Comprehensive Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and Data Safety Disclosure
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO USERS: Please read this Comprehensive Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and Data Safety Disclosure ("Agreement") carefully in its absolute entirety. This is a legally binding document that governs your use of the Note Mate mobile application, our backend services, encrypted cloud synchronization, artificial intelligence (AI) features, proprietary file formats, and all associated services (collectively, the "Services"). By downloading, installing, accessing, or utilizing Note Mate, you explicitly acknowledge that you have read, comprehensively understood, and agreed to be unequivocally bound by the extensive terms, conditions, cryptographic details, data collection practices, and usage limitations outlined below. If you do not agree with any part of this Agreement, you must immediately uninstall the application and cease all use of the Services.
This document has been deliberately drafted to be as extensive, detailed, and transparent as technically and legally possible. We believe in providing our users with a complete, exhaustive, and highly granular understanding of exactly what data is collected, the cryptographic algorithms utilized, how it is processed, where it is stored, how long it is retained, and what rights you possess under applicable global privacy laws, including but not limited to the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, and the Information Technology Act, 2000 of India.
The Note Mate application ("App") is an advanced, multi-faceted productivity, memory, reminder, document management, and artificial intelligence assistant tool. Because our App offers a wide array of highly sophisticated features—ranging from offline encrypted text notes to advanced AI document generation, location-based geofencing reminders, and strictly encrypted cloud backups—the scope of data we process can vary significantly depending on the specific features you choose to enable, configure, and use.
This Privacy Policy applies to all personal and non-personal data collected through your interaction with the Note Mate app. It explains our role as a Data Fiduciary (or Data Controller) under applicable privacy frameworks and delineates the strict boundaries of our responsibility compared to the responsibilities of third-party service providers, AI model providers, and you as the end user.
"Personal Data" refers to any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual. In the context of Note Mate, this may include your email address, display name, account identifiers, precise location data (if permitted), and the content of your notes if they contain identifiable information.
"Non-Personal Data" refers to data that cannot be used to identify you, such as aggregated analytics, generalized app performance metrics, and anonymized stack-trace crash logs.
We collect information in three primary vectors: (a) Information you explicitly provide to us, (b) Information automatically collected through your use of the App via telemetric data, and (c) Information obtained from third-party integrations.
Account and Authentication Information: To utilize cloud backup features and cross-device synchronization, you must create a verified account. Note Mate utilizes Firebase Authentication and Google Sign-In. When you authenticate, we securely collect and process your email address, full name (or display name), profile picture URL, Firebase Unique Identifier (UID), and Google OAuth access tokens. This information is strictly used to verify your identity, secure your account against unauthorized access, facilitate cloud backups to your personal Google Drive architecture, and allow for account recovery.
Notes and User-Generated Content: The core functionality of Note Mate is to securely store your data. This includes standard text notes, rich text formatting (bold, italics, highlights), organizational folders, categories, tags, sticky notes on your home screen, task lists, study flashcards, professional meeting notes, and "memories" (saved contextual snippets). We also collect the comprehensive metadata associated with these items, such as precise creation timestamps, modification dates, and categorization tags. Crucially, this data is primarily stored locally on your device's internal solid-state storage within a secure SQLite database and is never transmitted to our servers unless you explicitly engage cloud features.
Reminders and Calendar Events: If you utilize the advanced reminder system, we collect the text of the reminder, the scheduled date and time down to the exact minute, complex recurrence rules (e.g., daily, weekly, custom intervals), and completion status. If you use the calendar integration for professional meeting notes, we process event titles, attendee lists, times, locations, and meeting agendas locally to assist your workflow.
Files, Documents, and Media Attachments: Note Mate allows you to import, view, and edit a vast array of file types, including PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, CSV, and our proprietary `.links` files. We also support high-resolution image attachments, screenshot imports, and audio voice notes. When you import these files, we store the original file, generate optimized thumbnails for rapid UI rendering, extract text for deep-searchability using on-device Optical Character Recognition (OCR) via Google ML Kit, and store relevant structural document metadata.
To facilitate flawless data portability and offline backups, Note Mate utilizes a highly specialized, proprietary file format with the `.links` extension. This format is essentially a complex, structured JSON-based cryptographic container created exclusively for Note Mate.
When you export your data to a `.links` file, the app packages your raw text alongside extremely rich relational metadata. This includes exact creation timestamps, modified times, specific color tags, folder structures, and UI state data. This payload is heavily compressed into a single file, enabling flawless local backups and seamless data migration between devices without ever relying on the cloud. When importing a `.links` file, Note Mate parses this structured data to instantly rebuild your exact workspace environment.
