Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Sunup is made by Kindly Made, a small independent app maker in South Africa. In this policy, “we” and “us” mean Kindly Made. For the purposes of South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Kindly Made is responsible for any personal information described here. You can reach us at support@kindlymadeapps.com.

2. What Sunup keeps on your phone

To ring your alarms and remember your mornings, Sunup saves the following in its own private storage on your phone:

• Your alarms: each alarm’s time, repeat days, label and note to yourself, and its settings: the games, rounds and difficulty, snooze, the wake-up check, the way out, the sound, volume and vibration.
• Your settings: the look you chose and the settings new alarms start with.
• Your mornings: for each alarm that rang, when it was due and when it rang, the rounds you played (the game, the level, how long it took and any misses), any snoozes, whether you used the way out, and whether you answered the wake-up check. Sunup works out your morning score, your streak and your times from these, on your phone.
• Your free trial and Premium: when the first alarm rang, which starts the 7 free days, and the last answer Google Play gave about whether you have Sunup Premium.
• The “Will it ring?” test: when it last passed, and on which version of Android, so Sunup can offer it again after an Android update.
• A ring log: a list of when each alarm was set, rang, snoozed or stopped, with the technical details that show whether it rang on time, such as how many seconds late it fired, whether the screen was on and how the ringing screen opened.

Your alarms and the ring log are kept in the part of Sunup’s storage that Android makes available before you unlock the phone after a restart, so your alarms still ring then. Other apps cannot read any of it.

This information never leaves your phone, except in your own Android backup (section 6) or when you choose to share something (section 5). We cannot see it. Sunup works without an internet connection, and it does not even have Android’s permission to use the internet: when you buy or check Sunup Premium, it is the Google Play Store app on your phone that talks to Google (section 8).

3. The permissions Sunup uses

An alarm clock needs a few of Android’s permissions to ring reliably. When you set Sunup up, it checks three of them with you, each explained in one line: notifications, alarms and reminders, and full-screen alarms. Android gives Sunup the others when you install it. This is every permission Sunup has, and why:

• Alarms and reminders (USE_EXACT_ALARM on Android 13 and later, SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM on older phones): to ring at the exact minute you set, using Android’s own alarm-clock alarms, which also show the alarm icon at the top of your screen.
• Full-screen alarms (USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT): to open the ringing screen over the lock screen and turn the screen on. If you switch this off (Android 14 and later let you), alarms still ring, with a notification to open them.
• Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS, Android 13 and later): for the notification that shows while an alarm rings. Android opens the ringing screen through it, so without notifications the ringing screen can’t appear by itself.
• Foreground service (FOREGROUND_SERVICE and FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SYSTEM_EXEMPTED): to keep the alarm ringing, with its notification, until you are up, even with the screen off or another app open. “System exempted” is the kind of service Android allows for apps that ring exact alarms.
• Start at boot (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED): to put your alarms back after the phone restarts, even before you unlock it.
• Vibrate and wake lock (VIBRATE and WAKE_LOCK): to vibrate while an alarm rings and gently when you tap during a game, and to keep the phone awake while an alarm rings.
• Billing (com.android.vending.BILLING): so that you can buy Sunup Premium through Google Play.

Sunup does not have, and does not ask for, permission to use the internet, your location, contacts, camera, microphone, photos, files, phone calls or physical activity. During a phone call, Sunup plays the alarm softly: it can tell a call is on from the phone’s sound mode, which needs no permission and tells Sunup nothing about the call.

4. Your own sound file

With Sunup Premium, an alarm can play a sound file of your own. You choose it with Android’s own file picker, so Sunup only sees the one file you pick, and it needs no permission to read your storage. Sunup remembers which file you chose, and Android lets it keep reading that file. The file stays where it is on your phone: Sunup does not copy it anywhere or send it to anyone.

5. Things you choose to share

Sunup only shares something when you ask it to, through Android’s share menu, with the app you choose:

• The share card: a picture of the time you got up, your morning score and your streak, and nothing else.
• The ring log: as plain text, with your phone’s make, model and Android version and the state of Sunup’s permissions at the top, so that it explains itself. It is useful if you write to us about an alarm that didn’t ring.

Once you share something, it is handled by the app and the service you chose, under their terms. We only receive what you send to us yourself.

6. Android backup

If backup is turned on for your phone, Android can include Sunup’s alarms, settings and mornings in your phone’s backup (Android Auto Backup), which Google stores in your own Google account. This lets them come back when you set up a new phone. The backup is made and kept by Google under Google’s privacy policy. We have no access to it. On Android 9 and later, if your phone has a screen lock, the backup is encrypted with it. A sound file of your own is not part of Sunup’s backup: it is your file, and it stays where it is.

You can turn backup on or off in your phone’s settings (usually under Settings › System › Backup, or Settings › Google › Backup), and you can delete old backups from your Google account.

