Privacy Policy
In one paragraph. Cardea accesses your device's location — including in the background, if and only if you switch that feature on — in order to work out which country you were in on each day. Location data is written to a database on your phone and is never transmitted off the device: there is no account, no server, no cloud sync, no analytics and no advertising. Raw GPS coordinates are deleted automatically after a short retention period once they have been converted into country/day records, and you can export or permanently erase everything at any time from Settings.
1. Who this policy covers
This policy applies to the Android application Cardea: Country Day Tracker
(com.rbedev.cardea), published on Google Play by RLucky Dev / RBE Dev ("we", "us").
It does not apply to any other application or website.
Contact: info@rbedev.com
Where this policy conflicts with our general policy published at rbedev.com/PrivacyPolicy, this policy prevails for Cardea.
2. Location data
2.1 What the app accesses
Cardea can access your device's approximate location (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION), precise location
(ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) and background location (ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION). Each
location reading consists of a latitude, a longitude, an accuracy radius, a timestamp and the name of the
Android provider that produced it.
Location access is optional. Cardea is fully usable with location permission denied: stays can be entered by hand in the calendar or imported from a file. If you never grant the permission, the app never reads your location.
2.2 Why the app accesses it
Cardea counts how many days you have spent in each country. To do that it has to know which country a given moment in time belongs to. Each location reading is matched against a border map that is bundled inside the app, on the device, using a point-in-polygon test. There is no geocoding service, no map service and no server lookup involved — the coordinate is resolved to a country code offline.
Location data is used for that single purpose. It is not used for advertising, profiling or analytics.
2.3 Background access
Border crossings happen while your phone is locked or the app is closed. If you enable automatic tracking, Cardea runs an Android foreground service (with a permanent notification, as Android requires) that takes infrequent, adaptive location samples — never a continuous GPS stream — so that a day is not missed. Background location is requested through a separate Android permission prompt and can be revoked at any time in the system settings, or by turning tracking off inside the app.
2.4 Where it is stored, and for how long
All location data is stored in a local SQLite database in the app's private storage on your device. It is not uploaded anywhere.
| Data | Where | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Raw location samples (latitude, longitude, accuracy, timestamp, provider) | Local database on the device | Deleted automatically once processed, after a retention window you control in Settings (7 days by default). With "immediate purge" enabled, they are deleted as soon as they have been turned into a stay. |
| Derived stays and day records (country code, dates, times, confidence) | Local database on the device | Until you delete them, or until you uninstall the app |
| Change log (which country a day was assigned to, and any correction you made) | Local database on the device | Until you delete everything. It records country codes and corrections — never coordinates. |
Uninstalling the app removes its private storage, and with it every record described above.
2.5 What we never do with it
- We never transmit your coordinates, or anything derived from them, off your device.
- We never sell, rent or share location data with third parties. There is nothing to share: we never receive it.
- We do not include analytics, advertising or crash-reporting SDKs, so no location can leak through one.
- Android's automatic cloud backup is disabled for this app, so the database is not copied to Google Drive or transferred to a new device by the system.
3. Other data stored on your device
Besides location, the app stores — locally, on the device only:
- Trips and stays you enter or import yourself, including any notes you write.
- The rules you track (for example a 90/180 or a 183-day threshold) and any rule you create.
- App settings: language, theme, home country, retention preference, tracking on/off.
- Planned trips you add to the planner.
4. Data we do not collect
Cardea has no account system and no server. We do not collect, receive or have access to:
- Your name, e-mail address, postal address, phone number or any other contact detail.
- Any advertising identifier. The app does not declare or use the Android Advertising ID.
- Device identifiers, contacts, photos, files, calendar, microphone or camera data.
- Usage analytics, event logs, session data or crash reports.
This is why our Google Play Data safety declaration states that no user data is collected: under Google's definition, data that is only processed on the device and never sent off it is not "collected".
5. Permissions and why the app needs them
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION / ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION |
Determine which country a location reading falls in. |
ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION |
Detect a border crossing that happens while the app is closed. Optional. |
FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION, WAKE_LOCK |
Run the sampling service visibly and reliably, as Android requires. |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS, VIBRATE |
Show the tracking notification and warn you when you approach a limit you track. |
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED |
Resume tracking after the phone restarts, if you had it switched on. |
REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS |
Ask you — never silently — to exempt the app so days are not lost to aggressive battery saving. |
INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE |
Required by the Android system component the app is built on. Cardea makes no network requests of its own: every file it loads (border maps, rule packs, translations) ships inside the app and is read from local storage. The app works indefinitely in flight mode. |
6. Third parties
Cardea contains no third-party analytics, advertising or attribution SDKs. It uses the location APIs provided by Google Play services, part of the Android system, to obtain a position from the device's sensors. Any processing Google performs as part of providing that system service is governed by Google's Privacy Policy, not by this one. We receive nothing from it beyond the coordinate handed to the app on your device.
Distribution is through Google Play, which collects its own data as a store. That is described in Google's policy, linked above.
7. Exports you make yourself
Cardea can export your history to CSV, JSON or PDF. The resulting file is created on your device and goes wherever you send it. Once you share a file with another app, service or person, this policy no longer governs it — the receiving party's terms do. Exporting is free and always will be.
8. Your control over the data
- See it. Every number in the app opens the exact list of days behind it, and every day can be inspected and corrected.
- Export it. Settings → Export, in CSV, JSON or PDF, at any time, free.
- Delete it. Settings → Delete everything removes all records permanently from the device's database. Uninstalling the app has the same effect.
- Stop collection. Turn tracking off in the app, or revoke the location permission in Android Settings → Apps → Cardea → Permissions. The app keeps working with manual entry.
- Shorten retention. Settings lets you reduce how long raw coordinates are kept, or purge them immediately after processing.
Because everything stays on your device and we never receive it, there is no server-side copy for us to hand over or erase. Rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction and portability under the GDPR (and equivalent laws) are exercised directly in the app, by you, with the controls above. For the same reason we do not act as a remote data controller for your location history. If you have any question about this, write to info@rbedev.com.
9. Security
Data is held in the app's private storage area, which Android isolates from other applications. Because nothing is transmitted, there is no transmission to intercept and no remote database to breach. Anyone with physical access to an unlocked device can, of course, open the app — protect your device with a screen lock.
10. Children
Cardea is not directed at children. It is a utility for adults who cross borders. We do not knowingly process any data from children, and — since no data reaches us at all — we hold none.
11. Changes to this policy
If the app's data practices change, this page is updated and the "Last updated" date at the top changes with it. A change that would cause data to leave your device would be announced in the app before it takes effect, and would require your consent.
12. Not affiliated with any government
Cardea is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, authorised by or acting on behalf of any government, government agency, tax authority, immigration authority or the European Union, and it does not provide or facilitate any government service.
The app counts the days you were physically present in each country and compares them against thresholds you choose to track. Each built-in threshold links to its official source inside the app. Cardea does not determine your tax residency or your immigration status, and it is not tax, legal or immigration advice. Always confirm anything that matters with the competent authority or a qualified professional.
13. Contact
Questions about this policy: info@rbedev.com. We answer at the same address used for Google Play support.