Karen Privacy Policy

1. Data Controller

The data controller is Starlyware di Gianluca Grasso, Chieti (CH), Italy. For any privacy question or to exercise your rights, write to info@starlyware.com.

2. At a Glance

• Karen has no account, no ads, no analytics and no tracking tools. Starlyware has no server that receives what you say to Karen.
• What Karen remembers about you (name, home city, age, birthday, tastes, reminders and settings) is saved only on your phone.
• Contacts, location and notifications are optional: Karen asks for them only when a feature needs them, and you can refuse.
• Some requests need a service on the internet (for example the weather): in these cases only the data strictly needed for that request is sent.
• The backup on Google Drive is optional and goes to a private folder of your own Google account that Starlyware cannot read.
• We do not sell your data.
• You can erase everything Karen knows about you at any time with Settings → Forget everything.

3. Data We Process

3.1 Data that stays on your phone

When you talk to Karen, your words are understood directly on the phone by rules written by hand: there is no artificial intelligence and no server. Karen saves in the app's private storage only what she needs to remember: your name, your home city, your age and birthday, your favourite things, your reminders, Karen's settings (voice, language, theme, modes) and whether you supported the developer. The conversation itself is not saved: it disappears when you close the app.

If Android backup is turned on in your phone settings, Android may include these data in the backup of your Google account, as for any other app.

3.2 Optional permissions

• Contacts: to call or write to a person by name. Karen looks up the name and the number on the phone and never sends your contacts anywhere. Without this permission you can still choose a contact from the system picker.
• Approximate location: for the weather “here”, for “where am I?” and to send your position to a contact when you ask. Karen uses only the approximate location, never the precise one, and never in the background.
• Notifications: for birthday wishes and reminders.

You can refuse or withdraw these permissions at any time in the Android settings.

3.3 Weather and place names

• Weather: when you ask for the weather, the app sends rounded coordinates (about 1 km) to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, MET Norway (api.met.no), with no other data about you. For another city, the coordinates of that city are sent.
• Place names: to turn a position into the name of a city, or a city into coordinates, Karen uses the geocoding service built into Android, which on most phones is provided by Google.

3.4 Voice

Voice input uses the speech recognition service of your phone (on most phones Google's): the app does not record audio itself and receives only the recognized text. Karen's voice uses the text-to-speech engine of your phone. These services are governed by the terms and privacy policy of their provider.

3.5 Backup on Google Drive (optional)

If you use Settings → Backup, Google asks for your permission and then the app saves a copy of Karen's memory (the data listed in section 3.1) in a hidden folder of your Google Drive reserved to the app (“appDataFolder”). Only the app can read this folder: Karen cannot see your other files, and Starlyware has no access to the backup. If you turn on the weekly automatic backup, the copy is updated about once a week over Wi-Fi. The backup uses a few kilobytes of your Drive storage and is kept by Google according to the terms of your Google account.

3.6 “Support the developer” purchase

Payment is handled entirely by Google Play: we never receive your card or payment method details. Like every developer, we see in the Google Play Console the order details of the purchase (order number, product, price, date and country), which we keep for accounting and tax purposes. The app only saves on your phone that you are a supporter and since when.

3.7 Update check

At start-up the app downloads a small file from www.starlyware.com to know whether a new version is available or the app is under maintenance. No data about you is sent, but, as for any website, our hosting provider records the IP address and the time of the request in the server technical logs.

3.8 Other apps and links

When you ask Karen to call, send a message or an email, navigate, play music, search the web, open Wikipedia, YouTube, a translation or another app, Karen prepares the request and opens the app or the website you need. From that moment, the data you send (for example the text of a message) is handled by that app or website under its own terms and privacy policy. Calls and messages are sent only when you confirm them in the phone or messaging app.

3.9 Diagnostics

The app contains no analytics or crash reporting tools. If you have agreed to share usage and diagnostics data with Google on your phone, Google Play may give us aggregated reports about crashes and app performance, which do not identify you.

4. Purposes and Legal Bases

• Performance of the service you request (Art. 6(1)(b)): weather, place names, voice functions, backup on Google Drive, actions on the phone, purchase.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): device permissions for contacts, location and notifications, and access to Google Drive. You can withdraw it at any time.
• Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): update check, security of the website and of the services. You can object by writing to info@starlyware.com.
• Legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c)): accounting and tax obligations for purchases, requests from authorities.

