Char Launcher Privacy Policy

Effective date: 5 October 2026

Char Launcher (“Char”) is an Android home screen app made by Black Flame Digital (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what information Char uses, where it goes, and the choices you have.

In short: Char has no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and we don’t run any servers that receive your data. Your pages, settings and news preferences stay on your phone. Char connects to the internet only to fetch the weather and the news feed, when you’ve turned those on, and to check with Google Play whether you own Char Pro.

1. Information That Stays on Your Phone

Char stores the following in its own private storage on your device. We never receive it.

Your pages: their names, colors, which apps appear on each, their order, custom app names and the widgets you’ve added.
Your settings, including news feed settings and any feed addresses you’ve added.
What the news feed has learned: how often you open or scroll past stories from each topic and outlet, your “More” and “Less” choices, and which stories you’ve opened (kept for 4 days).

2. Permissions and What They’re Used For

List of installed apps. As a home screen, Char reads which apps are installed so it can show and open them. This list stays on your phone.
Notification access (optional, off until you allow it). Used only to show a dot next to apps that have notifications. Char keeps the names of those apps in memory while it’s running. It never reads, stores or sends the content of your notifications.
Approximate location (optional). Used only when a page shows the weather. See “Weather” below.
Internet. Used for weather, the news feed and Google Play purchases, as described below.
Request to uninstall apps. Lets the app menu open Android’s own uninstall confirmation. Nothing is removed without that confirmation.

3. When Char Connects to the Internet

Every request includes your IP address, as any internet connection does, and identifies itself as “CharLauncher” with the app version. Char doesn’t send your name, an account, an advertising ID, or details about your phone. Each service below receives requests directly from your phone, and its own privacy policy applies.

3.1 Weather

If a page shows the weather, Char sends your approximate location to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway, api.met.no) to get the forecast. Before it’s sent, the location is rounded to about 11 km (0.1°). Char asks for an update at most every 30 minutes, and only while Char is on screen. Char doesn’t keep a history of your location. Weather data is provided by MET Norway under the CC BY 4.0 license. See MET Norway’s privacy information.

3.2 News Feed

If you turn on the news feed, Char downloads the public RSS or Atom feeds of the sources you choose, along with the images for their stories. Depending on your settings, these come from:

The outlets you select: BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, Sky News (and Sky Sports), Ars Technica, Wired, The Verge, Engadget and Variety.
Google News, if you choose it as the source. Its feed address includes the topics you follow and your phone’s language and country.
Any feed or website address you add yourself.

These requests contain only the feed or image address. What the feed learns about your interests is never sent to them, or to anyone else. When you open a story, it opens in your browser or the outlet’s app, and that website’s privacy policy applies.

3.3 Char Pro Purchases

Char Pro is bought through Google Play. Google processes the payment, and we never see your payment details. Char asks Google Play on your phone whether you own Char Pro. Google Play gives us limited order information, such as an order number, date, price and country, which we use only for refunds, support and our accounting. See Google’s Privacy Policy.

4. Widgets and Other Apps

Widgets you add to Char are provided and run by their own apps, which show their own content and follow their own privacy policies. Char only displays them.

5. Backups

If Android backup is turned on for your phone, Android may include Char’s data (your pages, settings, feeds and what the news feed has learned) in your Google account backup. The same data can move when you transfer to a new phone. This is managed by Android and Google, not by us, and you can control it in your phone’s settings. Your Char Pro status isn’t backed up. It’s checked again with Google Play.

6. Advertising, Analytics and Tracking

Char contains no advertising and no analytics or crash-reporting tools. It doesn’t track you across apps or websites, and we don’t sell or share your information.

7. Children

Char is not directed at children under 13. It doesn’t collect personal information from anyone, children included.

8. Your Choices

Turn off weather on a page, or remove Char’s location permission in Android settings.
Remove notification access in Android settings.
Turn off the news feed, or turn off “Learn what I like”. Use “Forget what Char learned” to erase what the feed has learned.
Clear Char’s storage in Android settings, or uninstall Char, to delete everything it has stored on your phone.

Because we don’t hold your data, there is nothing for us to export or delete on our side. If you have questions about a Google Play order, contact us at the address below.

9. Changes to This Policy

If Char’s use of information changes, we’ll update this page and its effective date before the change takes effect in the app.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, contact Black Flame Digital at support@blackflamedigital.com.