Privacy policy

The short version

Your messages, calls, notifications, clipboard and files move only between devices you have paired with each other. They do not pass through, and are not stored on, any server operated by us or by a third party. We do not have an account system. The only records we hold are email addresses you choose to give us and, if you buy Synqed Pro, a record of that purchase and of the phones it is activated on. Activating a licence is the one time the app talks to our server, and none of your synced data goes with it.

There is one exception, and it is your choice. If you connect an AI app on your Mac, that app can read your synced data and act on your phone, and what it reads goes to that app and its model, often in the cloud. See AI apps you connect below.

What we collect

Nothing you sync. We operate no backend service that receives your synced data. Your messages, call log, contacts, notifications, clipboard contents and files are read on your phone, encrypted, and sent directly to your own Mac over your local network. The only thing the apps send us is licence activation data, described below, and only if you activate a Synqed Pro licence on your phone. The Mac app sends us nothing.

The phone also sends your Mac the list of apps installed on it (name, package name and type), so you can mute apps there. It doesn't come to us.

The Mac app shows your contacts, call log and message threads while connected. It keeps notification history for seven days and a cache of app icons in its Application Support folder on your Mac. “Forget all devices” in the Mac app deletes both. Deleting the Mac app doesn't delete that folder by itself.

Screen sharing

A share runs only after you approve Android's prompt on your phone, each time. While it runs, everything on your screen goes as encrypted video to your paired Mac, which can save screenshots and recordings there. Android shows that sharing is on, and its notification has a Stop button.

AI apps you connect

This is off by default. If you turn on AI assistants in Synqed on your Mac and connect an AI app such as Claude, that app can read your phone's status, notifications, messages, calls, contacts and files through Synqed. One-time codes are withheld unless you allow them on the Mac.

It can also act, depending on the mode you choose: send texts and place calls from your phone, send files, set the clipboard and control media. In Ask first you approve each one. In Auto it acts without asking, except for numbers not in your contacts, a text or clipboard text containing a one-time code, and more than 3 texts or calls in 10 minutes.

During a whole-screen share, with Accessibility access turned on, it can also read the text and controls on your screen, take screenshots and recordings, and tap, swipe, type and open apps. An AI app can ask for a share, which you still approve on your phone, and it can use a share you started yourself.

What an AI app reads goes to that app and its model, often in the cloud, under that app's own privacy policy. We don't control what it does with it, and Synqed doesn't send this data to a server of ours.

If you give us your email address

Two optional forms on this website ask for an email address: joining the Android test, and getting an email when Synqed updates. The address is stored in a database hosted by Supabase and used only for that purpose. Update emails are sent only after you confirm by clicking a link, and every one has a one-click unsubscribe link. To have an address removed entirely, email bestine1234@gmail.com.

If you buy Synqed Pro

Synqed Pro is sold through Dodo Payments, which acts as our payment processor and merchant of record. When you buy, Dodo receives your name, email address, country and payment details. Card details are entered on Dodo's checkout and handled by Dodo; they never reach us. Dodo processes that data under its own privacy policy, as an independent controller for the payment and its tax obligations.

Dodo then tells us about the purchase, and we keep a licence record: your email address, the licence id, Dodo's payment id, your country, and the amount and currency paid. We use it to issue and email your licence key, to send it again if you ask us by email, to handle refunds, and for our tax and accounting records. It is stored in our Supabase database alongside the email addresses described above.

Your licence key itself contains the email address you bought with, so the app can show who it is licensed to.

If you activate Synqed Pro on a phone

A licence works on up to two phones. To enforce that, and to honour refunds and blocked keys, the Android app contacts our server. We keep an activation record for each phone:

• the licence id;
• a random id the app generates for each install, which is not a hardware id and changes if you reinstall;
• the phone's make and model, so you can recognise your phones;
• when it was activated and when it last checked in.

The app sends your licence key (which contains your email address) with the random id and phone model once, when you activate. After that it sends a signed activation token holding only the licence id and random id, at most once a dayand only when online, and again if you remove the licence from the phone. Our host, Supabase, also sees your IP address when the app connects, as any server would; we don't store it in the activation record.

That is all it sends. Your messages, calls, notifications, clipboard and files are never part of it. Until you activate a licence, the app doesn't contact our server at all.

Who is responsible for your data

The controller of the personal data described on this page is Bestine Payyappilly, the developer of Synqed. Contact: bestine1234@gmail.com. Synqed does not have a data protection officer.

Why we use it, and on what legal basis

The only personal data we hold is what you give us through the forms above, the licence record if you buy Synqed Pro, the activation records if you activate it, plus the technical logs our hosts keep when you visit the site or download the Mac app.

• Android test sign-ups: your email address, used to add you to the Google Play test and to email you about test builds. Legal basis: your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)), given by submitting the form.
• Update emails: your email address, used only to send you an email when a new version is released. Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), given when you click the confirmation link.
• Synqed Pro licences: the licence record described above, used to issue, resend and refund your licence. Legal basis: performing our contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b)). We also keep it to meet our tax and accounting obligations, for which the legal basis is legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)).
• Licence activation: the activation records described above, used to enforce the two-phone limit and to honour refunds and blocked keys. Legal basis: performing our contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b)).
• Hosting and download logs: your IP address and browser details, recorded by Vercel and GitHub to serve the site and the Mac app downloads and keep them secure. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a working, secure website (Art. 6(1)(f)).

