Privacy Policy

Meows is a native Android app that opens SSH connections from your device to servers or bastion hosts you configure. Server settings, credentials, and monitoring history are stored on your device. Backups created in the current format are encrypted on the device before they are uploaded to Meows' hidden app data folder in Google Drive.

Information Stored

Meows stores the following information on your device:

• Server connection details: SSH host, port, username, and your password or private key (encrypted).
• Monitoring data: performance metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network, TCP connections) read from the servers you add.
• Your settings: alert thresholds, notification preferences, and app options you configure.
• Google account details for Cloud Backup: account ID, email address, and, when Google provides them, display name and profile image URL. These stay on your device until you sign out.

How the Data Is Used

• To open SSH connections to servers or bastion hosts you configure.
• To show live status and history charts.
• To raise notifications when a threshold is crossed or a server goes offline. This is handled entirely on your device. There is no push server.
• To create an optional encrypted backup in Meows' hidden app data folder in Google Drive, or restore a backup shown in Meows, after you sign in and choose to use the feature.
• To show the geographic location of server IP addresses, using an offline database.
• To run DNS, WHOIS, or TLS queries, or open an external URL, only when you start that action.
• To check from a monitored server whether the services shown on its server card are available. These checks begin after monitoring succeeds.

Storage & Security

• Passwords and private keys are encrypted with AES-GCM using keys held in the Android Keystore. A backup master password applies only to backup files.
• Monitoring history stays on your device and is not included in backups. Optional backups include server and bastion settings and credentials, tunnels, alert thresholds, the global refresh interval, theme, language, privacy mode, persistent notification setting, terminal font and size, and card badge visibility. They are encrypted on the device before upload.
• Monitoring data is not sent to a Meows service or any other third party.
• SSH connections originate on your device and go only to servers or bastion hosts you configure.

Third-Party Services

Meows does not run a backend. Only the following features use an external service or bundled data:

• Google Drive API: optional backup, restore, and deletion. Meows uses it only after you sign in and grant consent, and keeps the selected Google account details on your device until you sign out. New backups are encrypted on the device and stored in Google Drive's hidden app data folder, so they do not appear in the ordinary Drive file list. Their cat names and short codes are display names used only in Meows. Through v1.0.159, Meows can also list, restore, or delete legacy backups it created in the ordinary Meows Backups folder. Google Privacy Policy.
• After monitoring succeeds, Meows may check the services listed on the server card from that server. The result stays on your device, and the requests do not pass through a Meows backend.
• User-triggered network tools: DNS, WHOIS, and TLS contact the resolver or endpoint needed for a query only when you run it. URLs open in another app. None of these actions passes through a Meows service.
• Offline IP database: an IPInfo Lite database bundled inside the app provides IP geolocation. Lookups happen on your device. Nothing is sent to any geolocation service.

What Meows Does Not Do

• Meows does not sell, rent, or trade your information.
• Meows does not collect analytics, usage statistics, or device identifiers.
• Meows does not show advertisements.

Permissions

Notifications are the only runtime permission Meows asks you to grant. You can deny it and continue using the app without notification alerts.

You can also turn on an optional privacy mode that hides Meows from the recent-apps screen and blocks screenshots and screen recording.

Your Choices

• Review, restore, or delete an optional Google Drive backup from Meows.
• Remove a server to delete its settings and history. Uninstall Meows to delete all local app data.
• Choose whether to allow notifications, use Cloud Backup, enable Persistent Notification, or turn on Privacy Mode. Signing out removes the saved Google account details from this device.
• Choose which servers are monitored.

Data Retention

• Server configurations are kept until you delete them.
• Monitoring history is kept only briefly, then cleaned automatically.
• Uninstalling Meows removes its local app data. Optional Google Drive backups are separate and are not deleted automatically.

Children's Privacy

Meows is not intended for children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes to This Policy

If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date above will change with it.