Privacy Policy — Time Aloud

App: Time Aloud · Package: com.benbowlabs.timealoud
Publisher: Benbow Labs, a division of Mapleworx Services Inc., Ontario, Canada
Last updated: October 13, 2026

This is Time Aloud's privacy policy. It is part of the Benbow Labs Privacy Policy, which applies to every app we publish; this page gives the facts for Time Aloud. It is available in English and French.

Nothing. Time Aloud does not collect, sell or share any personal information. It cannot connect to the internet itself, and we have no copy of anything the app keeps on your phone.

If you buy the unlock, Google gives us a record of your order. That record comes to us from Google, not from the app; see Purchases, below.

Time Aloud does not declare Android's INTERNET permission, so Android does not let it open a network connection. You can check this in the app's manifest, and our release build is set to fail if that permission is ever added.

The only personal information the app itself passes outside it goes to Google Play, to make and confirm your purchase. In detail, information leaves the app in only these ways:

• Purchases. The app contains Google's Play Billing Library, which passes your purchase request to the Google Play app on your phone, and confirms the purchase with it afterwards. Google Play then handles the purchase under its own terms. We removed the library's own usage-reporting component, so the app sends no reports itself.
• The Privacy policy and Terms of Use links. If you tap either one in the app, it opens that page on our website in your web browser. The browser makes that connection, not Time Aloud.
• Your backup. If Android's backup is on, Android copies two of the app's files to your backup account; see "Android's backup, and moving to a new phone", below.

Time Aloud speaks using your phone's text-to-speech engine, and offers only voices that work offline.

There are no user accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising and no crash-reporting service, and no third-party SDKs other than Google's Play Billing Library and the Google Play services components it requires, which handle the purchase.

Your settings: the announcement schedule you configured, your voice and volume preferences, your named profiles, and which Bluetooth devices (if any) you tagged to start the app automatically, with each device's address and the name stored for it.

It also keeps your trial counter (the number of days you have used the app, and the date of the last one), whether you have unlocked the full version, whether you have finished the first-time setup, and the state of a session while one is running, such as when it started.

These live in Time Aloud's private storage, which no other app can read. Uninstalling the app deletes them from your phone. It does not delete the backup copy described below. You can also clear them without uninstalling, from Android's app settings → Time Aloud → Storage → Clear storage.

If Android's backup is turned on, Android — not the app — copies two of these files to your phone's backup account, usually your Google account, so your setup can return when you reinstall Time Aloud or set up a new phone. Android decides when to back up and restore, and not every phone maker or transfer method does it. If you copy your apps straight from an old phone to a new one, Android copies the same two files.

The copy goes to your backup account, not to us, and we cannot read it. Google says that on Android 9 and later, if you have a screen lock set, the backup is encrypted with a key based on your screen lock, which Google does not hold. On Android 8, or on a phone with no screen lock, that extra protection does not apply: the backup is protected by Google's own security, under Google's privacy policy.

Exactly two things are included, and nothing else:

• your settings — your announcement schedule, voice and volume preferences, your named profiles, and the Bluetooth devices you tagged, with each device's address and the name stored for it;
• your trial counter — the number of days you have used the app, the date of the last one, and whether you have unlocked the full version.

We chose to include your trial counter, so that reinstalling Time Aloud does not restart the free trial. It also means that if you move to a new phone partway through the trial, your remaining days come with you.

Everything else stays on the phone, and is never backed up or transferred.

The backup copy stays in your backup account until you delete it there, or until Google removes it under its own rules. You can turn backup off in your phone's settings.

Before you switch phones: your Bluetooth device links and the app's permissions don't come with the backup. On the new phone, open Time Aloud's Trigger devices screen (Settings → Trigger devices): it shows what is missing and lets you link each device again. If your settings don't come back, set them up again; we have no copy to send you.

• Run while you use other apps (FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE) — To keep announcing on schedule while your screen is off and while you're using other apps. Android requires a session notification the whole time, which you see if you allow notifications.
• Alarms and reminders (SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM) — To speak at the times you set, rather than at a time Android chooses.
• Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS) — To show the session notification, with its Stop and Announce now buttons, if you allow notifications.
• Nearby devices (BLUETOOTH_CONNECT; BLUETOOTH on Android 11 and earlier) — To let you choose Bluetooth devices that start the app when they connect. To show you the list to choose from, the app reads the names and addresses of the devices paired with your phone. When any Bluetooth device connects, Android tells the app its name and address, so the app can check whether it is one you chose. The app saves only the devices you choose. It does not read your contacts, messages or anything else over Bluetooth.
• Start from a Bluetooth device (REQUEST_COMPANION_START_FOREGROUND_SERVICES_FROM_BACKGROUND) — So connecting a tagged device can start announcements without you unlocking the phone.
• Run at startup (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED) — To restore your schedule, and a session that was running, after you restart the phone.
• Keep the phone awake (WAKE_LOCK) — To finish speaking an announcement before the phone goes back to sleep.
• Google Play billing (com.android.vending.BILLING) — To offer the one-time purchase that unlocks the full version, through Google Play. See Purchases, below.

