Privacy Policy: Punchcard – Habit Tracker
Last updated: 25 October 2026
Published by: Altug Ataalp
In short
- Punchcard has no accounts of its own, no servers, no analytics, no crash reporting and no ads.
- Your habits, entries, notes and app limits are stored on your phone.
- Data leaves your phone only when you send it: an export, a share card, a feedback email, optional Google Drive sync, or Android's own backup.
- App limits read how long the apps you choose are open. That reading stays on your phone and is never backed up, synced or exported.
What Punchcard stores on your phone
- Habits and history: habits, their plans and goals, logged entries and their notes, categories, groups, templates, journeys and milestones.
- Reminders and timers: reminder times, snoozes and running focus timers.
- Settings: language, colours and the other choices you make in Settings.
- App limits: the apps you chose, their daily limits and weekdays, and the time measured for each day.
All of it is kept in the app's private storage, which other apps cannot read.
App limits and Usage Access
When you create an app limit, Punchcard asks for Android's Usage Access. Opening the app, the list of limits or the editor does not ask for it, and you can decline. The limit is then kept without measurements.
With Usage Access, Punchcard reads from Android **when each app you chose was in the foreground**, and uses it to work out the minutes you spent in that app each day. It does not read what you do, see or type inside any app, and it does not block or close other apps.
To let you pick an app, Punchcard lists the apps that appear in your launcher, with their names and icons. It does not request the full list of installed packages.
The app limits and their measurements:
- stay on your phone,
- are excluded from Android's cloud backup and from phone-to-phone transfer,
- are never included in Google Drive sync, JSON backups or CSV exports,
- are never sent to the developer.
You can turn Usage Access off at any time in Android's settings (usually **Settings → Apps → Special app access → Usage access**). Saved limits and their history stay until you delete them; deleting a limit deletes its measurements.
When data leaves your phone
Each of these happens only when you choose it.
Exports. Settings → Backup can save your habits, history and settings as a JSON backup, or the history of habits you pick as a CSV file. You choose where the file goes. App limits are not included.
Share cards. A share card is an image of one habit's progress. You choose whether it shows the habit's name and weekly progress; notes and entries are never on it. It goes to whichever app you pick in Android's share sheet.
Google Drive sync (optional). If you turn it on in Settings → Backup → Google Drive sync, Punchcard asks Google for access to its own hidden app-data folder in your Drive, not to your other files. When you tap Sync now, your habits, entries (including notes), categories, groups, templates, journeys and milestones are sent over HTTPS to that folder. Device settings, running timers and app limits are not sent. The data is not end-to-end encrypted by Punchcard, and Google handles it under Google's Privacy Policy. Disconnecting stops the access but does not delete the copies already in Drive; you can remove them in Google Drive's Settings → Manage apps.
Android backup. If Android backup is on, Android can include your habits, history and settings in your Google backup and in phone-to-phone transfers. App limits, reminder snoozes and the Drive sync account are excluded from both.
Feedback. Send feedback opens your email app with a draft to the address below. The draft names the app version, the Android version and the phone model; you can delete these before sending. No habit, entry or note is added.
Rating. Punchcard may ask once, through Google Play's own rating prompt, for a rating. Google Play shows the prompt and handles your answer; Punchcard does not learn whether or how you rated. Rate Punchcard and Tell a friend open the Play Store page or your share sheet.
Links. The privacy policy link opens this page in your browser. As with any web page, the site that hosts it can see your IP address.
Permissions
- Usage Access: for app limits, as described above. Asked for only after you create one.
- Notifications: for reminders and running timers.
- Exact alarms: so reminders arrive on time.
- Run at startup: to restore reminders after a restart or a time or time zone change.
- Do Not Disturb access: only if you turn on Do Not Disturb for focus sessions. Punchcard silences notifications for the session and then puts your previous setting back.
- Internet: only for Google Drive sync.
Punchcard does not use location, contacts, the camera, the microphone or your files outside its own storage.
Deleting your data
- Delete a habit or an app limit inside the app to remove it and its history.
- Uninstalling Punchcard, or clearing its storage in Android's settings, removes everything stored on your phone.
- Exported files and share cards stay wherever you saved or sent them.
- Copies in Google Drive stay until you remove them in Google Drive's Manage apps.
Children
Punchcard is not directed at children, and nothing is collected from anyone, children included.
Not medical advice
Punchcard is a habit tracker. It is not a medical device and does not give medical advice.
Changes
Changes to this policy are published at the same address with a new date at the top.
Contact
Questions about this policy: ataalpaltug@gmail.com