privacy

Rootward — Privacy Policy

Effective date: 2026-10-13 Last updated: 2026-10-13

Summary

Rootward is a family tree you build yourself: people, their parents, partners and children, with dates and places, and GEDCOM files imported and exported. We do not create accounts, do not ask for your email, and do not ship any analytics or tracking SDK. Your trees - the people in them, their names, dates, places and notes - stay on your phone. Rootward never sends them anywhere. They leave the phone only if you export a tree as a GEDCOM file and save it where you choose; that file is plain text and is not encrypted.

The app contains no code that can reach a server at all, apart from the advertising SDK described below, which receives nothing from your trees.

If that’s all you wanted to know, you’re done. The sections below spell it out in detail.

Who we are

App name: Rootward (store listing: Rootward: Private Family Tree)
Developer: Dash Fusion
Support email: dash.fusion@outlook.com
App listing: Google Play (com.dashfusion.familytree)

Data the app stores on your device

The following data is created and kept locally, in the app’s private storage. It never leaves the device on the app’s own.

Your trees: each tree’s name and the person it opens on; the people in it - their names, sex, whether they are living, their birth, death and burial dates and places, and your notes about them; the families - two partners, a marriage, partnership or divorce with its date and place, and notes; and which family each person is a child of, and how (by birth, adopted, fostered, a stepchild)
A search index of the words in people’s names, so the people list can find them
App preferences: theme, wallpaper colours, the tree you have open, the name you want written into exported files (if you give one), and the ad state described below

A family tree holds other people’s personal data: your relatives’ names, dates and places of birth - living relatives’ among them - and anything you write about them. In Rootward it stays on your phone, in the app’s private storage.

There is no account and no contact information of yours anywhere in the app. The app explicitly opts out of Android cloud backup and device-to-device transfer. That has a cost worth knowing: a new phone starts Rootward with no trees. The app says so in Settings and suggests exporting each tree as a GEDCOM file and keeping it somewhere safe.

To delete everything, delete a tree from within the app, clear the app’s storage (Android Settings → Apps → Rootward → Storage → Clear storage) or uninstall the app - Android removes the app’s private storage with it.

We have no servers and no cloud storage. We cannot see your trees and we cannot recover them if you lose your device.

Files you import and export

Import: when you import a GEDCOM file, you pick it with Android’s own file picker. Rootward reads that one file, once, and turns what it holds into a new tree on your phone. It keeps no access to the file afterwards and needs no storage permission.
Export: when you export a tree, you choose where the GEDCOM file is saved, with Android’s own file picker. The file is plain text and is not encrypted: anyone who has it can read every name, date, place and note in it. It also carries the name you gave for exported files, if you gave one.
Leaving out the living: you can export with living people’s details left out, for sharing with relatives. People who count as living are written as Living with their surname only - their dates, places and how they are a child of their family are left out - and no notes are written for anyone. The export screen says who counts as living.

Third-party services we use

Google AdMob (ads)

The app contains the Google Mobile Ads SDK. It shows an occasional full-screen interstitial ad - only after you have added and saved a new person, never for the first new person each time you open the app, never after you have deleted something in that visit, at most after every third counted person, and never two within thirty minutes - plus an optional rewarded ad in Settings that turns adverts off for 24 hours. There are no banner ads, and nothing in the app is locked behind an ad. Google may collect and process:

Your device’s Advertising ID (a resettable identifier that Android provides for ads)
Coarse location (typically inferred from IP) and device/network information that AdMob needs to serve and measure ads
Ad interaction events (impressions, clicks)

AdMob receives nothing from your trees: no name, no surname, no place, no date and no keyword. Google’s handling of the data above is governed by Google’s own policies:

Consent (EEA, UK and Switzerland): on first launch the app shows Google’s certified consent form, and you choose whether personalised ads are allowed. You can change your answer at any time from Settings → Advert privacy options inside the app. You can also opt out of personalised advertising via your device’s system settings (Android: Settings → Privacy → Ads).

Data we collect ourselves

None. We don’t run any backend. We have no analytics SDK, no crash reporter that phones home, no Firebase, and no custom telemetry. There is no HTTP client anywhere in the app’s own code, and the build fails if one is ever added.

Permissions the app requests

Internet / network state - solely so the Google Mobile Ads SDK can fetch ads. Without a connection no ads load, and every tree, chart, search, import and export still works.
Advertising ID (AD_ID) - required by Google Play for apps that serve ads; used by AdMob as described above.

Those are the only permissions the app asks for, and none of them is a run-time prompt. Rootward has no access to your contacts, location, camera, microphone, photos, files or notifications, and it asks for none of them: a tree is typed in or read from a file you pick, never filled from your address book. A test reads the built app’s own merged manifest on every run and fails the build if that list ever changes.

Children

Rootward is not directed to children under 13 and is not designed for use under the COPPA framework. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

Your choices

Ad consent - Settings → Advert privacy options (EEA/UK/Switzerland), or Android system settings → Privacy → Ads
A day without adverts - the optional rewarded ad in Settings. Nothing else in the app is behind an ad
Sharing a tree - export it, with or without living people’s details, and save the file where you choose
Delete your data - delete a tree in the app, clear the app’s storage in Android settings, or uninstall the app
Contact us - dash.fusion@outlook.com

Changes to this policy

If we change the data we collect or the third-party services we integrate, we will update this page and bump the “Last updated” date above. Material changes will be flagged in the app’s release notes as well.

Contact

Questions, requests, complaints: dash.fusion@outlook.com.