Privacy Policy — Punch Assist
Last updated: 2 October 2026
Punch Assist is a shift tracker for Android, published by NewtonArc (Sunil Tandon). This policy explains what the app handles, what stays on your phone, and what leaves it.
Contact: support@newtonarc.com
The short version
Punch Assist has no account, no sign-in and no server of its own. Your work hours, schedule, name, break log, water, walk and Mindful counts and saved places are stored only on your device. We cannot see them. If you uninstall the app, that data is gone unless you backed it up or exported it yourself.
There is no advertising, no usage tracking and no analytics. The one thing that can leave your device on its own is a crash report, sent to Google Firebase Crashlytics so bugs can be fixed, and you can switch that off in the app.
What stays on your device
All of this is stored in the app's private storage and is never sent to us:
| Data | Why the app has it |
|---|---|
| Punch in/out times, breaks and shift lengths | The core function: tracking your working day |
| Your first name (optional) | To greet you on the home screen |
| Your working days and hours | To run the countdown and reminders |
| Water, walk and Mindful session counts | To show your habits and count them toward your Balance score |
| Your Office and Home places (latitude and longitude), only if you save them | To tell whether you are at the office or at home when you punch in |
| Balance score and badges | A private score worked out on your phone. There is no leaderboard and nothing is uploaded or ranked |
| Your settings and reminder choices | To make the app behave the way you set it |
Purchases and tips. Pro and the optional tips are paid for entirely through Google Play. The app only remembers, on your device, whether Pro is active. We never see your payment details, your purchase history or your Google account, and nothing about a purchase is sent to us.
Backups. Android may copy your shift history (not your settings or saved places) to your own Google account through its built-in Auto Backup, which is how your hours can follow you to a new phone. You can turn that off in Android's own settings. A backup file you create in the app (Settings → Your data → Back up) is saved wherever you choose and goes nowhere else.
Export. Settings → Your data → Export to CSV hands your punch history to whichever app you choose to share it with. Where it goes after that is governed by that app's policy, not this one.
Removing it. Settings → Your data → Clear all data, or uninstalling the app, removes everything the app stored.
Steps and Health Connect (optional)
Punch Assist can count your daily steps toward your Balance score and a "Steady steps" badge. This is off until you turn it on and the app works fully without it.
- What is read: your daily step count and nothing else. The app asks Health Connect for read access to Steps only. It never writes to Health Connect.
- When: when you open the app, for the current week and recent weeks. The numbers are shown on screen and used to work out your Balance score and badges.
- Where it goes: nowhere. Steps are not saved by the app, not included in backups or CSV exports, and not sent to us or anyone else. They are used only on your phone, and only for the features you see.
- Your control: switch off Steps in the app and it stops reading (it keeps no copy, so there is nothing to delete). You can review or remove the app's access at any time in Health Connect (Android Settings → Health Connect). Steps you recorded stay in Health Connect and are not changed.
Health Connect is Google's on-device health data store; its own policy governs the data it holds.
Location (optional)
Location is optional. The app works completely without it.
- If you save Office and Home places and turn on Smart Mode, the app checks your location once, at the moment you punch in, while the app is open, to tag the shift as Office, Home or Hybrid. The result is a word, not a coordinate.
- The coordinates of the places you save are stored on your device only. They are never uploaded, shared or sold.
- The app does not request background location and does not track you when you are not using it.
- You can revoke location permission at any time in Android Settings and switch Smart Mode off in the app.
What can leave your device
Crash reports: Firebase Crashlytics (can be switched off)
If the app crashes, a report is sent to Google Firebase Crashlytics so the problem can be fixed. A report contains the crash stack trace, the device model, the Android version, the app version and basic device state at the time (such as free memory and screen orientation). Crashlytics also assigns a random installation identifier so repeated crashes from one device can be grouped together. It is not linked to your name or your Google account. Reports never include your punch times, name, saved places or coordinates.
You can turn this off in Settings → Crash reports. Once it is off, no further crash reports are sent.
Google Play
Purchases and tips are processed by Google Play under Google's own terms and privacy policy.
Email you choose to send
About → Send feedback opens your own email app with a message addressed to us. It pre-fills the app version, your Android version and your phone model so we can help you; you can delete that line before sending. Nothing is sent unless you press send.
No usage analytics
The app contains no analytics SDK. It does not measure app opens, sessions, screens or features used. It does not have access to your device's advertising ID, and the app declares no advertising permission.
What the app does not do
- No account, sign-up or password
- No advertising, ad networks or ad targeting
- No analytics or usage tracking
- No access to your advertising ID
- No health data stored, uploaded or shared (steps, if you connect them, are only read on your phone), and no writing to Health Connect
- No selling or sharing of personal data
- No background location tracking
- No server of ours that stores your data
Notifications
The app sends local notifications: start-of-day and finish reminders, water and walk nudges, and the ongoing shift timer. They are created on your device. Nothing is sent to a server to produce them.
Children
Punch Assist is a workplace tool and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
Third-party services
These are the only third parties that can receive any data:
- Google Firebase Crashlytics (crash reports): https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy
- Google Play (purchases and tips): https://policies.google.com/privacy
Health Connect is where you keep step data; the app only reads it on your phone after you allow it.
Your rights
Because your data lives on your device and we hold no copy of it, you already have full control: export it, clear it, or uninstall. If you are in a place with data-protection rights, such as under the GDPR, and you want to ask about the limited crash data above, write to support@newtonarc.com.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, the "Last updated" date above changes and the new version is published at the same address. Significant changes will also be mentioned in the app's release notes.
Contact
NewtonArc (Sunil Tandon) · support@newtonarc.com