5. Recipients and Service Providers

We do not sell or transfer your data. Depending on the functions you use, data may be processed by:

• Google (Google Ireland Ltd and Google LLC): Google Play (distribution and payments), the Android services of your phone (geocoding, speech recognition, text-to-speech, Android backup) and Google Drive, if you use the backup. For Drive and for the services of your phone, Google acts under the terms you accepted with your Google account.
• MET Norway (Norwegian Meteorological Institute), only for the approximate coordinates needed for the weather forecast.
• Aruba S.p.A., which hosts www.starlyware.com, from which the app downloads the update file.
• Public authorities, only when required by law.

6. Where Your Data Is Stored

Karen's memory is stored on your phone and, if you use the backup, in your Google Drive. MET Norway is in Norway, within the European Economic Area, and our hosting provider is in Italy. Google may process data also outside the European Union, in particular in the United States: such transfers are based on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and on the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.

7. Retention

• Data on your phone: until you erase it with “Forget everything”, clear the app data or uninstall the app.
• Conversation: not saved.
• Coordinates sent for the weather: not saved by us; they are used only to answer that request.
• Backup on Google Drive: until you delete it or remove the app's access to your Drive (see section 8).
• Server technical logs: at most 12 months.
• Order details of purchases: for the period required by tax law (in Italy, 10 years).

8. Your Choices

• Erase everything Karen knows about you with Settings → Forget everything, or see it first in Settings → What Karen knows about you.
• Withdraw the contacts, location and notifications permissions in the Android settings.
• Delete the backup in Google Drive (on the web: Settings → Manage apps → Karen → Delete hidden app data) and remove the app's access to your Google account at myaccount.google.com/connections.
• Turn off the weekly automatic backup in Settings → Backup.

9. Your Rights

Under Articles 15-22 of the GDPR you have the right to:

• access your data and receive a copy;
• ask for its rectification or erasure;
• ask for the restriction of processing or object to it;
• receive the data you provided in a structured format (portability);
• withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out;
• lodge a complaint with the Italian Data Protection Authority (www.garanteprivacy.it) or with the supervisory authority of your country.

Since almost all of Karen's data stays on your phone or in your Google Drive, you can exercise most of these rights directly with the options in section 8. For anything else, write to info@starlyware.com. We reply within one month.

10. People in Canada

Starlyware is based in Italy and the GDPR applies to the processing described in this policy. If you are in Canada, we also follow the principles of the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where it applies, of Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector.

• Accountability: Gianluca Grasso, owner of Starlyware, is responsible for our compliance with privacy rules and can be reached at info@starlyware.com.
• Consent: the app uses your personal information only for the purposes described in this policy, with your consent or as the law permits. You can withdraw your consent at any time by refusing the permissions, erasing Karen's memory or turning off the backup. Some features may then no longer be available.
• Your rights: you can ask us for access to your personal information, to know how it is used and shared, to correct it and to delete it. We reply within 30 days and do not charge a fee. If you live in Quebec you can also ask to receive your information in a structured, commonly used technological format.
• Transfers outside Canada: the services listed in this policy are located in the European Economic Area and, for Google, possibly in the United States. Your information can therefore be accessed by courts, law enforcement and national security authorities of those countries, under their laws.
• Security incidents: if a breach of security safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the competent authorities as required by law.
• Questions and complaints: write to us first at info@starlyware.com. You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (www.priv.gc.ca) or, if you live in Quebec, to the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (www.cai.gouv.qc.ca).

11. Children

Karen is intended for users aged 13 and over. Younger children should use it together with a parent or guardian. The app has no account and sends no personal data to Starlyware; if you believe a child has sent us personal data by email, write to us and we will delete it.

12. Security

Data is saved in the app's private storage, which other apps cannot read. All communication with MET Norway, Google Drive and www.starlyware.com is encrypted (HTTPS/TLS). The backup on Google Drive is protected by your Google account.

13. Changes

We may update this policy for new features of the app or changes in the law. The date of the last update is shown at the top. In case of important changes we will let you know in the notes of the app update on Google Play.