Privacy Policy

1Who we are

Lindencroft (“the app”) is a family tree and genealogy app for Android. You record people, their relationships, life events, places, sources and notes; view them as charts; see how two people are related; import and export GEDCOM files; and print or save charts and family books, all on your phone. It is developed and published by Zydeno (“we”, “us”, “the developer”), an independent developer. For anything related to privacy, write to support@zydeno.com. More about us: zydeno.com.

2Scope of this policy

This policy covers the Lindencroft Android app distributed through Google Play. It explains what the app stores, what it can hand over and when, and how it helps you protect information about your relatives. It does not cover Google Play and Android themselves, or the apps and services you choose to save, share or print a file through (a cloud drive, an e-mail app, a messenger, a print service), or any genealogy website or program into which you load a file exported from Lindencroft. Those are governed by their own policies; for Google see the Google Privacy Policy.

Our Terms of Use describe the rules for using the app.

3What the developer does not collect

Lindencroft has no backend of ours and no internet access at all (see §6). The developer does not receive or store any personal data about you or your relatives through the app. The only exception is an e-mail you choose to send us yourself. In particular, the app:

• has no account, sign-in, e-mail or phone-number field, and no online family tree;
• never connects to a Zydeno server. The privacy and terms pages open in your browser; the app itself does not contact zydeno.com;
• contains no advertising, analytics, attribution or crash-reporting SDKs and no Google Play services or Firebase libraries. The app has no ads and no analytics;
• does not use the Android advertising ID (the permission is removed from the app) and does not create any device or user identifier;
• does not request location, camera, microphone, contacts, SMS, call-log, storage or biometric permissions, and does not read your files on its own;
• does not search record collections, does not match your tree against anyone else’s, and has no DNA or ethnicity features;
• does not track you across other apps or websites and does not sell, rent or share personal information with anyone.

4Data on your device

Everything you create in Lindencroft lives in the app’s private storage on your phone:

• Trees and people: tree names; people’s names and alternative names, sex or gender as you record it, living status, family links and the type of each relationship (for example birth, adoption, step or foster), partnerships and their events;
• Events, places and dates: births, marriages, deaths and other events with dates as you write them (including approximate dates and other calendars), places in the wording you choose, and any coordinates contained in files you import;
• Evidence: sources, repositories, citations, transcriptions and notes;
• Imports: the contents of GEDCOM files you open, including tags the app keeps unchanged for round-trip, and the import report;
• Settings: language, date order, paper and other format preferences, theme, haptics, and privacy preferences such as the living-person threshold;
• Working data: an undo history, temporary files prepared for sharing or printing (deleted after use or at the next start), and, after you restore a backup, a temporary snapshot of the previous data so you can undo the restore.

To choose sensible defaults, the app reads the country code of your SIM card and mobile network (if any) and your phone’s region setting, and uses it on the phone only to preselect date order and paper size. This needs no permission, nothing is sent anywhere, and you can change every format in Settings.

Lindencroft opts out of Android cloud backup and device-to-device transfer, so its data is not copied to your Google account or to a new phone automatically. To move your data, use “Back up all data” and “Restore” (see §8). The example family in the app is fictional, is bundled with the app and never changes your own trees.

5Information about your relatives

A family tree is mostly information about other people. You enter it yourself, and it stays on your device. Zydeno never receives it and is not the controller of it.

• Personal use. Keeping a family tree for yourself and your family is usually a purely personal or household activity. In the EU, the UK and many other places, such activity falls outside data-protection law (for example, Article 2(2)(c) GDPR).
• When you make it public. This exemption may no longer apply when you make the tree public, for example by posting it online or uploading it to a genealogy website. You are then responsible for having a lawful basis, which often means asking living relatives first. Some countries also protect information about people who have died.
• Sensitive details. Religion, nationality, cause of death, health, relationships and similar details are optional fields that you fill in yourself. The app does not analyse them, does not draw conclusions or statistics from them, and leaves them out of exports, prints and images by default.
• How Lindencroft helps. The app estimates who is living, uses “Name only” for living people in every GEDCOM export, print and image by default, respects GEDCOM privacy restrictions (RESN “confidential”, “locked” and “privacy”), leaves out details of living minors unless you include them, warns you before you share a file, and lets you delete any person or tree at any time. Living-person detection treats anyone without dates as living unless you turn on an optional setting that treats very old undated ancestors as not living, based on their descendants’ birth dates; it is an estimate, you can reverse it for any person, and you should check it before sharing a file.
• Requests from relatives. If a relative asks you to remove or correct their data, you can do that in the app. We cannot do it for you, because we do not have it.

