Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Sworn is developed and published by Adiram ("Adiram," "we," "us," or "our"), an independent software studio based in India. This policy applies to the Sworn Android app and any related services we operate (together, the "Service").

Sworn helps you monitor your own phone usage and, if you choose, set a daily limit and share your progress with a trusted "accountability partner" — a friend, family member, or peer you invite, not an administrator who controls your device. Sworn is not a parental-control app: it cannot be installed on someone else's device without their knowledge, and its restriction features only ever apply to the account that set them up.

2. Information we collect

We collect only what Sworn's features actually need to work. Specifically:

2.1 Account information

• Email address and password (if you sign up with email), handled by Firebase Authentication — we never see or store your raw password.
• Your display name. If you sign in with Google, Firebase Authentication also holds the profile photo Google provides; we do not copy it into our database or use it anywhere in the app.
• A permanent, unique Sworn ID we generate for your account, used so a partner can find and invite you.

Your device timezone is not sent to us. Reports and streaks are calculated on your device, in your device's own local day.

Sworn also works without an account. If you use it purely as a usage monitor without signing up, the data below stays on your device and is never sent to our servers.

2.2 Screen-time / usage data

• Daily total minutes of phone use, and per-app minutes for apps you have installed, read from Android's built-in UsageStatsManager — the same on-device data source Digital Wellbeing uses.
• We only ever collect daily aggregate minutes per app. We do not collect keystrokes, screen content, screenshots, browsing history, messages, or anything an Accessibility Service could see — Sworn does not use Android's Accessibility APIs at all.
• If you're signed in and subscribed to Premium, this daily aggregate syncs to our servers once a night so your history and streaks survive a reinstall or a new phone. On the free tier — and when you're not signed in at all — it never leaves your device.
• When that sync happens, we also store a device identifier (Android's Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID) and your device model (e.g. "Pixel 8 Pro"). Usage is recorded per device and never pooled, so that a phone's history describes that phone; the model is stored so a device is recognisable to you rather than being a meaningless id.

2.3 Goals, limits & commitment data

• Any daily time limit you set for an app or your overall phone use, and the optional "commitment window" you choose (e.g. 2 hours, until 8 PM), together with the history of changes you've made to those limits.
• Your device holds the authoritative copy. If you are signed in — on any tier, free or Premium — a single backup copy is also kept on our servers, so that reinstalling the app or moving to a new phone doesn't silently erase every commitment you're under. It is restored only when a device has no local goals at all, and it is never shown to your partner.
• If you use Sworn without an account, none of this leaves your device, and it is lost if you uninstall the app or clear its data.

2.4 Accountability partner & pairing data

• If you invite or accept a partner: your display name, and the pairing between your account and theirs.
• Requests you send each other (e.g. to raise a limit or get more time) — these include the app involved and the current/requested limit — along with the approve/deny outcome.
• Optional — "Share good weeks." Off unless you turn it on in Settings, and only offered once you have a partner. When enabled, if you stay under every one of your limits for a full week, your partner is sent a single notification saying so. That is all that is shared: no minutes, no app names, no day counts, and nothing at all on the weeks you don't manage it. You can switch it off at any time.
• Apart from that optional weekly message, your partner does not get an ongoing feed of your daily usage totals or day counts — they only see what's above (the pairing itself, and the specific numbers in a request when you send one) plus tamper-detection events (§2.5) if protection is turned off. They never see your raw app-by-app browsing, messages, or device content.

2.5 Protection / tamper-detection events

• If you turn on Sworn's optional Device Admin–based protection, we record when protection is disabled or a monitored permission is revoked (e.g. "protection turned off at 8:42 PM"), so this can be shown on your dashboard and, if you have a partner, sent to them.
• This is a detection mechanism only — Sworn does not and cannot block you from disabling protection or uninstalling the app.

2.6 Notifications

• A push-notification token (via Firebase Cloud Messaging) used to deliver partner requests, their approve/deny responses, and tamper alerts to your device.
• Your usage report notifications are generated entirely on your device and are never sent through our servers. No summary or digest of your usage is stored on or transmitted from our servers, and the cadence you choose (daily/weekly/monthly/off) is stored only on your device.
• The "time's up" block screen when you hit a goal is triggered locally on your device (it does not go through our servers or a push notification).

2.7 Subscription & billing data

• If you purchase Sworn Premium, Google Play Billing handles your payment details directly — we never receive or store your card number. We receive a purchase token, which we verify with Google's Play Developer API to activate your subscription, plus your subscription tier, status, and renewal date.

2.8 Diagnostic and product-usage data

• Release builds of Sworn include Firebase Crashlytics. When the app crashes or hits an unexpected error, it sends a crash trace along with your device model, operating-system version, and a Crashlytics install identifier. This is used only to diagnose and fix faults.
• Crashlytics is disabled entirely in debug builds, is never used for advertising, and is not linked to any advertising identifier.
• We do not use a product-analytics SDK. We do not track which screens you visit or which features you use.

What we do not do

• We do not use Android Accessibility Services to read screen content.
• We do not sell your personal information to anyone.
• We do not show ads or share your data with ad networks or data brokers.
• We do not access your contacts, messages, photos, microphone, or camera.

