Last updated: 22 August 2026
In short: Screen Off Camera collects no personal data whatsoever. It has no internet access, no user accounts, no advertising and no analytics. Everything you record is saved on your device and stays there.
Screen Off Camera (“the app”) is published by PDan.
For any question about this policy or about the app, write to gaugeinvariante@gmail.com.
Screen Off Camera is a hands-free recorder. You choose a capture mode — video with audio, video only, audio only, or photos — and press Start. From that moment the capture can carry on while the screen is off, while you use other applications, or with the phone resting on a stand, and the controls remain available in an ongoing notification.
A capture never begins on its own. Nothing is recorded until you press Start, and while the camera or the microphone is in use, the Android privacy indicator stays visible and the ongoing notification cannot be dismissed.
The app does not collect, store or transmit any personal data. In particular, it does not:
This is not only a promise: the app does not request the
INTERNET permission. Without it, Android gives the app no way to open a
network connection at all. You can verify this yourself in the app’s permission list.
Video, audio and photos captured with Screen Off Camera are written to your device’s shared storage through Android’s MediaStore:
DCIM/Screen Off Camera;Recordings/Screen Off Camera, or in Music/Screen Off Camera
on devices where the Recordings folder does not exist.These files are yours. The app does not read them back, index them, copy them or send them anywhere; the only exception is the “open the last file” button, which simply hands the file you have just recorded to whichever gallery or player you choose. You can view, move and delete the files with any gallery or file manager, and deleting them there deletes them for good.
Because these folders are shared storage, uninstalling Screen Off Camera does not delete your recordings: they remain on the device, as photos taken with the system camera would.
Camera and microphone permissions are requested only when the capture mode you have selected actually needs them: in audio-only mode the camera permission is never requested, and the camera is never opened.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
CAMERA | To record video and take photos. Not requested in audio-only mode. |
RECORD_AUDIO | To record the audio track and voice recordings. Not requested in video-only or photo mode. |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS | To show the ongoing notification that carries the capture controls. |
FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_CAMERA, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MICROPHONE | To let the capture continue while the app is not in the foreground, which is the purpose of the app. Android requires these to be declared, and shows the corresponding privacy indicator throughout. |
WAKE_LOCK | To keep the processor awake during a capture, a countdown or a photo interval, so timing does not drift while the screen is off. |
VIBRATE | For the confirmation on start and stop, which with the screen off is the only feedback you get. |
Screen Off Camera deliberately requests no restricted-use permission: it does not use exact alarms, does not read the phone state, does not draw over other apps, and does not ask to be exempted from battery optimisation through a permission — when battery optimisation matters, it merely opens the ordinary system settings screen for you.
If Android’s backup is enabled on your device, the system may copy the app’s settings file — your preferences: capture mode, resolution, timers, theme — into your Google account backup, and restore it when you set up a new phone. This is done by Android, not by Screen Off Camera, and is governed by Google’s own privacy policy; you can turn it off in your device’s system settings.
Your recordings are never part of this backup: they live in shared storage, which no application backup rule reaches.
No third party receives any data from this app. Screen Off Camera is built on Android’s own libraries (Jetpack, CameraX), which run entirely on the device and send nothing anywhere.
Screen Off Camera is a general-purpose utility and is not directed to children. It collects no data from anyone, children included.
Any change will be published on this page, with the date at the top updated. If a future version of the app ever changed how data is handled — which is not planned — the change would be described here before it took effect.