brute-legal

Privacy Policy

brute launcher Last updated: August 20, 2026

Overview

brute is an Android home screen launcher. We do not run any servers, do not have user accounts, and do not collect analytics or telemetry. Your data stays on your device unless a feature you use requires a network request — those cases are listed below.

Permissions and what they access

All permissions are optional unless noted. The app works without them — the features that need them are simply unavailable.

• Installed apps (QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES) — lists your apps for the home screen, drawer, and search. Required for core launcher function. Data stays on device.
• Contacts (READ_CONTACTS) — shows contact names in search results. Read-only, never stored, never transmitted. Can be disabled in settings.
• Calendar (READ_CALENDAR) — displays upcoming events on home screen widgets. Read-only, never stored, never transmitted.
• Location (ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) — used for local weather. When granted, your coordinates are sent to the Open-Meteo API (see Network access below). You can use weather with a manually entered city instead.
• Camera (CAMERA) — used only to toggle the device flashlight. No photos or video are captured.
• App usage (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS) — shows per-app screen time in the well-being dashboard. Data stays on device.
• Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS) — used for the text-to-speech foreground service and notification badges. Notification content is never read or stored.
• Wallpaper (SET_WALLPAPER) — applies your chosen wallpaper to the system.
• Photos (READ_MEDIA_IMAGES) — lets you pick images for wallpapers and frames. Only the image you select is used.
• System settings (WRITE_SETTINGS, WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS) — used for quick toggles (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplane mode) and grayscale mode via Shizuku/ADB. These are power-user features that require explicit setup.
• Vibration, status bar, delete packages, foreground service — used for haptic feedback, notification panel, app uninstall (system confirmation dialog), and background TTS playback. No personal data involved.

Network access

brute makes network requests only for features you actively use. There are no background analytics, no tracking pixels, no crash reporting.

What	Where your data goes	What is sent	What is received
Weather	api.open-meteo.com	Your coordinates (GPS) or city name	7-day forecast (JSON)
Weather geocoding	api.open-meteo.com	City name you type	Coordinates for that city
RSS feeds	URLs you add (+ 4 defaults)	Standard HTTP GET (IP address, user agent)	Feed content (XML/Atom)
Full article view	Article URL from the feed	Standard HTTP GET	Article HTML
Feed images	Image URLs from feeds	Standard HTTP GET	Images
Search suggestions	suggestqueries.google.com	The text you are typing	Autocomplete suggestions
Web search	Your chosen engine (Google, DuckDuckGo, Brave, etc.)	Your search query	Search results (opened in browser)
Fonts	Google Mobile Services (on-device provider)	Font names	Font files
Translation models	Google servers (ML Kit)	Model download request	Language model files (translation runs on-device)

Reverse geocoding (showing a city name for GPS coordinates) uses Android’s built-in Geocoder service. On devices with Google Play Services, this may contact Google’s servers — this is handled by the operating system, not by brute.

No identifiers are sent. No device ID, no advertising ID, no user ID, no cookies, no tokens. The only data transmitted is what the table above lists.

Data stored on your device

• Launcher configuration (groups, dock, themes, settings)
• RSS articles, read/starred state, and feed URLs
• Daily automatic backup of your configuration
• Weather cache (including location name)
• Icon cache and feed image cache
• Internal debug log (URLs, errors)

Contacts and calendar data are read on demand and never stored by brute.

In-app purchases

brute uses Google Play Billing for optional paid content (custom themes and premium supertiles). Purchase data is managed entirely by Google Play. brute does not process or store payment information.

Third-party services

• Open-Meteo (open-meteo.com) — weather data. Free, open-source API. Their privacy policy.
• Google Play Billing — for in-app purchases. Governed by Google’s Privacy Policy.
• Google ML Kit — on-device translation model downloads.
• Google Mobile Services — font provider (on supported devices).

Children

brute is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this URL with a new “Last updated” date.

Contact

Questions about this policy: neo.quelhas@gmail.com