Privacy Policy for Granular Volume

Last updated: October 4, 2026

Granular Volume ("the app") is a utility developed by an independent developer (Rotem Zussman, "the developer", "we") that adds fine-grained, software-level volume control on top of your Android device's built-in volume controls. This policy explains, in plain language, what the app does and does not do with information, and what rights you have. It covers the Granular Volume app on Google Play and F-Droid, the optional full-range unlock bought inside the app, and the optional companion app Volume Control Full Range Key ("the Key App"), which has its own short policy at the address given in the unlock section below.

The short version

Granular Volume does not collect, store, transmit, or share any personal data. The app has no internet access in any version: it does not request the INTERNET permission, contains no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party tracking SDKs of any kind. The app itself sends nothing off your device. This is true for the free features, and it remains true after the optional full-range unlock: the payment is collected by Google Play, either in Google Play's own purchase window shown inside the app (version 1.6.0 and later), or, for those who bought it before it was withdrawn, through the separate Key App. In both cases this app gains no network access of its own and never touches your payment details.

Information the app collects

None. The app's own code does not collect, and has no technical means of collecting or transmitting, names, email addresses, location, contacts, device identifiers, usage statistics, crash logs, payment details, or any other personal or sensitive information. It has no servers and no network capability of its own. The app uses no cookies, analytics, advertising or tracking technology. The website's visit counter, and the emails and purchase records the developer keeps, are described in their own sections below.

Information stored on your device

The app saves a small amount of local settings on your device only, so it can remember your preferences between sessions:

The on-screen position of the floating control.
Your last selected volume level.
Whether the control was active, and whether it was still holding a level (used to bring it back after the device restarts or the app is updated).
Whether you have accepted the current Terms of Use.
Local flags related to the optional full-range unlock: when the free trial on this device began, whether this device qualifies for the free full range as a long-time user, whether the unlock has been bought on this Google account (a copy of Google Play's own record, version 1.6.0 and later), and which one-time informational screens have already been shown. From version 1.7.0, where the app was first opened after the trial week had already passed, also the time until which the 24 hours given instead last.
In the Google Play version, from version 1.7.0: whether the Google Play app on your device has reported a newer version of this app, and when the app last asked it.

This data is stored privately in the app's own storage on your device and is never transmitted to us. We operate no servers and receive none of it.

One small part of it takes part in Android's own backup, and we want to be exact about which part. Android can copy an app's data into your Google account so that it comes back on a new phone or after a reinstall. We have limited that copy to a single file, which holds only a few small values: when your free trial began, a timestamp the app keeps so that record cannot be stretched by turning the device clock back, whether this device qualifies for the free full range as a long-time user, a flag recording that this check has already been made, and, from version 1.6.0, whether the unlock has been bought on this Google account and whether a purchase is still waiting for Google Play's confirmation. Your settings, the position of the control, your volume level and every other preference are excluded from the backup and stay on the device they were made on.

That one file is what lets your trial, and a long-time user's free access, follow you to a new phone instead of being lost. The backup is between your device and your own Google account, under Google's terms and your Android backup settings, which you can turn off at any time. Nothing in it reaches us. Uninstalling the app removes its data from your device; the entitlement file may remain in your own Google account backup until Android's own retention removes it.

Permissions and why they are needed

Display over other apps (SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW): to show the floating volume control on top of other apps.
Modify audio settings (MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS): to apply the volume attenuation to audio output.
Foreground service (FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE): to keep the control running reliably while you use other apps, with a persistent notification.
Run at startup (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED): to restore the control after the device restarts, only if it was active when the device shut down.
Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS): to display the ongoing service notification required by Android for foreground services and, in the Google Play version, at most two one-time notes about the free week (one before it ends, one when it has ended). They are created on your device and nothing is sent anywhere.
In-app purchases (com.android.vending.BILLING, Google Play version 1.6.0 and later only): lets the app ask the Google Play app already on your device to show Google's own purchase window for the full-range unlock, and to report whether this Google account has bought it. It is not an internet permission. The app still cannot connect to anything itself; everything about the purchase is done by the Google Play app, under Google's privacy policy.

The app does not request the INTERNET permission in any version. None of the permissions above is used to access, collect, or transmit personal information.

