OnCue — Privacy Policy
Last updated 2026-10-20
OnCue helps you remember birthdays, anniversaries and other dates for the people you care about, and gets a message ready for you to send. This policy explains what information the app handles, where it is kept and what control you have. OnCue is published by DÆRA, the trading name of Anuj Chawla, a sole proprietor in Nova Scotia, Canada ("we", "us"). We have written it to be true of the version of the app you are using. This version takes effect on 20 October 2026.
The short version
Everything you add to OnCue is stored on your phone. You sign in with your Google account to use OnCue; Google tells OnCue your name, email address and an account identifier, and these are kept on your phone too. This version of OnCue has no server: we do not receive, see or store your information.
OnCue contains no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no crash-reporting services, and it does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to process your information.
A few things do leave your phone so that OnCue works: signing in goes through Google, OnCue asks Expo whether an update is available, and when you search for an address, what you type goes to our address-lookup provider, Geoapify. Each is described below.
A message leaves your phone only when you choose to send it: OnCue opens WhatsApp or your messaging app with the message filled in, and you press Send there. OnCue never sends a message by itself.
You can also make a backup file of everything in OnCue, locked with a password you choose. OnCue creates it on your phone and hands it to your phone’s share menu; it goes wherever you choose to send or save it, and nowhere else.
What OnCue stores, on your phone
About the people you add: their name, nickname, relationship to you and how they are linked to others in your family, phone number, email address, postal address, photo, notes you write, whether they are a favourite, the tones you allow for them, and dates such as birthdays and anniversaries, with the year if you know it.
The messages OnCue suggests and any you write or edit, with the last five wordings of each so you can go back to one, the time you chose for each, which occasions you have opened a message for, and whether you told OnCue it was sent.
About your account: the Google account you signed in with (its email address and Google’s identifier for it), when you signed in, and whether you chose to stay signed in.
About you: the name you choose to enter, your own photo, gender and mobile number if you add them, your own birthday and other dates you add (such as an anniversary or graduation, with any reminder you set for them), your usual tone, your time zone (detected from your phone unless you choose one), and whether and when you want the evening summary.
All of this is kept in the app’s private storage on your device. It is not copied to us or to anyone else, unless you make a backup file and send it somewhere yourself (see “Backup files”). The data on your phone is not encrypted by OnCue.
Where the information comes from
From you, when you type it in.
From Google, when you sign in: your name, email address and Google’s identifier for your account. OnCue asks Google for nothing else — not your contacts, calendar, gender or phone number; you add those yourself if you wish.
From your contacts, only when you ask. "Choose from contacts" copies the details of the one contact you pick. "Import from contacts" shows your contacts so you can choose several, and copies only the ones you select: name, phone numbers, birthday and other dates, nickname, email, postal address and photo. Your contact list itself is never uploaded, and contacts you do not choose are not saved.
From your photo library, only for a photo you choose. The system photo picker gives OnCue only the picture you tap. Every photo is shrunk to a small square before it is saved.
Permissions
Contacts (Android: READ_CONTACTS). Asked for only after OnCue has explained why, when you choose or import contacts. You can refuse, and you can still add people by typing their details. You can withdraw the permission at any time in your phone’s settings.
Photos. OnCue uses the system photo picker, which needs no photo-library permission on current Android versions. OnCue does not request storage access on any Android version. OnCue does not use your camera or microphone.
Notifications (Android 13 and later: POST_NOTIFICATIONS). Asked for once, when you first open OnCue, for the evening summary. You can refuse; everything else works the same. OnCue also uses RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED so its scheduled notifications still arrive after your phone restarts.
Internet. Used to sign in with Google, to check for app updates, and to suggest addresses as you type one, as described below.
Notifications
The evening before a day with birthdays, anniversaries or other occasions, around the time you choose (8 pm unless you change it), OnCue shows one notification that names them. It is scheduled and shown on your phone by the phone’s own notification system. Its content never leaves your phone: it is not sent through any push service, to us or to anyone else.
Each occasion can also have its own reminder, on the day or up to 30 days before at a time you choose, or none; you set it when you add or edit the date. It is scheduled and shown on your phone in the same way.
When you approve a message and choose a time, OnCue also shows a notification at the time you chose on the day, naming the person. Tapping it opens WhatsApp or your messaging app with the message filled in, and you press Send; OnCue never sends it for you. Un-approving or sending the message removes the reminder.
Because they name people, anyone who can see your screen may see them. Turn the evening summary off or change its time in Settings → Notifications, or turn off OnCue’s notifications in your phone’s settings.
