🦎 Scute — Privacy Policy

Introduction

Scute ("we", "our", "the app") is a private, on-device reptile husbandry tracker developed and published by Rizwan Shoaib. We take your privacy seriously. Scute is built to be local-only: the records you log stay on your device. From version 1.2.0 the app is free and supported by a single banner ad served by Google AdMob; to request it the app needs internet access and uses your device's advertising ID. That ad request is the only thing that ever leaves your phone. Earlier versions carried no ads. This policy explains what data the app uses, why, and how it's handled.

Data We Access

• Care records you enter — the animals, feedings, weights, sheds, husbandry readings (temperature/humidity), and notes you log are stored locally on your device only and are never transmitted to any server.
• Camera / Photos (optional) — if you add a photo of an animal, Scute accesses your camera or photo library to import that image. Photos are saved in the app's private storage and never leave your device.

Data We Do NOT Collect

• ❌ We do NOT collect your personal information (name, email, phone number)
• ❌ We do NOT upload your animals, photos, logs, or other data to any server
• ❌ We do NOT collect your location from your device's location services
• ❌ We do NOT sell your personal data
• ❌ We do NOT use third-party analytics, trackers or crash-reporting SDKs
• ❌ We do NOT require account creation or login

Advertising

From version 1.2.0, Scute is free and supported by ads. It displays a single banner ad served by Google AdMob at the bottom of the home screen (the animal list). There is no full-screen ad, no ad on launch, and no ad on an animal's own page where you log care.

To request an ad, the Google Mobile Ads SDK inside the app sends the following to Google and its advertising partners:

• Your device's advertising ID (a resettable identifier Android provides for advertising) and app-set ID.
• Your IP address, from which Google derives an approximate location. Scute never asks for location permission.
• Coarse device and app information — device model, OS version, app version, and interaction with the ad itself.
• Diagnostics about the ad request, such as whether it loaded.

This data is collected by Google and shared with Google as an advertising partner. It is used for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention. Google's handling of it is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services and the AdMob partner policies. Your animals, logs and photos are never part of an ad request.

Consent in Europe. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Scute shows a Google-certified consent form the first time it runs and records your choice. If you do not consent to personalised advertising, the app requests non-personalised ads instead. You can reset your advertising ID or opt out of ad personalisation at any time in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads.

Ad content is limited to Google's "G" (general audience) rating.

Local Storage

The app stores the following data locally on your device, using an on-device database (SQLite) and your device's private file storage:

• Animal profiles (name, species, morph, sex, feeding interval, notes)
• Feeding, weight, shed, and husbandry log entries
• Photos you add for an animal
• App settings (feeding-reminder preferences)

This data never leaves your device. You can clear it at any time from within the app or by clearing the app's data in your device settings.

Permissions

• Camera / Photos — Optional. Used only when you add a photo of an animal.
• Notifications — Optional. Used for per-animal feeding reminders, scheduled entirely on your device.
• Internet — Used solely to request ads. Your animals, logs and photos are never sent over it.
• Advertising ID — Used by Google AdMob to serve ads, as described above.

Data Retention & Deletion

All user data is stored locally on your device only. We do not store any of your data on external servers, so there is no server-side data to retain or delete.

How long we retain data: local data is kept on your device for as long as the app is installed. There is no expiration — data persists until you choose to delete it.

How to delete your data:

• Delete individual animals or log entries within the app, or
• Go to your device's Settings → Apps → Scute → Storage → Clear Data to erase all locally stored app data.
• Uninstalling the app permanently deletes all associated data, including photos, from your device.

Advertising data is held by Google, not by us — use the Android ad settings above to reset or opt out.

A note on backups: Scute lets you export an optional backup file that you control. Where that file is stored, and who you share it with, is up to you — we never receive it. If you have any concerns, contact us at segmentbi@gmail.com.

Children's Privacy

Scute is intended for users aged 13 and over and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by the "Last updated" date at the top, and the app's Play Data safety section is updated to match before a version that changes what the app does ships.

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at:

📧 segmentbi@gmail.com
Developer: Rizwan Shoaib