The optional full-range unlock

The Google Play version of Granular Volume offers continued use of its volume control after a free trial, including the deeper quiet steps, as a one-time purchase. The payment is always collected by Google Play, never by this app. It is made inside the app; a Key App bought earlier remains a valid unlock:

Inside the app (version 1.6.0 and later). The unlock button opens Google Play's own purchase window over the app, through Google's standard billing system for Android apps. You confirm the purchase there, with the payment method of your Google account. This app never sees, receives or stores your payment details.
As a separate app (no longer sold). Until September 28, 2026 the same unlock was also sold as a small companion app called Volume Control Full Range Key. It is no longer offered to new buyers. A Key App bought earlier keeps unlocking the full range on the device where it is installed, in every version of Granular Volume from 1.5.0, and can be installed again from your Google Play library with the same account.
To decide whether the full range is unlocked, Granular Volume checks two things, both on your device: whether the Key App is installed and was signed by the developer, using Android's standard package manager; and, from version 1.6.0, whether this Google account owns the in-app unlock, by asking the Google Play app on your device, which answers from its own record of your purchases. The app keeps a local copy of that answer so the control can start without waiting, and asks again each time the control starts. Nothing is looked up online by this app, and nothing is transmitted by it. If Google Play refunds the purchase, the answer changes and the full range locks again.
Payment details (card number, billing address, and similar) are handled by Google under Google's own privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy. Neither Granular Volume nor the developer ever receives, sees, or stores any payment information.
The purchase is one-time. There is no subscription, no recurring charge, and nothing to cancel. To restore it on a new device or after a reset, sign in to Google Play with the same Google account: an in-app unlock comes back on its own when the app starts, or with its "Restore" link; a Key App is installed again from Google Play without a second charge. Google Play remembers the purchase.
For refunds, you can use Google Play's standard refund process, or contact the developer directly at the email below.
When you buy the unlock, Google Play gives the developer a record of the order so that the sale, its taxes and any refund can be handled: an order number, the date, the item, the price and tax, and your country. Where the developer rather than Google is the seller of record, Google may also include your state or region and postal code, which it uses to calculate tax. The record does not include your name, your email address or any payment details. The developer uses it only to account for the sale and to handle refunds, and keeps it for as long as tax and accounting rules require, which is the legal basis for keeping it.

The Key App itself collects nothing, requests no permissions, and has no internet access. Its own short privacy policy is published at rzuss.github.io/granular-volume-privacy/key-privacy.html.

The F-Droid version of Granular Volume includes the full range at no charge, contains no purchase feature of any kind, no billing component, and performs no key check. It remains 100% offline, permanently.

Third-party services and components

The app is distributed through Google Play and F-Droid. Distribution, installation, and the optional purchase of the unlock are handled entirely by those platforms under their own respective privacy policies and terms. The app embeds no analytics, advertising or tracking SDK of any kind, and it has no internet access with which to reach one.

For completeness, the app is built on standard open-source Android libraries, which collect nothing and send nothing. There are three further components, and only in the Google Play version. The first is Google's in-app review library, which is what lets the app show Google's own "rate this app" dialog. It is used at most once, it is optional for you, and it works by asking the Google Play app already on your device to display that dialog. The second, from version 1.6.0, is Google's Play Billing library, the standard component through which an Android app asks the Google Play app on the device to show Google's purchase window and to report a purchase. It is built into this app without Google's optional usage-reporting part, and the app has no internet permission for it to use: everything it does goes through the Google Play app already on your device, under Google's privacy policy. The third, from version 1.7.0, is Google's in-app update library, through which the app asks the Google Play app already on your device whether a newer version of this app exists, and opens Google's own update screen when you press Update. The download is done by the Google Play app, not by this app. None of the three gives this app network access, none sends the developer anything, and all three are absent entirely from the F-Droid version. A list of every component and its licence is available inside the app from version 1.5.0.

Android itself, not the app, can send crash and freeze reports to Google if you have chosen in your device settings to share usage and diagnostics data. Google shows these reports to the developer, with technical details such as the device model, the Android version and the error, so that faults can be fixed. The app takes no part in collecting or sending them, and you can turn this sharing off in Android's settings.

The website

The website granularvolume.com counts page visits with GoatCounter, a privacy-respecting open-source service. It sets no cookies, stores no IP addresses and builds no visitor profiles. It records, in aggregate, the page visited, the site that referred you, your country, your browser type and your screen size. Clicks on the Google Play buttons on the site are counted the same way, so the developer can see which pages are useful. This applies to the website only: the app itself has no internet permission and sends nothing, exactly as described above.

