Summary
My Diary is a personal journal. The entries, moods and images you create are yours. We do not sell your data, we do not show advertising, and we do not run analytics or tracking. The only diagnostic data we collect is crash reports, so we can fix bugs.
- Your written entries, mood logs, photos and drawings are stored in your own private area of Google Firebase, readable only by your signed-in account.
- You can export everything, delete everything, or delete your whole account from inside the app at any time.
1. Who this policy covers
This policy explains how the Android application My Diary — Daily Journal App
(package com.novanest.journalapp, “the app”, “we”, “us”)
handles information about you. It applies only to this app. It does not cover any other
app, website or service.
By using the app you agree to the handling of information described here. If you do not agree, please stop using the app and delete it.
2. What we collect
2.1 Account information
Signing in is handled by Google Sign-In and Firebase Authentication. When you sign in we receive from your Google account:
- your email address;
- your display name;
- a Firebase user ID, which is what your journal is filed under.
We never see or receive your Google password. Your display name is also saved on your device so the app can greet you without a network call.
2.2 Content you create
Everything you choose to write or record in the app:
- journal entries — title, body text, tags, and the favourite flag;
- the mood you attach to an entry, and the mood you log for a day;
- a place name, if you type one. This is a free-text field you fill in yourself. The app does not read your device's GPS or location services;
- the date and time an entry was created and last edited.
2.3 Photos and drawings
When you attach a photo, set a cover image, or make a drawing, the image file is copied into the app's private internal storage on your device and backed up to Firebase Cloud Storage, in a folder that only your signed-in account can read. This is what lets your images come back when you reinstall the app or move to a new phone.
The app asks for a photo only at the moment you tap to add one, through the Android photo picker. It has no standing access to your gallery.
2.4 Settings stored on your device
The following never leave your phone and are not sent to us or to anyone else:
- your screen-lock PIN for the app, stored only as a salted one-way hash;
- whether you enabled unlocking with biometrics;
- your daily reminder time and whether reminders are on;
- your cached display name.
If you enable biometric unlock, authentication is performed entirely by Android's own biometric system. The app never receives, sees or stores your fingerprint or face data.
2.5 Crash reports
If the app crashes, Firebase Crashlytics sends a crash report so we can find and fix the problem. A report contains technical details only: the error and where in the app's code it happened, your device model, Android version, app version, and a random installation identifier. Crash reports never include your journal entries, mood logs, images or PIN, and they are not linked to your name or email address.
3. What we do not collect
- No advertising, and no advertising identifiers.
- No analytics, usage tracking or behavioural profiling. Crash reports (section 2.5) are the only diagnostics.
- No GPS or device location.
- No contacts, calendar, call logs, SMS or microphone access.
- No sale, rental or sharing of your personal information with data brokers, advertisers or any third party for their own purposes.
4. How your information is used
Your information is used only to make the app work for you, specifically to:
- sign you in and keep your journal separate from every other user's;
- save, display, search and sync your entries and mood logs;
- draw your mood chart and calendar;
- show a daily reminder notification, if you turn one on;
- produce a text or PDF export when you ask for one;
- diagnose and fix crashes.
We do not read your journal entries. We do not use your content to train machine-learning models. We do not use it for marketing.
If you are in the UK or EEA: our lawful basis for processing is performance of a contract with you (providing the app you asked for), and your consent where you have given it — for example by enabling reminders. You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings.
5. Where your data is stored
Your entries and mood logs are stored in Google Cloud Firestore, and your images in Firebase Cloud Storage, both operated by Google. They are filed under a path unique to your account and the app's security rules permit access only to that signed-in account.
Google operates data centres in several countries, so your data may be processed outside your country of residence, including in the United States. Google's transfer safeguards are described in its own documentation, linked below.
Your app settings are stored only in your device's app-private storage.
6. Third-party services
The app uses these Google services, and no others:
| Service | What it does | What it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Firebase Authentication | Signs you in | Email address, display name, user ID |
| Cloud Firestore | Stores entries and mood logs | The content you write, plus your user ID |
| Firebase Cloud Storage | Backs up your photos and drawings | The images you attach, plus your user ID |
| Firebase Crashlytics | Reports app crashes | Crash details, device model, OS and app version, installation ID |
| Google Play services / Credential Manager | Provides the Google Sign-In prompt | Your Google account selection |
As part of delivering these services, Google may process technical information such as your IP address and device identifiers. That processing is governed by Google's Privacy Policy and the Firebase Privacy and Security documentation.
7. Retention and deletion
Your entries and mood logs are kept until you delete them. There is no automatic expiry.
You are in control of removal:
- Delete a single entry — open it and choose delete.
- Delete everything — Settings → Delete app data. This permanently removes every journal entry, every mood log and every stored image for your account, on the device and in the cloud. It cannot be undone.
- Delete your account — Settings → Delete account. After you confirm your Google account, this removes all of the above and your sign-in record, then clears the app's data from the device. It cannot be undone.
- Log out — clears your name, PIN and biometric preference from the device. Your entries and images remain in your account and return when you sign back in.
- Uninstall — removes everything held on the device. Your entries, mood logs and images remain in your account until you delete them as above.
If you no longer have the app installed, you can ask us to delete your account and all of its data — see how to request account deletion. Crash reports are kept by Firebase Crashlytics for 90 days and then deleted automatically.
8. Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, restrict or erase your personal information, and to object to its processing. The app is built so you can exercise most of these yourself, immediately:
- Access and portability — Settings → Export data gives you every entry as a text or PDF file.
- Correction — edit any entry, or change your display name in Settings.
- Erasure — Settings → Delete app data, or Settings → Delete account to remove your account as well.
- Withdrawing consent — turn reminders off in Settings, or revoke the app's access from your Google account settings.
For anything you cannot do in the app, contact us and we will respond within 30 days. If you are in the UK or EEA and are unhappy with our response, you may complain to your local data protection authority.
9. Security
- Data in transit between the app and Google's servers is encrypted with TLS.
- Firestore and Cloud Storage security rules scope every read and write to your own account, so one user cannot reach another user's journal or images.
- You can add a PIN, and optionally biometric unlock, to keep the app closed to anyone else holding your phone. Repeated wrong PINs lock entry for an increasing time.
- On the device, images are kept in app-private internal storage, which other apps cannot read.
Being straight with you: your entries are encrypted in transit and at rest on Google's infrastructure, but they are not end-to-end encrypted. That means they are not technically sealed from the service operator in the way a zero-knowledge app would be. No method of transmission or storage is ever completely secure.
10. Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the app changes. The “Last updated” date at the top always reflects the current version. Material changes will be announced in the app or on this page before they take effect. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy, or about your data:
Please put “Privacy” in the subject line so we can route it quickly.