Shelfy Privacy Policy
Last updated: 21 August 2026
Shelfy collects nothing and sends nothing anywhere.
There is no advertising and no analytics of any kind. Everything the app reads, it reads on your phone, to sort your apps.
Shelfy offers a subscription, so it includes Google Play's billing library and holds the INTERNET permission that comes with it. That connection exists to complete a purchase and to check whether a subscription is active — it is not a route by which your information leaves the phone. App names, usage figures and settings are never sent anywhere.
1. Personal information collected
None. No name, email address, phone number, location, contacts, advertising ID or other identifier is gathered. There is no account to create.
2. Information handled on your device only
To sort your apps, Shelfy reads the following on your device. None of it leaves the phone, and anything stored is kept in the app's private storage.
Installed apps
The display name, package name and icon of apps that can be launched from your home screen, used to decide a category. Categories are decided using a table and keyword rules bundled inside the app; there is nothing to ask.
App usage (optional)
How many times each app came to the foreground over the last two weeks, used only to order the Frequent tab. This requires you to grant Android's Usage access explicitly, and every other feature works if you decline. The figures are neither stored nor transmitted.
Your settings
Apps you moved by hand and where you moved them, categories you created, the order of your categories, and your settings. Uninstalling the app removes all of it from the phone.
3. Sharing with third parties
None of the above is shared with or sold to anyone. No advertising network, analytics service or crash-reporting service is included.
The single point of contact with anything outside your phone is Google Play, which handles the subscription. See section 6.
4. Backup and changing phones
Shelfy's settings are excluded from cloud backup, so they are never uploaded to Google's servers.
The direct phone-to-phone copy performed when setting up a new device is allowed, so your settings survive a handset change without passing through a server. On Android 11 and earlier, where the two cannot be told apart, both are disabled.
5. Exporting your settings
You can export your settings to a file from the settings screen. The file contains the package names of apps you moved by hand, the categories you created, their order, and your settings.
Where it goes is your choice at the moment you export it. Shelfy never picks a destination and never exports on its own. Once handed over, the file is subject to the terms and privacy policy of whichever service you sent it to.
6. Buying a subscription
Some of Shelfy's features are unlocked by a paid subscription. Google Play handles the whole purchase. Shelfy never receives or stores card numbers or any other payment details.
All Shelfy holds is the answer to one question — whether a subscription is active. That answer is kept on the phone so it still works when Google Play cannot be reached, in aeroplane mode for instance.
What Google collects during a purchase is covered by Google's privacy policy. Cancelling, refunds and payment methods are all managed from the Google Play Store.
7. Permissions used
- Usage access (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS) — used for one thing: ordering the Frequent tab. Optional.
- Request app deletion (REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES) — only when you turn on "Allow uninstalling", and only to open Android's own confirmation screen. Shelfy never removes an app itself.
- Querying installed apps — to list the apps that can be launched, which is what there is to sort.
- Billing (com.android.vending.BILLING) — to buy a subscription and to check whether one is active.
- Internet (INTERNET) and network state (ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE) — required by Google Play's billing library. Shelfy itself sends nothing over this route.
No location, camera, microphone, contacts or storage permission is requested.
8. Children
Shelfy collects no information from users of any age, so it is safe to use at any age.
9. Changes to this policy
Any change is published on this page with the date above updated. A change that would introduce data collection will be stated in the app's release notes.
10. Contact
Questions about this policy or the app: info@hystudio21.com