Cycle privacy policy

Who we are

Cycle is made by Orionian, the app studio of Intelliworks Inc. In this policy, “we” means Orionian and Intelliworks Inc., and “the app” means Cycle.

What the app collects

Nothing. The app doesn't collect, record or share any personal data or any data about how you use it. In particular, it has:

• no internet permission, so Android doesn't let it connect to anything, us included;
• no account or sign-in;
• no analytics, crash reporting, advertising or advertising IDs;
• no third-party services. Its only libraries are Android's own (AndroidX, including the Health Connect client), Kotlin's, Google Play Billing, which lets you buy Cycle Pro through the Play Store app, and Google Play's in-app review, which shows Google's own rating card.

Because the app has no way to send data, we never receive any data from it.

What stays on your phone

The app keeps these, in its private storage, which other apps can't read:

• Your journal, one file: the days you log (bleeding and spotting, pain, symptoms, moods, your own tags, notes, your temperature on waking and whether a reading was disturbed, cervical mucus and how it feels, ovulation test results); the mode you chose, such as pregnancy or perimenopause; times of breastfeeding or hormonal contraception, with their dates; whether the fertile window is shown; your answers about your own history, such as a cycle you hid; the cycle and period lengths you gave when you started; and the day you started.
• Settings: whether screenshots are allowed, whether the lock is on and how soon it locks again, whether Google's rating card has been asked for, whether Write to Health Connect is on, and which app icon you chose with Pro.
• Reminders: which are on, their times and the words you gave them, your method (pill, ring, patch or injection) and when it started, the time zone a pill reminder was set in, and whether reminders show on the lock screen; and, kept apart, when each one was last said.
• Whether you have Pro, copied from Google Play so Pro works without a connection.

A report for your doctor is made only when you ask for one, and kept in the app's cache, where each new report replaces the last.

Any day can be cleared in the app. To delete everything, clear the app's storage in Android settings or uninstall the app. A copy in your Google backup (below) is managed in your Google account's backup settings.

Backups and files

What you log leaves your phone only in these ways, each one yours to choose. We never receive any of it.

• Google backup. If backup is on in your phone's settings, Android saves your journal to your Google account only when the backup is end to end encrypted with your screen lock, so only you can open it. On Android 9 and later your settings and reminders go with it. On Android 9 and later, without a screen lock, Cycle isn't in the backup at all. Android 8 can't encrypt backups that way, so there your journal and reminders stay out of it, while the app's settings can go. Whether you have Pro, and when reminders were last said, never go: on a new phone, Google Play says what you own.
• Phone to phone. When you set up a new Android phone and choose to copy apps and data from this one, your journal, settings and reminders come along (Android 9 and later), straight from one phone to the other. On Android 8 only the app's settings come along.
• A backup file, sealed with a passphrase you choose (AES-256-GCM, with a key made from the passphrase by PBKDF2 with 600,000 rounds) and saved wherever you pick on Android's save screen. Without the passphrase no one can open it, Orionian included, and a forgotten passphrase can't be recovered. The key comes only from the passphrase, so the file opens in Cycle on any Android phone.
• A spreadsheet file (CSV) of every logged day, saved wherever you pick. It isn't sealed: anyone with the file can read it.
• A report for your doctor, a PDF of the last 12 months, handed to Android's share sheet, where you choose who or what gets it. It isn't sealed either.

How to use each one, and how to back up now, is on the backup and restore page.

Bringing in history works the same way in reverse: the app reads a file only when you pick it (another app's export file or a Cycle backup file), on your phone.

Permissions

The app asks for these, each for one job:

• Show notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS), for reminders. On Android 13 and later it's asked for when you turn on your first reminder.
• Run at startup (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED), to put your reminders back after a restart. The app listens for it only while a reminder is on.
• Fingerprint or face (USE_BIOMETRIC), for the lock, if you turn it on. Android shows its own fingerprint, face or screen lock prompt and tells the app only whether it was you.
• Google Play billing (com.android.vending.BILLING), to buy Cycle Pro. It lets the app ask the Play Store app on your phone what you own and open its purchase screen.
• Health Connect: eleven permissions, each listed with its purpose below. None is asked for until you tap Connect.