Giving us your email address for the test or update emails is optional and is not a legal or contractual requirement; without it, you simply won't receive test invites or update emails. Buying Synqed Pro does require an email address, because that is where your licence is sent. We make no automated decisions about you, and we do not sell or share your data for advertising.

Who receives it, and where it is stored

Email addresses, licence records and activation records are stored by Supabase (database hosting, in Tokyo, Japan). Email addresses are passed to our email delivery provider only to send the emails described above, including licence emails. Payment data is handled by Dodo Payments, as described above. Android testers' addresses are also entered in Google Play Console. This website is hosted by Vercel and Mac app downloads by GitHub, both in the United States. Where data leaves the European Economic Area or the UK, these providers rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision.

How long we keep it

• Update emails: your address is kept while you are subscribed. When you unsubscribe it is kept only as an unsubscribed record, so it can't be added back without you confirming again, until you ask us to delete it.
• Android test: your address is kept for as long as the test runs, or until you ask us to remove it.
• Synqed Pro licences: the licence record is kept for as long as tax law requires us to keep records of sales, typically up to 8 years for tax records, and then deleted. A refund doesn't delete it, since the refund is part of the same record.
• Activation records: kept with the licence record and deleted with it. Freeing up a phone marks its record as released rather than deleting it.
• Hosting logs: kept by Vercel and GitHub for their own standard periods.

Your rights

You can ask us to show you the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, or give you a copy in a portable format. Some of these rights are limited for the licence record while we are legally required to keep it. Email bestine1234@gmail.com and we'll reply within one month.

Withdrawing consent: you can withdraw your consent at any time, using the one-click unsubscribe link in any update email or by emailing us. This doesn't affect anything we did with your consent before you withdrew it.

Complaints: if you think we have mishandled your data, you have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority, in particular the one in the country where you live or work (in the UK, the ICO; in India, the Data Protection Board). We would appreciate the chance to put it right first, so please write to us too.

Android permissions and why each is needed

Every permission the Android app declares is listed below. Each is used to send the corresponding data to your own paired Mac, or to act on a request from it. A connected AI app can use that data too, as described above, and INTERNET is also how licence activation reaches our server.

READ_SMS · SEND_SMS

Reads your message threads so they can be shown on your Mac, and sends messages you compose there. Message content goes to your paired Mac, and to an AI app only if you connect one.

READ_CALL_LOG · READ_PHONE_STATE

Syncs your call history to the Mac and detects an incoming call so the Mac can show who is ringing.

ANSWER_PHONE_CALLS · CALL_PHONE

Lets you accept, decline and redial from the Mac. Call audio is not captured or transmitted.

READ_CONTACTS

Resolves phone numbers to names for calls and messages. Contacts are read-only; Synqed never modifies them.

Notification access (NotificationListenerService)

Mirrors notifications to your Mac, including their actions so you can reply. Notifications the app detects as sensitive are excluded from the on-device summary feature.

Accessibility access (optional, off by default)

Lets the enhanced clipboard feature detect that you copied something, so it can be sent to your Mac. It also carries out taps, swipes and typing sent from your Mac during a screen share, and lets connected AI apps read the screen and act on your phone, as described above. It is opt-in, and the rest of the app works without it.

ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK · NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES · ACCESS_WIFI_STATE · ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE · CHANGE_WIFI_MULTICAST_STATE · INTERNET

Finds your Mac on the local network and maintains the encrypted connection to it. NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES is declared with neverForLocation: Synqed does not use network signals to derive your location, and requests no location permission at all. INTERNET also carries licence activation, as described above.

MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

Powers the file browser that lets you pull files from your phone to your Mac. Files are read only when you request them. Where this permission is unavailable, the app falls back to Android's folder picker.

FOREGROUND_SERVICE · FOREGROUND_SERVICE_CONNECTED_DEVICE · POST_NOTIFICATIONS

Keeps the connection to your Mac alive in the background and shows the persistent status notification Android requires for it.

FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PROJECTION

Screen sharing, started only after you approve Android's prompt.

SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW

Required by the optional clipboard feature to read the clipboard from the background. Not used to display advertising or overlays.

REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS

Asks you to exempt Synqed from battery optimisation so the connection survives while your phone is idle. Declining it does not disable the app.

macOS permissions

• Local Network: required to reach your phone. Without it, the app cannot open any connection at all.
• Notifications: to display mirrored notifications.

Third parties

The apps contain no advertising SDKs, no analytics SDKs and no crash reporters that transmit your content. The Android app is installed from Google Play, where Google's own privacy policy applies. Mac app downloads are hosted on GitHub, which will see your IP address when you download a file, per GitHub's privacy statement. This website is hosted on Vercel.

Website analytics: this website, not the apps, uses Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are read. Google receives your IP address, browser details and the pages you view, and sets cookies to do so. Nothing from your phone or Mac is involved. See Google's privacy policy; you can block it with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on.

Children

Synqed is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, the updated date at the top of this page will change and the revision will be noted in the release notes.

Contact

Questions about this policy: bestine1234@gmail.com.