🧹 Cleanse

📋 Overview

Cleanse ("the App") is a free Android utility that helps you reclaim storage space and organize your contacts. We are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data the App accesses, why, and how it is handled.

📂 Data We Access

• Storage files — The App reads file metadata (name, size, last-modified date) in your Downloads folder and app cache directories to identify junk files. It does not read file contents.
• Contacts — The App reads your device contacts to detect duplicates, incomplete entries, and formatting issues, and to export them to a vCard at your request. Contact data is never uploaded or shared.
• Photos — When you use Photo Finder or the Compressor, the App reads images from your gallery to find duplicates, blurry/low-quality shots, or to re-encode large photos. Photos are processed on-device and never uploaded.
• Installed apps — The App lists your launcher apps (for App Manager and App Lock) and reads their sizes. This list is not transmitted anywhere.
• Foreground app name (App Lock only) — When App Lock is enabled, an Accessibility service reads the package name of the app currently in the foreground so it can show the lock screen over locked apps. See the App Lock section below.
• Device statistics — Aggregate storage totals (used/free bytes), RAM, and battery stats are read via Android APIs to display gauges. These are not stored or shared.
• Advertising identifiers — The App displays ads through Google AdMob. To serve and measure ads, AdMob and its partners may access your device's advertising ID, IP address, and general device information. See the Advertising section below for details and your choices.

🔒 App Lock & Accessibility

The App Lock feature is optional and off by default. When you enable it and grant the required permissions, Cleanse uses an Accessibility service for a single purpose: to detect which app is in the foreground so it can show a PIN/fingerprint lock over the apps you chose to lock.

• The service reads only the foreground app's package name. It does not read, log, or transmit screen contents (canRetrieveWindowContent is disabled).
• Your PIN is stored on your device only as a salted PBKDF2 hash — never in plain text and never uploaded.
• Fingerprint matching is performed entirely by the Android system; Cleanse never receives your biometric data.
• The lock screen is shown as a secure overlay; it cannot be screenshotted or screen-recorded.
• None of this information leaves your device.

🚫 What Cleanse Itself Does NOT Collect

Cleanse has no backend server of its own and does not upload, store, or share the contents of your files, contacts, photos, or messages. All scanning, merging, compressing, and locking happens entirely on your device. We — the developer — do not receive, see, or sell any of your personal content.

The one exception to "stays on your device" is advertising, which is provided by a third party (Google AdMob) and is described in the next section. Aside from ads, the App's only other network use is fetching the user-interface font from Google's downloadable-fonts provider on first launch, which sends no personal data and falls back to a system font offline.

📢 Advertising & Analytics

Cleanse is free and supported by ads. The App displays banner and interstitial ads through Google AdMob. To deliver and measure these ads, AdMob and its advertising partners may collect and process certain information, including:

• your device's advertising ID (a resettable identifier) and general device information;
• your IP address and approximate (coarse) location derived from it;
• ad interaction data, such as which ads were shown and whether they were tapped.

This data is handled by Google under its own privacy policy. We do not control and do not receive this raw data ourselves; we receive only aggregate, non-identifying performance reports. To learn how Google uses data from apps that use its services, see https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

You can limit ad personalization at any time by resetting or deleting your advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads. Cleanse contains no other analytics SDKs beyond what AdMob uses to serve and measure ads.

✅ Consent (EEA, UK & Switzerland)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, Cleanse shows a consent message (via Google's certified User Messaging Platform) the first time you open the App, before any personalized ads are loaded. You can choose to accept personalized ads, or to receive only non-personalized ads.

You can change your choice at any time from Tools → Privacy & consent inside the App. Non-personalized ads still use limited data (such as coarse, IP-based location and the ad context) to function and to prevent fraud, but are not based on a profile of your interests.

🔑 Permissions Used

• READ_CONTACTS / WRITE_CONTACTS — to scan, merge, fix, and export contacts at your request.
• READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (Android ≤ 12) / MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (Android 11+) — to scan Downloads and app-cache folders for junk.
• READ_MEDIA_IMAGES — to find duplicate/low-quality photos and compress images.
• POST_NOTIFICATIONS (Android 13+) — for auto-clean, storage-alert, and duplicate-scan notifications.
• PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS (optional, "Usage access") — to show exact per-app sizes in App Manager.
• REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES — to launch the system uninstall dialog from App Manager.
• KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES — for the RAM Booster to stop background processes.
• USE_BIOMETRIC — for fingerprint unlock in App Lock.
• SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW ("Display over other apps") — to show the App Lock screen over locked apps.
• Accessibility service (BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE) — used only by App Lock to detect the foreground app's package name; it does not read screen content.
• RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED — to re-apply your scheduled auto-clean after a reboot.
• INTERNET / ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE — to download the user-interface font and to load and measure ads via Google AdMob.
• AD_ID (com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID) — allows AdMob to access the device advertising ID for ad delivery and measurement.

Special permissions (all-files access, usage access, display-over-other-apps, and the Accessibility service) are optional and only requested when you enable the feature that needs them. You can revoke any of them at any time in Android Settings.

🗑️ Data Deletion

Cleanse keeps your personal content on your device, so there is nothing for us to delete on our end. Uninstalling the App removes all App preferences stored locally on your device. To remove or reset the advertising identifier used for ads, reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads, and see Google's policy for how to manage data Google holds.

👶 Children's Privacy

Cleanse is a general-audience utility and is not directed at children under 13. The App displays ads via Google AdMob, which uses an advertising identifier; because of this, the App is not intended for children and should not be the primary tool of a child user. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has used the App, reset the device advertising ID as described above.

🔄 Changes to This Policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published on this page and noted in the Play Store listing. Continued use of the App after any update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

✉️ Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact us through the Play Store developer page.