Privacy Policy
What the FlowTree app does with your information. Your charts are yours, so they stay on your phone.
FlowTree ("the app") is an app for Android phones and iPhones published by Studio Procrast ("we", "us") for making org charts, process flows and other diagrams. This policy explains what information the app handles, why, and what choices you have.
Everything below describes what FlowTree actually does, not what an app of this type might do.
Summary
FlowTree has no accounts, no sign-in, no cloud storage and no analytics of our own. We do not run any servers, so we never receive your charts, photos, recordings or any other personal information. Your charts and settings stay on your phone.
Three things involve other companies, and only Apple and Google: the free version shows ads from Google AdMob; dictation uses your phone's built-in speech service from Apple or Google; and on Android, reading text from photos uses Google's ML Kit, which runs on your phone. The details are below.
1. Information stored on your phone
The app saves the following locally:
| What | Stored value |
|---|---|
| Your charts | Each chart's title, type, boxes, text, lines, colours and positions, as a file in the app's own storage |
| Intro and export hint | Whether you have seen the first-launch intro and the one-time export hint |
| Pro | Whether Pro is unlocked |
| Last full-screen ad | The time it was shown, so those ads appear no more than once every five minutes |
Your charts are kept in the app's private documents folder and the small settings in the operating system's standard app storage (SharedPreferences on Android, UserDefaults on iPhone). They are not sent anywhere, cannot be read by us, and are deleted when you delete a chart or remove the app. Like any app's data, they may be included in your own Google, iCloud or computer backup.
2. Photos and the camera
Only when you choose Take a photo or Choose a photo, FlowTree asks for access to your camera or photo library so it can turn a whiteboard or paper sketch into a chart. On iPhone you can also share only selected photos.
The text in the photo is read on your phone, by Apple's Vision framework on iPhone and by Google's ML Kit text recognition on Android. The photo is not uploaded anywhere and is not saved with your chart; only the text you confirm on the review screen becomes part of the chart.
On Android, ML Kit may contact Google to receive updates, and sends Google information about how the feature performs and is used, together with basic device and app information. It does not send the photo or the text read from it. See Google's ML Kit terms.
3. Dictation and the microphone
Only when you tap the microphone in the Text tab, FlowTree asks for access to your microphone and speech recognition so you can dictate your chart. It uses your phone's built-in speech service: Apple's speech recognition on iPhone, and the speech recognition service of your Android phone (usually Google's). These services may process your voice on Apple's or Google's servers to turn it into text, under Apple's or Google's privacy policy. FlowTree only receives the resulting text, which it adds to your chart. It does not record or keep audio.
4. Files you open, export and share
You can open .flowtree and .drawio files from other apps such as Files, Mail or WhatsApp. FlowTree reads them on your phone and adds them as a new chart.
When you export a chart as PDF, JPG, PNG, SVG, draw.io or a .flowtree file, it is created on your phone and handed to your phone's share sheet. Where it goes next is your choice, and the app or service you pick handles it under its own policy. A shared .flowtree file comes with a short line that links to FlowTree in the app stores.
5. Advertising
The free version of FlowTree shows two kinds of ads, supplied by Google AdMob: a full-screen ad after an image or PDF export, no more than once every five minutes, and an optional video you can choose to watch to remove the watermark from one export. Sharing an editable .flowtree file never shows an ad, and Pro shows no ads.
To show and measure ads, Google may receive and process:
- Your phone's advertising identifier: on Android the advertising ID, on iPhone Apple's Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), but only if you allow tracking (see below);
- Identifiers limited to this app or to apps from the same developer (on Android the app set ID);
- Your IP address, and the approximate (city or region level) location derived from it;
- Device and app information: phone model, operating system version, app version, language and country;
- Ad interaction data: that an ad was shown, viewed or tapped;
- Diagnostic data, such as crash logs and performance information from Google's advertising software.
Google may use the advertising identifier to show ads based on your interests. This information is collected by Google, not by us. We only see overall figures, such as total ads shown and revenue, which do not identify individual users.
On iPhone, FlowTree asks once, using Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, whether it may use your IDFA. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, the IDFA is never used and you will still see ads, just not personalised ones. On iPhone the app also supports Apple's SKAdNetwork, which lets advertisers learn that an ad led to an app being installed without identifying you or your phone.
Google uses this data to serve ads, to limit how often you see the same ad, and to detect invalid traffic and fraud. Google's own policies apply:
- Google Privacy Policy
- How Google uses information from partner sites and apps
- Google Advertising policies
6. Purchases
If you unlock Pro, the payment is handled entirely by the App Store or Google Play. We never see your name, payment card or account details; the app only remembers on your phone that Pro is unlocked.
7. What the app does not do
To be explicit, FlowTree does not:
- Upload your charts, photos or voice to servers of our own, or keep any copy outside your phone;
- Ask for or access your precise location, contacts, calendar, health data or files other than the ones you open or export;
- Require or offer an account, or ask for your name, age, email address or any other personal detail;
- Contain analytics, crash reporting or attribution software of our own;
- Sell personal information. Where United States state privacy laws treat personalised advertising as "sharing", the choices in section 8 let you turn it off.
8. Your choices
Tracking on iPhone. You can change your answer at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
Advertising ID on Android. You can delete or reset your advertising ID in Settings → Privacy → Ads (or Settings → Google → Ads, depending on your phone). Once deleted, it can no longer be used for personalised ads.
Camera, photos and microphone. FlowTree asks only when you use these features. You can withdraw access at any time in your phone's settings; the rest of the app keeps working.
Your charts. Delete a chart from the home screen, or remove the app to delete everything it saved. There is nothing stored elsewhere for us to delete.
9. Legal basis (EEA, UK and Switzerland)
Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies:
- Storing your charts and settings, and reading photos and dictation you ask the app to process, is necessary to provide the app you asked for (Article 6(1)(b), performance of a contract);
- Showing non-personalised ads relies on our legitimate interest in keeping the app free (Article 6(1)(f));
- Using your advertising identifier for personalised ads relies on your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time as described in section 8.
For processing Google or Apple carry out as controllers in their own right, they decide the legal basis; see their privacy policies linked above.
You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing of your personal data, the right to data portability, and the right to complain to your local supervisory authority. In the Netherlands that is the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Because we hold no personal data ourselves, requests about advertising or speech data should go to Google or Apple; we will help where we can.
10. Children
FlowTree is a productivity app for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 where local law sets a higher age). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Parents and guardians with questions can contact us at any time.
11. Data retention and security
We hold no personal data, so there is nothing for us to keep or lose. Data held by Google or Apple is kept according to their own retention schedules and is sent to them encrypted. Information stored on your phone stays there until you delete it or remove the app.
12. International transfers
Google and Apple may process advertising, speech and diagnostic data on servers outside your country, including in the United States, using transfer mechanisms such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. See their privacy policies for details.
13. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the "Last updated" date above and post the new version at the same address. Changes that affect how data is used will also be mentioned in the app's release notes on Google Play and the App Store.
14. Contact
Questions about this policy or about privacy in FlowTree: Studio Procrast, info@studioprocrast.com or +31617280872. We aim to respond within 30 days.
FlowTree is developed by Studio Procrast.