Device and Technical Information: Whenever you use the App, we and our third-party analytics partners (e.g., Google Firebase Analytics) automatically collect technical telemetry. This includes your specific device model, hardware manufacturer, operating system version (e.g., Android 14), screen resolution and pixel density, language settings, time zone, mobile network operator, and the exact app version installed. We also collect specific deterministic identifiers such as the Firebase Installation ID and Android Advertising ID.
Usage Data and App Activity: We continuously monitor how you interact with the App to heuristically improve its design and functionality. This includes tracking which screens you visit, the specific UI buttons you tap, feature adoption rates (e.g., how often you use Professional Mate AI vs. standard notes), session durations, and in-app search query patterns. This data is rigorously aggregated and used purely for statistical analytical purposes.
Note Mate offers a highly specialized "Location Reminders" feature powered by geofencing. This feature is entirely optional and is strictly disabled by default.
If you choose to enable Location Reminders, we will request permission to access your device's precise (GPS) and approximate (network-based) location. Because a geofence must trigger even when the app is completely closed, we will also explicitly request Background Location Permission. When active, the app's background service monitors your location coordinates (latitude and longitude) and cross-references them against the geofence radius of your saved places. When you enter or exit the mathematically defined radius, the app triggers a high-priority local notification.
Data loss is catastrophic, but data breaches are worse. To prevent both, Note Mate offers a robust Cloud Backup system utilizing your personal Google Drive, backed by military-grade cryptographic standards. We do not host your backups on our own servers to ensure maximum privacy, longevity, and to adhere to a strict "Zero Knowledge" security architecture.
When you enable backups, we request access to a special, hidden cryptographic compartment of your Google Drive called the `appDataFolder`. This folder is completely invisible to you and to other applications in the standard Google Drive interface. This prevents accidental deletion of backup files by the user and mathematically isolates Note Mate's data from the rest of your cloud environment.
We do not trust cloud storage implicitly. Before a single byte of your backup leaves your device's RAM, Note Mate executes a rigorous cryptographic pipeline:
The Android operating system requires apps to request permissions to access certain device hardware and data. Note Mate requests the following permissions. By understanding these permissions in extreme detail, you can make highly informed choices about your privacy architecture.
| Permission Requested | Exhaustive Explanation of Usage |
|---|---|
| INTERNET & ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE | These are fundamental permissions required for any app that communicates with the web. We use these to check if you have an active internet connection (to prevent failed requests), to sync your massive encrypted AES-256 backups to Google Drive, to process AI payload requests via our Cloudflare proxy, to authenticate your Firebase token, and to load native advertisements via Google AdMob. |
| USE_BIOMETRIC | If you wish to lock the app or specific sensitive folders, we request this permission to interface with Android's BiometricPrompt API. This allows you to use your fingerprint or hardware face scanner. Note Mate does not access your raw biometric matrix data; the secure hardware enclave on your Android device simply tells our app "Authentication Success" or "Authentication Failure." |
| POST_NOTIFICATIONS & VIBRATE | Introduced in modern Android versions, this permission allows us to display high-priority notifications in your status bar. We use this for daily reminders, task deadlines, meeting alerts, location-based reminder triggers, and to show persistent progress bars when a multi-megabyte cloud backup is actively uploading. The vibrate permission triggers the haptic motor to ensure you don't miss critical alerts. |
| SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM | Essential for a strict productivity app. Unlike standard background tasks that Android may severely delay (Doze mode) to save battery, this permission allows Note Mate to fire a reminder at the exact millisecond you specified. Without this critical permission, a 2:00 PM meeting reminder might not ring until the OS wakes up at 2:15 PM. |
| RECORD_AUDIO | Requested only if you utilize the voice note, audio transcription, or memory capture features. This allows the app to open an audio stream from your device's microphone to record voice notes and capture memories with voice audio. These audio files are saved locally on your internal storage unless you explicitly attach them to an AI prompt or include them in an encrypted cloud backup. |
| READ_CALENDAR & WRITE_CALENDAR | Requested only when you enable the Professional Meeting Notes feature. It allows Note Mate to query the Android Calendar Provider to read your upcoming meetings to help you automatically generate prep notes. It also allows the app to write new events (with title, date/time, attendees, and agenda) directly to your Google Calendar from within the app interface. |
| ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, & ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION | As detailed in section 2.4, these are strictly used for the optional geofencing features to determine when you have physically crossed the boundary of a destination. Fine location uses GPS for pinpoint accuracy, while coarse uses cell towers. Background access is legally required by Android to trigger the geofence when the app is swiped away. |
