Last Updated: November 9, 2026 Effective Date: September 7, 2026
1. Introduction
Welcome to Sottovo Note (also referred to as "SmartNoter", "Application", "we", "us", or "our"), developed and operated by Tornado Tech, a sole proprietorship based in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. We are committed to protecting your privacy and personal data.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, process, store, and protect your information when you use our mobile application on Android and related services. This policy complies with international privacy frameworks including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA / CPRA), the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (APPs), PIPEDA (Canada), and Google Play Developer Program Policies.
2. Information We Collect
A. Information You Provide Directly
Account Information: Name, email address, profile picture URL, and Firebase Auth User ID (`UID`) upon registration or Google Sign-In.
Audio & Voice Recordings: Voice notes and conversations recorded using your microphone or uploaded as media files for speech-to-text transcription.
Text Documents & Notes: Manual text entries, imported PDFs, and document contents.
AI Prompts & Queries: Questions asked to the AI Chat Assistant, translation requests, and summary prompts.
Support & Content Reports: Email communications and in-app content reports flagging AI inaccuracies.
B. Information Collected Automatically
Device & Diagnostic Data: Device model, OS version (Android 14/15), IP address, app language, and crash logs collected via Google Firebase Crashlytics and Google Firebase Analytics.
Subscription & Entitlement Data: Purchase tokens and subscription tier status provided by Google Play Billing. Payment details are handled exclusively by Google Play; we never store your payment card numbers.
C. Calendar & Meeting Information (Optional)
If you connect Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook, we process upcoming meeting titles, start times, and meeting URLs (Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams) solely to dispatch our automated Meeting Assistant bot. We do not read private emails or unrelated calendar events. Section 6 explains exactly what Google data this involves and how it is protected.
3. How We Use Information & Legal Bases (GDPR Art. 6)
Purpose
Data Categories
GDPR Legal Basis
Audio transcription, AI summaries, translation, and chat
Audio recordings, text notes, transcripts
Performance of Contract / Consent
Account management & multi-device synchronization
Name, email, Firebase UID, sync bundles
Performance of Contract
Subscription fulfillment and quota metering
Google Play purchase tokens, plan tier
Performance of Contract / Legal Obligation
Dispatching Meeting Assistant to scheduled calls
Meeting URL, meeting title, start time
Consent / Performance of Contract
App performance, stability & crash diagnostics
Crash logs, performance telemetry
Legitimate Interests
4. Permissions & Foreground Services Disclosures
RECORD_AUDIO (Microphone Access): Used exclusively when you start recording a voice note or meeting. Audio is never captured in the background without your active initiation.
FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MICROPHONE: Maintains active voice recording if the device screen locks or you switch apps, with an ongoing notification in the Android status bar.
FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC: Allows Android WorkManager to reliably perform user-initiated transcription and cloud backup tasks.
Storage Privacy: Sottovo Note does not request broad storage permissions (such as `MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE`). Files are imported via Android's secure system picker.
5. AI Processing & Third-Party Sub-Processors
We work with trusted industry leaders under strict Data Processing Agreements:
OpenAI (GPT models): Generates summaries, key takeaways, translations, and chat responses. To answer chat questions across your notes, passages of your notes are also sent to OpenAI to create search data, which is stored only on your phone and deleted with the note. Your private notes and voice recordings are NEVER used to train OpenAI foundation models.
AssemblyAI: Speech-to-text automated transcription engine. When you turn on live captions (Pro Plan) while recording live, AssemblyAI also translates each finished line into the language you choose, using an AI model through its LLM Gateway with zero data retention. For the default model, Google processes that translation on AssemblyAI's behalf through Vertex AI.
Recall.ai: Joins the online meetings you send the Meeting Assistant to, records them and turns the recording into a transcript. If you connect a calendar, Recall.ai also reads its events to schedule the assistant (see Section 6). Meeting recordings are deleted from Recall.ai within 3 days of the meeting.
Supadata / TranscriptAPI: When you import a YouTube link, we send only the video's ID to one of these services to fetch the video's public captions. No personal data is sent.