That's the whole list, and none of these lets the app reach the internet. The app's build fails if any other permission ever appears in it.

Health Connect

Health Connect is the part of Android where apps on your phone can share health data, if you allow it. Using it with Cycle is optional and off until you choose it: the app asks for nothing until you tap Connect, and you allow or refuse each permission on Health Connect's own screen.

This is the app's screen “How Cycle uses Health Connect”, which Health Connect opens from its privacy policy link, word for word:

How Cycle uses Health Connect

Cycle reads periods and bleeding that other apps saved in Health Connect, and, while you're trying to conceive, cervical mucus, ovulation tests and basal temperature. It reads them only when you choose Bring in, to add them to your journal on this phone after you've checked what was found.

If you turn on Write to Health Connect, what you log in Cycle is saved there too, for the other apps you allow.

Cycle has no internet access, so nothing it reads or writes leaves this phone through Cycle. It never shares or sells health data and never uses it for ads. You can take back any permission, or delete what Cycle wrote, in Health Connect's settings.

Each permission, and what the app does with it:

• Menstruation, read and write (READ_MENSTRUATION, WRITE_MENSTRUATION): reads the period flow and period records other apps saved; writes the flow of the period days you log.
• Intermenstrual bleeding, read and write (READ_INTERMENSTRUAL_BLEEDING, WRITE_INTERMENSTRUAL_BLEEDING): spotting between periods, read so it isn't mistaken for a period, and written when you log it.
• Read health data history (READ_HEALTH_DATA_HISTORY), read only: Health Connect gives apps the last 30 days unless this is allowed, and a history brought from another app can be years long. Asked for only where Health Connect offers it.
• Cervical mucus, ovulation test and basal body temperature, each read and write (READ_CERVICAL_MUCUS, WRITE_CERVICAL_MUCUS, READ_OVULATION_TEST, WRITE_OVULATION_TEST, READ_BASAL_BODY_TEMPERATURE, WRITE_BASAL_BODY_TEMPERATURE): asked for only while you're trying to conceive, the one mode where they're logged.

Reading. Only when you tap Bring in. The app shows what it found by the app that saved it, you choose the apps, and you check before anything is added. Days you logged in Cycle keep what you logged.

Writing. Off until you turn on Write to Health Connect. Then the app writes the days you've already logged, and from then on each change as you make it, for each kind you've allowed; a day you clear is removed from what it wrote. Turning writing off keeps what's already there. What Cycle writes is then kept by Health Connect, and other apps can read it only if you allow them there.

On your screen

• Cycle stays out of screenshots, screen sharing and recent apps unless you turn on Allow screenshots.
• Reminders are hidden on the lock screen unless you choose otherwise, and their words are neutral, and yours to change.
• The widget shows the day of your cycle and nothing else. Pro's two widgets show the cycle line or the likely dates of your next period, only if you put them on your home screen.
• The lock, when it's on, asks for your fingerprint, face or screen lock.

Third parties

The app shares nothing with anyone, because it has nothing to share and no way to send it. It contains no third-party services.

If you buy Cycle Pro, Google Play handles the purchase, the payment and any refund, under Google's own privacy policy. Google gives us a record of each order, such as its date, price and the buyer's region, so we can keep our accounts and help with refunds. We never see your payment details.

Once you've used the app for a while, it may ask Google Play once to show Google's rating card. A rating or review you leave there goes to Google Play, under Google's own privacy policy; the app passes nothing to it.

You get the app through Google Play, which handles your Play account and downloads under Google's own privacy policy. Google Play gives us aggregated statistics, such as install counts by country, that don't identify you. If you've allowed your phone to share usage and diagnostics with Google, Google may also show us anonymous crash and performance reports for the app. The app itself plays no part in either.

Children

Cycle is meant for people 13 and over and isn't made for children. It collects no data from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If the app ever changes what it does with data, we'll update this page and its effective date before that version is released. A new permission would be listed here, with its reason.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the app: hello@orionian.com

Intelliworks Inc. (Orionian), Canada.