| FOREGROUND_SERVICE & FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC | Android aggressively restricts apps from running heavily in the background. We use foreground services (which show a persistent, un-swipeable notification) to inform the OS that a critical operation is occurring—such as uploading a massive encrypted backup to Google Drive or running an active study session timer—ensuring the operating system does not kill the process prematurely. |
| READ_MEDIA_IMAGES / READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE | Required on older Android versions to open the Android file picker and Scoped Storage system, allowing you to select and add high-res photos directly into your notes and memories, import PDFs from your downloads folder, and securely save generated documents back to your public device storage. |
| RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED | When you reboot your phone, the Android system memory is wiped, meaning all scheduled alarms are deleted. This permission allows Note Mate to wake up for exactly a few seconds in the background immediately after a reboot to scan your database and re-register your upcoming reminders with the Android AlarmManager. |
| REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS | Many device manufacturers (OEMs like Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo) implement aggressive, non-standard battery-saving software that kills background apps relentlessly. We may ask you to manually ignore battery optimizations for Note Mate to ensure that your geographic geofences and exact alarms trigger with mathematical reliability. |
| SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW ("Draw over other apps") | If you enable the optional Screenshot Monitor, we use this highly privileged permission to draw a floating UI layer above all other apps on your screen, allowing you to instantly save it to Note Mate's memory vault, and display warnings or notifications about saving screenshots for memories without opening the main app. |
Note Mate integrates highly advanced Artificial Intelligence capabilities, branded as Mate AI and Professional Mate AI. Because AI processes your text externally via Massive Large Language Models (LLMs), we want to be exhaustively clear about how this data flows and tokenizes.
When you type a note, it remains securely on your device. However, if you explicitly invoke a feature to "Summarize," "Create Note," "Rewrite," "Translate," or "Generate Document" using AI, the app must securely transmit the specific text or prompt you provided to an external AI inference cluster. It is technically impossible to run massive models (requiring hundreds of gigabytes of VRAM) entirely offline on a standard mobile device. We never transmit your entire notebook or unrelated notes.
To protect your data and our proprietary API keys, your AI requests are NOT sent directly from your phone to the AI provider. Instead, they are routed through our custom, highly secure, globally distributed backend proxy hosted on Cloudflare Workers (Edge Computing).
When you trigger an AI request:
We utilize several cutting-edge AI model providers to ensure ultra-low latency and high reasoning quality. These include, but are not limited to, Groq, OpenRouter, and Pollinations AI. When our Cloudflare proxy forwards your request, these providers process your text (converting words to mathematical tokens) to generate a response via neural networks.
Artificial Intelligence is a probabilistic technology, not a deterministic database. Mate AI and Professional Mate AI mathematically predict the next most likely token based on vast training data. Because of this, AI can and will "hallucinate"—meaning it will confidently generate information that is factually incorrect, logically flawed, biased, or entirely fabricated.
You are strictly and legally forbidden from relying on Note Mate's AI for critical life decisions, legally binding contract drafting without certified lawyer review, medical diagnosis, or certified financial accounting. You, as the user, bear 100% of the liability for reading, verifying, fact-checking, and editing any output generated by Note Mate before you share it, email it, or rely upon it in a professional corporate setting.
Developing a complex modern application requires relying on specialized infrastructure. We do not sell your personal data. We only share data with the following third-party service providers to the extent absolutely necessary to operate the Services:
Retention Policy: We follow a strict principle of data minimization. Local data (notes, media) remains on your physical device until you manually delete it within the app, clear the app's cache/data via Android settings, or factory reset your device. Analytical data, crash logs, and backend rate-limiting metadata are typically retained by our service providers (like Firebase) for a limited period (e.g., 60 to 90 days) before being automatically aggregated or permanently purged.
Deleting Cloud Storage and Backups: Because Note Mate uses the Google Drive `appDataFolder` for cloud backups, you remain in complete control of your data. You can delete your cloud backups at any time directly from the Note Mate settings. Additionally, because the backup resides in your own Google account, you can revoke Note Mate's OAuth access at any time by visiting your Google Account Security settings. Once deleted, encrypted backup objects are permanently purged from Google's server infrastructure.
Complete Account Deletion Option & 15-Day Buffer: You have the absolute right to delete your Note Mate account and all associated backend data. A clear, easy-to-use "Delete Account" button is provided directly within the app's settings menu. When you request account deletion, we institute a mandatory 15-day recovery buffer. If you change your mind during this 15-day period, you can log back in and cancel the deletion process. If the 15 days expire without cancellation, the following cascade of events immediately and irreversibly occurs:
What Happens After Deletion? Please note that once the 15-day buffer expires, account deletion is a permanent, irreversible action. Once executed, it cannot be undone. We retain absolutely no master copies, shadow backups, or decryption keys for your data. Once deleted, we cannot recover your notes, tasks, or settings under any circumstances.
