Privacy Policy for NEAR
This privacy policy explains how NEAR (Noise Exhibit Audio Recorder, “the App”) handles information. The App is an offline noise log and audio recorder for Android: it records sound with your phone’s microphone, measures approximate sound levels, and lets you add marks and export your records.
1. Summary
- The App uses the microphone only while you are recording, and keeps your recordings, sound levels, and marks on your device.
- The App has no internet permission and does not use accounts, advertising, analytics, or crash reporting.
- We do not operate servers that receive your recordings or usage data from the App. Files leave your device only when you export or share them.
- Sound levels come from the phone’s built-in microphone and are approximate. The App is not a calibrated sound level meter, and its recordings and reports are not legal advice.
2. Information processed on your device
When you start a recording, the App captures sound from the microphone, saves it as an audio file, and measures sound levels about ten times per second to draw the graph. A recording can keep running with the screen off, and Android shows a notification while it does. You can add a title, marks, labels, and comments to a recording.
On Android 10 and later, new audio files are saved by default to a shared folder on your phone (Recordings/NEAR, or Music/NEAR on Android 10 and 11), where other apps that can read audio files, such as file managers, may see them. In Settings you can instead keep audio in the App’s private storage or save it to a folder you choose with Android’s system folder picker. Sound levels, marks, titles, comments, and settings always stay in the App’s private storage.
When you export, the App creates the files you pick (WAV audio, PDF report, PNG graph, or CSV files of levels and marks, or a ZIP backup of all recordings) and saves them where you choose or passes them to the app you select in Android’s share menu. After that, the app or service you chose handles those files under its own policies.
3. What we collect
We do not collect personal information from the App. The App is built without network access, so your recordings, sound levels, and marks are never sent to us.
If you email us for support, we receive whatever you include in that message so we can reply.
4. Sharing
We do not sell or share App data with third parties, because we do not receive it. The App does not include third-party ads or analytics SDKs. Recordings and reports reach other people or services only when you export or share them yourself.
5. Permissions
Microphone: to record sound and measure its level; Android asks for your consent before the first recording. Foreground service, notifications, and wake lock: to keep a recording running with the screen off and show that it is in progress. The App does not request internet, location, contacts, or broad storage access.
6. Retention and deletion
You can delete a recording in the App at any time; this removes its levels and marks and its audio file, including a copy saved in a shared or chosen folder. Data in the App’s private storage is not included in Android backups and is deleted when you uninstall the App. Audio saved in a shared or chosen folder, and any files you exported, stay on your device until you delete them.
7. Children’s privacy
The App is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through the App.
8. Changes
We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date will change when we do.
9. Contact
Questions about this policy: privacy@wieldsome.com