Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 24, 2026

Localnote is a note-taking app that keeps your notes on your device. This policy explains what happens to your information when you use the app on Android or the web, including the optional Google Drive backup.

1. Summary

• We (the developer) do not collect, receive, store, sell or share your notes, the files you attach to them, or any personal information.
• There are no accounts, analytics, advertising or tracking.
• Your notes and attachments stay on your device unless you choose to export them or turn on Google Drive backup, which stores them in your own Google account.

2. Information stored on your device

Your notes, their version history, notes in Trash and your app settings are stored locally on your device (in the browser's storage on the web).

Notes are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. The encryption key is kept in your device's secure storage and never leaves the device. Settings (such as theme, sort order and backup schedule) are stored unencrypted because they contain no personal content.

3. Attachments

You can add images, videos, documents and other files to a note — by choosing them with the attach button, dragging them in, pasting them, or inserting an image from your keyboard. The app copies each file into its own private storage on your device (in the browser's storage on the web). Files are never uploaded anywhere unless you use Google Drive backup.

Attachments are not encrypted by the app. They are protected by your device's app sandbox and lock screen (or your browser's per-site storage on the web). Avoid attaching files you would not want stored this way.

The clipboard is read only at the moment you paste into a note, and only to take what you pasted. Files and folders outside the app are read only when you pick, drop or paste them.

When you open an attachment, the app hands that one file to an app you choose on your device (such as a photo viewer or PDF reader), or opens it in a new browser tab on the web. That app handles the file under its own privacy policy.

4. Google Drive backup (optional)

Google Drive backup is off until you connect a Google account in Settings. When you connect, the app requests only this permission:

• "See, create, and delete its own configuration data in your Google Drive" (the drive.appdata scope). This gives the app access to a hidden folder that only it can use. It cannot see, read or change any of your other Google Drive files.

What is used and why:

• Your notes (including Trash and version history) are uploaded as a single backup file, so you can restore them later or on another device.
• Each file attached to your notes is uploaded once, as its own file in the same hidden folder. When no note uses an attachment any more, it is deleted from Drive at the next backup.
• Your Google account email address is shown in Settings so you know which account holds the backup. It is stored only on your device.

Backups are made when you tap "Back up" and on the automatic schedule you choose (daily, weekly, monthly or off). Restoring downloads the backup, and any attachments missing on this device, back to your device.

If you turn on "Sync automatically", the app also downloads the backup each time you open it, merges in changes made on your other devices, and uploads your changes when you leave the app. To do this it keeps, on your device and in the backup, the ids of notes you deleted for good (never their content) for 90 days, so they are deleted on your other devices too.

The backup is sent directly from your device to Google. It never passes through or is stored on any server operated by us. The backup files are not protected by the app's on-device encryption; they are protected by your Google account security and Google's encryption of stored data. Google's handling of them is governed by the Google Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy).

5. Google API Services disclosure

Localnote's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy (https://developers.google.com/terms/api-services-user-data-policy), including the Limited Use requirements.

Data from your Google account is used only to provide the backup and restore feature that you see in the app. It is not used for advertising, not sold, not transferred to anyone else, not used to train AI or machine-learning models, and not read by any human.

6. Import and export

You can export your notes to a file, or import notes from a file, at any time from Settings. When your notes have attachments, the export is a .zip that also contains those files. These actions are entirely local: the file is only saved to, or read from, a location you choose. "Save a copy" on an attachment works the same way. Once exported, a file is outside the app and its safety is up to you.

7. Permissions

• Internet: used only to talk to Google for sign-in and Drive backup, and to open web links you tap inside a note in your browser.
• Files: used only when you choose a file to import or attach, or a place to save an export or a copy of an attachment. The app does not request access to your photo library, media or device storage.

8. Third parties

We do not share information with any third party. The only outside service the app can contact is Google, and only when you use Google Drive backup. Links you open from your notes are handled by your browser and the website you visit, and attachments you open are handled by the app you open them with.

9. Keeping and deleting your data

• Notes on your device stay until you delete them, empty the Trash, clear the app's data or uninstall the app.
• Attachments stay while any note, note in Trash or saved version of a note still uses them, and are then deleted automatically. Removing an attachment from a note therefore keeps the file until no saved version refers to it.
• To delete a file right away, use "Delete file" (in a note's ⋮ menu → Attachments, or Settings → Attachments). It is removed from every note and saved version, from your device, and from your Google Drive backup.
• To stop backups, open Settings → Google Drive backup → Disconnect. This also revokes the app's access to your Google account.
• To delete the backup in Google Drive, open Google Drive on the web → Settings → Manage apps → Localnote → Options → Delete hidden app data. You can also remove the app's access at any time from https://myaccount.google.com/permissions.

10. Children

Localnote does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children under 13. Because we receive no personal information, we hold none to delete.

11. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the update will ship with a new app version, be shown in the app and on this page, and the "Last updated" date above will change.

12. Contact

Questions about this document can be sent through the contact details on the Localnote Google Play listing.

Localnote is available on Android from Google Play and on the web at localnote.io.