Distly — Privacy Policy
The short version
Distly is an Android digital wellbeing app. It works without an account, advertising, analytics or tracking SDKs. Distly and its developer do not receive your app usage, focus profiles, tag details or statistics.
The Android app has no INTERNET permission and does not upload your data to a server. Your focus data is processed and stored on your phone. You may choose to export daily statistics or share a weekly summary through Android's share sheet; the receiving app can then handle that file under its own privacy policy. Opening a website from Distly uses your external browser. This policy describes the Android app, not information you separately submit to the website's waitlist or hardware store.
What Distly stores on your device
- Focus profiles and the package names of apps you choose to block or allow.
- Paired NFC tags and QR keys, their names, profile assignments and last-tap times; a recovery code and a random device key used to verify paired keys.
- Schedules, daily limits, mindful-pause preferences and app settings, including active focus sessions, banking breaks and recovery state.
- Daily statistics: focus and scheduled minutes, counts of blocked openings keyed by the blocked app's package name, mindful-pause outcomes and alternative activities taken. When new statistics are recorded, entries older than the rolling 60-day cutoff are removed. If the app is inactive, old entries may remain until the next statistics update or until you erase the app's storage.
These records stay in private app storage. Distly does not upload them. Automatic cloud backup and device-to-device transfer are disabled. Clear Distly's storage in Android Settings or uninstall it to erase its local data. Distly has no server-side copy. Files you previously exported must be deleted separately from the receiving app or destination you selected.
Exporting and sharing statistics
Export creates a temporary CSV in Distly's private cache and opens Android's share sheet. You choose the receiving app. The CSV contains dates, daily totals, streak and weekly-goal information; it does not contain your per-app package names, NFC/QR secrets or recovery code. No export occurs automatically. The receiving app may upload or retain the file; Distly does not control it.
Share your focus week creates an image and text containing weekly focus time, goal progress and streak information, then opens the same user-controlled share sheet. It does not share per-app package names or tag secrets. NFC tag pairing writes a key token to your chosen tag; a QR key displays a similar token you can print or scan. These are physical focus keys, not an upload to Distly.
Permissions and their purposes
Accessibility service (App-blocking access). With your agreement, Distly uses the foreground app's package name to apply the blocking rules or mindful pauses you choose. It can show a blocking screen and return you to Home. It saves the blocked app's package name and a daily count of blocked openings locally for your statistics. The service is configured with canRetrieveWindowContent="false": it does not retrieve screen content, read messages or passwords, or record what you type. These records are not uploaded or sent to the developer. You can disable the service in Android Settings.
Usage access. Reads Android's app usage records to show screen time, enforce daily limits and detect foreground apps in the optional Bank-safe mode. App usage is processed on the phone, not uploaded.
Display over other apps (optional). Used by Bank-safe mode to bring Distly's blocking screen in front of an app you chose to block, without an accessibility service. It is not used to capture another app's screen.
Notification access (optional). Dismisses notifications from blocked apps during focus. Distly checks their app identity and whether they can be dismissed; it does not read, store, forward or log their message content.
App visibility. Scoped package queries let you select launchable apps and resolve essential phone apps and supported OEM background-settings pages. Distly does not request QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES. The picker is processed locally.
Camera (optional). Scans Distly QR keys. Distly does not save or upload photos or video.
NFC. Reads and writes compatible NFC tags you pair with Distly.
Secure settings (optional advanced setup). WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS cannot be granted by a normal permission tap. If you deliberately grant it through ADB, Distly can toggle grayscale during focus and restore its own blocking service after a banking break. This setup is optional; standard focus blocking does not require ADB. Without it, some changes must be made manually in Android Settings.
Notifications, foreground service, battery optimisation and start on boot. Support ongoing blocking and timer/recovery handling, show the focus notification, and restore the banking-break countdown after reboot. You control these settings.
Children
Distly does not have accounts and does not upload personal information from users, including children. It does not ask for names, ages or contact details.
Changes and contact
Changes to the app's data handling will be reflected in this policy and relevant release notes. Questions: distly@pinkesh.in.