1. Introduction
At DontRot we are committed to protecting your privacy. DontRot is developed and run by Oscar Gil Bejerano (“we”, “us”; contact details in section 10). This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store and protect your information when you use our mobile application (the “App”), including its optional online mode, where you can play in groups with your friends. Please read it carefully to understand our practices regarding your data.
By downloading, installing or using the App, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and agree to its terms. If you disagree with any part of it, please do not use the App.
2. Information We Collect
2.1. Information Stored Locally on Your Device
A core privacy principle of DontRot is that your activity data stays on your device. Unless you sign in with Google for the cloud backup and the online mode described in sections 2.8 and 2.9, your activity records are not uploaded anywhere (section 2.4 explains the limited usage events sent for analytics). The App stores the following locally:
- Step count data: detected by your device sensors, by our own accelerometer algorithm, or read from Health Connect if you connect a smartwatch or fitness band
- App usage statistics: which apps you use and for how long
- Blocked application data: the list of apps you have chosen to block
- Earned and used time: screen time earned through activity and time spent in blocked apps
- Activity and habit records: exercises, water intake, reading, meditation, journal entries, routes and any other activity you complete in the App
- Daily statistics and streaks, aggregated over time
- Your settings and preferences, including the step counting method you selected and whether Health Connect is enabled
2.2. Permissions We Request
- Activity Recognition: to count steps and convert them into earned time
- Motion Sensors: used by our own step detection algorithm on devices whose built-in step sensor is unavailable or unreliable
- Usage Access: to measure time spent in apps and apply the limits you set
- Accessibility Service: to detect when a blocked app opens and show the blocking screen. This service reads only the identity of the app in the foreground. It never reads, stores or transmits the content of your screen, your messages or anything you type
- Display Over Other Apps: to show blocking screens and break reminders
- Notifications: to show the ongoing service notification, activity reminders and, if you use the online mode, news from your groups
- Battery Optimisation Exemption: so step counting keeps working with the screen off
- Camera (optional, only while you use a camera feature): see section 2.3
- Internet: for subscription verification, advertising, crash reports, analytics, maps and, if you sign in, the cloud backup and the online mode
2.3. Camera and On-Device Image Processing
Some optional features use your camera:
- Exercise detection: while you perform push-ups, squats, crunches or a plank, the camera detects your body posture to count repetitions
- Activity scanners: to verify certain habits, such as photographing a glass of water or grass
For all of these:
- Processing happens entirely on your device using Google ML Kit models that run on the phone. Images are analysed in real time and are not saved to your gallery; the temporary photo taken by a scanner is deleted as soon as it has been checked
- No image, video or camera frame is ever uploaded to our servers or to any third party, and none is shown to your groups. Only the fact that the activity was completed (for example “touched grass”) can be shared, as described in sections 2.8 and 2.9
- The camera is used only while you are actively inside one of these features, never in the background
- These features are optional. If you deny the camera permission the rest of the App keeps working
2.4. Analytics and Crash Reports
The App uses Google Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics to understand how the App is used and to detect and fix crashes. These services identify your installation with a random identifier generated by Google, not with your name or email. We do not link analytics or crash data to your Google account. The data includes:
- Usage events, such as which screens are opened, whether onboarding was completed, which permissions were granted, whether a purchase screen was viewed, which activities you completed (type and effort minutes), your daily steps, your level and streak, and your earned, used and available minutes
- Blocking events: when the blocking screen appears, the name of the blocked app that triggered it and the reason; and, at the end of a session in a blocked app, the name of that app and how long the session lasted. We use this to understand whether blocking works and to improve it. It is not a record of everything you do on your phone: apps you have not blocked are never reported
- Online mode events (only if you use it), such as whether a group was created or joined, how many members it has, whether challenges were thrown and their outcome. These events never include group names, invitation codes, display names or the identifiers of other people
- User properties used to group statistics, such as whether you have DontRot Pro, your level, whether you are signed in to the online mode, how many groups you are in and, if you sign in for the online mode, your age range and, if you give it, your gender (section 2.10)
- Information collected automatically by Firebase, such as device model, operating system version, App version, language, approximate country and, where available, your device’s advertising identifier
- Technical crash information: device model, operating system version, App version and the technical stack trace of the error
We look at this data only in aggregated reports. It is not used to build an advertising profile of you and it never includes your health data from Health Connect, your full app usage records, your journal entries, camera images or the content of your screen. Processing by Google is governed by Google’s Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
2.5. Advertising
The free version of DontRot shows advertisements provided by Google AdMob.