6No internet access and permissions

Lindencroft does not use the internet. The app has no Android INTERNET permission and no network-state permission, and the advertising-ID permission is removed from its manifest, so it technically cannot send data over a network. It contains no web view and does not load maps, fonts or anything else online. All features, fonts and texts are bundled in the app and run on your phone.

The app requests no permissions that give access to your personal data. Files are opened and saved only through Android’s system file pickers, which give the app access only to the file you select.

A few things can open outside the app, only when you tap them:

• the links to this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use open in your web browser;
• a web address recorded in your tree (for example one that came with an imported GEDCOM file) is shown as text and opens in your browser only after you confirm; the app never loads it itself;
• “Support” opens your e-mail app with a new message addressed to support@zydeno.com. No tree data or device information is attached. You write the message and it is sent only if you send it yourself.

From the moment your browser or e-mail app takes over, that app, not Lindencroft, handles the connection.

7Exports, printing and sharing

• Privacy screen first. Before any GEDCOM or GEDZIP file, PDF poster or book, PNG image, print job or share, the app shows how living people will appear: Name only, Hide as “Private” or Full details, and it can leave living people out of a chart entirely. Name only is preselected unless you choose a different default in Settings → Privacy. Records marked private or confidential, details of living minors and sensitive fields (religion, nationality, cause of death) stay out unless you include them on that screen. “Back up all data” has no privacy screen: a backup is a complete copy for your own use (see §8).
• Export: files are written only to the place you choose in Android’s system “save as” picker. The app does not need, and does not have, storage permission.
• Share: when you share a file, Android’s share sheet passes it to the app you pick. Before that, the app reminds you that the file may contain personal details of your relatives.
• Print: charts and books are passed to the Android print system and to the print service you select.
• Import: a GEDCOM file, GEDZIP archive or backup is read only from the file you select in the system file picker. A GEDCOM file or GEDZIP archive is shown in a preview before anything is added; a backup is checked to be a Lindencroft backup before it replaces your data. The app does not follow links or file paths that point outside what you selected.

The pickers may offer locations provided by other apps, for example a cloud drive. If you save or share a file there, that app’s own privacy policy applies to it. Once a file leaves the app, we cannot see or control it.

8Backup and deletion

• Back up all data (Settings → Your data) saves all trees and settings in one file in a place you choose. A backup contains everything, including details of living relatives, so keep it somewhere private. Restore replaces your current data with the backup you select; right after a restore you can undo it and get your previous data back.
• Delete a person or a tree inside the app at any time. The app shows what will be removed and offers a short undo before the data is erased.
• Delete all data in Settings removes all trees, caches and settings. The app offers to make a backup first. Deleted data cannot be recovered by us, because we never had a copy.
• Uninstalling the app removes its data from your phone. Backups and files you exported yourself stay where you saved them. Delete those separately.

9Legal bases for processing

Where the EU or UK GDPR, or a similar law such as the Swiss FADP or Brazil’s LGPD, applies, these are the legal bases for the limited processing described in this policy:

The app makes no automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you, does not build a profile of you and does not analyse special categories of personal data. Optional details you may record yourself, such as religion, nationality or cause of death, stay on your device under your control; we process no data about your relatives.

10Retention

Data in the app stays on your device until you delete it or remove the app. We keep nothing from the app, because we receive nothing from it, and we process no data about your relatives. If you e-mail us, we keep your message only as long as needed to answer it and fix the problem, and you can ask us to delete it at any time.

11Your privacy rights

Privacy laws in many countries give you rights over your personal data. Because Lindencroft keeps your data on your phone and the developer does not receive it, most of these rights are in your own hands: you can view, correct, export and delete everything in the app (§8) and withdraw permissions in Android Settings. For data you have sent us, such as e-mails, write to support@zydeno.com.

EU and UK representative. The individual developer does not process personal data of people in the EU/EEA or the UK except occasional e-mails you choose to send to support. This occasional processing does not involve large-scale processing of special-category or criminal-offence data and is unlikely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms. Under Article 27(2)(a) GDPR and Article 27(2)(a) UK GDPR, it does not require an EU or UK representative, so none is appointed. Contact us directly at support@zydeno.com; you can also complain to your local supervisory authority.

Rights by region. A summary; the law where you live decides the details.