Backup files
Settings → Your data → Back up to a file makes one file, with the extension .oncue, holding everything OnCue stores on your phone: the people, dates, messages and photos you added, and your own details and settings. It does not include the Google account you are signed in with, or anything you have deleted. You choose a password of at least eight characters, and the file is locked with it, so it cannot be read without that password.
OnCue hands the file to your phone’s share menu, and you decide where it goes: Google Drive, email, a computer or anywhere else. Where it is saved or sent is between you and that service, under its own terms and privacy policy. OnCue does not receive the file and cannot see it. Until the next backup is made, one locked copy of the most recent file stays in OnCue’s temporary storage on your phone, because some apps read it after the share menu closes.
OnCue never stores or logs your backup password, and we cannot open a backup file or recover a forgotten password. If you lose the password, the backup cannot be opened by anyone. The password protects the file only; the information stored on your phone is not encrypted by OnCue.
Settings → Your data → Restore from a file, or the restore step the first time you open OnCue on an empty phone, reads a backup file you choose and asks for its password. Restoring replaces everything OnCue holds on that phone with the contents of the file, and OnCue says so and asks you to confirm before it does. It does not change which Google account is signed in. OnCue also keeps the time you last made a backup on your phone, so it can remind you gently when the last one is old. The reminder is a card in the app, never a notification.
What leaves your phone
Messages you send. When you tap WhatsApp or Text, OnCue opens that app with the recipient and message filled in. What happens next — whether you send it, and how it is delivered — is between you and that app, under its own terms and privacy policy. If WhatsApp cannot be opened, OnCue says so and opens nothing else — it does not fall back to WhatsApp’s website. OnCue is not affiliated with WhatsApp or Meta.
Invitations. When you tap Invite, OnCue opens WhatsApp, your messaging app or your phone’s share menu with an invitation filled in. It contains only a link to OnCue on Google Play — nothing about you or the person you invite — and you decide whether to send it.
App updates. When OnCue opens, it asks Expo, the service that delivers OnCue’s updates, whether a newer version of the app’s own code is available, and downloads it if so. The request carries only technical details: that the phone runs Android or iOS, which version of OnCue is installed, and a random identifier created by OnCue when it was installed, which is not linked to your name, email or anything you add. Like any website, Expo also receives your device’s internet (IP) address. None of your people, dates, messages or account details go with it.
Address search. When you type an address for someone, OnCue suggests matching addresses as you type. To do that, the text you type into the address field is sent to Geoapify, our address-lookup provider, once you have typed at least four characters and paused, together with your country (taken from your phone’s language settings) to rank the results. Like any website, Geoapify also receives your device’s internet (IP) address. No name, phone number or other detail about the person goes with it. If you choose to enter the address manually instead, nothing is sent.
Backup files. Only when you make one and choose where to send it from your phone’s share menu. The file is locked with your password, and we do not receive it.
Nothing else. OnCue does not sell, rent or share your information, and does not send it to us.
Third-party services and components
OnCue is built with open-source software (React Native and Expo libraries) that runs on your phone. Apart from the update check described above, it sends nothing to the people who make it. OnCue contains no third-party analytics, advertising, crash-reporting or tracking software.
Expo (EAS Update) delivers updates to OnCue’s code. It receives the technical details of each update check described above — platform, app version, a random install identifier and your device’s internet address — under Expo’s own privacy policy.
Google Play distributes OnCue. Downloading and updating it is covered by Google’s own privacy policy; OnCue does not receive that information.
Google Sign-In handles signing in, through your phone’s Google services and under Google’s own privacy policy. Google knows that you signed in to OnCue; OnCue receives only your name, email address and account identifier, and keeps them on your phone. You can remove OnCue’s access in your Google Account, under Security → Your connections to third-party apps.
WhatsApp (Meta) and your phone’s messaging app receive a message, and the number it is for, only when you tap WhatsApp or Text and then send it — under their own privacy policies.
Geoapify (operated by KEPTAGO LTD, Cyprus, with servers in the European Union) receives the address text you type into the address search field, your country and your device’s internet address, to suggest matching addresses (see above). Its own policy says it generally deletes these requests within 24 hours. It receives nothing when you enter an address manually. Address data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Google Play gives us, as the developer, install and rating statistics, the reviews people choose to post, and technical crash and freeze reports from phones whose owners allow Google to share them with developers. These reports describe the app and the phone model, not the people or messages in OnCue.