Hosting and what the servers see. The website is served by GitHub Pages, a hosting service operated by GitHub, Inc. (Microsoft). Like any web server, GitHub's servers receive your IP address and the page you requested in order to deliver the page, and may keep that in their own server logs under GitHub's privacy statement; the developer does not receive or see those logs. GoatCounter's servers, which receive the page visit in order to count it, are operated by Hetzner Online GmbH in Finland and Germany, inside the European Union. GoatCounter does not store your IP address, does not store your full browser identifier, sets no cookie and stores nothing in your browser.

Why there is no consent banner. The counting described above stores no personal data and cannot identify a person, so it is done on the basis of the developer's legitimate interest in knowing which pages are useful, the same way a shop counts how many people came in. If you would rather not be counted at all, a content blocker that blocks gc.zgo.at will do exactly that and the site will work normally without it.

The accessibility button. If you use the button on the website to change the text size, contrast, link underlining or font, your choices are kept in your browser for the open tab only, so they carry from page to page, and they are cleared when you close the tab. They are never sent anywhere, and the button loads nothing from any other site.

Data security

The app has no servers and no network access, and it sends the developer nothing. The only personal data in the developer's hands are the emails, purchase records and tester addresses described in this policy, kept in the developer's Google account. Local on-device settings are protected by Android's operating-system-level app sandboxing and are never exposed to the developer.

When you write to the developer

If you email the developer, your email address and whatever you choose to write are kept in the developer's Gmail account (a Google service, which may store it outside your country) in order to answer you and to keep a record of support and refund requests. They are not used for anything else. The legal basis is the developer's legitimate interest in answering you and keeping a record of support and refund requests. Emails are kept for at most three years after your last message, unless you ask for them to be deleted sooner or they are needed for a legal claim.

If you joined a test of the app

If you asked to test a pre-release version, the email address you gave was added to a tester list in the developer's Google Play Console, which Google uses to give that address access to the test. It is used for nothing else, and it is removed on request, or once the test list is no longer needed.

Your rights (GDPR, CCPA, and similar privacy laws)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, California, or any other jurisdiction with its own data protection law, you may have rights such as the right to access, correct, delete, or export personal data, and the right to object to its processing. Apart from the emails, purchase records and tester addresses described in this policy, the developer holds no personal data about you. To ask about them, or to have an email deleted, write to the address below. For the rest of the data generated by a Google Play purchase of the unlock, those rights are exercised against Google as the party that actually holds that data, using Google's own account and privacy tools. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. Contact the developer using the details below with any question about how this applies to you.

Children's privacy

The app collects no personal data from anyone, including children, and contains no ads. The optional purchase is made through Google Play using the payment method of the Google account making the purchase; it is not directed at children, and parents or guardians are responsible for supervising purchases made from a device or account a child can access, using Google Play's own family and purchase-approval controls. The F-Droid version has no purchase feature at all.

International use

The app may be downloaded and used anywhere Google Play or F-Droid is available. Because the app itself transmits nothing, no personal data is transferred across borders in connection with the app's own operation. Any data involved in a Google Play purchase of the unlock is handled by Google under Google's own policies.

Disclaimer of warranty; limitation of liability

The app is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranty of any kind, express or implied, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. The developer does not warrant that the app will be uninterrupted, error-free, or compatible with every device or Android version. The developer's liability is governed by the Terms of Use, including the limits and the consumer-rights savings stated there. Nothing in this section limits any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, including your statutory consumer rights in relation to the purchase.

Governing law

This policy and any dispute arising from or relating to it or to your use of the app are governed by the laws of the State of Israel, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, and subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts of Israel, including, for a consumer in Israel, any court that has jurisdiction where the consumer lives. You keep the protection of the mandatory consumer-protection law of the country where you live, including any right it gives you to bring a claim there. A claim that relates specifically to Google's own handling of a purchase is governed by Google's own terms.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this same address with a revised "Last updated" date.

Contact

Questions about this policy, a refund request, or any privacy-related request? Contact the developer at: rotemzus@gmail.com.

The person responsible for this policy, and the data controller where that term applies to you, is:

Rotem Zussman
36 Karl Netter Street
Rishon LeZion
Israel