• European Union, EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland (GDPR, UK GDPR, Swiss FADP): access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, objection to processing based on legitimate interests, withdrawal of consent at any time, and complaint to a supervisory authority, for example in the country where you live or work (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office).
• United States (California CCPA as amended by the CPRA, and the comprehensive privacy laws of other states such as Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas and Oregon): to know and access, delete, correct and port personal information; to opt out of its sale or sharing, of targeted advertising and of profiling; to limit the use of sensitive personal information; to appeal a refusal; to use an authorised agent; and not to be discriminated against for using these rights. Notice for California residents: in the last 12 months the developer has not collected personal information through the app, other than e-mails you chose to send us. We have not sold or shared personal information, and we do not use sensitive personal information. Global Privacy Control signals are honoured where the law requires; today there is nothing to opt out of.
• Canada (PIPEDA and provincial laws, including Québec’s Law 25): access, correction and withdrawal of consent; complaints to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, in Québec, the Commission d’accès à l’information.
• Brazil (LGPD): confirmation of processing, access, correction, anonymisation, blocking or deletion, portability, information about sharing and revocation of consent; complaints to the ANPD.
• Japan (APPI): disclosure, correction, suspension of use or deletion; complaints to the Personal Information Protection Commission.
• South Korea (PIPA): access, correction, deletion, suspension of processing and withdrawal of consent; complaints to the Personal Information Protection Commission or the KISA privacy centre. The person responsible for personal information is the developer, reachable at support@zydeno.com.
• Australia and New Zealand (Privacy Act 1988, Privacy Act 2020): access and correction; complaints to the OAIC or the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.
• Other countries (for example India’s DPDP Act, Singapore’s PDPA, South Africa’s POPIA or Türkiye’s KVKK): the rights your local law gives you. Write to us and we will respond in line with it.

How we respond. We answer within one month, or sooner or later where your local law sets another period (for example 45 days under the CCPA), and we may extend it where the law allows. We may ask for information to confirm that a request comes from you. Requests are free unless they are manifestly unfounded or excessive. If we cannot do what you ask, we explain why and how you can appeal or complain.

12International users

Lindencroft is available in many countries. The developer does not receive the data you keep in the app, so we do not transfer it anywhere.

If you e-mail us, your message is processed by our e-mail provider and may be stored on servers outside your country. Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies to such a transfer, it relies on an adequacy decision, on standard contractual clauses offered by the provider, or on the transfer being necessary to answer your request.

This policy is written in English. If a translation is offered, the English version prevails unless your local law requires otherwise.

13Security

Your data is kept in the app’s private storage, which other apps cannot read on an unmodified Android device, and it is protected by your phone’s own lock screen and device encryption. Lindencroft has no network access, so there is no connection that could be intercepted.

Exported files and backups are as safe as the place you put them. Protect your phone with a screen lock and keep your system up to date. No method of storage is completely secure.

14Ads, purchases and future versions

Today. The current version of Lindencroft is free of charge, shows no ads, has no in-app purchases or subscriptions, and contains no advertising, analytics or payment SDKs. This describes the app as it is now, not a promise about future versions. Future versions may introduce advertising, paid features, in-app purchases or subscriptions, or other optional services.

If ads are introduced. Ads would be supplied by a third-party ad network, for example Google AdMob. Ad networks typically process your device’s advertising ID, IP address, approximate location derived from the IP address, device and app information and your interactions with ads, in order to show ads, limit repetition, measure performance and prevent fraud, and, only where you allow it, to personalise ads. Ads would also require the app to connect to the internet, which the current version cannot do.

If purchases or subscriptions are introduced. They would be processed by Google Play’s billing system. Google handles your payment details under the Google Privacy Policy. We would receive only what is needed to deliver and verify a purchase, such as a purchase token, the product, its status, the country and the currency, never your full card or bank details.

Before any such change we will update this policy with a new effective date and version, describing what data is processed, by whom, why and how you can control it; update the Google Play Data safety section; mention the change in the release notes; ask for your consent where the law requires it (for example for personalised ads and non-essential access to your device in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, through a consent tool that meets Google’s requirements); and offer the opt-outs the law requires (for example under US state privacy laws). The change applies only from the app version that introduces it. Data already stored in the app will not be used for advertising without telling you first and, where required, getting your consent. We will not knowingly show personalised ads to children (§15).

15Children

Lindencroft is intended for adults and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect any information from children; in fact the app collects no information from anyone. A family tree may include details of children in your family: the app treats living minors as private in every export, print and image unless you deliberately include their details. If you are under the age of majority where you live, use the app with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

16Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when we change the app (including any change described in §14), when the services the app uses change, or when the law changes. The effective date and version at the top of this page show which version applies, and the version history (§17) summarises every change.

For a material change, for example new data leaving your device, ads or purchases, we update this page and the Google Play Data safety section before the app version with that change is published, describe it in the release notes, and ask for your consent in the app where the law requires it. Changes do not apply retroactively to data processed before them. Earlier versions are available on request from support@zydeno.com.

17Version history

18Contact

• Developer (controller): Zydeno, the developer of Lindencroft on Google Play
• E-mail for privacy questions and requests: support@zydeno.com
• Website: zydeno.com

We aim to answer within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can contact your local data-protection authority.

See also the Terms of Use.