Privacy Policy

The short version. Cleara processes everything on your device. We do not collect, upload, sell, or share your files or photos. The only data leaving your device is standard, limited advertising and diagnostics data handled by Google, which you control through a consent prompt.

1. Who we are

Cleara ("we", "us") provides the Cleara — Phone Cleaner mobile application for Android (the "App"). This policy explains what data the App accesses, how it is used, and the choices you have. We are the data controller for the limited advertising data described below.

2. On-device processing

Cleara scans your storage, photos and files entirely on your device to identify junk, duplicates, large files, screenshots and blurry photos. This content is processed locally and in real time. We do not upload, transmit, copy to our servers, sell, or share your files, photos, file names, or scan results. We have no servers that receive your personal content.

3. Permissions we request

All permissions are optional. Declining one only disables the related feature; the rest of the App keeps working.

• Photos & media — used locally to find duplicate images, videos, large files and blurry photos, and to build your optional Photo Vault (see below).
• All-files access — deep-scans residual folders and old downloads where permitted.
• Storage write access (Android 10 and older) — on those Android versions this is what actually lets Cleara remove the files you select; on Android 11 and newer it is not requested.
• Notifications — used for the optional daily clean reminder, a resident status-bar notification showing a live estimate of cleanable space, and short local reminders triggered by things like unlocking your phone, returning to your home screen, plugging in to charge, or installing/removing an app. These reminders are capped to a small number per day with hours of spacing between them, computed entirely on your device. You can turn any of this off at any time in your system notification settings.
• Notification access (optional — off until you turn it on inside the "Clean notifications" tool) — lets Cleara read and dismiss notifications from your other apps so you can clear clutter in one tap. This is processed only in memory on your device; Cleara never logs, stores, or uploads the content of other apps' notifications.

4. Photo Vault

Photo Vault is an optional feature. If you turn it on, Cleara encrypts photos you choose to hide using AES-256-GCM, with the encryption key generated and held in your device's Android Keystore (hardware-backed where the device supports it) — never in the App and never transmitted anywhere. The vault is protected by a PIN you set, which is never stored in plain text. Because the key lives in the App's private storage, uninstalling Cleara or clearing its app data permanently and irrecoverably deletes everything in the vault — there is no password reset and no way for us to recover it. Export anything you want to keep before you uninstall.

5. Advertising

Cleara is free and supported by ads served through Google AdMob. To deliver and measure ads, your device's advertising identifier (Ad ID) and standard ad-request data are collected and shared with Google (AdMob) for advertising purposes, in accordance with Google's Privacy Policy. We do not use the advertising identifier to track you across other companies' apps beyond AdMob's standard ad delivery. On first launch we show a Google-certified consent prompt (UMP). In regions such as the EEA/UK, if you do not consent to personalized ads, only non-personalized ads are shown. You can change this choice at any time from within the App.

Ads are labelled "Ad". Cleara shows a full-screen ad when you open the app and may show one after a cleanup finishes. We do not show lock-screen ads and we do not fabricate urgency to make you tap an ad. AdMob may use mediation partners to fill ads — currently Pangle (ByteDance) and Vungle (Liftoff). They receive the same standard ad-request data, including your advertising ID. Users who installed a previous ad-free version of Cleara (v2.2.1 or earlier) remain permanently ad-free.

6. Diagnostics

We may use aggregated, non-identifying crash and performance data to keep the App stable. This data does not include your files, photos, or file names. The App also bundles the MagicianReach SDK, which handles ad delivery and remote configuration; its diagnostic logging is processed on servers in Singapore (Alibaba Cloud), i.e. outside your country. This matches the transfer destination declared on our Google Play Data safety form.

7. Data retention & storage

App preferences (such as your theme and reminder settings) are stored only in local storage on your device. Uninstalling the App permanently removes them — this also applies to Photo Vault contents (see §4). There is no account and no server-side copy of your data.

8. Children

Cleara is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your region) and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

9. Your rights

Depending on your region (including under GDPR and CCPA), you may have rights to access, correct, or delete personal data and to withdraw ad consent. Because Cleara keeps your content on-device, you can exercise most of these rights directly by managing permissions or uninstalling. For advertising data, use the in-app consent control or contact us.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the App evolves. Material changes will be reflected here with a new "Last updated" date.

Questions about your privacy? Email us at privacy@cleara.app and we'll respond within 30 days.