DECIBEL METER

Privacy Policy

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1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Decibel Meter: Noise Report ("Decibel Meter") handles information when you use it. Decibel Meter is an Android app that estimates the sound level around you with your phone's microphone, and lets you save measurements as sessions and export noise reports. It needs no account and does not ask for your name, email address, contacts, photos, camera or location.

2. The microphone: measured on your phone, never recorded

Decibel Meter uses the microphone only to measure how loud it is. The app reads the microphone signal in short blocks (a few hundredths of a second), turns each block into a sound level in decibels in your phone's memory, and then discards it. Audio is never recorded, stored, played back or sent, and the developer has no server that could receive it. Only the resulting numbers are kept, as described below.

  • When the microphone is on. While the meter screen is open, and while a session or a scheduled measurement records. Leaving the meter screen turns the microphone off. During a session, an ongoing notification shows the live level and has a Stop button. While a scheduled measurement waits for its time window, the microphone stays off, and the notification says so.
  • Sessions. For each session the app keeps on your device its start and end time, the type (manual or scheduled), the weighting, response and calibration used, the levels (minimum, maximum, average Leq, peak and the L10, L50 and L90 levels), one set of level values per second (average, minimum and maximum), and the note you add. Without Premium the history shows your 5 most recent sessions; older sessions stay stored on your device, hidden, and show again with Premium. You can delete a session from its detail screen.
  • Noise reports. PDF and CSV reports are created on your device from a session's levels. They are saved where you choose with Android's file picker, or sent to an app you pick in Android's share menu. The developer never receives them.
  • Microphone details. The Calibration screen shows which microphone input and sample rate the app uses. This is read on your device and not sent anywhere.
  • Settings. Your weighting, response, keep-screen-on choice and calibration offset, together with app state such as your answer to "What do you want to measure?", onboarding progress, earned report credits, review and ad timing and your active Premium plan, are stored on your device.
  • Backup. If Android backup is turned on, your sessions and settings can be part of your own device backup, which Google stores for your Google account. The developer has no access to it.

3. Advertising (Google AdMob)

If you don't have Premium, Decibel Meter shows ads from Google AdMob:

  • a banner at the bottom of the History list and of the Reference levels list;
  • sometimes a full-screen ad at a natural break: after a session is saved. Never when the app starts, never in your first session, never while a session is running, and at most one every three minutes;
  • an optional rewarded ad that you can choose to watch to export one PDF report.

Ads never appear on the live meter, while a session records, or in notifications. To deliver, measure and protect ads, Google and its ad partners may process your device's Android advertising ID, your IP address and the approximate location derived from it, device and app information, and ad interaction and diagnostic data. Ads never receive your sound levels, sessions or notes.

Before ads load, Decibel Meter uses Google's User Messaging Platform to ask for your consent, or to offer the choices privacy laws require, where those laws apply (for example in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland). You can change your choices at any time under Settings → Ad privacy choices (shown when it applies to you), and you can reset or delete your advertising ID in Android's settings. On Android versions that offer them, the ads SDK may also use Android's own ad privacy features, which you control in your device's ad privacy settings. With Premium you see no ads: the app shows no consent form and doesn't start the ads SDK.

How Google uses information from apps that use its services · Google Privacy Policy

4. Purchases (Google Play)

Premium is sold through Google Play as a one-time purchase. Google Play handles the payment: Decibel Meter never receives your card or other payment details. To unlock Premium, the app asks Google Play on your device which Decibel Meter purchases your Google account owns, and it stores only whether Premium is active. Google Play gives the developer order records (such as an order number, the product, the price, the date and the country) for accounting, tax, refunds and support. Google describes how it handles your purchase in the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Play Terms of Service.

5. Ratings and reviews

After you have saved a few sessions, Decibel Meter may show Google Play's in-app review card, at most once every 30 days and never over an ad. Your rating and review go to Google Play under your Google account; Decibel Meter does not receive them and does not know whether you left one.

6. Analytics, crash reports and support emails

Decibel Meter does not include analytics or crash-reporting SDKs, and the developer does not track how you use the app. If this changes in a future version, this policy will be updated before that version is released. When you choose Settings → Send feedback, your email app opens a draft that includes the app version, Android version, device model and app language so we can help you; you can edit or delete these lines before sending. We use your email only to answer you.

7. Permissions

  • Microphone (RECORD_AUDIO): to measure the sound level, as described in section 2. Android asks you first ("While using the app"); the app explains why before it asks. Without it the meter cannot measure, and the app shows how to allow it in Android's settings.
  • Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS, Android 13 and newer): for the ongoing notification of a running measurement with its Stop button, and for "Session saved". Android asks you first. Without it, sessions still run, but Android hides their notification.
  • Foreground service for the microphone (FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MICROPHONE): so a session you start, or a scheduled measurement you arm, keeps measuring while the screen is off or you use another app, always with a visible notification. It never starts by itself.
  • Internet and network state: for ads, the consent form and Google Play purchases. Measuring needs no internet.
  • Advertising ID and Android's ad services (AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS): added by the Google Mobile Ads SDK.
  • Google Play billing (BILLING): for purchases.
  • Keep awake (WAKE_LOCK): added by Android's job scheduling library, which the ads SDK uses. Decibel Meter itself takes no wake lock.
  • An internal permission (DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION) that only Decibel Meter can hold. Android's support library uses it to protect the app's own messages.