3. Special permissions we request, and why

Sworn asks for a small number of Android permissions that Google classifies as "special" or "sensitive" because of how powerful they are. Here's exactly what each one is for:

Every one of these is a Google-defined "special access" permission with no in-app runtime popup — Sworn sends you to the relevant Android Settings screen to grant it, and never tries to enable it silently or without your action.

4. How we use your information

• To provide Sworn's core functionality: tracking your screen time, evaluating it against any goal you've set, and showing you your history and streaks.
• To operate the accountability-partner features: pairing, routing approval requests between you and your partner, and notifying your partner of tamper-detection events.
• To send the notifications described above, matched to the preferences you set in the app.
• To process and verify Premium subscription purchases.
• To maintain the security, integrity, and reliability of the Service — e.g. detecting abuse of our backend and rate-limiting.
• To respond to support requests you send us.
• To comply with legal obligations.

5. Legal bases for processing (EEA/UK users)

If you're in the European Economic Area or the UK, we process your information under these legal bases:

• Contract — processing needed to provide the Sworn account and features you've asked for.
• Consent — for optional features you actively turn on, such as pairing with a partner or enabling Device Admin protection; you can withdraw consent at any time by turning the feature off.
• Legitimate interests — for keeping the Service secure and improving the product, balanced against your rights.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information to comply with the law.

6. How we share information

We share information only in these limited circumstances:

• Your accountability partner — your display name, tamper-detection events, and the specific app/limit details of any request you send them, only after you and they have both accepted the pairing. Plus, only if you switch it on, a weekly "they stayed under every limit" message (see §2.4). This does not include an ongoing feed of your daily usage totals or day counts. Either side can unpair at any time, which stops any further sharing.
• Service providers — we use Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging, and Crashlytics for crash diagnostics) as our backend infrastructure, and Google Play Billing for subscriptions. These providers process data on our behalf under their own data-processing agreements and do not use it for their own purposes.
• Legal reasons — if required to comply with a legal obligation, enforce our terms, or protect the rights, safety, or property of Adiram, our users, or the public.
• Business transfers — if Adiram is involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy (or a policy at least as protective).

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising or marketing purposes.

7. Data retention

• Daily usage history synced to our servers is kept for roughly 33 days and then deleted automatically. Each day's record carries its own expiry date and the database removes it when that date passes — this is not dependent on a cleanup task running.
• Account, pairing, goal-backup and subscription records are kept for as long as your account is active.
• If you delete your account, we delete your personal data — profile, Sworn ID, goal backup, usage history, approval requests and tamper events — as part of the deletion itself, not on a later schedule. Your Sworn ID is released for reuse, and any Premium purchase claim is released so you are not locked out of repurchasing. Where a pairing record must survive so your former partner can be told you've left, your name is replaced in it. We may retain limited billing records where legally required for accounting purposes.
• If you never created an account, your usage data lives only on your device and is deleted whenever you clear the app's data or uninstall it.

8. How we protect your information

• All traffic between the app and our backend is encrypted in transit (TLS).
• Our database access rules deny all access by default and only allow you (or, for the specific fields described in §2.4–2.5, your paired partner) to read or write your own data.
• Approval requests expire on our servers, not on your phone, and a request that has expired or been withdrawn can no longer be answered — the database itself refuses the write.
• Subscription purchases are checked against Google's servers before Premium is activated where that check is available; if it can't complete, we fall back to the purchase state reported by Google Play Billing on your device rather than blocking a legitimate purchase.

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your information using industry-standard practices appropriate to what we collect.

9. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate data (e.g. your display name).
• Delete your account and associated data.
• Export your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent for optional features (partner pairing, Device Admin protection, notifications) at any time by turning them off in the app or your device Settings.
• Object to or restrict certain processing, where applicable law provides that right.
• Opt out of any particular Usage Access, overlay, or Device Admin permission at any time via Android Settings — Sworn simply degrades to a reduced feature set rather than breaking.

You can exercise most of these directly in the app. Account and data deletion is built in: Settings → Delete account removes your account and the data described in §7 without needing to contact us. If you've already uninstalled Sworn or can't sign in, you can still request deletion here. Signing out, unpairing, and revoking any permission are likewise available in the app or in Android Settings. For anything else, contact us at the address below and we'll act on your request within a reasonable time, consistent with applicable law.

California residents: we do not sell or "share" (as defined under the CCPA/CPRA) your personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of in that respect. You still have the access, deletion, and correction rights described above.

10. Children's privacy

Sworn is a peer-accountability tool between people who both consent to sharing usage data with each other — it is not designed or marketed as a parental-control or child-monitoring app, and it is not part of Google Play's Families program. Sworn is intended for adults aged 18 and over, and is declared to Google Play with that target audience. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

11. International data transfers

Adiram is based in India, and we use Google Firebase / Google Cloud infrastructure to operate Sworn. Depending on Google's infrastructure configuration for our project, your information may be processed or stored in countries other than your own, including India and other countries where Google operates data centers. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) to protect information transferred internationally.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example as we add new features or to reflect changes in law. If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

13. Grievance officer (India)

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000, its associated rules, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, complaints about Sworn — or about how we handle your personal data — can be raised with our Grievance Officer:

Grievance Officer
Adiram, India
Email: sworncustomersupport@adiram.net

14. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your information, contact us at:

Adiram, India
Email: sworncustomersupport@adiram.net