How long information is kept
Everything you add is kept on your phone until you delete it, delete everything, or uninstall OnCue; something you delete leaves the app at once and is erased from its storage within 30 days. We keep none of it, because we do not receive it. A backup file you made is kept wherever you saved or sent it, until you delete it there; deleting your information in OnCue does not delete backup files, and restoring one brings its contents back. Geoapify may keep the address searches it receives, and Expo keeps update-check logs, as their own policies describe; OnCue keeps only the address you save, on your phone. If you email us, we keep your message and email address for as long as we need to answer you, and delete them within 12 months after the matter is closed.
Information about other people
OnCue stores details about people in your life, including children if you add them. Please add only information you have a reasonable right to keep and use to stay in touch with them.
For a child, OnCue keeps only what you choose to add: for example their name, birthday, photo, address, notes and which of the people you added are their parents. A child needs no phone number or email; messages for a child can be sent to their parents instead. Like everything else, this stays on your phone, in any backup file you make, and in the messages you choose to send.
Keeping and deleting your information
Your information stays on your phone until you delete it.
When you delete a person, a date or a message, it disappears from OnCue at once, and a deleted person’s photo is erased straight away. The rest of what you deleted is erased from the app’s storage within 30 days, and it is never put in a backup file.
You can change or remove details at any time in the app — for example an address, a photo, a link between people, or every saved phone number at once, your own included (Settings → Your data → Remove all phone numbers).
Settings → Your data → Delete everything permanently removes everyone and everything you have added, including your own details, any photo copies the app cached and the copy of your last backup file in OnCue’s temporary storage. It also signs you out of Google and asks Google to remove OnCue’s access to your Google account. It cannot be undone. It does not delete backup files you saved or sent somewhere else; delete those where you put them.
Uninstalling OnCue, or clearing its storage in your phone’s settings, also deletes all of it.
Security
Your information is kept in the app’s private storage, which other apps cannot read, and it is excluded from your phone’s cloud backup and from device-to-device transfer when you set up a new phone. Because it is not transmitted to us, there is no copy on a server to be exposed. Anyone who can unlock your phone can open the app, so please protect your phone with a lock. OnCue does not encrypt the information stored on your phone.
A backup file is different: it is locked with the password you choose, using Argon2id to derive a key and XChaCha20-Poly1305 to encrypt it. Anyone with both the file and the password can read it, so keep both safe, and keep them apart.
Children
OnCue is intended for adults aged 18 and over. It is not designed for or directed at children.
Your rights
Under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) you have the right to know what personal information is held about you, to have it corrected and to withdraw your consent. Because OnCue keeps your information only on your phone, you can see, correct and delete all of it yourself in the app.
DÆRA is responsible for this policy and for how OnCue handles personal information. If you have a question, a request or a concern about privacy, write to our privacy contact at the address below; we will reply within 30 days. You may also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).
If you live in the European Union, the United Kingdom or California
EU and UK (GDPR and UK GDPR). OnCue processes the information you add only on your phone, at your direction; we do not receive it. You can access, correct, export (as a backup file), restrict and erase all of it yourself in the app.
For the little we do handle — the address searches passed to Geoapify when you ask for suggestions, and emails you send us — DÆRA is the controller. The legal basis is providing the feature you asked for (contract) and our legitimate interest in answering your messages; we do not rely on consent for these. Geoapify processes the searches in the European Union. For any question, or to complain, contact us; we acknowledge complaints within 30 days. You may also complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office).
California (CCPA/CPRA). We do not sell or share personal information, we do not use it for advertising, and we collect none from the app.
Children (COPPA and similar laws). OnCue is not directed at children under 13, or at anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from children. Information about a child that an adult user adds stays on that user’s phone.
Features that are not switched on
We may later offer an optional backup of your information on our own servers, or messages written with the help of AI. Neither is part of this version: the only backup is the password-protected file you make yourself, as described above. Before either is switched on we will update this policy, tell you in the app what would change, and ask for your consent where the law requires it.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and, for any significant change, tell you in the app. The current version is always available in the app under Settings → Privacy policy and at oncue.chawla-anuj-1510.workers.dev.
Versions: 20 October 2026 — backup files, deletion of deleted items within 30 days, children’s details, who we are, address-search provider details, Google Play data, legal basis. 3 October 2026 — Google sign-in. Earlier versions are kept on request.
Contact
DÆRA, the trading name of Anuj Chawla, a sole proprietor in Nova Scotia, Canada. Privacy contact: daera.inc@gmail.com