FlareCast Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-05-16 Effective: from the date of last update

The short version

Your health data stays on your phone. FlareCast does not have servers, does not have user accounts for your health data, and does not transmit your symptoms / sleep / glucose / wellbeing logs anywhere unless you explicitly export them yourself.

The one exception is the optional Premium subscription ($4.99/month after a 14-day free trial), which is processed entirely by Google Play Billing — FlareCast never sees your payment information, and your health data is still never transmitted as part of the subscription.

There is no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party tracking.

Who runs FlareCast

FlareCast is built and maintained by D.L. Goldstein (publishing on Google Play as such), a Type 1 diabetic with Sjögren’s syndrome who got tired of health apps that didn’t fit chronic-illness life. Contact: diana@shotzinteractive.com.

What data FlareCast handles

When you use FlareCast, you generate three categories of data, all stored locally on your device:

1. Data you log directly

• Symptom intensity ratings (joint pain, brain fog, dry eyes/mouth, fatigue, headache, palpitations, etc. — 13 sliders)
• Stress events (with intensity)
• Medications and dose times (your med list, when you take vs. skip)
• Hydration amounts (water intake)
• Body temperature readings (manual entry)
• Blood pressure readings (manual entry, or auto-imported from a watch)
• Notes (free-text, with up to 4 optional photo or file attachments per note)
• Cycle events (only if you opt in to cycle tracking)
• Daily wellbeing check-ins

This data is stored in a local SQLite database in the app’s private directory. Other apps on your phone cannot access it.

2. Data FlareCast reads from Health Connect

If you grant the relevant permissions, FlareCast reads (on-device, never transmitted):

• Sleep duration
• Heart rate (current + resting)
• Heart rate variability (HRV)
• Steps
• Blood glucose (if you use a CGM that writes to Health Connect, e.g. xDrip+ or AAPS)
• Body temperature (manual / oral thermometer readings)
• Skin temperature (Galaxy Watch and similar — nightly readings during sleep)
• Blood pressure (Galaxy Watch 5 Pro or any HC-compatible source)
• Historical health data prior to the date FlareCast was granted permission (Android 15+ — required so we can show you trends from before you installed FlareCast, when your watch had already been collecting data)

This data is read on-device only. FlareCast does not upload Health Connect data anywhere. You can revoke any of these permissions at any time in Health Connect → App permissions → FlareCast.

3. Profile and settings data

• Your first name (or whatever you choose to be called) — used only in the home screen greeting
• Whether you accepted the privacy and medical disclaimers
• Your reminder preferences, hydration goal, notification settings, theme preferences
• A subscription status flag (free / trial / Premium / lifetime-comp) — this is set by Google Play Billing and stored locally; FlareCast does not transmit it

What FlareCast does NOT collect

• IP addresses
• Device identifiers (advertising ID, etc.)
• Location
• Contacts
• Camera or microphone except when you explicitly use them (taking a note photo / dictating into a text field)
• Usage analytics (we don’t know how often you open the app, what buttons you tap, etc.)

Subscription and payment data

FlareCast offers a Premium subscription at $4.99/month with a 14-day free trial on first launch. After the trial, free-tier users can continue using core logging features (daily check-ins, symptoms, hydration, medication tracking, today’s capacity score, and the last 14 days of history). Premium-tier users keep access to: full history, doctor PDF export, pattern insights, recovery recognition notifications, week/month stats screens, multi-condition deep tracking, and all future advanced features.

How payment works

Payment is processed entirely by Google Play Billing. When you subscribe:

• Google receives your payment information (credit card / Google Wallet / etc.) — FlareCast never sees it
• FlareCast receives only a “purchase token” from Google confirming you have an active subscription
• FlareCast stores this token locally on your phone so it can verify your subscription status

What FlareCast does NOT send to Google about your usage

Google Play Billing receives only standard purchase / renewal events (e.g., “user X subscribed,” “user X renewed,” “user X canceled”). FlareCast does NOT send any of your symptom / sleep / glucose / wellbeing data to Google as part of the billing process.

Refunds and cancellation

• Cancel anytime via Google Play → Subscriptions → FlareCast → Cancel
• Refunds are handled by Google per their standard policies, not by FlareCast directly
• If you cancel, you keep Premium access until the end of your current billing period, then revert to the free tier

Optional AI-powered insights (planned, not yet shipped)

A future Premium feature called “Ask FlareCast” will let you ask questions about your own data (e.g., “Why has my capacity stayed below 50% this week?”) and get an AI-generated answer based on your last 30 days of logs.

