Privacy / Fold Notebook

Fold Notebook privacy policy

Effective date: 30 October 2026. Applies to Fold Notebook for Android and Fold Notebook for iPhone and iPad.

Fold Notebook (“the app”) is made by Pingala, an independent app developer in the UK.

What’s stored on your device

Your notebooks, pages, text and formatting, pen and highlighter drawings (ink), pictures you add to pages, cover photos, cover choices and settings are all kept in the app’s private storage on your device. On Android, the system’s automatic cloud backup is turned off for the app. Your notes are only copied off the device by the options you choose, described below.

What we collect

Nothing. The app contains no advertising, analytics or tracking code, there’s no automatic crash reporting, and it has no account system. We have no server that receives your notes, so we can’t see, recover or delete them for you.

Optional Google Drive backup (Android only, off by default)

• Off until you turn it on in Settings › Google Drive backup. Until then the app doesn’t contact Google at all.
• Where it goes: your own Google Drive, in the hidden app-data folder that only Fold Notebook can see. The app asks Google only for the drive.appdata permission, so it can’t see or change any of your other Drive files.
• What’s uploaded: one backup file containing all your notebooks and pages (text, formatting and ink), the pictures on your pages, your cover photos and cover choices, and the page-turn sound setting. Each backup replaces the previous file.
• When: when you tap Back up now, or once a day if you turn on Back up automatically every day (only on a network connection).
• How: directly from your device to Google over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. It never passes through us.
• Restore downloads that file and only replaces or adds notebooks when you confirm.
• Deleting it: tap Delete the copy in Google Drive in Settings, or remove Fold Notebook’s data under Google Drive › Settings › Manage apps. Turning the backup off stops further uploads.
• Google’s handling of your Google account and Drive is covered by Google’s Privacy Policy.
• Fold Notebook’s use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Pictures, photos and the camera

• Choosing a photo uses the system photo picker, which gives the app only the photos you pick. On Android the app has no permission to read your photo library.
• Taking a photo: on Android, the app hands over to your camera app, so it has no camera permission of its own. On iPhone and iPad it asks for camera permission first.
• Pictures are copied into the app’s private storage and stay on your device. On Android they’re also included in the Google Drive backup if you turn that on.

App lock

The optional app lock uses your device’s own fingerprint, face or screen-lock check (Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode on iPhone and iPad). The app only receives a yes or no from the system. Your biometric data never leaves your device’s secure hardware, and the app never sees it. When the lock is on, the app’s content is hidden in the recent-apps screen, and the Android home-screen widget shows “Locked” instead of your notebook titles.

Export, share, import and PDF

If you export or share a backup, or export a PDF, the app hands the file to the place or app you choose through the system file picker or share sheet. After that, that app’s or service’s own terms and privacy policy apply. Import only reads the file you pick.

Crash reports (Android, off by default)

There’s no automatic crash reporting. If you turn on Keep a crash report on this phone in Settings, a crash saves one small report file on your device, which keeps only the latest crash. It holds the app and Android versions, the phone model, the time and the technical details of the error, and never your notes or notebook titles. Nothing is sent automatically. You can choose Email crash report, which opens your email app with the report already filled in and addressed to us. You see exactly what will be sent, and you can edit it or cancel. If you send it, we use it only to fix the problem. You can also delete the report from the device.

Network use

The iPhone and iPad app doesn’t use the network. The Android app uses the network only for the optional Google Drive backup.

Keeping and deleting your data

• Your notes stay on your device until you delete them. Delete pages or notebooks in the app, or uninstall the app or clear its storage to remove everything from the device.
• A Google Drive backup stays in your Drive until you delete it, as described above.
• If you’ve emailed us, you can ask us to delete those emails.

Children

Fold Notebook isn’t aimed at children, and it doesn’t collect personal data from anyone.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we’ll post the new version at the same address with a new effective date. If a change affects what leaves your device, we’ll also mention it in the app’s release notes.

Contact

Pingala · support@pingala.com