Privacy Policy
In short: InkStrand does not collect your information. There is no account, no InkStrand server, and no analytics, advertising or tracking. Your documents, and whatever you type or sign onto them, are kept on your device, and none of it is sent to us.
InkStrand is an app for filling in and signing PDF forms on iPhone, iPad and Android, made by Srini Gowthaman ("we", "us"). This policy covers both apps and this website.
The two apps are not identical, and where something below applies to only one of them it says so. The short version: the Android app now connects to Dropbox and OneDrive, saves a signature and an autofill profile on the device, and declares one permission — internet access, for those drives. Google Drive and the web page conversion remain on iPhone and iPad only.
What stays on your device
- Documents you open, scan, convert, fill in or save, and the list of documents you have opened. On iPhone and iPad a file opened in place from the Files app stays where it is, and InkStrand keeps only a reference to it. On Android a file you open is copied into InkStrand's own storage, which other apps cannot read.
- Your saved signature. On iPhone and iPad it is kept as an image, and by default InkStrand asks for Face ID or Touch ID before applying it; you can change that under Your signature. On Android it is kept as the strokes you drew rather than as a picture, so it stays sharp wherever it is placed — and there is no biometric check on it yet.
- Your autofill profile: whichever of your name, date of birth, phone number, email address, street address, city, state and postcode you choose to enter, used to fill in matching form fields.
- Sign-in tokens for any cloud drive you connect. On iPhone and iPad they are kept in the device's Keychain. On Android they are encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore, which never leaves the device, and are kept in InkStrand's own storage where no other app can read them.
Deleting InkStrand deletes your documents, signature and profile from the device. iOS can keep Keychain items after an app is deleted, so disconnect a drive first if you want its sign-in gone too. If you back up your device to iCloud or a computer, the backup includes InkStrand's data, as it does for other apps, under that backup's own settings. On Android, uninstalling removes everything InkStrand has stored; if you have Android's own backup turned on, it may include the app's documents under that setting. Drive sign-ins are deliberately kept out of that backup, because a sign-in is standing permission to read your drive and should not travel to another device.
When InkStrand uses the network
Only when you ask it to, and never to a server of ours:
- Cloud drives. You sign in on the provider's own page, in your browser rather than in a window inside the app, and InkStrand then talks to that provider directly to list your files and download the ones you open. It asks for read-only access, so it cannot change or delete anything in your drive. Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive can be connected on iPhone and iPad; the Android app currently offers Dropbox and OneDrive. Where the provider allows it without asking you for a further permission, InkStrand shows the name of the account you connected so you can see which one is in use; where it does not, the app simply says the drive is connected. The provider's own privacy policy covers your use of their service. Disconnecting removes the sign-in from your device and asks Google or Dropbox to cancel InkStrand's access; Microsoft gives apps no way to do that, so OneDrive's permission stays until you remove InkStrand in your Microsoft account settings. You can also withdraw access at any time in your account settings with the provider.
- Web pages (iPhone and iPad). When you share a web page to InkStrand, it loads that page from its website, as a browser would, and saves it as a PDF on your device. When Safari shares the address of a PDF, InkStrand downloads the PDF from that address. The website receives what it would from any visit, such as your IP address.
- Google Play services (Android). The camera scanner and the text recogniser are parts of Google Play services rather than of InkStrand, and Play services may fetch what it needs for them from Google the first time you use one. Your page is read on the device and is not sent to Google or to us. Google's own privacy policy covers Play services.
- Purchases. InkStrand Complete is bought through the App Store on iPhone and iPad, and through Google Play on Android. Apple or Google handles the payment, and InkStrand learns only whether you have bought it. We never see your payment details or your Apple or Google account.
Google user data (iPhone and iPad)
If you connect Google Drive, InkStrand requests read-only access to it and uses that access only to list the folder you are looking at, to download the files you choose to open — or export a Google Docs, Sheets or Slides file to PDF — onto your device, and to show the email address of the Google account you connected so that you can tell which account is in use. It does not store Google user data anywhere but your device, does not transfer it to us or to anyone else, and does not use it for advertising. Disconnecting Google Drive in InkStrand deletes the sign-in from your device and asks Google to revoke InkStrand's access. InkStrand's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Permissions
Android: InkStrand declares the permissions below. Android prompts you about none of them — they are the kind the system grants when an app is installed, not the kind that puts a question on your screen. Most of them arrive with the Google libraries the app is built on rather than being asked for by name.
- Internet access and network state, for the cloud drives described above and for Google Play. Nothing else in the app uses the network.
- Biometrics and fingerprint, so the app can ask for your fingerprint, face or screen lock before it places your saved signature. Android performs the check and tells InkStrand only whether it succeeded; the app never receives biometric data.
- Billing, so Google Play can sell InkStrand Complete. Google handles the payment, and InkStrand learns only whether you have bought it.
It holds no camera permission: scanning runs inside Google Play services, which opens the camera itself and hands back the finished pages. Documents are chosen through the system file picker, which hands InkStrand only the file you pick.
iPhone and iPad:
- Camera, to scan a paper form. The scan is made and kept on your device.
- Photos, to turn photos of a form into PDF pages. InkStrand receives only the photos you pick.
- Face ID or Touch ID, to unlock your saved signature. iOS performs the check and tells InkStrand only whether it succeeded; InkStrand never receives face or fingerprint data.
On iPhone and iPad each of these is requested the first time you use the feature that needs it, and declining one turns off only that feature.
Reading text and finding fields
Recognising the text in a scan and finding the fields on a form both run on your device — using Apple's frameworks on iPhone and iPad, and ML Kit from Google Play services on Android. No document is sent anywhere for either. Finding fields is arithmetic over the ruled lines on the page, not a model of a form.
If you email us
We receive your email address and whatever you choose to send, and use them only to reply to you. We don't add you to a mailing list or share your message with anyone. Ask, and we will delete your emails.
Children
InkStrand collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
This website
This site is hosted by GitHub Pages and uses no cookies, analytics or third-party scripts. GitHub records visitors' IP addresses for security purposes; see the GitHub General Privacy Statement.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.