legal_doc // killswitch // privacy_policy.txt
Privacy policy
Who we are
Killswitch is an independent Android application that interrupts infinite-feed scrolling in the apps you choose, while leaving comments, chats and replies working. It is not affiliated with any corporation, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any of the apps it guards.
There is no company behind it and no team: one developer, one app. For any privacy-related question, write to the address at the bottom of this page.
The short version
The rest of this document exists because Killswitch uses two powerful Android permissions and one optional one, and you deserve a precise account of what they are used for. Sections 04 and 05 are the ones that matter.
Data we collect
None. Not "anonymised", not "aggregated": none. Specifically, Killswitch does not collect, transmit, or have any means of receiving:
- Your name, email address, phone number, or any account identifier
- An advertising ID, device ID, or any other persistent identifier
- Location data, precise or coarse
- Your contacts, photos, files, or clipboard
- The contents of your screen, your messages, or anything you type
- How long you use your apps. If you allow usage access, it is read on your phone to sort one list and is never stored or sent (section 06)
- Which apps are installed on your device. Killswitch cannot even see them (section 06)
- Usage analytics, crash reports, or diagnostic logs
- Payment information. The app has no purchases of any kind
Killswitch contains no advertising network, no analytics library and no crash-reporting library. It makes no network requests. The app functions identically with your device in airplane mode, permanently.
Accessibility Service
Killswitch uses Android's AccessibilityService API. This is the only way an Android app can detect that scrolling is happening inside another app, and detecting exactly that is the app's entire function.
What the service does
- Receives scroll events (
TYPE_VIEW_SCROLLED), screen-change events (TYPE_WINDOW_STATE_CHANGED) and tap events (TYPE_VIEW_CLICKED) - Only from the apps you personally ticked on the TARGETS screen. The service narrows itself to that exact list of packages and is not woken by any other app
- Reads the structure of the visible screen to tell a feed or a short-video player apart from a comment thread or a chat: view identifiers, class names, positions on screen, and whether a text field is present or focused
- Uses taps for one purpose: to know that you tapped your way into your messages, your comments or a share sheet, so that nothing you open from there is blocked. For that it reads the short label of the button you tapped, such as "Inbox" or "Comments", compares it on the spot against a fixed list of words, and discards it. A label longer than 40 characters, such as a video title or a message, is content rather than a button and is never read
- Applies the mode you chose for each app: blocks short-video players, blocks a burst of fast feed scrolling, or blocks feed scrolling altogether. When it fires, it shows the block screen and takes you out of the feed: it opens the app's own inbox, leaves the app, or presses Back, as you choose in CONFIG. The inbox is opened by pressing the app's own messages button, exactly as your finger would, and nothing outside that app is ever pressed
What the service does not do
- It does not read your posts, your messages, your comments, or anything else people write. The only words it ever reads are the short labels of buttons you tap, as described above
- It does not log keystrokes or capture anything you type
- It does not take screenshots or record your screen
- It does not store any screen content, not even temporarily on the device
- It does not transmit anything anywhere. The service has no network access path
The structural signals in section 04 are examined in memory, in the moment, to answer a single yes/no question ("is this a feed?") and are discarded immediately. Nothing derived from them is written to disk beyond the daily counters listed in section 06.
Display over other apps
Killswitch requests the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission so it can draw the block screen on top of the app you were scrolling. That screen shows the app's name and your count for the day, and dismisses itself after about three seconds.
The overlay is used for nothing else. It does not display advertising, does not collect taps, and does not appear over any app that is not on your guarded list.
Data stored on your device
Killswitch keeps a small amount of state in its own private app storage, readable only by the app itself. In full, that is:
| Stored | Why |
|---|---|
| TARGETSPackage names you ticked | So the guard knows which apps to watch |
| MODESWhat gets blocked, overall and per app | So the guard applies the rule you chose |
| COUNTERSDaily block and scroll counts and time spent in guarded feeds, last 30 days | The STATS screen |
| BASELINEThe hours-per-day figure you entered | To measure your progress against your own number |
| SETTINGSAccent colour, sensitivity, toggles, passes used today, when you armed the guard and when you accepted this policy | So the app looks and behaves the way you set it |
That is the complete list. None of it leaves your device, none of it is backed up to any server of ours, and you can erase the counters at any time from CONFIG > DATA > RESET STATISTICS.
What the app can see of your installed apps
Almost nothing, and this is enforced by Android rather than promised by us. Killswitch does not hold the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission, so it cannot read the list of apps on your phone.
Instead it declares about thirty specific packages in its manifest (apps known to present an infinite feed) and can check only whether those are installed, in order to draw the TARGETS screen. Every other app on your device is invisible to it: the operating system reports them as not found.
Screen time, if you allow it
Usage access (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS) is optional, and only you can grant it, in Android Settings. With it, Killswitch shows next to each app on its list the average time per day you spent in it over the last week, the same figure Digital Wellbeing shows, and uses it to sort the list and to suggest which apps to guard. It is read on demand, only for the apps on Killswitch's own list, and is never written to storage or sent anywhere. Killswitch works exactly the same without it, and you can revoke it in the same settings screen at any time.
Third-party services
None. Killswitch integrates no third-party service of any kind:
- No Firebase, Google Analytics, or any other analytics provider
- No advertising network or mediation SDK
- No crash reporting (Crashlytics, Sentry, or similar)
- No sign-in provider. There is no account to sign in to
- No cloud storage or sync backend
The app is distributed through Google Play, and Google collects its own data about installs and purchases under its own privacy policy. That happens on Google's side of the transaction and we receive no personal data from it.
Your rights
European Union (GDPR)
GDPR grants you rights over personal data a controller holds about you. Killswitch holds none, so in practice these rights are satisfied by the app's design rather than by a request process, but they are stated here in full:
All stored data is visible inside the app. There is nothing held elsewhere.
Change any of it in the app at any time.
Reset statistics in CONFIG, or uninstall. Both are immediate and complete.
No data is held by us that could be ported.
Revoke any of its permissions in Android Settings whenever you like.
You may lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority.
California (CCPA / CPRA)
We do not collect, sell, or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law. There is no data to request, delete, or opt out of, and nothing to be discriminated against for.
Minimum age
The App is intended for users aged 13 and older. Because it collects no personal data from anyone, it cannot knowingly or unknowingly collect personal data from a child. Parents who wish to set up Killswitch on a younger child's device may do so; the app's behaviour is identical regardless of who uses it.
Data security and retention
Data stored by Killswitch lives in the app's private storage directory, which Android isolates from other apps, and is protected by your device's own security: screen lock and full-disk encryption. Keeping your device software up to date is the single most effective thing you can do for it.
- Counters: kept for a rolling 30 days, then discarded automatically
- Settings and targets: kept until you change them or uninstall
- Screen time: never stored, read only while the app list is being drawn
- Everything else: does not exist
There is no server-side retention period, because there is no server.
Policy changes
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, the "Last updated" date at the top of this page changes. If a future version of Killswitch ever begins collecting any data at all, that change will be described here and announced inside the app before it takes effect, not buried in a revision.
Contact
Questions, concerns, or anything about this policy you think is wrong: write directly.