Android's support library also adds one entry of its own, com.benbowlabs.timealoud.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION. It is not a permission you are asked to grant: it keeps the app's internal messages private from other apps on older versions of Android, and it gives the app access to nothing.

Time Aloud does not ask for internet access, location, the microphone, the camera, your contacts or your files. It speaks; it does not listen.

Time Aloud offers one purchase: a one-time unlock, through Google Play, that covers the whole app. We are the seller, everywhere. Google Play takes your payment and handles your payment details under its own terms. In some countries, mostly in the European Union, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, Google acts as our agent and is the "merchant of record" for tax and payment purposes. Everywhere else, including Canada and the United States, we are the merchant of record, and a Google payments company collects the payment for us. We never receive your full card number or security code.

For each purchase, Google gives us an order record: the order number, the product, the price, the date and your country, and in some cases your state or province and postal code. If Google includes other details about you with an order, such as your name, we treat them the same way. We use it as section 4 of the Benbow Labs Privacy Policy describes, and keep it for as long as section 7 says.

On your phone, Time Aloud asks the Google Play app whether you have bought the unlock, confirms a new purchase with Google Play (Google requires this), and keeps the answer, unlocked or not, so the unlock works without a connection.

Refunds. If the unlock doesn't do what this page or the Google Play listing says, on a phone with a supported version of Android, we will refund it through Google Play if you ask within 30 days of buying it. Email us with your order number. That time limit applies only to our own promise; your legal rights (section 7 of our Terms of Use) still apply, whenever you ask. Section 4 of our Terms of Use has the full refund rules, and our Support page explains how to ask.

• On your phone: until you clear the app's storage or uninstall it.
• Your backup copy: until you delete it from your backup account, or Google removes it.
• Order records: six years after the end of the tax year they relate to, as Canadian tax law requires.

We protect the order records we hold with access controls and encryption in transit.

Almost all of the app's data is on your phone, so you exercise your rights there: you can see your settings in the app, change them, and delete them by clearing storage or uninstalling. To delete the backup copy, delete it from your backup account. We hold nothing from the app itself that we could access, correct, export or delete on your behalf.

We decided what Time Aloud keeps and backs up, including the trial counter, which serves our purposes as well as yours. Your rights in section 6 of the Benbow Labs Privacy Policy apply to that information too, even though we never receive it.

If you buy the unlock, we hold Google's order record for it. Your rights over that record, and over anything you email us, are in section 6 of the Benbow Labs Privacy Policy. Google keeps its own record of your purchase, which we cannot delete.

These are facts about Time Aloud itself rather than about your information. They are here because they are true of this app, and not necessarily of every app we make.

• Devices: Android 8.0 or later. Time Aloud is available for Android only.
• Where to get it: Google Play, the only place we publish it. A copy from anywhere else isn't an official copy, and we can't support it or vouch for it (section 1 of our Terms of Use).
• Price: free to try, with everything included, for 7 days of use. A day only counts when Time Aloud actually speaks, so days you don't use it don't use up the trial. After that, a single one-time purchase through Google Play unlocks the whole app. It is not a subscription and never needs renewing. Google Play shows the price in your currency before you buy. The app has no ads.
• When the trial ends: the app won't start a new session of announcements until you unlock it. It never stops a session that is already running. Whether your trial has ended is decided automatically, on your phone, from your count of usage days. If you think it's wrong, email us and a person will look at it.
• Starting automatically from Bluetooth: this depends on your version of Android. On Android 8 to 11, connecting a tagged device starts a session. On Android 12 and 12L, Android doesn't allow that, so connecting shows a notification that you tap once to start. On Android 13 and later, you approve a one-time link to each device you tag, and connecting it then starts a session; without the link, you get the tap-to-start notification instead (on Android 13 and later, only if you allow Time Aloud's notifications). If a link or permission goes missing, for example after a reinstall or on a new phone, the app's Trigger devices screen shows what's missing and lets you link the device again.
• Account: none. There is no sign-up and no sign-in.
• Internet: none. Time Aloud cannot connect to the internet itself (see "Why we can say that", above).
• Backup: Time Aloud takes part in Android's backup, and in moving apps to a new phone, for your settings and your trial counter only (see "Android's backup, and moving to a new phone", above).
• If you lose or reset your phone: we have no copy of your settings, so we cannot recover them for you. If Android's backup was on, your settings can come back when you set Time Aloud up again; Android decides when.
• If an Android update stops something working: we'll work on a fix, and say on this page what we know. Our refund promise doesn't cover problems caused by a change to Android (section 4 of our Terms of Use), but that doesn't limit your legal rights (section 7), and the law may still give you a remedy.
• If we stop developing it: Time Aloud does not depend on any server of ours, so a copy already on your phone keeps working for as long as your version of Android runs it. We can't promise it will work with future versions of Android. If we stop developing it, we'll say so on this page and in the Google Play listing while it is still listed. We don't give refunds because we stop developing it; that limits our own promise only, and your legal rights (section 7 of our Terms of Use) still apply.
• Support: email [email protected], or see benbowlabs.com/support. The app's version is shown in the app under Settings → About.

[email protected] · Mapleworx Services Inc. (Benbow Labs), 350 Bay Street, Suite 1300B, Toronto, Ontario M5H 2S6, Canada.