ShubhKaal app
Privacy policy
For the ShubhKaal Android app. The store has its own store privacy notice.
Last updated: 1 September 2026
The short version
There is no account, no analytics and no advertising in this app. What you enter about yourself and your family is stored in the app's private storage on your device, and the calculations are done there.
This version makes network requests for exactly two purposes: checking a licence code, and loading map tiles while the optional map picker is open. Each is listed in its own section below — The licence check and The map — and each list is short. Nothing else in the app makes a network request.
The compass on the Vastu screen is the phone's own direction sensors, read and drawn on the device — see Sensors below.
What the app stores, and where
Everything you enter stays in the app's private storage on your device:
| Data | Why | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Your name, birth date, birth time, birth place | To compute your kundali, dasha and daily reading | Your device only |
| Family members' details | Same, for each person you add | Your device only |
| Photos you attach to a profile | To show on the family cards | Your device only |
| Gender | Ashtakoot's Varna and Vashya kootas are read groom-to-bride | Your device only |
| Marital status | Decides which guidance is worth showing; no calculation uses it | Your device only |
| Date of passing (for a departed family member) | To compute the annual shraddha tithi | Your device only |
| Your chosen city, language, theme, japa count | App settings | Your device only |
| A place you pick on the map | Saved as a custom place so panchang times can be computed for it | Your device only (loading the map itself is described under The map) |
| Your phone number | Asked for at registration; sent with a licence code if you redeem one | Your device, and the licence record if you redeem a code |
Only the last row ever leaves the device, and only if you redeem a code.
Permissions
- Photos / media — only when you choose a photo for a profile. The picker returns one image; the app never scans your library.
- Notifications — only if you enable reminders. Scheduled locally.
- Location (coarse / fine) — optional, and only when you use "use my location" in the city picker to find your nearest city. The coordinates are read and matched to a city on the device; they are not part of the licence check, and the app has no other upload.
- Internet — used for the licence check and for map tiles, each described below.
The map
The city picker has an optional "pick on map" screen. Its map imagery comes from OpenStreetMap's public tile servers, so while that screen is open the app requests the tiles for the area you are viewing. Like any web request, a tile request carries your IP address and, by which tiles are asked for, the area of the map you are looking at — that is how map loading works everywhere. It happens only while the map screen is open, there is no account or identifier attached by the app, and the place you finally pick is saved on your device only. OpenStreetMap's own handling of requests is described in the OSMF privacy policy.
Sensors — the compass
The Vastu screen's compass reads the phone's magnetometer and accelerometer to work out which way you are facing, entirely on the device — direction is a sensor fact, and no permission is needed for it on Android. The readings drive the dial on screen and nothing else: they are not stored, and they are not among the items the licence check sends (that list is below, and it is complete). The sensors run only while the Vastu section is on screen. On devices without these sensors the screen says so and offers a manual dial instead.
Every release build is checked against a declared permission list by scripts/verify_release.sh; a permission outside that list fails the build.
The licence check
When you tap Redeem on a licence code, the app sends to the publisher's licence endpoint:
- the code you typed,
- an installation id — a random string generated on your device when the app first runs. It is not a device serial, not an advertising id, and is not derived from your phone or from anything about you. It identifies the installation, which is what a code is tied to,
- your phone number, if your profile has one.
After a code has been redeemed, each launch sends the installation id alone to ask whether the licence is still valid.
That is the whole list. No birth details, no family details, no photos, no location and no usage data are sent at any point.
These records are held in a Google Sheet in the publisher's own Google account. They exist to stop one code being used on many devices, and to keep a record of who holds a licence. They are not sold, and they are not used for advertising.
What "Delete my data" does to that record. Everything on your device is erased. The licence record is closed rather than erased: it is marked deleted, with the date and the reason, a copy is moved to an archive, and the code it was redeemed with is marked spent. Your licence ends immediately. The record is kept for one reason only — so the same code cannot be handed to someone else, and so there is proof of what was issued if a payment is ever disputed. It holds nothing beyond the three items listed above: the code, the installation id, and the phone number if your profile had one. It contains no birth details, no family details and no photos, because those never left your device.
Premium ends with the deletion. Anything already paid is not refundable and turning premium back on later means buying it again — the app says so on screen before you confirm.
To have a licence record closed without using the app, write to bytebloom.connect@gmail.com from the number or address it was issued to.
Sensitive data
Birth details and a date of passing are personal. This version does not send them anywhere — the licence check sends only the three items listed above — and Profile → Delete my data erases every profile, family member, photo and setting on the device immediately and irreversibly.
Backups
Android's own backup is enabled so an app update or a new phone does not lose your family's details. That backup is handled by Android and governed by Google's device-backup terms; we never see it. You can turn it off in your device's backup settings.
Payments
During the current launch period everything in the app is free — every feature is open for everyone, and the prices shown in the app are intended future prices, not offers.
This version takes no payments. There is no billing integration and no payment screen: the app has no way to ask for or receive card, UPI or bank details. Licence codes are issued by the publisher outside the app. If paid plans are switched on later, this policy will be updated before they are.
Children
The app is for general audiences. Guidance for a child profile is education-focused. Nothing about a family member you add — of any age — is sent off the device.
Changes
Any change to this policy will be published here and, if it is material, shown in the app before it takes effect. Since the app collects nothing, any future change that added collection would be opt-in.
Contact
bytebloom.connect@gmail.com