Privacy Policy — Sleep Bookmark
Sleep Bookmark reads your heart rate from a Wear OS watch or from a Bluetooth band or strap that you choose, detects when you have probably fallen asleep, rewinds your media to about where you dozed off and pauses it. This policy explains what the app does with your information.
The short version
- Sleep Bookmark works entirely on your phone (and your watch, if you use one). It has no account, no servers, no advertising and no analytics, and it doesn't use the internet.
- Your heart-rate readings, session logs and feedback are stored only on your phone. We do not receive them.
- Purchases are handled by Google Play. To stop the free trial restarting after a reinstall, the date it started is kept in your phone's Google backup.
- Nothing else leaves your phone unless you choose to share a log yourself.
What the app uses
Heart-rate readings. Sleep Bookmark reads your live heart rate, from your watch or from the Bluetooth device you select, while a session is running. Readings are used on your phone to estimate whether you are asleep. A summary of each session (times, heart-rate trace, whether and when sleep was detected) is saved in a log file in the app's private storage so you can see it in History.
Your watch (Wear OS). If you use a Wear OS watch, the Sleep Bookmark watch app measures your heart rate with the watch's sensor while a session runs and sends it to your phone over the connection between your watch and phone (provided by Google Play services). The readings are held in memory on the watch and are not saved there. The watch app also reads the watch's motion sensor (the accelerometer) while a session runs, so the phone can wait until your wrist has been still for a few minutes before it pauses your media: on the watch the readings are reduced to one short summary every 30 seconds (how much your wrist moved), which is sent to your phone the same way and kept in that night's session log with the heart-rate summary. It is only sent anywhere else if you share that log yourself. The optional buzz check (off unless you switch it on) makes the watch vibrate once before a pause and checks for a few seconds whether your wrist moved; that movement is not saved or sent anywhere.
Your phone's motion sensor (optional). If you switch on "Use the phone's motion sensor by placing it on the bed" in Settings (it is off unless you do), Sleep Bookmark reads your phone's motion sensor (the accelerometer) while a session runs, to feel whether the bed is still before it pauses your media. It needs no permission. On your phone the readings are reduced to one short summary every 30 seconds (how much the phone moved), which is kept in that night's session log with the heart-rate summary. It is only sent anywhere if you share that log yourself.
The device you choose. The app remembers the name and Bluetooth address of your selected heart-rate device so you don't have to pick it every night. This is stored only on your phone.
Playback information (rewinding to where you fell asleep). To rewind to where you fell asleep, Android requires "notification access". Sleep Bookmark uses it only to read what your media player reports about what is playing: the playback position, and which chapter or track that position belongs to (its length and, so the app can find that chapter again in the player's list, its title or identifier). It does this while a session runs, so it can rewind to where you fell asleep even when that was in an earlier chapter. The titles and identifiers are used on your phone only: they are never written to the session log or sent anywhere. The session log keeps which media app was playing (its technical package name), the chapter numbers in the order they played, their lengths and the positions. Sleep Bookmark does not read, store or send the content of your notifications. Rewinding is part of every session, so Sleep Bookmark can't start a session until you grant it.
Settings. Your preferences (language, sensitivity, rewind, safety timer, theme) are stored on your phone.
Your feedback. If you mark a night with a thumbs up or down (and, on a thumbs down, what was off), or write an optional note about the night in your own words, it is added to that night's log on your phone. It is only sent anywhere if you share that log yourself, so write in the note only what you'd be happy to share with that log.
Reporting a problem. In Settings you can tap "Report a problem" and write to us. Your email app opens with your message, a few technical details (the app version, Android version, phone model, the app's language, which heart-rate source and main settings you use, and whether notification access and unrestricted battery use are on) and, only if you leave the box ticked, an encrypted copy of the log of your most recent night and, only if you add them, up to four pictures you choose from your phone (shrunk on your phone first, with their hidden photo information, such as where they were taken, removed). Nothing is sent until you tap Send in your email app, and we use what you send only to understand and fix the problem. Please don't put passwords or other private details in your message or on your pictures.
Purchases and the free trial. Sleep Bookmark is free for 7 days from the first night you use it, then needs a monthly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Both are sold through Google Play: Google handles the payment, and we never see your payment details. The app checks what you've bought with the Google Play Store app on your phone. To stop the free trial restarting when the app is reinstalled, the app keeps two dates (when your trial started, and the latest date it has seen) in three places: on your phone; in your Android backup, as the only thing the app backs up; and in Google's Block Store, which Google Play services keep for the app and back up end-to-end encrypted when your phone has a screen lock. These dates are not linked to your heart rate or your nights, and we never receive them.
Permissions
On your phone:
- Bluetooth (nearby devices): to find and read your heart-rate device.
- Location (Android 11 and older only): those versions of Android require it to scan for Bluetooth devices. Sleep Bookmark does not read your location.
- Notifications: to show that monitoring is running.
- Foreground service (connected device): to keep the connection to your heart-rate source alive while you sleep.
- Wi-Fi multicast state: Android only lets an app run that kind of background service if the app also holds one of a few connection-related permissions, and this is the least powerful of them. Sleep Bookmark declares it for that reason only and doesn't use it to send or receive anything.
- Notification access (required): only for rewinding to where you fell asleep, as described above.
- Keep device awake: briefly, so the pause and rewind complete reliably when the screen is off, and for the few seconds the optional buzz check waits for your wrist to move.
- Google Play billing: to buy the subscription or the lifetime license through Google Play.
On your watch:
- Heart rate (body sensors): to measure your heart rate during a session.
- Foreground service (health) and notifications: to keep measuring while you sleep and to show that it is running.
- Vibration: for the optional buzz check and its test button.
- Keep device awake: to keep measuring reliably with the screen off, and for the few seconds the optional buzz check takes.
Sharing
Sleep Bookmark does not share your data with anyone. If you tap "Share log" on a session, your email app opens with a message to the developer (sleep.bookmark.support@gmail.com) and an encrypted copy of the log attached; nothing is sent until you tap Send yourself. (If no email app is installed, the copy is passed to the app you choose in Android's share sheet.) Only the Sleep Bookmark developer can open it: the app it passes through, and anyone else who gets the file, sees unreadable text. The log contains heart-rate readings, times and any note you wrote for that session, so share it only when you want the developer to look at that night.
Retention and deletion
Logs stay on your phone until you delete them (Delete session, or Settings → Delete all session history) or uninstall the app. The app keeps the most recent sessions and removes older ones automatically. Because nothing is sent to us, we have no copy of your data to delete. The free trial's dates stay in your Google backup and Block Store after the app is uninstalled, so that a reinstall continues the same trial; they are removed with your backup in your Google account settings.
Health information
Heart-rate data is health information. Sleep Bookmark is not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat or monitor any health condition, and its sleep detection is an estimate that can be wrong.
Children
Sleep Bookmark is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country), and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new "last updated" date.