Google AdMob (free plan only, once advertising is live): Serves and measures advertising using your device advertising identifier. Your recordings, transcripts and notes are never shared with any ad network.
Google Firebase: Secure authentication, real-time crash reporting (Crashlytics), and analytics.
Exports to Notion and Google Docs (Pro Plan): when you export a note to Notion or Google Docs, your phone sends the parts of the note you choose (its title, summary, action items, typed notes and transcript) straight to your own Notion workspace or Google Drive. Our servers never receive the note. For Notion, our server only completes the sign-in: it receives your Notion access for at most 10 minutes, until your phone collects it, and then deletes it. The connection is then kept only on your phone, encrypted, and is removed when you tap Disconnect Notion in Settings, sign out or delete your account. You can also remove Sottovo Note from your Notion workspace in Notion's settings, under Connections. What you export is then stored by Notion or Google under their own terms; deleting a note in Sottovo Note does not delete a copy you exported.
6. Google User Data & Limited Use
This section covers data we receive from Google APIs when you choose Sign in with Google, connect Google Calendar or export a note to Google Docs.
A. What we access
Sign in with Google: your name, email address and profile picture, used only to create and identify your account.
Google Calendar (optional): we request only two scopes:
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events.readonly: read-only access to your calendar events. We cannot create, change or delete any event.
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email: the email address of the connected calendar, so the app can show you which calendar is linked.
Google Docs export (optional, Pro Plan): we request only https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file, which lets the app create a document in your Google Drive and see only the files it created. The app cannot see or change any other file in your Drive.
B. How we use it
Calendar events are used only to show you your upcoming online meetings and to send the Meeting Assistant to the meetings you switch on. We use an event's title, start and end time, and meeting link. For a meeting you choose to record, the title and link become the title of the note that holds its transcript.
When you export a note to Google Docs, the app uses this access only to create the document you asked for, directly from your phone. The access token stays on your phone for that export and is never sent to our servers.
We do not use Google user data for advertising, sell it, or use it to build user profiles. We do not use it for any purpose other than providing or improving the user-facing features described here.
C. Who we share it with
Recall.ai connects to your calendar on our behalf, keeps the event list in sync, and sends the Meeting Assistant to the meetings you choose. Recall.ai holds the calendar access token. It acts only on our instructions and only to provide this feature.
OpenAI: if you use AI summaries, translation or chat on a meeting note, the note's text, including a title that came from your calendar, is sent to OpenAI to produce the result. OpenAI's API terms do not allow it to train its models on this data.
We do not transfer or disclose Google user data to anyone else, except where you ask us to, where it is needed for security, or where the law requires it.
D. No AI/ML model training
We do not use Google user data, including any raw, aggregated, anonymized or derived data, to develop, improve or train generalized or non-personalized artificial intelligence or machine learning models. We do not allow any third party to do so either.
E. Limited Use statement
Sottovo Note's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. The use of raw or derived user data received from Google Workspace APIs will adhere to the Google User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements, as set out in the Google Workspace API User Data and Developer Policy.
No person at Tornado Tech reads your Google user data unless you give us permission for a specific message (for example, a support request), it is needed for security purposes such as investigating abuse, or the law requires it.
F. Retention and deletion of Google data
We do not store your calendar or your Google access tokens on our servers or on your device. Our servers keep the identifier of the connected calendar, its email address, and your record on/off choice for each event. For a meeting you switch on, they also keep its meeting link and, once it has been recorded, its transcript.
Disconnecting your calendar in the app deletes the calendar from Recall.ai, which stops all access and discards the access token, and deletes our calendar records and record choices.
Deleting your account does the same for every connected calendar, together with the rest of your data (see Section 9).
Meeting notes created from calendar events, with their title, link and transcript, stay in your notes (and, on the Pro Plan, in your cloud backup) until you delete them or your account.
Documents you export to Google Docs are yours and stay in your Google Drive until you delete them there.
We use administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the confidentiality and integrity of your data, including Google user data and other sensitive data such as recordings and transcripts:
Encryption in transit: all traffic between the app, our servers and our service providers uses HTTPS (TLS). The app does not send data over unencrypted connections.