- AdMob may collect device identifiers and coarse (not precise) location data for ad delivery and measurement
- Ad interactions, such as views and clicks, are recorded by the ad network for reporting and payment
- In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland we show a consent form (Google User Messaging Platform) that lets you choose whether your data is used for personalised advertising. You can change your choice at any time from the App settings
- You can also limit ad personalisation from your device settings, or remove ads entirely with DontRot Pro
- We never pass your age range, gender, display name, groups or activity records to AdMob
- Google’s practices: https://policies.google.com/privacy
2.6. DontRot Pro Subscription
If you purchase DontRot Pro, whether as a subscription or as a one-time lifetime purchase, the payment is processed entirely by Google Play Billing. We receive only:
- Subscription status (active or expired)
- Purchase and expiry dates
- Product type purchased
We never receive, process or store your payment details, such as card numbers. DontRot Pro users see no advertisements in the App.
2.7. Health Connect Integration
If you choose to connect a smartwatch or fitness band, DontRot reads from Health Connect, Android’s on-device health data store:
- Step count (free feature): used for a single purpose, converting your physical activity into earned screen time
- Workout data (only with DontRot Pro and only if you use the smartwatch workouts feature): exercise sessions, distance, calories burned and, when your watch app provides it, the GPS route of the workout. It is used only to display your workouts inside the App and convert them into earned screen time
In addition:
- We never request heart rate, sleep, weight, nutrition or any other health data type
- We never write to your health record. The App holds no write permission for any Health Connect data type
- The raw records read from Health Connect stay on your device. They are never used for advertising or analytics, and are never sold or shared. If you sign in with Google (sections 2.8 and 2.9), the summaries DontRot derives from your activity, such as your daily step total, the type and length of a workout and the effort points it earned, are included in your backup and in your group scores like any other activity; GPS routes, calories and the individual Health Connect records are not
- We request background read access so your steps keep counting while the App is closed
- The integration is optional and disabled by default. You can revoke access at any time in Health Connect, and DontRot will fall back to your phone’s own step counter
Your steps reach Health Connect through your watch’s companion app, for example Mi Fitness, Samsung Health, Garmin Connect or Fitbit. That app’s own privacy policy governs how it collects them. Google’s data practices: https://health.google/health-connect-android/.
2.8. Optional Google Account and Cloud Backup
You can optionally sign in with your Google account. Signing in is required to use the online mode (section 2.9), and it also backs up your progress so it survives phone changes and reinstalls. It is entirely opt-in: the rest of the App is fully functional without an account, and nothing described in sections 2.8 to 2.10 happens unless you sign in. Your age range and gender are not part of this backup (section 2.10).
When you sign in, Google Sign-In and Firebase Authentication receive, from your Google account, your email address, your name and the link to your Google profile picture, and create a random account identifier. We use your email only to identify your account and to show it to you in the App settings; it is never shown to other users. DontRot does not use or display your Google profile picture.
While you are signed in, we store the following in a single backup record linked to your account:
- Your display name (the one you set in the App or, if you have not set one, the name of your Google account or the part of your email address before the “@”)
- Your time bank balance and available screen time
- Your daily effort summary: for each of the last 90 days, the activities you completed (activity type, amount, for example steps or kilometres, and the effort points they earned) plus your daily goal, current streak and best streak
- Your goals and tasks as configured in the App, including their titles, schedule and completion history
- Your achievements: achievement counters and the date each level was reached
- Your group trophies: the weeks in which you earned a star in your groups
- Lifetime totals: total steps, active days and earned minutes
- App version and platform, for compatibility
This data is stored in Google Firebase (Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore), acting as our processor. The Cloud Firestore database is located in the European Union (europe-west1, Belgium). Access rules ensure that each account can only ever read and write its own backup record; your groups never see it.
You can sign out at any time from the App settings; syncing stops immediately and your data keeps living on your device. Signing out does not delete your account or the data already stored; you can delete them from the App at any time (section 6).
2.9. Online Mode: Groups With Your Friends
If you sign in, you can create or join private groups of up to 12 people with an invitation code, compete on effort points each week and throw small challenges to each other. Groups are not public: there is no directory or search, and only people with a group’s invitation code can join it.
What the other members of your groups can see about you, for each week you are a member:
- Your display name and your Mundi (its look, its name, its level and the ring it wears) and the background you selected
- Your effort points for the week and for each day, how many days you completed your daily goal, your daily goal, your effort streak and how many stars (trophies) you have earned
- Your recent activity feed: when you joined, the days you completed your goal, the activities that earned points (for example running, cycling, a camera exercise or touching grass) with their points and the time they were recorded, and when you overtook another member
- Your profile summary: the date you started using DontRot, your lifetime steps, active days and earned minutes, your effort for the last 7 days and your achievement progress
- The challenges you throw (to whom, which exercise and which preset tone) and what happened with the challenges thrown at you (completed, resisted or skipped by watching an ad), and which updates you cheered
They never see your email address, your Google profile picture, your time bank, your list of blocked apps (except the shared pact described below), your app usage, your goals, your journal or any image.