7. Google Play

You download Sunup from Google Play, which Google runs under its own terms and privacy policy. Google gives us statistics about Sunup, such as the number of installs, ratings and reviews, and the countries, Android versions and phone models it is used on. These come to us as totals. Google also shows us reports when Sunup crashes or freezes, from people who have chosen to share usage and diagnostics data with Google. Those reports describe the phone model, the Android version and what the app was doing, not who you are. We use them only to fix problems.

If you write a review on Google Play, it is public, along with the name on your Google account. We may reply to it there. Sunup itself never asks you for a rating.

8. Sunup Premium and payments

Everything in Sunup is free for your first 7 days, and the free version stays useful for good. Sunup Premium is an optional monthly or yearly subscription. Our terms of use explain how it works.

• Google Play takes the payment. You buy Sunup Premium through Google Play, under the Google Play Terms of Service and Google’s privacy policy. Google handles your card or other payment method. We never see your card or bank details, and Sunup never touches them.
• Sunup only asks whether it is active. To know whether you have Premium, Sunup asks Google Play, on your phone, whether your Google account holds a Sunup Premium subscription, and after you buy, it confirms the purchase to Google Play, as Google requires. Sunup keeps only the answer on your phone. It sends nothing about your purchase to us or to anyone else, and we have no server that receives it.
• What Google tells us. Like every app sold on Google Play, we can see the orders for Sunup in our Google Play account: an order number, what was bought, the price, and whether the subscription is active, renewing or cancelled. Google’s sales reports also give, for each order, the buyer’s country, sometimes their state or province and postal code, and the model of phone used. Google does not give us your card details. We can look up an order by its number or by the buyer’s email address, which we do only if you write to us about a purchase. We use this only to look after your subscription, to answer you, and to keep the records that tax and accounting law ask for. Under GDPR, our reasons are to provide the subscription you bought and to meet those legal duties.
• Google Play’s own diagnostics. Google’s billing software is built to send Google some information about how billing is working. Sunup leaves out the internet permission that needs, so from Sunup it sends nothing. What the Google Play Store app itself sends is covered by Google’s privacy policy.
• Managing or cancelling is always done in Google Play: open the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions › Subscriptions. Uninstalling Sunup does not cancel a subscription.

9. What we never do

• We do not show ads, and Sunup contains no advertising code.
• We do not use analytics, tracking or crash-reporting tools inside Sunup.
• We do not ask you to create an account or sign in.
• We do not track your sleep, listen through the microphone or follow your movements.
• We do not sell, rent or share your information with anyone.
• We do not use your information to build a profile of you or to make automated decisions about you.

10. When you email us

If you write to us, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to tell us, such as a ring log you send. We use it only to answer you and to improve Sunup. We keep emails only as long as we need them to help you, and usually no longer than two years after we last hear from you. You can ask us to delete them sooner. Mail to support@kindlymadeapps.com is passed on by Cloudflare’s email routing to a Google (Gmail) mailbox, where it is stored, and may be kept on servers outside South Africa or the European Union, under the protections those companies offer.

Under GDPR, our reason for using this information is our legitimate interest in answering your questions and looking after Sunup.

11. This website

This website has no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and it uses no cookies of its own. Its fonts and pictures come from the site itself, not from other companies. The site is hosted by Cloudflare, which handles technical information such as your IP address and browser type to deliver the pages and protect the site from attacks. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy.

12. Children

Sunup is made for adults, and its audience on Google Play is people aged 18 and over. It is not directed at children. Sunup does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included: everything stays on the phone. If you believe a child has used Sunup and want their information removed, uninstalling the app deletes it from the phone, or you can contact us and we will help.

13. Your rights (POPIA and GDPR)

Wherever you live, you can ask us:

• whether we hold any personal information about you, and for a copy of it;
• to correct it, or to delete it;
• to stop using it, or to limit how we use it;
• to object to how we use it.

In practice, the only personal information we could hold is emails you have sent us and, if you buy Sunup Premium, the order records Google Play shows us (section 8). Your alarms and mornings are on your phone, so you are in control of them (section 14), and we cannot see, copy or delete them for you.

To use any of these rights, email support@kindlymadeapps.com. We will reply within 30 days. If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to South Africa’s Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za) or, in the European Union or the United Kingdom, to your local data protection authority.

14. Deleting your data

• An alarm: delete it in Sunup.
• Everything on your phone: uninstall Sunup, or use Settings › Apps › Sunup › Storage › Clear storage on your phone. Either way, every Sunup alarm stops: set another alarm first if you need one.
• Android backups: delete Sunup’s data from your phone’s backup in your Google account (Google Drive › Backups, or your phone’s backup settings).
• Things you shared: delete them where you sent them, such as your email or chats.
• Sunup Premium: cancel it in the Play Store (section 8). Google keeps its own record of your purchases under its privacy policy. The order records Google Play shows us stay in our Google Play account, and we keep copies only as long as tax and accounting law requires.

15. Changes to this policy

If we change what Sunup does with information, we will update this page and the dates at the top before the change reaches the app. If a change means Sunup would send anything from your phone, Sunup will ask you first.

16. Contact us

Kindly Made, South Africa
support@kindlymadeapps.com

• About Sunup
• Help and questions
• Terms of use