Privacy policy
Sticky Birthdays is built so that your data stays on your phone. There is no account, no server of ours that receives your data, and no analytics, advertising or tracking, neither in the app nor on this website.
Who is responsible
Cornelius Illi Ventures UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Mozartstraße 7, 72636 Frickenhausen, Germany
Managing director: Cornelius Illi
E-mail: support@corneliusilli.de
The app
Sticky Birthdays is available for iPhone and for Android. Both versions handle your data the same way; where they differ, this policy says so.
What stays on your phone
Everything the app knows (birthdays, names, the calendars you picked, links to contacts, portraits and photos you added, reminder settings, which birthdays you marked as done) is stored in the app’s storage on your phone. We have no server and never receive this data.
Backups are the exception you control. On iPhone, if you use iCloud Backup or a computer backup, iOS includes the app’s data in that backup, as for any app. On Android, if Google backup is on, Android includes the app’s data (birthdays, done states, links, settings and the photos you added, not the portraits made from them) in your Google backup and in a transfer to a new phone. The backup is handled by Apple, Google or your computer under your settings there, not by us.
Permissions and what they are used for
The app asks for each permission only when you use the feature that needs it.
- Calendars (optional; full access on iPhone, read and write on Android): to find birthdays in the calendars on your phone that you choose (for example Google, iCloud, Exchange or subscribed calendars) and to keep them in sync. When you connect, the app looks through the yearly all-day events of your calendars to suggest those with birthdays; after that it reads only the calendars you chose. On iPhone it never reads the iOS “Birthdays” calendar; on Android it never reads Google’s contact birthday calendar or holiday calendars. It writes to a calendar only in these cases, each after you confirm: when you add a birthday while a calendar is connected, or add birthdays saved only on your phone when you connect one (it creates a yearly all-day event “🎂 Name” in the calendar you chose for new birthdays; an addition that failed is retried later), when you delete a birthday series, and when you restore a deleted series. Calendar data is processed on your phone only. Events the app creates are synced by your phone to that calendar’s account (for example Google or iCloud), like any event you create yourself.
- Contacts (optional): to take birthdays from your contacts, to link a birthday to a person, to offer ways to reach that person (phone, messages, messengers) and to use a linked contact’s photo for the birthday’s portrait (see below). On iPhone, depending on the version of the app, you can also save a birthday into the linked contact’s empty birthday field, only after you confirm. On Android the app only reads your contacts and never changes them. Contact data is processed on your phone only.
- Notifications: to remind you of a birthday at the time you choose. The notifications are scheduled on your phone; there is no push server. Like the reminder on the lock screen, they show the person’s name.
- Live Activities (iPhone): to keep a birthday on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island. iOS asks you to allow them. They are created and updated on your iPhone. On Android, the same job is done by an ongoing “Birthday card” notification.
- Run at startup (Android): to set the reminders again after your phone restarts, the app is updated or the time zone changes. Android grants this when you install the app.
- Prevent phone from sleeping (Android): lets the app finish updating reminders and the widget in the background. Android grants this when you install the app.
- Widget: to show open and upcoming birthdays on the Home Screen (on Android also on the lock screen), if you add it. It reads the app’s data on your phone.
Portraits and card colours
A reminder can show the person’s portrait on a card in a colour taken from the photo. The photo comes from the linked contact or is one you pick yourself. Picking uses the system photo picker of iOS or Android, so the app sees only the one photo you choose and needs no access to your photo library. The app keeps a smaller copy of it without location or other metadata. The photo is turned into the portrait and the card colour on your phone: on iPhone with Apple’s Vision and Core Image frameworks, on Android with image models that are built into the app and run on the phone. Photos and portraits are stored only in the app’s storage on your phone and are never uploaded. Deleting a birthday deletes its photo and portrait.
Google Calendar sign-in (iPhone, optional)
Depending on the version of the iPhone app, you can also connect a Google account to find birthdays in your Google calendars. Sign-in uses Google’s own sign-in screen; we never see your password. The app then talks to Google’s Calendar API directly from your iPhone. The access token and the calendar data stay on your iPhone and are never sent to us or to anyone else. The Android app has no Google sign-in: it reads your Google calendars through Android’s calendar storage, like any other calendar (see Calendars above).
The iPhone app requests these Google permissions:
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly, when you connect: to list your calendars and read yearly all-day events so the app can find birthdays.https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events, only if you choose to add birthdays saved on your iPhone to Google Calendar, to rename birthday events so their titles match, or to delete a birthday series you deselected. The app asks for this permission separately at that moment and only changes events you selected.
Sticky Birthdays’ use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google data is used only to show birthday reminders in the app. It is not used for advertising, not sold, not transferred to third parties and not read by humans.
You can disconnect Google at any time in the app (Settings › Google Calendar › Disconnect). This removes the Google birthdays from the app and revokes its access. You can also remove the access in your Google Account. Google’s own handling of your data is described in Google’s privacy policy.
Reaching out
When you tap call, message or a messenger in a reminder, your phone opens that app with the person’s number. What happens there is governed by that app’s privacy policy; Sticky Birthdays does not see or store your conversations. To offer only messengers you have, the Android app checks whether WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram or Google Calendar is installed and whether an app can make calls or send texts; it cannot see your other apps.
No analytics, no third parties
The app contains no analytics, crash reporting, advertising or tracking SDKs, and does not use an advertising identifier. Apart from Google on iPhone (only if you connect it), the app does not connect to any service; the Android app has no internet access at all. Your calendars and contacts are accessed through your phone’s system on your phone.
Deleting your data
In the app, Settings › Delete all data deletes all birthdays, portraits, photos, settings and reminders on your phone (on iPhone it also disconnects Google). Deleting the app does the same. A copy may remain in your phone’s backup until the next backup replaces it. Events in your calendars and your contacts are not touched by either; birthdays the app wrote into a calendar stay there until you delete them in the calendar.
This website
This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party scripts or fonts; everything is served from this domain. It is hosted on Firebase Hosting by Google. To deliver the pages, Google’s servers process technical data such as your IP address, the requested page, date and time and your browser’s user agent, and keep them in short-lived server logs for operation and security. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in running a secure website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). See Firebase’s privacy information.
If you e-mail us, we use your message and address only to answer you and delete them when they are no longer needed.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection. Since the app does not send us your data, we usually hold nothing about you apart from e-mails you send us. Contact us at support@corneliusilli.de. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13 and collects no data from anyone.
Changes
If the app starts processing data differently, this page will be updated before that version is released. The date at the top shows the latest change.