Effective date: July 12, 2026
This Privacy Policy describes how the Arq Android application ("Arq", "the app", package name com.djay.arq) handles user information. Arq is developed and published by Dhananjaya K, an independent developer ("I", "me", "my").
I built Arq as a personal project and take privacy seriously. Please read this policy carefully to understand how Arq works with respect to your data. By downloading, installing, or using Arq, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy.
Arq does not collect, store on any server, or transmit any personal or sensitive user data. As a foundational guarantee of your privacy, Arq requests no internet permission within its system manifest.
This means the app is entirely offline by design and cannot access the internet or establish any external network connection. Arq has no backend server of any kind, does not use any analytics library, does not use any advertising library, and does not use any crash-reporting service.
Arq does not require or offer account creation, login, or cloud sync of any kind.
The app stores some information locally on your device, using Android's DataStore, in order to remember your preferences. This includes things like the shortcuts and apps you have assigned to the Wheel, your chosen tile layout, and general app settings. This information stays on your device at all times, is never sent anywhere, and I do not have access to it.
Arq is built so that its more sensitive permissions - Contacts and Phone - are entirely optional. Each one is requested only at the moment you choose to use a specific convenience feature that needs it, never at first launch and never automatically. If you decline, or never turn that feature on, Arq provides a manual alternative, and continues to work normally. You can also revoke any of these permissions at any time from Android's app settings without losing access to the rest of the app.
Arq requests the following permissions, and uses them only as described below.
Accessibility Service
Arq uses the Accessibility Service to detect a press-and-hold gesture on the edge of the screen and to display the Wheel (Arq's shortcut menu) at the location you touch. This is the core mechanism that makes the app work and is a visible, user-facing feature, not a background process.
Arq's use of the Accessibility Service does not include reading the content of your screen, reading content from other apps, logging what you type, recording audio, or performing actions inside other apps without your knowledge. No data obtained through this permission is collected, stored remotely, or shared with me or with any other party. Before requesting this permission, the app shows a screen explaining what it is used for, and you must tap to continue before you are taken to the system settings screen to grant it.
Display over other apps
This permission lets Arq draw its edge overlay and the Wheel on top of other apps. It is used to display Arq's own interface, and on some devices, as a fallback so the overlay renders correctly where the primary method is restricted. It does not give Arq access to the content of other apps.
Modify system settings
Used so that the Wheel can include tiles that adjust your device's screen brightness directly, along with related display settings such as font size and rotation lock, without leaving the app you're currently in.
Volume controls
The Wheel's Media, Ringer, and Alarm volume tiles adjust your device's volume directly through Android's standard audio controls. These basic volume adjustments do not require any special permission.
Do Not Disturb access
Used for the tile that lets you turn Do Not Disturb mode on or off, and for switching your ringer between Normal, Vibrate, and Silent from the Wheel - Android requires this same permission to switch a device into Silent mode. This is different from an app being able to read your notifications: Arq cannot see the content of your notifications through this permission, it only allows toggling these device-wide sound modes.
Usage Access
Used for Arq's Contextual Profiles feature, which detects which app is currently in the foreground so the Wheel can automatically switch to a shortcut layout suited to that app. This permission tells Arq the name of the app currently on screen; it does not give Arq access to what's inside that app, and this information is not logged, stored beyond the current session, or shared anywhere.
Battery optimization exemption
Arq asks to be excluded from Android's battery optimization so that the overlay is not shut down by the system while you're using other apps. This only affects how Android manages the app's process in the background and does not involve any user data.
Phone (optional)
By default, Arq's Speed Dial and Emergency SOS tiles open your phone's dialer with a number filled in, and you place the call yourself - no phone permission is needed for this. There is an optional setting, off by default, that lets these tiles place a call directly instead. Arq only requests the phone-call permission if you deliberately turn that setting on, after being shown what it does, and you can turn it back off at any time.
Contacts (optional)
When setting up a Speed Dial tile, Arq can show a contact-selection screen so you can pick a contact from your device instead of typing a number in manually. This requires access to your contacts, and is only requested at the moment you choose to use this picker; you can always type the number in by hand instead and skip this permission entirely. Arq does not read, copy, or retain your contact list beyond letting you pick a number for the tile you're setting up - the only thing saved is the number you selected, stored locally as part of that tile's configuration.
Notifications (optional)
Arq may occasionally show a local system notification to let you know that a permission it needs for a feature you've enabled has been turned off or is missing, so that feature can keep working. Arq does not send promotional notifications, and does not use notifications for advertising of any kind.
Arq includes shortcuts that open other apps and websites, such as Maps, Spotify, YouTube Music, WhatsApp, Chrome, Reddit, Twitter/X, and Gmail. These shortcuts work through standard Android links and intents - Arq simply asks your device to open the relevant app. For its Custom Waypoint tile, Arq accepts a Google Maps link that you paste in yourself; Arq does not fetch, render, or process any map data itself. Arq does not exchange any data with these apps and does not use their APIs. Once you're inside one of those apps, its own privacy policy applies, not this one.
Arq is a general-audience app available to anyone and is not restricted by age. This section exists only because it's a standard part of most privacy policies: Arq does not collect personal data from any user, of any age, so there is no separate concern around children's data specifically - the same "nothing is collected" protection applies equally to every user of the app.
Since Arq stores information only on your device and nowhere else, uninstalling the app or clearing its data from Android's app settings removes all of it immediately.
Because Arq does not transmit data over the network, there is no data in transit to intercept. Locally stored preferences rely on Android's standard app sandboxing for protection. As with any software, no method of storage can be guaranteed 100% secure, but Arq's design - keeping everything on-device and nowhere else - minimizes what there is to protect in the first place.
I do not sell personal information, and have not done so at any point.
I may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page and the effective date at the top will be updated.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, you can reach me at djay.builds@gmail.com.