Thumbbreak
Privacy policy
At a glance
- Your scrolling activity, counts and settings stay on your phone.
- Thumbbreak never reads your messages, passwords or what you type, and never records your screen.
- No account, no ads, no analytics, and we never sell or share your data.
- The only thing sent to us is an anonymous crash or error report, so we can fix problems.
Who we are
Thumbbreak is made by QuietStack ("we", "us"). If you have any question about this policy or your data, email us.
How Thumbbreak uses Accessibility
Thumbbreak counts the reels, shorts and posts you scroll past and steps in at the limits you set. To do this it uses Android's Accessibility service, which you turn on yourself in your phone's settings.
Thumbbreak tells Android to show it only the apps you choose to limit, supported web browsers, and your home screen. Android does not show it any other app, so banking, UPI, messaging and all other apps are invisible to it.
While it is on, Thumbbreak looks at:
- In the apps you choose to limit: the layout of the screen (for example, whether the Reels or Shorts player is showing) and when you swipe to the next item.
- Your home screen: only that it is open, so the counter goes away when you leave.
- In supported web browsers: only the address in the address bar, so the same limits apply to those apps' websites.
This is read in memory, on your phone, at the moment it happens. Thumbbreak keeps only the result, such as "12 reels in Instagram today". It does not store or send what was on the screen.
Thumbbreak does not read your messages, comments, passwords, payment details or anything you type. It does not take screenshots or record the screen.
You can turn the Accessibility service off at any time in your phone's Settings › Accessibility. Thumbbreak stops counting straight away.
What is stored on your phone
Thumbbreak saves the following in its own private storage on your device. We cannot see it.
- Your settings: the apps you limit, your limits, quiet hours, theme and similar choices.
- Your activity: counts and time per app per day, streaks, locks, challenge progress and weekly reports.
- A list of apps installed on your phone that have a launcher icon, read when you open the app picker so you can choose which apps to limit. This list is not saved or sent anywhere.
Android backup
If backup is turned on for your phone, Android may include Thumbbreak's settings and history in your Google backup, or copy them when you move to a new phone, so you don't lose them. This backup is managed by Google under your Google account; we have no access to it. You can turn it off in your phone's backup settings.
What leaves your phone
Crash and error reports
We use Firebase Crashlytics, a service from Google, to learn when the app crashes or something goes wrong. A report is sent when:
- the app crashes or hits an error, or
- Thumbbreak notices it can no longer recognise the screen in an app you limit, which usually means that app has changed its design.
A report contains:
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| Technical details of the error, your phone model, Android version, Thumbbreak version, the time, and a random installation ID created by Crashlytics | Your name, email, Google account, phone number or location |
| For a recognition problem: the name and version of the app affected (for example "Instagram 350.0") and the version of Thumbbreak's recognition rules | Your counts, limits, history, or anything that was on your screen |
At most one report of each kind is sent per day. Reports are used only to fix bugs and keep counting accurate. Google processes them for us as a service provider and keeps them for up to 90 days. See Firebase's privacy information and Google's privacy policy.
Recognition updates
Apps like Instagram and YouTube change their screens often. To keep counting accurate, Thumbbreak downloads a small public file of recognition rules from GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com). Nothing about you or your activity is sent with this request. As with any website, GitHub's servers see your phone's IP address when the file is downloaded; see GitHub's privacy statement.
Sharing your progress
If you tap Share on a report or challenge card, Thumbbreak creates an image on your phone and hands it to the app you pick, such as WhatsApp. The image shows your progress and a link to Thumbbreak on Google Play. Nothing is shared unless you tap Share and choose where it goes.
Other features
- Notifications (daily summary, challenge and alerts when protection stops) are created on your phone. You can turn them off in your phone's settings.
- Spoken setup steps use your phone's own text-to-speech engine to read Thumbbreak's instructions aloud. Thumbbreak sends nothing to it except those instructions.
- The home screen widget shows today's count from your phone's storage.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Accessibility service | To see when Reels, Shorts or a feed is open in the apps you choose and count them, as described above. |
| Notifications | To send your daily summary and tell you if protection has stopped. |
| Internet | To download recognition updates and send crash reports. |
Thumbbreak may also open your phone's battery settings so you can choose to stop the phone closing it in the background. It cannot change that setting itself.
Your choices and deleting your data
- Turn off Thumbbreak's Accessibility service at any time in Settings › Accessibility.
- Delete everything Thumbbreak has stored by clearing its storage in Settings › Apps › Thumbbreak › Storage, or by uninstalling it.
- Uninstalling also stops all crash reports.
- To ask about or delete crash reports linked to your installation, email us.
We do not sell your data, share it with advertisers or data brokers, or use it to build a profile of you.
Children
Thumbbreak is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Security
Your activity is kept in the app's private storage, which other apps cannot read. Crash reports and recognition updates travel over encrypted connections (HTTPS).
Changes to this policy
If we change how Thumbbreak handles data, we will update this page and its effective date before the change reaches the app. If a change is significant, the app will tell you.