Privacy Policy

Cursed Screen — Last updated: July 25, 2026

1. Information Collection

Cursed Screen does not collect any personally identifying information. The app does not require account creation, does not ask for your phone number or any identifying details, and does not access your contacts, photos, messages, browsing history, microphone, camera, or location. The one exception is an optional email address used solely to reset a forgotten Child Lock PIN — see Section 4.

During setup, the app may ask for your first name to personalize the on-screen messages. Providing it is optional. The name stays on your device in memory only — it is never saved, never transmitted, and not linked to any identifier. Our analytics record only whether a name was entered, never the name itself.

The app does send anonymous usage analytics and crash diagnostics to Firebase — see Sections 2 and 6.

2. Analytics and Crash Reporting

Cursed Screen uses Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics (both Google services) to collect anonymous diagnostic data that helps us understand how the product is used and fix bugs.

What's collected:

• App events (which screens you view, when you change modes or themes, when permissions are granted, when the overlay is active, when a purchase happens).
• Stack traces and technical state when the app crashes or detects a malfunction.
• App settings (mode, theme, tracking basis, grace period).
• Daily screen-time totals as measured by the app: your overall daily screen-on time, the combined daily time spent in the apps on your Cursed List (always as a single group total — never per-app times and never app names), the number of apps on your Cursed List, and the baseline and "time saved" figures the app derives from these totals.
• Device model, Android version, app version, locale.
• A random per-install identifier (Firebase "app instance ID") that's not linked to your name, email, or any account.

What's not collected by analytics: nudge text content, the names of the apps on your Cursed List, per-app usage times, your screen content, or any personally identifying information.

3. Permissions Used

The app requests the following Android permissions to function:

• Usage Access (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS) — Used to detect which app is currently in the foreground (so the overlay appears only while you are in an app on your Cursed List, and stays hidden during phone calls) and to measure your daily screen time. The names of specific apps you use are not sent off-device; only daily time totals — your overall screen-on time and the combined total for your Cursed List as a group — are included in the analytics described in Section 2.
• Accessibility Service — Used to display the reminder overlay reliably over your other apps and, when a rule you have set locks an app, to send you back to your home screen. The accessibility service does not read the contents of your screen, does not monitor keystrokes or passwords, and does not collect or transmit any data of its own.
• Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS) — Used to display a persistent notification while the background service is running (Android requires this to keep the service alive), to remind you about your free-trial status, and occasionally to invite you to rate the app. These come from the app itself; we do not send third-party or advertising notifications. The rating invitation uses its own notification channel, so you can turn it off on its own without affecting the others.
• Foreground Service — Used to keep the screen-time tracker running reliably in the background.
• Ignore Battery Optimizations (REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS) — The app may ask you to exempt it from battery optimization so Android does not shut down the reminder service in the background. Granting it is optional and involves no data collection.
• Receive Boot Completed — Used to restart the tracking service after device reboot so tracking remains continuous.
• Billing — Used to process in-app purchases and subscriptions through Google Play.

No permission is used to access contacts, camera, microphone, location, files, or any other sensitive data.

4. Child Lock and Recovery Email

Child Lock lets you hand your phone to a child with a timer and a list of apps they are allowed to open.

We collect no information about your child. Nothing your child does is sent to us. The timer, the list of allowed apps, and the record of time used all stay on your phone, and are excluded from cloud backup and from device-to-device transfer.

Your Child Lock PIN is stored on your phone in scrambled (hashed) form. It is never sent to us, and we cannot read or recover it.

Recovery email. If you forget your PIN, we can email you a code to set a new one. You may either save an address in advance from the Child Lock menu, or type one at the moment you ask for a reset. Both are optional — Child Lock works without either.

• What we do with it: we store the address on our servers only to send you the code, to limit how often codes can be sent to the same address, and to email you if your Child Lock PIN is changed — so you have a record outside the phone.
• How long we keep it: we delete it within 24 hours. Reset codes stop working after 15 minutes, so there is no reason to keep anything longer. The PIN-change notice stores only a scrambled form of the address, never the address itself.
• Who else sees it: the address passes through two infrastructure providers — Google Firebase, which runs our servers, and Brevo, which delivers the email. Neither uses it for any other purpose. We do not sell or share it, and we never advertise to it.

5. Data Storage

App settings and on-device state are stored locally using Android's SharedPreferences. This includes:

• Daily screen-time history as measured by the app.
• User preferences and settings (theme, mode, grace period, etc.).
• Cursed List — the list of apps you have chosen to curse. The names of the apps on your list stay on your device and are never transmitted off-device.
• Onboarding and warning acknowledgment flags.

The anonymous analytics and crash data described in Section 2 are processed by Google Firebase. Uninstalling the app permanently deletes all on-device data.

6. Third-Party Services

Cursed Screen uses the following third-party services:

• Google Play Billing — Processes in-app purchases and auto-renewing subscriptions (monthly and annual). Subscriptions renew automatically at the price shown until you cancel them in Google Play; you can manage or cancel anytime from your Google Play account. Billing is handled entirely by Google Play and subject to Google's Privacy Policy.
• Firebase Analytics — Collects anonymous product analytics as described in Section 2. Subject to Firebase's Privacy and Security policy.
• Firebase Crashlytics — Collects anonymous crash and diagnostic reports as described in Section 2. Subject to the same Firebase policy.
• Firebase (Cloud Functions and Firestore) — Runs the servers that generate and check Child Lock PIN reset codes, and briefly stores the recovery email address described in Section 4.
• Brevo — Delivers the Child Lock PIN emails described in Section 4. Brevo receives the address only to deliver that message. Subject to Brevo’s Privacy Policy.

The app does not integrate any advertising networks, third-party data brokers, or non-Google trackers.

7. Children’s Privacy

Cursed Screen is not directed at children under the age of 13, and the app does not knowingly collect any data from anyone we know to be under 13.

Child Lock is a tool for a parent or guardian, set up and unlocked by them on their own phone. It collects nothing whatsoever about the child: no name, no account, no usage data, nothing transmitted. Everything it records stays on the device.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected on this page with an updated revision date. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

9. Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the app, please contact us at:

zenlifedesigners@gmail.com