What is stored about each group: its name, its rules (whether challenges are on, the weekly goal and, if set, the prize text agreed by the group), its invitation code, the account identifiers of its members and of its admin, and the identifiers of people the admin removed (so they cannot rejoin with the code). The invitation code record shows the group name and, if the group has a pact, the pact to anyone who enters that code, so they can decide before joining.
Group pacts: when creating a group, the admin can add a pact, a list of apps that every member agrees to keep blocked. The identifiers of those apps (their package names) are stored with the group and its invitation code, and are visible to members and to anyone who enters the code. Joining a group with a pact blocks those apps on your phone. Your own list of blocked apps is never uploaded.
Content you write: your display name, your Mundi’s name, group names and prize texts are visible to the members of the groups concerned. Please do not include personal information about yourself or anyone else in them. There are no free-text messages between members; challenges use preset texts.
Your group data is stored in the same Cloud Firestore database (section 2.8). Access rules ensure that only members can read a group and its weeks, that each member can only write their own part, and that only the admin can rename the group, change its rules or code, remove members or delete the group.
2.10. Age Range and Gender
The first time you sign in with Google for the online mode, the App asks for your age range. This is required: we use it to make sure you are old enough to use the online mode (section 7) and, in aggregated form, to understand who uses DontRot. The App also asks for your gender. This is entirely optional and includes a “Prefer not to say” option; not answering does not limit any feature. We use it only for aggregated statistics that help us design the App for everyone.
Your answers are kept on your device and are not stored in your backup record, in your groups or in any other database of ours. They are sent to Firebase Analytics as user properties (section 2.4), where we only look at them in aggregated reports, together with the other usage statistics of your installation. If you choose “Prefer not to say”, no gender is sent. Your age range and gender are never shown to your groups or to other users, never shared with advertisers and never used to personalise ads.
2.11. What Never Leaves Your Device
With or without an account, the following are never uploaded to our servers or shared with your groups:
- Your app usage records: the apps you use, when and for how long (section 2.4 describes the limited blocking events sent to analytics)
- The list of apps installed on your phone and your own list of blocked apps and blocker configuration (only the apps of a group pact you create or join are stored with that group, section 2.9)
- Anything seen by the Accessibility Service
- The raw records read from Health Connect, your GPS routes and your calories
- Any photo, video or camera frame
- Your journal entries
3. How We Use Your Information and Legal Bases
Data stored on your device is used exclusively to:
- Track your physical activity and convert it into earned screen time
- Apply the blocks and time limits you have configured
- Show your statistics, streaks and progress
- Personalise your experience inside the App
For the data we process off your device, these are our purposes and, for users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the legal bases under the GDPR:
- Account, cloud backup and online mode (sections 2.8 and 2.9): to sign you in, restore your progress on a new device and run the groups you create or join. Legal basis: performance of the service you request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR)
- Age range: checked on your device to make sure you meet the minimum age for the online mode. Legal basis: compliance with our legal obligations regarding minors (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR) and performance of the service (Art. 6(1)(b)). Sending it to Firebase Analytics for aggregated statistics relies on our legitimate interest in understanding our audience (Art. 6(1)(f))
- Gender: aggregated statistics only. Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give by choosing an answer and can withdraw at any time by contacting us
- Analytics and crash reports (section 2.4): to fix errors and improve the App. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in keeping the App working and improving it (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR)
- Advertising (section 2.5): to fund the free version. Personalised ads in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland rely on your consent given through the consent form
We do not sell your data. We do not share your activity, health or app usage records with third parties beyond the processors listed in section 5 and the group members you choose to play with (section 2.9). We do not create advertising profiles from them.
4. Storage, Security and Retention
Your activity data is stored on your device using Android SharedPreferences for settings and a local SQLite database for statistics and history. We apply Android security best practices, including private storage modes; the overall security of that data also depends on your device’s own protection, such as your screen lock.
Your data remains on your device until you delete it, either by clearing the App’s data from your device settings or by uninstalling the App. Uninstalling removes all locally stored data, but not your account or the data stored in the cloud (sections 2.8 and 2.9). Analytics and crash data already sent to Google are retained according to the retention settings of Firebase and Google’s own policies.