When this feature ships, here is exactly how it will work:

• The feature will be opt-in in Settings before first use, with a plain-English explanation
• Only Premium / trial subscribers will have access
• When you ask a question, FlareCast will send a copy of your last 30 days of logged data (symptoms, sleep, glucose, etc.) and your question to an Anthropic Claude API endpoint
• Anthropic processes the request and returns an answer; FlareCast displays it
• Anthropic’s stated policy: API customer data is not used for training models. Data is retained for 30 days for trust-and-safety purposes, then deleted.
• This is the only situation in which any of your health data will leave your device, and it only happens when you tap “Ask FlareCast” on a specific question
• If you do not opt in, no data leaves your device for this feature

This policy will be updated with the final shipping details when Ask FlareCast launches; you will be notified on first app open after that update.

Crash logging

If FlareCast crashes, the app writes a stack trace + your build version + your phone model to a local file (crash_log.txt) in the app’s private cache directory. This file is only on your phone — nothing is uploaded automatically.

When you tap Send Feedback in Settings, if a crash log exists, the app attaches it to the email you’re about to send. You decide whether to send the email with the attachment, or remove the attachment, or not send at all.

The file is capped at 64 KB; older entries trim off the front when it grows past that. Reinstalling the app (or uninstalling) deletes it.

Where your data goes

It doesn’t, by default. The app cannot send your data anywhere on its own. Your data leaves your phone only when you initiate one of these actions:

• Backup (Settings → Backup My Data) — generates a zip file you can save to email, Drive, or any other location of your choice. Includes all logged data + photo attachments.
• Doctor PDF (Settings → Doctor PDF) — generates a 30-day summary PDF you can share via the Android share sheet, intended for emailing to your doctor or uploading to a patient portal. Internal-tagged notes (Dev, Plan, Internal, Todo, Roadmap) are filtered out — only clinical observations reach the doctor.
• CSV Export (Settings → Export CSV) — generates a zip of CSV files you can share via the share sheet. Same internal-tag filtering as the doctor PDF.
• Send Feedback (Settings → Send Feedback) — opens your email app pre-filled with a message to Diana, including build version and device model. You decide whether to send it.
• Ask FlareCast (when shipped, Premium-only, opt-in) — sends your last 30 days of data to an Anthropic API endpoint for the specific question you asked. See the “Optional AI-powered insights” section above.

Each of these is opt-in per use.

Health Connect

Health Connect is a separate Google app / Android system component. When FlareCast reads data from Health Connect, that data still lives in Health Connect — FlareCast just gets a copy on demand. To revoke FlareCast’s access:

• Open Health Connect on your phone (or Settings → Apps → Health Connect on Android 14+)
• Go to App permissions → FlareCast
• Toggle off the categories you don’t want shared

On Android 15+, a separate “Past health data” permission controls whether FlareCast can see health records written BEFORE you granted permission. This is so we can show you trends from your watch’s history. You can revoke it at any time using the same App permissions screen.

Children

FlareCast is not designed for children under 13 and is not directed at them. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has used the app, just uninstall the app — uninstalling deletes all locally stored data.

Your rights

Because FlareCast stores everything locally:

• To see your data: open the app — it’s all there.
• To export your data: Settings → Backup My Data, or Settings → CSV Export.
• To delete your data: Settings → Clear All Data (irreversible). Or uninstall the app — this also deletes all data.
• To stop sharing Health Connect data: revoke permissions in Health Connect.
• To cancel your subscription: Google Play → Subscriptions → FlareCast → Cancel.

We can’t help you do any of these remotely because we have no remote access to your data.

Medical disclaimer

FlareCast is not a medical device. Any number, score, prediction, or insight the app produces is for personal pattern tracking only. Do not use FlareCast to:

• Diagnose any condition
• Decide whether to take, skip, or change any medication
• Replace conversations with your doctor

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, contact your healthcare provider or emergency services. Not this app.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that affects how your data is handled, the next app update will surface a notice on first launch and require you to review the change.

Contact

Questions or concerns: diana@shotzinteractive.com