Tripwire Privacy Policy
Effective 5 September 2026. Last updated 5 September 2026.
The short version. Tripwire has no accounts and no servers. Your places, rooms, and reminders are stored on your phone and are never sent to us — we have no way to see them. The app talks to Google only to draw maps, to look up a place you search for by name, and through Android's own speech and backup features.
Who we are
Tripwire is made by Slothware. You can reach us at support@slothware.studio with any question about this policy or your data.
What Tripwire collects, and where it goes
Everything below is stored in a database on your device. Slothware operates no servers and receives none of it.
| Data | Why | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Precise location, including in the background | To detect when you arrive at or leave a place you set a reminder for | Stays on the device. Handled by Android's geofencing, which runs locally |
| Nearby Bluetooth devices (address, name, signal strength) | Room detection. Nearby devices act as fixed landmarks, so their signal pattern identifies a room | Stays on the device |
| Nearby Wi-Fi networks (identifier, name, frequency, signal strength) | Optional additional signal for room detection. Off by default | Stays on the device |
| Physical activity (step detection) | To pause scanning while you are sitting still, which saves battery. Optional, and only requested on phones lacking the sensors that do this without permission | Not stored at all. Read moment to moment and discarded |
| Your reminders, places, and room names | They are the app | Stays on the device |
What Tripwire does not collect
- No account, sign-in, name, email address, or advertising identifier.
- No audio. Dictation is handled by Android's own speech recognizer, which owns the microphone; Tripwire receives only the resulting text and never has microphone access.
- No analytics, advertising, tracking, or crash-reporting services. The app contains no such components.
- No contacts, photos, files, or calendar data.
When the app talks to Google
Tripwire has no backend of its own. Three features rely on Google services built into Android, and their handling is governed by Google's privacy policy:
- Maps and place search. When you pick a place, map imagery is fetched from Google Maps. When you type a place name, that text is sent to Google Places to return matching suggestions. Your own location is not attached to that search.
- Dictation. Speaking a reminder opens Android's speech recognizer. Whether your speech is processed on the device or by Google's servers is determined by your phone's settings, not by Tripwire. Tripwire receives only the transcribed text, which is then interpreted on-device by Android's built-in AI model. The phrase is not sent anywhere by the app.
- Backup. If Android Backup is enabled on your phone, your Tripwire data is included in your device backup to your own Google Drive. On Android 9 and later, that backup is end-to-end encrypted with a key derived from your screen lock, so Google cannot read it. You can turn this off in your phone's system backup settings.
Why background location
A reminder that only worked while you had the app open would not be much of a reminder, so Tripwire asks for location access set to Allow all the time. Android will not deliver a place reminder without it. Your location is used solely to detect the boundary crossings you have set reminders for. It is not logged, profiled, or transmitted.
You can decline. The app still opens and you can still create reminders, but they will not fire, and Tripwire shows a standing warning while that is the case rather than letting you believe otherwise.
Keeping and deleting your data
Your data is kept until you delete it. Removing a reminder, room, or place deletes it from the device immediately. Uninstalling Tripwire removes the entire database.
If Android Backup is enabled, a copy may remain in your Google Drive backup after uninstalling. That copy is under your control, not ours, and can be removed through your Google account's backup settings.
Because we never receive your data, there is nothing for us to delete on request — and no breach of our systems could expose it.
Children
Tripwire is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. As above, the app collects nothing to us regardless of who uses it.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here with a new date above. Material changes to what the app collects will also be described in the app's release notes.
Contact
Questions about this policy or about Tripwire's handling of your data: support@slothware.studio.