Data in the cloud is protected in transit by encryption and by access rules that limit each record to the people entitled to it. Retention:
- Your account and backup record are kept until you delete your account (section 6), so that you can restore your progress after reinstalling. Signing out stops all syncing immediately
- Your weekly scores in a group are part of that group’s weekly records. If you leave a group, you stop sharing new data with it, but the weeks you already took part in keep your name, Mundi and scores for that week and remain visible to the members of those weeks. If the admin deletes a group, its members can no longer access it
- When you delete your account (section 6), we delete your Firebase account, your backup record and your part of the group weeks, and remove you from your groups
5. Third-Party Services
The App uses the following third-party services:
- Google Play Billing, for purchases and subscription verification
- Google AdMob and the Google User Messaging Platform, for advertising to free users and for the advertising consent form
- Google Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics, for usage analytics and crash reporting (section 2.4)
- Google ML Kit, running entirely on your device, for camera-based exercise detection and scanners
- Health Connect, optional and on-device, for smartwatch data
- Google Sign-In, Google Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore, only if you sign in, for your account, the backup and the online mode (sections 2.8 and 2.9)
- Google Firebase App Check with the Play Integrity API, only if you sign in, to check that requests to your account, your backup and your groups come from the genuine App installed from Google Play on a genuine device, so that nobody can read or change group data with scripts or modified apps. Google receives integrity signals about the App and the device (such as whether the App is the one distributed by Google Play and whether the device passes Android’s integrity checks) and returns a short-lived token; DontRot does not receive or store these signals
- Map providers: when the App shows a map of a run, a ride or a smartwatch workout, the map is drawn on your device with the Leaflet library, loaded from unpkg.com, and map images loaded from CARTO (basemaps.cartocdn.com). These providers receive your IP address and the map area being displayed, but not your route or any other data
The Google services above are provided by Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC, which act as our processors for Firebase and under their own terms and privacy policy for AdMob and Google Play: https://policies.google.com/privacy and https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
The App does not integrate social networks. Beyond the cloud backup and online mode described in sections 2.8 and 2.9, it does not send your activity records to any server.
6. Your Rights and Choices
Because your activity data lives on your device, you have direct control over it. You can view your statistics inside the App, delete everything stored on the phone by clearing the App’s data or uninstalling it, and manage every permission from your device settings, bearing in mind that revoking some of them limits the corresponding features.
If you use the online mode, you can change your display name and Mundi, leave any group at any time and, if you are a group’s admin, remove members or delete the group from the App.
Deleting your account. You can delete your DontRot account at any time from the App settings with the “Delete account” option. This removes you from all your groups and permanently deletes your backup record, your part of your groups’ weekly records and your sign-in account. The data stored on your phone is not affected, and you can keep using the App without an account. If you no longer have the App, email us at the address in section 10 from the email address of the Google account you used to sign in, with the subject “Delete my account”, and we will delete it within 30 days. To delete the analytics data linked to your installation, including your age range and gender, contact us at the same address. You can also remove DontRot’s access to your Google account from your Google Account settings, although that alone does not delete the data we store.
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the GDPR grants you rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability, and the right to withdraw your consent at any time without affecting processing carried out before. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority; in Spain this is the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (www.aepd.es). If you are in California, the CCPA grants you the right to know, delete and opt out of the sale of your personal information; we do not sell personal information. To exercise any of these rights regarding data processed by us, contact us at the address in section 10.
7. Children’s Privacy and Age Requirements
The App is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
The online mode, including signing in with Google, is only available to people aged 14 or older. If the age range you select is under 14, the App asks you to confirm it and then does not link your Google account or let you join groups, and no account data is stored; the rest of the App keeps working on your device as before. To keep the age check meaningful, this answer cannot be changed straight away: the App asks again after 7 days, so a genuine mistake can be corrected. If you are under the age of majority where you live, please make sure a parent or guardian is happy with you using the online mode.
If we learn that a person under 14 has created an account, or that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will delete that account and its data. If you are a parent or guardian and believe this has happened, contact us at the address in section 10 and we will delete it promptly.
8. International Data Transfers
Unless you sign in, your activity records do not leave your device, so they are not transferred internationally. If you sign in, your backup record and your group data are stored in Cloud Firestore in the European Union (section 2.8). Firebase Authentication, Firebase Analytics, Crashlytics, AdMob and Google Play may process data in the United States and other countries where Google operates. Google LLC is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, and Google also relies on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses for these transfers. The map providers listed in section 5 may also process your IP address outside your country.
9. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices or for legal or regulatory reasons. We will update the “Last Updated” date above and, for material changes, notify you inside the App. Continuing to use the App after a change means you accept the updated policy.
10. Contact Us
The controller of your personal data is Oscar Gil Bejerano, who develops and runs DontRot, with address at C/ Raval 32, Llívia, Spain.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, or want to exercise your rights, please contact us at:
Email: [email protected]: Oscar Gil Bejerano, C/ Raval 32, Llívia, Spain