cd ../telecard

$ cat telecard/privacy.txt

telecard / android / privacy

Privacy Policy — TeleCard

Last updated: 10 August 2026

TeleCard saves your USSD codes as cards and dials them for you. This page describes exactly what the app does with your information. It is short because TeleCard does very little with it.

The essential point

TeleCard does not request internet permission. The app is therefore technically unable to send anything anywhere: not to us, not to a third-party service, not to an analytics server. This is not a promise; it is a limit enforced by Android.

There is no account, no sign-up, no advertising and no tracker.

One exception exists, and it always comes from you: the diagnostic report described below, which only you can create and send.

What is stored on your phone

  • Your cards: their name, the USSD code to dial, the fields you defined, the chosen SIM and your display preferences.
  • The last answer from your operator for each card, so it can be shown on the dashboard.
  • Execution history: the date, the duration, the SIM used and the text returned by the operator. It is deleted automatically after 180 days.
  • The name and colour you give your SIMs.
  • The last five unexpected shutdowns of the app, kept so they can be attached to a report if you decide to send one.

This data is stored in the app’s private storage. Android auto-backup and transfer to a new device are disabled, so it does not travel to your phone’s cloud either.

What is never stored

  • Your secret codes. A field marked “masked” — a PIN, for instance — is written neither to the database, nor to the history, nor to any log. It exists in memory only long enough to be sent to the operator, then it is gone.
  • Your contacts, your location, your photos, your advertising ID. The app neither requests nor accesses them.

The diagnostic report

This is the only path by which information can leave your phone, and it is taken only if you decide so.

From Settings → Report a problem, you can write what is wrong and send a report. It contains:

  • the last twenty failed runs — the date, the card, the cause of the failure and the text the operator returned, which may include a phone number or a balance;
  • the reading pattern configured on the card concerned;
  • your phone’s make, model and Android version, and the app version;
  • the last five unexpected shutdowns of the app;
  • the message you wrote.

It contains no successful run, therefore none of your current balances, and no secret code.

The app does not send it itself: it hands it to your email app, pre-addressed to elsy.s.charles@gmail.com. Nothing leaves until you press send in your email app, and you can read the report first.

Reports received are used only to fix the app. They are not published, not passed on, not used for any other purpose, and are deleted once the problem has been dealt with.

Permissions, and why

Phone and SIM state (READ_PHONE_STATE) — to know which SIMs are present and which one to send a code on.

Phone calls (CALL_PHONE) — a USSD code is dialled by the same mechanism as a call. TeleCard makes no voice call and calls no number.

Camera (CAMERA) — only when you open the QR code reader to receive cards from another phone. No image is stored or transmitted; the camera stops as soon as you leave the screen.

Device boot (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED) — to reschedule, after a restart, the daily task that clears expired history and writes the local backup.

Battery optimisation exemption (REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS) — to offer you, in a single confirmation, to stop being killed by the battery manager. Android switches the USSD window reader off whenever an app is force-stopped: without this exemption, TeleCard stops working on its own, silently. The permission only raises that confirmation; you grant or refuse it, and the app works either way.

Accessibility service (“USSD window reader”) — see below.

The accessibility service

When an operator answers a USSD code, Android does not pass that text to the app: it shows it in a system window an app cannot otherwise read. TeleCard therefore uses an accessibility service to read that window and show you the answer inside the app.

This service:

  • wakes only while a card you started is running;
  • reads only the system’s USSD window, never the content of another app;
  • never types anything, and presses only the button that closes that window;
  • transmits nothing off the phone, the app having no internet access.

It stays disabled until you enable it yourself in Android settings, and you can disable it at any time in the same place.

Sharing cards

When you export cards to a file or share them by QR code, only their definition travels: the name, the code to dial and the fields to fill in. Never an operator’s answer, never a history, never a secret code. The file is written where you choose, and the QR code appears only on your screen — nothing passes through a server.

Deleting your data

Settings → Erase all my data permanently deletes your cards, your fields and all your history. Uninstalling the app also deletes everything.

Children

TeleCard is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect any data concerning them.

Changes

Any change to this policy will be published on this page, with its date.

Contact

For any question about this policy: elsy.s.charles@gmail.com