Curtilage

Privacy policy

Pulse privacy policy

How Pulse handles your information.

Last updated:

Summary

  • Pulse is a small demonstration app. It watches the health of the phone it runs on: free storage, memory, battery level and how hot the phone is running. It shows the results on one screen.
  • The app has internet permission for one purpose: to check whether one fixed test web address (example.com) answers. It sends no data of yours in that check, and we do not receive anything from it.
  • We do not run analytics on this app. A short log of which buttons you tap stays in a file on your phone.
  • The optional "explain this" button hands a cleaned-up health summary to the BrainTrust app on the same phone, and only when you tap it.

What the app collects

Pulse reads, on your phone:

  • Storage. Free and used space on the app's own storage and on the phone's internal storage. It keeps a rolling history of these numbers so it can estimate how many days are left before the storage fills up.
  • Memory. How much memory the phone has available.
  • Battery and temperature. The battery level, whether the phone is charging, and the phone's own "thermal status" (how much it is slowing down because it is warm). Android provides these without a permission.
  • Whether a test web address answers. See "Where it goes".
  • Usage events. When you open the health screen, tap refresh, expand a check or tap the "explain" button, the app writes the event name, the time and the overall health status (or the kind of check you expanded) to a file on your phone.

It does not read your contacts, messages, photos, location, files or accounts.

Where it goes

On your phone

  • The storage history and the usage-event log are two files in the app's private storage. The usage log is cleared when it passes 512 KB (kilobytes).
  • Android Auto Backup and device-to-device transfer are turned off for this app, so these files are not copied to a cloud backup or to a new phone.
  • The app does not add its own encryption to these files. They are protected by Android's normal app sandbox and your phone's own storage encryption, if your phone uses it.

A fixed test address

  • Every 15 seconds while the Pulse screen is open, and about every 15 minutes in the background (when the battery is not low), the app opens a connection to https://example.com/ and checks only whether it answers. The request carries nothing from the app beyond what any web request carries: your phone's internet (IP) address and standard connection details. example.com is a placeholder address reserved for examples and is not run by us. We do not receive the result; it is shown only on your screen.

Our own server

  • None. The app does not connect to any server of ours.

A third-party service you choose

  • None directly. If you tap the "explain" button without BrainTrust installed, Android's share menu opens and you choose where the summary goes. If you connect BrainTrust to an AI service, BrainTrust may send what Pulse hands it to that service. See "Sharing with other Curtilage apps" and BrainTrust's own privacy policy.

Permissions and why

  • Internet
    • Why the app asks: To check whether the test web address answers
    • When: Every 15 seconds while the screen is open, and about every 15 minutes in the background
  • Network state (view)
    • Why the app asks: Used by Android's background-task scheduler, which the app uses for its background check
    • When: Granted at install
  • Run at startup, keep awake, foreground service
    • Why the app asks: Used by Android's background-task scheduler so the background check keeps running after a restart
    • When: Granted at install

None of these show a prompt. The app asks for no permission that Android shows a prompt for.

Analytics

We do not run analytics on this app, and the app does not send usage data to us or to anyone else. It keeps the short usage log described above in a file on your phone. It is deleted when you uninstall the app.

The app has no crash-reporting service of its own.

Sharing with other Curtilage apps

BrainTrust (our AI assistant app). Pulse can hand a health summary to BrainTrust, only when you tap the button that asks for an explanation of the health report.

  • What is sent: a fixed instruction asking for a short plain-language explanation, the app's name, the overall health status, and for each check its name, its status (for example "OK" or "Critical"), its numbers (such as percent free or battery level), the estimated days of storage left, and a short note. Before anything is sent, the app removes web addresses, file paths, network addresses, host names and technical error detail from the notes, and shortens each note to 160 characters.
  • How it is sent: through Android's share mechanism. If BrainTrust is installed, the summary goes straight to it. If it is not, Android's share menu opens and you choose where it goes, or cancel.
  • Pulse does not receive BrainTrust's answer. The answer appears inside BrainTrust.

What BrainTrust does with this, including whether it uses an AI model on your phone or one you connect it to, is described in BrainTrust's own privacy policy.

Your choices

  • Export: The app has no export feature. The summary you can share through the "explain" button is the only data that leaves the app.
  • Delete: Uninstalling the app removes its storage history and usage log. Clearing the app's storage in Android's settings does the same without uninstalling.
  • Turn off: The test-address check and the background check run whenever the app is installed; the app has no setting to turn them off. You can stop them by uninstalling the app, or limit background activity in Android's battery settings.

Children

Pulse is not designed for or directed at children. It does not ask for anyone's age, and we do not receive any information from it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version on this page and update the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about this policy: https://curtilage.zone/contact