Why our apps keep your data on your phone

Kinvale, Nivasa and Shubhavela have no sign-up screen. What you enter stays in the app's private storage on your phone, and we run no server that receives it. This was a decision, and like every decision it has costs as well as benefits.

What "on your phone" means

Most apps store your information on the company's computers and show it to you through the app. Ours store it on the device. When you add a relative to your family tree or record what you spent on groceries, that entry is written to storage that only the app can read. It is not copied to us. We cannot see it, analyse it, lose it in a breach or hand it to anyone, because we never have it.

Why we chose this

The information is personal. A family tree holds names, dates of birth and relationships for dozens of people, most of whom never agreed to be in anybody's database. A household ledger shows income, debts and habits. The safest way to look after data like that is not to collect it.

It works without a signal. An app that keeps its data locally opens instantly and works on a train, in a village or in a basement shop.

It keeps working. Apps that depend on a server stop when the company switches the server off. An app whose data lives on your phone keeps working for as long as the phone does.

It keeps the apps simple. No passwords to forget, no email to verify, nothing to set up before the first use.

What it costs

We would rather be straightforward about the trade-offs.

• If you lose the phone without a backup, the data is gone. There is no "forgot password" link, because there is no copy on our side to restore.
• There is no automatic sync between devices. Moving to a new phone means making a backup on the old one and restoring it on the new one.
• We cannot fix your data for you. If something goes wrong on your device, we can advise, but we cannot reach in.

Backups are your job, so make them easy

Because we hold no copy, the backup is the safety net. A reasonable routine:

1. Make a backup file from the app once you have entered a meaningful amount of data.
2. Keep it somewhere other than the phone: your own cloud drive, your email, or a computer.
3. Repeat regularly. Where an app offers automatic backups to a folder you choose, turn them on.
4. Before changing phones, make a fresh backup and confirm it restores on the new device before you wipe the old one.

Treat backup files with the same care as the data inside them. If an app lets you protect the backup with a password, use one and remember it; nobody can recover it for you.

What about the ads?

The free apps show ads through Google AdMob, and that is the one place where some information does leave the device. To serve and measure ads, Google's advertising software collects things such as the device's advertising ID and approximate location from the IP address. It does not receive what you type into the app: your family tree and your expense entries are not shared with advertisers. Shubhavela also downloads new greeting packs about once a week, which sends no personal data. Each app's privacy policy lists exactly what is collected, and you can reset or delete the advertising ID in Android's settings.

The app we built for a client, Airyluxe, is different by nature. It is an ordering and appointments service for a store, so it has accounts and keeps orders online. Its own privacy policy describes that.

Lock the door as well

Data on your phone is only as private as the phone. Use a screen lock, and turn on the app lock in apps that offer one, so that handing your phone to someone to look at a photo does not also hand over your accounts or your family's details.