Encryption at rest: data on our servers (Cloudflare D1 databases and Cloudflare R2 storage, which holds Pro cloud backups) is encrypted at rest by Cloudflare.
Access control: every request to our servers that reads or changes user data must carry a valid Firebase sign-in token, and can reach only the signed-in user's own data. Notifications from our service providers are verified by signature before they are accepted. Access to production systems and service-provider dashboards is limited to the developer and protected by sign-in.
Secrets stay on the server: OAuth client secrets and service-provider API keys are stored as encrypted server secrets and are never included in the app. The Google sign-in flow for Calendar runs on our server, and its state value is signed and expires, so it cannot be forged or replayed.
Least privilege: we request only read-only calendar access and the email scope, and nothing wider.
Data minimisation and retention limits: we keep only what a feature needs, delete meeting recordings from Recall.ai within 3 days, and delete cloud data on account deletion as described in Section 9.
On your device: notes, transcripts and chats are stored in the app's private database, which other apps cannot read. Recordings are kept in the app's own storage folder, which other apps cannot access on Android 10 and later. Files you export are saved where you choose.
Vetted processors: we use only established service providers (listed in Section 5) that maintain their own security programmes.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If we learn of a security breach affecting your personal data, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.
8. Advertising (Free Plan Only)
Advertising is not active in the current release. This section describes how it will work once it is, and the "Last Updated" date above will change at that point.
Who sees ads: Free Plan users only. Pro subscribers are never shown advertising, and no advertising identifier is read from their devices.
What is used: Your resettable Google Advertising ID, coarse device and app information, and ad interactions. Your recordings, transcripts, notes, summaries and AI chats are never shared with any advertising network and are never used to target ads.
Your choices: Reset or delete the identifier, or switch off ad personalisation entirely, in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads. In the EEA and UK you will be asked for consent through a Google-certified consent form first. Subscribing to any paid tier removes advertising completely.
9. Data Retention & Account Deletion
All Plans: Audio is sent to our servers and to AssemblyAI to be transcribed, and note text is sent to OpenAI for summaries, translations and chat. This happens on every plan and is required for the app to work.
Meeting Assistant: Recordings of meetings the assistant joins are deleted from Recall.ai within 3 days of the meeting. The transcript is kept with your notes.
Free Plan: Once the transcript returns, notes, recordings, transcripts and AI chats are retained only on your device. We keep no cloud copy or cloud backup for free accounts.
Pro Plan: Encrypted cloud backups are stored while your subscription is active, with a post-cancellation grace period before automated cloud deletion.
Shared Links (Pro): If you choose Share a link on a note, we store a copy of the note's title and summary, and of its transcript if you include it, on our servers (Cloudflare D1 and R2). Anyone with the link can read that copy. Each link stops working after 30 days, or as soon as you tap Stop sharing, delete the note or delete your account, and the copy is deleted then; expired copies are removed within a day. We count how many times each shared page is opened, but we collect nothing about the people who open it: no cookies, no IP addresses and no tracking.
Custom Vocabulary (Pro): The names and terms you add under Settings -> Custom vocabulary are stored with your account on our servers (Cloudflare D1) and sent to AssemblyAI with your transcriptions, so that those words come back spelled right. They are deleted when your cloud data is deleted and when you delete your account.
In-App Account Deletion: Tap Settings -> Delete Account at any time to permanently wipe your account, cloud recordings, transcripts, AI chats, and auth tokens, and to disconnect every linked calendar (which deletes its access token at Recall.ai).
Web Deletion Route: A web-based deletion request portal is available for uninstalled users at: https://sottovonote.com/account-deletion
10. Your Regional Privacy Rights
EEA / UK (GDPR): You have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, and the right to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.
California / US (CCPA/CPRA): You have the right to know, delete, correct, and opt-out. We do NOT sell or share your personal data for behavioral advertising.
Australia (APPs) & Canada (PIPEDA): You have statutory rights to access and correct your personal information.