Privacy policy.

01 — Controller

Data controller and contact

Massimo Greco — Italy
e-mail: mg [at] bn-dev.it
or the site's contact form (in Italian)

The data you put in Valbard stays encrypted on your device: the controller has no access to it and does not process it. The controller only processes the data you send yourself by writing to the contact address (your e-mail address and the content of your message), to reply to you and for as long as needed to handle your request.

02 — What it does

What the app does

Valbard is a vault for documents: it keeps PDFs and photos (ID cards, contracts, insurance policies, invoices…) encrypted on the phone, sorted in boxes, with expiry dates, reminders and a search that also reads the text inside documents. It opens with your fingerprint or with the recovery key.

03 — Data on the phone

Data the app keeps on the device

• the documents you import or photograph (PDFs and photos), with the information contained in the files, including photo data such as the date and place it was taken: it stays inside the encrypted file; the app only uses the date taken as the document date and does not show the place;
• the data of each card: title, file name, box, category, tags, dates, expiry date and notes, and the names of boxes and categories;
• the text read from documents for search, and the latest searches that led to opening something;
• a few settings outside the encrypted part, because they are needed while the vault is locked: theme, automatic lock time, reminder time and advance notice, folder and date of the last backup. They contain nothing from your documents.

How they are protected. Every document is encrypted with AES-256 as soon as you store it; the database with cards, read text and searches is fully encrypted too. The main key is never written in clear: it stays locked in the Android Keystore, usable only with a registered fingerprint, and in a copy protected by the recovery key that the app creates on first launch and that you keep. The developer has no copy of the key: if you lose both phone and recovery key, nobody can open your documents, not even the developer.

To show or read a document the app decrypts it in memory; when a temporary file is needed (for the PDF viewer) it sits in the app's private folder and is deleted when the document is closed, at every lock and at startup. Valbard's screens are excluded from screenshots and from the recent apps preview.

04 — Permissions

Permissions requested

Valbard does not request Internet, camera, storage, location, contacts or microphone. To take a photo it uses the phone's camera app, which hands the photo directly to Valbard without saving it in the gallery; to choose a file or the backup folder it uses Android's picker, and the app only sees what you choose.

05 — Internet

No Internet connection

Valbard has no INTERNET permission and does not connect to any server: it does not look for updates (Google Play takes care of that), sends no statistics and no error reports. Text recognition (Google's ML Kit, included in the app) also works only on the phone. Processing by the store is governed by Google's terms.

06 — Reminders

Expiry reminders

Expiry dates are in the encrypted database, which cannot be read while the vault is locked. For this reason, while the vault is open, the app prepares the reminders in advance with Android's alarm clock: each one contains only the number of documents and the days left, never titles or boxes.

07 — Backup

Backup and data transfer

Valbard is excluded from Android's automatic backup to your Google account and from automatic transfer to a new phone: documents leave the phone only with Valbard's own backup.

The backup you make. From «Security and backup» you can save a .bnvault file with all documents and the database, still encrypted: it opens only with the recovery key. The app saves it in the folder you choose; if you turn on «Save on exit» it updates it when you leave the app, only if something has changed. Valbard does not send it to anyone: if you choose a folder synced with a cloud service (for example Google Drive), the file goes to that service, which receives an encrypted copy.

08 — Deletion

Retention and deletion

Data stays on the device until you delete it. You can do so:

• by deleting a document, a box or a category in the app;
• by clearing Valbard's data from Android's settings, or by uninstalling the app: documents, database and keys are deleted.

Backups you have saved stay where you put them: delete them from there.

09 — Security

Security and children

Besides encryption, the vault locks by itself when you lock your phone, when you leave the app or after the minutes of inactivity you choose. Keep the recovery key somewhere safe: without it and without your fingerprint the vault does not open. Valbard is not aimed at children and does not carry out profiling or targeted advertising.

10 — Rights

Your rights

Under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) you can request access to the personal data concerning you, its rectification or erasure, the restriction of processing, and object to processing, by writing to the e-mail address or using the contact form given in section 01.

The controller does not hold the data kept in Valbard, because it is only on your device and encrypted: to view, change or delete it you use the app's functions described in section 08.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Italian data protection authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) or with the supervisory authority of the country where you live.

11 — Changes

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated to reflect changes to the app or to the law. The version in force is always published at this address, with the date of the last update at the top. If the versions differ, the Italian text prevails.