Privacy Policy - My Secretary

Last updated: March 2026 (updated for AdMob advertising disclosure)

Overview

My Secretary is a local-first, offline-first personal organiser. Your privacy is the foundation of how it is built.

No account required. You never need to sign up or log in.
Your notes stay on your device. All notes, tasks, and settings are stored in a local SQLite database on your phone and are never transmitted to our servers.
Advertising. The app displays interstitial ads served by Google AdMob. AdMob may collect a device advertising identifier for ad delivery. See Section 4 for details.
No analytics. We do not use analytics or crash-reporting services.
No personal data collected by us. We do not collect, process, or store any personal information on external servers.

1. What Data the App Stores

All data is stored exclusively on your device in a local SQLite database. This includes:

Note text, tags, due dates, and priority settings
App settings and preferences stored via Android SharedPreferences
Recurring event schedules such as birthdays and monthly bills

This data is accessible only to you and to the app itself. It is not transmitted to the developer or any third party under normal operation.

2. Device Permissions Requested and Why

Permission	Why It Is Needed
`RECORD_AUDIO`	Voice dictation lets you speak notes instead of typing. Audio is processed by your device's speech engine and is never sent to our servers.
`POST_NOTIFICATIONS`	Shows reminders and due-date alerts.
`SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM`	Schedules notifications at the precise time you set.
`WAKE_LOCK` / `VIBRATE`	Allows notifications to wake the screen and vibrate when delivered.
`RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED`	Reschedules alarms automatically after a device restart.
`INTERNET`	Required for Google AdMob to fetch and display interstitial ads.

Permissions that require user consent are requested at runtime. If you deny a permission, the corresponding feature will be unavailable, but the rest of the app will continue to function.

3. Voice Input and Speech Recognition

When you use the voice dictation feature:

Audio is captured by your device's microphone and processed by the Android speech recognition service provided by Google or your device manufacturer.
Audio may be sent to the speech provider's servers depending on your device configuration. That processing is governed by the provider's privacy policy, not ours.
My Secretary receives only the resulting text transcript. No audio is stored by the app.

You can disable voice input at any time by revoking the RECORD_AUDIO permission in Android Settings.

4. Advertising - Google AdMob

My Secretary displays interstitial full-screen ads served by Google AdMob, a service provided by Google LLC.

What AdMob may collect:

Android Advertising ID
Approximate location derived from IP address
Interaction events with the ad

How it works:

Ads are fetched over an internet connection when the app decides to show one.
My Secretary does not share your note content, voice recordings, or personal data with AdMob.
Ad frequency is capped at at most one interstitial per 24 hours.
AdMob's data use is governed by Google's Privacy Policy.

Your choices:

You can reset or opt out of ad personalisation via Android Settings - Privacy - Ads.
The INTERNET permission is required for ads to load. Revoking it prevents ads from appearing, but the rest of the app continues to work.

5. Export, Backup, and Sharing

The app includes a backup/export feature and a share feature.

Backup to Phone: creates an AES-256-GCM encrypted JSON file in your device's Downloads folder. The file is protected by a password you choose, with the key derived using PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 with 100,000 iterations.
Export Backup: shares the most recently created backup file via Android's share sheet so you can send it to Google Drive, email, or another app for safekeeping.
Restore from Backup: imports and decrypts a previously created backup file, replacing all current notes. Your backup password is required to restore.
Sharing individual notes: uses Android's standard share sheet. What happens to shared content is governed by the receiving app's own privacy policy.

We do not receive copies of exported, backed-up, or shared data. The backup file is entirely under your control. If you lose or forget your backup password, the data in that backup cannot be recovered.

Important: All your notes exist only on your device. Always create and store an encrypted backup before switching phones, performing a factory reset, or uninstalling the app.

6. On-Device Auto-Classification

My Secretary uses a rule-based on-device system to automatically classify your notes by type and life area.

It runs entirely on your device.
It does not send note content to any external server.
It does not require internet access.

No cloud AI or external language model is currently used. Any AI features added in future will be clearly disclosed in an updated privacy policy.

7. Children's Privacy

My Secretary is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal data, please contact us so we can address the situation.

8. Data Retention and Deletion

We do not hold your data. All data is stored on your device and you are in full control.

Delete individual notes from within the app at any time.
Clear all data by uninstalling the app. Android removes associated files and databases.
Export before uninstall if you wish to keep a copy.

9. Security

Database encryption: Your notes are stored in a SQLite database encrypted end-to-end using AES-256 via SQLCipher. The encryption key is generated per device and stored in the Android Keystore. Your note content is never stored in plaintext on disk.

Backup encryption: Exported backup files are protected by AES-256-GCM encryption using a password you choose, with the key derived via PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 with 100,000 iterations.

Passwords and credentials stored in the app: My Secretary includes a dedicated Passwords section in the Reference shelf. Any credentials stored there benefit from the same database encryption described above. However:

Encryption protects data at rest on your device. Once your device is unlocked, a rooted device with sufficient access could still expose app storage.
You remain responsible for your device lock screen security and for keeping your backup password safe and separate from the app.
My Secretary is a personal organiser, not a dedicated password manager. If you need advanced password management features, consider a dedicated password manager alongside this app.

Key principle: We cannot access your data. No note content, backup file, or encryption key is ever transmitted to the developer or any third party.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be published on the app's Google Play Store listing. Continued use of the app after the update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Your Rights

Depending on your country of residence, you may have rights regarding your personal data under applicable privacy law such as GDPR, UK GDPR, or CCPA. Since My Secretary does not collect or process your personal data on our servers, most of these rights are exercised directly on your device by you.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact us via the support email on the Google Play Store listing.

12. Contact

For privacy-related enquiries, please contact the developer via the support email address listed on the Google Play Store page for My Secretary.