Privacy Policy

1. Open Source Commitment

Note Counter is a 100% open source project developed and maintained by Yash Patil. This means:

• Complete Transparency: All source code is publicly available on GitHub
• Community Driven: Anyone can review, contribute, or fork the project
• No Hidden Tracking: You can inspect every line of code to verify our privacy claims
• MIT License: Free to use, modify, and distribute

2. Data Collection & Storage

Note Counter automatically collects minimal location data to improve our service and understand our global user base.

What We Collect (Automatically, One-time only):

• ✅ Country/Region - Automatically detected and submitted via IP geolocation
• ✅ IP Address Hash - Privacy-friendly hashed identifier to prevent duplicate submissions
• ✅ Regional Data - City and region information for better service localization
• ✅ Detection timestamp - When the country data was collected
• ✅ Detection method - Enhanced IP geolocation service used
• ✅ Browser Information - User agent for compatibility analysis
• ✅ Timezone - User's timezone for better service timing

Purpose of Automatic Location Data Collection:

• 🔄 Currency Prioritization - Determine which currencies to add next based on user regions
• 📊 Market Analysis - Identify which countries are our biggest consumers
• 🎯 Feature Development - Prioritize features relevant to different regions
• 🌍 Global Service Improvement - Better understand our worldwide user distribution

How We Collect Location Data:

• 🤖 Automatic Collection - Uses enhanced IP geolocation service (ipapi.co) automatically on first visit
• 🔒 One-time Per IP Address - Data is collected only once per IP address using hashed device tracking
• 🛡️ Privacy-Safe Tracking - IP addresses are hashed using SHA-256 for anonymous device identification
• 🚫 No User Interaction Required - Happens silently in the background
• 📱 Cross-Browser Protection - Prevents duplicate submissions across different browsers on same device
• 🚫 No Precise Location - Only country and regional data, no exact coordinates
• ⚡ No UI Disruption - Collection happens without showing any popup or form

What We DON'T Collect:

• ❌ Personal information (name, email, phone, address)
• ❌ Financial data or actual money amounts
• ❌ User behavior or usage analytics
• ❌ Precise location (GPS coordinates, city, address)
• ❌ Device information or browser fingerprinting
• ❌ Cookies for tracking purposes
• ❌ Third-party tracking scripts (beyond Plausible analytics)
• ❌ IP addresses (only used temporarily for country detection)

What We DO Store (Locally Only):

3. Enhanced Device Tracking Technology

🔐 Privacy-Safe IP Tracking:

• 🏠 Purpose - Ensure one-time data collection per device/location regardless of browser
• 🔒 Method - IP addresses are immediately hashed using SHA-256 cryptographic algorithm
• 📱 Cross-Browser - Prevents duplicate submissions across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc.
• 🔑 Device ID - Creates anonymous device identifier using first 12 characters of IP hash
• 🗂️ Storage - Hashed device IDs stored locally and submitted with country data

🛡️ Privacy Protection Measures:

• ❌ No Plain IP Storage - Raw IP addresses are never stored or transmitted
• 🔄 Irreversible Hashing - SHA-256 hashes cannot be reversed to original IP
• 📊 Anonymous Analytics - Device tracking is purely for preventing duplicates
• ⏳ Temporary Processing - IP addresses are used only momentarily for hashing
• 🔍 No User Profiling - Device IDs are not linked to user behavior or preferences

🔄 How Duplicate Prevention Works:

1. 🌍 IP Detection - Service detects your current IP address via ipapi.co
2. 🔐 Instant Hashing - IP is immediately converted to SHA-256 hash
3. 🆔 Device ID Creation - First 12 characters form anonymous device identifier
4. ✅ Duplicate Check - System checks if this device ID has submitted data before
5. 📤 Data Submission - If new device, country data is submitted with device ID
6. 💾 Local Storage - Device ID stored in browser to prevent future attempts

4. Automatic Location Data Details

Data Retention:

• 🕒 Retention Period - Country data is stored indefinitely for analytics purposes
• 📧 Data Processor - Formspree.io processes and stores the country data
• 🔄 One-time Collection - Data is collected only once per browser/device automatically
• 🗑️ No Deletion Available - Country data cannot be deleted once automatically submitted

Third-Party Services:

• 🌐 IP Geolocation - ipapi.co is used for enhanced country and regional detection
• 📝 Form Processing - Formspree.io handles the automatic country data submission
• 🔒 Encryption Service - Browser's built-in Web Crypto API for SHA-256 hashing of IP addresses
• 📊 Analytics - Plausible.io provides privacy-friendly website analytics

User Rights:

• ✅ Right to Transparency - Full disclosure of automatic data collection in this policy
• ❌ No Right to Opt-Out - Country collection is automatic and required for service improvement
• ❌ No Right to Change - Data is submitted automatically based on IP detection
• ❌ No Right to Delete - Country data cannot be removed once submitted
• ❌ No Right to Access - Individual country submissions cannot be retrieved

Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR Article 6):

• 📋 Legitimate Interest (Article 6(1)(f)) - Understanding global market distribution
• 🎯 Service Enhancement - Adding relevant currencies for different regions
• 📊 Business Analytics - Identifying our biggest consumer markets
• 🔄 Product Development - Prioritizing features based on geographic demand

5. How Your Data Stays Private

Privacy Mode Feature

Note Counter includes a built-in privacy mode that:

• Hides all amounts on screen (displays as "••••••")
• Perfect for counting in public or sensitive environments
• Functionality continues to work normally while amounts are hidden
• Toggle on/off with a single click

6. Third-Party Services

Analytics (Plausible.io)

We use Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics service that:

• ✅ Does NOT use cookies
• ✅ Does NOT track individual users
• ✅ Collects only aggregated, anonymous data
• ✅ Is GDPR, CCPA, and PECR compliant
• ✅ Data includes only: page views, referrers, and basic device/browser info

Purpose: Understand general usage patterns to improve the app (e.g., "100 people visited today")

Hosting & CDN

• Netlify: Website hosting (privacy policy: netlify.com/privacy)
• GitHub: Source code hosting (privacy policy: github.com/privacy)

7. Your Rights & Control

Complete Data Control

Since all data is stored locally on your device, you have complete control:

• Export Your Data: Use the export feature to download your data as JSON
• Delete Specific Data: Remove individual history sessions
• Clear All Data: Use browser settings to clear all local storage
• Incognito Mode: Use private browsing for temporary sessions

No Account Required

Note Counter works without any registration, login, or account creation. This means:

• No email addresses collected
• No passwords to manage
• No user profiles created
• No data associated with your identity

8. Security Measures

• HTTPS Encryption: All communications are encrypted
• No Server-Side Storage: No database with your information
• Client-Side Processing: All calculations happen in your browser
• No External API Calls: App functions completely offline after loading
• Open Source Security: Code is publicly auditable

9. International Privacy Compliance

Note Counter is designed to comply with major privacy regulations:

• GDPR (European Union): No personal data processing
• CCPA (California): No personal information sale or sharing
• PIPEDA (Canada): Minimal data collection principles
• Data Protection Act (UK): Privacy by design approach

10. Children's Privacy

Note Counter is safe for all ages:

• No personal information is collected from anyone, including children under 13
• No registration or account creation required
• Educational tool suitable for learning about money and mathematics
• COPPA compliant due to no data collection

11. Open Source Transparency

As an open source project, Note Counter provides unprecedented transparency:

Community Contributions

• Bug reports and feature requests welcome on GitHub
• Code contributions accepted via pull requests
• Community-driven development ensures user needs are met
• No corporate influence or profit motive affecting privacy

12. Contact & Questions

For any privacy questions or concerns:

13. Changes to Privacy Policy

Any changes to this privacy policy will be:

• Clearly communicated on this page
• Documented in the GitHub repository
• Announced through project updates
• Always maintaining the same level of privacy protection

As an open source project, all changes are transparent and publicly reviewable.