We are deeply committed to respecting the legal frameworks of our users, particularly focusing on strict compliance with the laws of India, where Note Mate is developed.
In accordance with the DPDP Act, we act as a "Data Fiduciary." We collect and process your personal data based on two primary grounds: (1) Your clear, affirmative consent provided when you install the app, accept this policy, and grant specific Android permissions; and (2) Certain legitimate uses necessary to provide the services you have requested.
Under the DPDP Act, you, as a "Data Principal," possess significant, enforceable rights:
We strictly comply with Section 43A of the IT Act and the associated Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011. By implementing TLS 1.3 HTTPS transit encryption, Android Keystore hardware protection, strict Firebase security rules, and AES-256-GCM client-side backup encryption, we adhere to the mandate of maintaining comprehensive, modern, and mathematically sound reasonable security practices to protect your sensitive personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.
Note Mate is a complex productivity and AI tool designed exclusively for general audiences, students, and corporate professionals. It is absolutely not intended for, nor directed at, children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 13 (or under the age of 18 in jurisdictions where explicit consent of a parent/guardian is required for AI interaction, pursuant to strict laws like the DPDP Act or COPPA). If you are a parent or guardian and believe your minor child has provided us with personal data without your verifiable consent, please contact us immediately at support.notemate@gmail.com so we can take immediate technical steps to terminate the account and purge the information from our servers.
By downloading or using Note Mate, you unequivocally agree to these Terms and Conditions. ShreyasLinks Tech ("Licensor") grants you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable, non-exclusive, revocable, and limited license to use the software provided to you as part of the Services. This license is for the sole, strict purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the Services as provided by Note Mate, in the exact manner permitted by these Terms.
You may absolutely not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of our Services or included software, nor may you reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the proprietary source code of that software (including the encryption logic and AI prompt formatting), unless laws strictly prohibit those restrictions or you have our express, legally binding written permission.
You are solely and completely responsible for your conduct and any data, text, files, information, images, graphics, photos, profiles, audio, video, `.links` configurations, and links (collectively, "Content") that you submit, post, or display on or via Note Mate.
You agree NOT to use the Services to:
YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE, UNMITIGATED RISK. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. NOTE MATE, ITS DEVELOPERS, AND AFFILIATES EXPRESSLY AND EXPLICITLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
Specifically, we make absolutely no mathematical or legal warranty that:
YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT SHREYAS LINKS AND ASSOCIATED DEVELOPERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM:
These Terms shall be strictly governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Privacy Policy, or the use of Note Mate shall be subject to the exclusive, binding jurisdiction of the competent courts located in India.
To assist our users, security researchers, and Google Play reviewers in verifying our strict compliance, we provide this plain-text representation of our Data Safety form declarations exactly as they will appear on the Google Play Store listing globally.
| Category | Data Type Collected | Purpose of Collection |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Info | Name, Email Address, User IDs | App Functionality, Account Management, Developer Communications, Fraud Prevention. |
| Location | Approximate Location, Precise Location (Background access requested) | App Functionality (Specifically and solely for Location Reminders / Geofencing). Not used for Analytics or Ads. |
| User Content | Emails/Text messages (Notes/Prompts), Photos/Videos, Audio recordings, Files/Docs | App Functionality, Backup and Restore operations, Processing Artificial Intelligence requests. |
| App Activity | App interactions, In-app search history, Other user-generated content | Analytics, App Functionality, Personalization. |
| App Info & Performance | Crash logs, Diagnostics, Other app performance data | Analytics, App Functionality, Developer Communications (fixing bugs). |
| Device or Other IDs | Device IDs, Firebase Instance IDs, Advertising Identifiers | Advertising/Marketing, Analytics, App Functionality, Fraud Prevention, Security. |
The technology landscape, particularly concerning Artificial Intelligence, cryptographic standards, and global data privacy regulations, is rapidly evolving. We reserve the absolute right to update, modify, or completely overhaul this Comprehensive Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at any time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Effective Date" date at the top of this document. Depending on the severity of the update, we may also provide a more prominent notice within the Note Mate application itself (such as a popup dialog or persistent UI banner) or send a transactional email notification to the address associated with your account.
Your continued use of the Note Mate Services after any such modifications have been published constitutes your legally binding acceptance of the updated Agreement. We strongly encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information and what your current rights and responsibilities are.