Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how PELLICULE (“we/us”) handles user information in the app “Phone Guardian” (Japanese title: スマホの番人; the “App”).

Our basic policy

How the VPN feature is used

To block ads and scam or fake-alert sites, the App uses Android’s official VPN mechanism entirely inside your device.

• The VPN feature is used only to check, on the device, which domain a connection is headed to, and to block only those that match the list of nuisance ads and scam sites.
• Your traffic never passes through any outside server. Everything is processed on the device.
• We never obtain your browsing history, the contents of your traffic, or anything you type.

Information stored on your device

• Statistics such as the number of blocked connections and estimated data savings are stored only on your device. They are never sent anywhere.
• No account registration is required. You are never forced to enter your name, address, or phone number to use the App.

Information you provide when contacting us

Choosing “Contact us” in Settings opens our website’s contact form. To reply to you, we ask for your name, email address, and message. These are used only to respond to your inquiry and for no other purpose.

• Only when you submit the form, the information is sent to and kept by our support desk, used solely to respond, and never shared with third parties.
• The App itself never sends or collects your inquiry contents or personally identifiable information (the only data sent for trial management is the non-identifying value described in the next section).

Free-trial management

To prevent the free trial from being obtained repeatedly by uninstalling and reinstalling, a one-way (hashed, irreversible) form of the device identifier (ANDROID_ID) and the trial start time are sent to and stored on our server.

• This value cannot identify you or your device.
• It is used only for managing the trial period (preventing abuse), never for advertising, and never shared with third parties.
• If you have purchased the App, this is not sent.
• The trial record is registered on our server wherever the App is used.

When the App communicates

The App communicates externally only in the following cases.

• When fetching the block list (the list of nuisance ads and scam sites) from our distribution page (only when used within Japan; outside Japan the App uses its built-in list and this communication does not occur). This communication contains no personal information.
• When checking for a new version of the App (about once a day; only when used within Japan). Only information about the App version is sent, and no personal information is included. If a new version is available, we let you know with a device notification.
• When using the app store’s billing system (such as Google Play) for the one-time purchase. Payment information is managed by the store; we never obtain your credit card number or similar details.
• When sending the hashed device identifier and trial start time to our server for trial management.
• When you submit our website’s contact form.
• When the record of purchase issued by Google Play (the purchase token) and the device identifier, each replaced by symbols that cannot be read back, are sent to our server in order to manage your purchase (use on one device at a time). These values cannot identify you, your Google account or your device. They are used only for managing your purchase, never for advertising, and are never provided to third parties.

Ads

The App itself never shows any ads, and never collects information for ad delivery.

Contact

For questions about this policy, please use the contact form.

Revisions

Any revision to this policy will be announced on this page. Important changes will also be clearly announced inside the App.