Privacy policy
This policy explains how the WashDesk Android app (“the app”) handles information. WashDesk is made by an independent developer (“we”, “us”). If you have a question, write to orbitralabs@gmail.com.
In short
- Everything you enter in WashDesk is stored only on your phone. We don’t have a server and we never receive your data.
- No account, no sign-in, no ads, no analytics and no tracking.
- Your business data leaves your phone only when you choose to share it (a WhatsApp message, a report, an export or a backup file), or through your phone’s own Google backup if you turned it on.
- The app goes online only to check for app updates, and when you scan a number plate, Google’s on-phone text reader sends Google anonymous usage statistics. Photos and plate numbers never leave your phone.
1. What the app stores on your phone
WashDesk is a tool for running a car wash. It stores what you and your staff enter:
- Your business: business name, owner phone number and address.
- Customers: names, phone numbers, preferred language for messages, notes, and whether they want wash reminders.
- Vehicles: registration numbers, make, model and colour.
- Jobs and money: services, prices, payments (cash or UPI), refunds, outstanding amounts and remarks.
- Expenses and staff: expenses, staff names and phone numbers, salaries and advances.
- Photos: before and after photos of vehicles, and photos of receipts.
- Records the app keeps: a history of changes (for example, who corrected a payment), a list of WhatsApp messages you opened from the app, your settings, and the Owner PIN. The PIN is stored only as a salted hash, never as the PIN itself.
All of this is kept in the app’s private storage on your phone, which other apps can’t read. Android also encrypts phone storage on most phones. We cannot see, access or recover any of it.
2. When the app uses the internet
WashDesk works fully without internet. It goes online only in these cases:
Checking for app updates
When the app starts, and when the owner taps Check for updates, it asks Expo’s update service (EAS Update, run by 650 Industries, Inc.) whether a newer version of the app is available, and downloads it if there is one. The request contains only:
- the app’s version details (runtime version, the ID of the installed update and the update channel),
- the platform (Android),
- a random installation ID created by the update software. It isn’t linked to you, your phone number or your business data.
Like any internet request, it also reveals your phone’s IP address to Expo’s servers. The request never contains customer, vehicle, payment or photo data. See Expo’s privacy policy.
Reading number plates
The plate scanner uses Google’s ML Kit text recognition, which runs entirely on your phone. Photos and the plate numbers read from them never leave the phone. When you use the scanner, ML Kit may send Google anonymous usage and diagnostic statistics: phone model and Android version, the app’s name and version, how long recognition took, error codes and a per-installation ID. Google says it doesn’t share this data with third parties and sends it encrypted. See Google’s ML Kit data disclosure.
Android’s own Google backup
If you turned on Google backup for your phone in Android settings, Android may include WashDesk’s database (not the photos) in your phone’s backup to your Google Account, and copy the database and photos when you move to a new phone. This is done by Android and Google, not by WashDesk, and we can’t access it. On Android 9 and newer it is encrypted with your phone’s screen lock. You can turn it off in Android settings (Google → Backup).
Apart from these, the app makes no network requests. There are no ads, no analytics, no crash reporting and no tracking of any kind.
3. Sharing that you choose
The app shares data only when you tap a button to do so:
- WhatsApp: the app opens WhatsApp with the customer’s phone number and the message filled in. Nothing is sent until you tap Send in WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s own terms and privacy policy apply to messages sent there.
- Service reports, exports and backups: PDF reports, CSV exports and backup files are handed to Android’s share menu. You choose where they go (for example WhatsApp, email or Google Drive).
- Calls: tapping a customer’s phone number opens your phone’s dialler.
A backup file contains all your business data and photos. It isn’t encrypted, so keep it somewhere safe and share it only with people you trust.
4. Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Camera | To take before and after photos, photos of receipts and to scan number plates. Asked the first time you open the camera; you can refuse and still use the rest of the app. |
| Photos (photo picker) | To add an existing photo or receipt. Android’s photo picker gives the app only the photos you select; the app has no access to the rest of your gallery. |
| Internet and network state | Only for the update check described above. |
| Vibration | Short haptic feedback when you tap buttons. |
The app doesn’t use your location, contacts, microphone, SMS or call log.
5. Customer information you enter
If you record customers’ names and phone numbers, you (the business) decide what to record and when to message them. If a customer asks you to stop reminders, turn off reminders for them in the app. The app doesn’t yet have a way to remove one customer’s details on their own; until it does, the only way to erase them from the phone is to clear all of the app’s data (see below).
6. Keeping and deleting data
- Data stays on your phone until you remove it.
- Cancelling a job, or deleting a payment, expense or photo, removes it from every list and report, but the record (and a deleted photo’s file) stays in the app’s storage on your phone, in its change history, so mistakes can be traced.
- Restoring a backup replaces everything in the app with the contents of that backup.
- To erase all WashDesk data from your phone, uninstall the app, or go to Android Settings → Apps → WashDesk → Storage → Clear storage. Make a backup first if you may need the data again.
- Backup files, reports and exports you shared yourself are wherever you put them; delete them there. A copy in your Google Account’s phone backup can be removed in your Google Account settings.
We hold no copy of your data, so there is nothing for us to delete. Questions are welcome at the address below.
7. Children
WashDesk is a business tool for adults and is not meant for children.
8. Security
Your data is protected by Android’s app sandbox and your phone’s storage encryption and screen lock. Owner areas of the app are protected by the Owner PIN. Keep your phone locked and your backup files private.
9. Changes to this policy
If the app’s handling of data changes, we will update this page and its effective date before the change reaches the app.
10. Contact
Email orbitralabs@gmail.com.