Consent forms. Where the law requires it (the EEA and the UK), Google’s own consent form is shown after that, and a row Settings → About → Ad privacy choices lets you change your answer at any time. Outside those regions the form and the row do not appear, because no consent form applies there.
• Withdrawing consent does not remove the banner; the ads you see may become non-personalised or limited instead.
• Resetting your advertising ID. You can reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in your phone’s settings (Settings → Google → Ads, or Settings → Privacy → Ads, depending on the phone).
• If this policy materially changes, the app will ask you to read and agree again. An earlier agreement is not carried over: it covers the disclosure that was on screen at the time, and nothing else.

9. US state privacy rights (California and others)

We do not receive money in exchange for your personal information. We would rather be accurate than reassuring, though: because the app passes an advertising ID to Google for advertising, that activity may count as a “sale” or as “sharing” for cross-context behavioural advertising under the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA) and similar laws in other US states.

You can opt out by resetting or deleting your advertising ID in your phone’s settings and, where Google’s ad privacy form is offered to you, through Settings → About → Ad privacy choices. We do not treat you differently for exercising this right. We do not knowingly process sensitive personal information for advertising.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, object to or restrict the processing of your personal data, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time.

Because there is no server and we hold no data about you, the practical position is:

• Data you entered: already entirely under your control. Export it to a file from Settings → Backup & export, or uninstall the app to remove it from your phone.
• Advertising data: held by Google, not by us. Exercise those rights with Google directly at https://myadcenter.google.com and https://myaccount.google.com/privacy.
• Anything else: email imkalakandan@gmail.com.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection supervisory authority.

11. Permissions the app uses, and why

• Internet: used only to load the Google AdMob banner, and Google’s consent form where it applies. Google’s ad software also declares the standard advertising ID permission, for the same purpose.
• Alarms and reminders — exact alarms, notifications, full-screen alarm, run at start-up, ignore battery optimisations, vibrate, keep the phone awake, foreground service: to ring your wake-up and “leave for your shift” alarms and reminders at the right time, show a ringing alarm over the lock screen, keep it ringing reliably, and restore your alarms after a restart. All of it works on your phone alone.

The app holds no microphone, camera, location, contacts, calendar, phone or storage permission. In particular:

• Voice input (optional): when you tap a microphone button, your phone’s own speech-to-text service does the listening and hands the app the words. The app never records, stores or sends audio. Depending on your phone, that system service may process your speech online, under its maker’s policy.
• Calendar: the app does not read or write your phone’s calendar. (Versions before 3.5 could mirror shifts into a calendar named “Work & Life”; if one is still on your phone from that time, it is yours to delete in your Calendar app.)
• Files: when you save a backup, or open one to restore, Android’s file picker opens and you choose the file. The app cannot see any other file.

12. Sharing, and what others can see

The app never sends what you enter anywhere by itself. When you choose to share something, Android’s own share sheet opens and you pick where it goes:

• your roster as plain text, or your free evenings, to a colleague or your family;
• an “I’m home” or “my ETA” message to someone you choose — it contains the text and time only, as the app has no access to your location;
• a backup file, saved to a place you pick;
• the diagnostics log described in section 3, if you decide to send it to us or to anyone else.

On the phone itself, your shifts may be visible where you have put them: on the lock screen when an alarm rings or a reminder shows, and on the home-screen widget, which shows shift colours and the number of notes on a day — never a note’s text.

Links in the app (this policy, the pattern-building guide, the Play Store listing, “Write to me”) open your browser, the Play Store or your mail app, and from there those apps’ own policies apply. Our website is a plain static site with no analytics and no cookies of ours.

13. Children

The app is a general-purpose planner and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children; aside from the advertising data in section 4, the app collects no personal information at all. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us and we will act.

14. Security

Your data is held in the app’s private storage, encrypted as described in section 3, with the key in your phone’s own secure key store, and excluded from cloud backup and device transfer. An optional app lock in Settings uses your phone’s own screen lock or fingerprint/face unlock; the app never sees or stores biometric data — Android only tells it whether the unlock succeeded. Because nothing is sent to us or held by us, there is no server of ours that can be breached.

15. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version is posted at this address with a new “last updated” date. A material change — new data collected, a new recipient, a new purpose — also gets a new policy version and requires your agreement again inside the app before it continues.

16. Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about this policy: imkalakandan@gmail.com