The app has no storage, camera, location or contacts permission. Reports leave the app only through Android's file picker or share menu, to the place or app you choose.

8. Children

Decibel Meter is a general-audience tool and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information through an ad, contact us and we will help you ask Google to delete it.

9. Retention, security and deletion

Sessions, their levels and notes, and your settings stay on your device until you delete them in the app, clear the app's storage or uninstall Decibel Meter. Audio is never kept, so there is none to delete. Advertising data is kept by Google under its own policies, and purchase records by Google Play. Depending on the law that applies to you, you may ask for access to or deletion of personal information processed on our behalf by writing to the contact below; we reply within 30 days and forward the request to the relevant provider. No storage or transmission method is completely secure, but Decibel Meter does not store personal information on its own servers, and the Google services it uses send data over encrypted connections.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when Decibel Meter's features or data practices change. The updated policy will show a new date on this page.

11. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, contact the Decibel Meter developer at [email protected].

Terms of Use

By downloading or using Decibel Meter you agree to these terms. The developer grants you a personal, non-transferable licence to use the app on devices you own or control, subject to the Google Play Terms of Service. Do not copy, modify, reverse-engineer or redistribute the app except as allowed by law.

Premium. Premium unlocks PDF and CSV noise reports, sessions longer than 10 minutes, scheduled measurements, calibration, the unlimited history and no ads. It is a one-time purchase at the price Google Play shows before you pay. Refunds follow Google Play's refund policies. Premium belongs to the Google account that bought it: use Settings → Restore purchases on another device. Watching a rewarded ad unlocks one PDF report only.

Readings are estimates. Decibel Meter estimates sound levels from your phone's microphone. Phone microphones are made for voices, differ from model to model and may be limited by the phone's audio processing, so readings can be several decibels off, especially for very quiet or very loud sounds. Calibration can bring readings closer to a reference meter, but it does not make the app a measuring instrument. Decibel Meter is not a certified sound level meter, and its readings and reports are not suitable as evidence of compliance with noise regulations or workplace rules. For legal, occupational or medical purposes, use a certified instrument and a qualified professional. The app gives no medical or hearing advice. Scheduled measurements may start a few minutes after the chosen time when the phone is in deep sleep.

Your use. You are responsible for how and where you measure, for the notes you add and for the reports you share, including respecting the privacy of others and any local rules about using a phone's microphone. The app records no audio.

Decibel Meter is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. To the extent permitted by law, the developer is not liable for indirect or consequential damages, decisions or disputes based on readings or reports, lost data, or interruptions caused by your device, operating system, store or ad provider. We may update the app or these terms; continued use after an update means you accept the updated terms. These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Indonesia, without limiting consumer rights you have in your country.

Support

Need help? Email [email protected]. Settings → Send feedback fills in your app version, Android version and device model for you; the version is also shown at the bottom of Settings.

The meter shows nothing or a very low level. Allow the microphone: Android Settings → Apps → Decibel Meter → Permissions → Microphone → "Allow only while using the app". If another app is using the microphone (a call, a voice recorder, a voice assistant), Android gives it priority and Decibel Meter says so; close that app and try again. Check that nothing covers the microphone, and that a case or your hand is not over it.

My phone reads differently from another phone or meter. Phones use different microphones and audio processing, so readings differ by a few decibels. With Premium, open Calibration, place the phone next to a reference meter or play a sound of known level, and set the difference. The offset is saved and used for every reading.

"≥" next to the reading. The sound is louder than your phone's microphone can measure; the real level is at least the value shown.

Changing A/C weighting or fast/slow resets min, average and max. Each setting measures differently, so the live statistics start again. During a session the settings are locked, so the session stays consistent.

A session stopped after 10 minutes. Sessions without Premium stop by themselves after 10 minutes. Premium removes the limit and adds scheduled measurements.

A scheduled measurement started late, or the notification is missing. In deep sleep, Android may delay the start by a few minutes. Allow notifications for Decibel Meter to see the measurement notification and its Stop button; without them the measurement still runs. A scheduled measurement measures one window and then stops; arm it again for the next night.

Older sessions are blurred. Without Premium the history shows your 5 most recent sessions. Older sessions are kept on your phone and appear again with Premium.

Premium and restore. Premium is linked to your Google account. On a new phone, sign in with the same Google account and use Settings → Restore purchases.

Delete your data. Delete a session from its detail screen, or clear the app's storage or uninstall Decibel Meter to delete everything it keeps on your device. For advertising data, use Settings → Ad privacy choices or your device's advertising ID settings, or email us with the subject "Delete my Decibel Meter data".