Privacy Policy — Pulse

Last updated: 18 October 2026

Pulse (published by DebugInit) is a personal journal app. This page explains, plainly, what the app does and doesn't do with your data.

The short version

Your Pulse — entries, photos, sketches, and contacts — is saved only to a private, hidden folder in your own Google Drive that only this app can see. DebugInit does not operate a server or database that stores your content. We never see it, and there's nothing about your writing for us to collect, sell, or share, because it never reaches us in the first place. (If you choose to send a letter's attachments as Drive links, those files are uploaded to your own Drive too, and shared by link — see "Files you send as Drive links" below.)

What the app accesses, and why

Pulse asks Google for these permissions, and no others. Each one is shown on Google's consent screen before you agree.

• Google Sign-In (openid, userinfo.email, userinfo.profile — your email address, name and profile picture) — to know which Google account is signed in, and to show "Signed in as ___" in Settings. Pulse does not store these on any server of ours.
• Google Drive, drive.appdata — a hidden, application-specific folder in your Drive that does not appear alongside your regular files, and that no other app (including Google Drive's own UI) can browse. This is where your Pulse — entries, photos, drawings, stickers you've placed, cover choices, and contacts — is saved. It is requested when you sign in.
• Google Drive, drive.file — used only when you send a letter from Letters with files attached as Drive links. It is requested separately, at that moment, and only lets Pulse see and manage files that Pulse itself created in your Drive. It gives Pulse no access to any other file you own. See the next section for exactly what happens.

Pulse cannot read, list, or open your other Drive files with either Drive permission.

Files you send as Drive links

When you choose to send attachments as Drive links, Pulse:

• uploads each attached file to your own Google Drive, as a file created by Pulse;
• sets each uploaded file so that anyone who has its link can view it (read-only), so the people you send the letter to can open it; and puts those links in the letter;
• if any one file fails to upload or to be shared, deletes the files it had already uploaded for that letter, so that nothing is left viewable by link for a letter that was not sent.

Files from a letter that was sent stay in your Drive, and stay viewable by their link, until you delete them or change their sharing in Google Drive. Pulse keeps no copy of them anywhere else, and does not send them to DebugInit. Anyone you give the link to — and anyone they pass it on to — can open the file, so only send files you are happy to share this way. Letters sent with attachments inside the email itself (the default) do not use this permission at all.

Google user data

Pulse's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In plain words: the email address and profile details are used only to sign you in; the hidden Drive folder is used only to keep your Pulse; and files Pulse creates for a letter you send are used only to share that letter's attachments with the people you chose. None of it is used for advertising, none of it is sold or given to anyone, and no person at DebugInit reads it.

What we don't do

• No analytics, telemetry, or crash reporting.
• No advertising, and no advertising identifiers.
• We never sell, rent, or share your data — we have none to share.
• No account of ours sits behind the app; there is nothing for us to breach, subpoena, or lose, because your content is never sent to us.

Other services the app talks to

• Google — for sign-in and for reading/writing your Pulse to your own Drive. Governed by Google's own Privacy Policy.
• jsDelivr (a content-delivery network) — used only to load a small number of decorative 3D stickers not already bundled with the app. jsDelivr sees your IP address, exactly as any website's images or fonts would, but never your content.
• Open-Meteo (open-meteo.com) — if you give a journal cover or page a city for its weather, that city's name is sent to look up its location and current sky, at most every half hour. Searching for a place in Places also sends the text you type.
• DebugInit Mail (mail.debuginit.com) — only if you sign in to a mail address in Letters, or set one up during setup. Your mail passes through that server, as all email passes through a mail server; your password stays in your browser and is sent only to it. Your journal is never sent there.
• Photon by Komoot (photon.komoot.io) — also used when you search for a place in Places; it receives the text you type. Neither service receives your entries, and the app never reads your device's location.

Security, and an honest limit

Settings offers an optional passcode. It gates the app's screen so a passer-by can't casually open your Pulse — it does not encrypt your entries. Content saved to your Drive remains readable (plaintext) there, protected by your own Google Account's security rather than by any encryption this app adds.

Your control over your data

• Export your Pulse or contacts at any time from Settings.
• Erase all data in Settings deletes everything from your Google Drive's app folder. This cannot be undone.
• Delete shared files yourself at any time in Google Drive: files Pulse made for a sent letter are in your Drive, and deleting them (or changing their sharing) ends the link.
• Revoke access at any time from your Google Account's Third-party apps & services page. This immediately and completely cuts off Pulse's access to your Drive.

Data retention

Your data lives in your own Google Drive for as long as you keep it there. We hold no separate copy anywhere, so there is nothing on our side to retain after you erase your data or revoke access. Files shared as Drive links stay in your Drive until you delete them (see above).

Children's privacy

Pulse is not directed at children and requires a Google Account to use, which itself carries Google's own age requirements.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date above will change with it. Continued use of the app after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy: mypulse.buzz@gmail.com