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Elseway Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 27, 2026

Elseway is a mobile app that intercepts launches of selected social apps and redirects you into a short feed of your own photos. It is designed to work without collecting personal data: Elseway has no user accounts, no advertising, and no servers of its own. Everything Elseway stores lives on your device, aside from the anonymous usage events described below.

Elseway is operated by Anthony Hou, a sole trader based in New South Wales, Australia. We are the entity responsible for the App and for the limited anonymous analytics described below. Contact us any time at feedback@elseway.app.

How Elseway detects a watched app

On Android. Elseway uses an Android accessibility service to detect when an app you've chosen to track (for example TikTok or Instagram) comes to the foreground, so it can redirect you to a feed of your own photos. For most apps the service receives only window-change events, essentially the package name of the app coming to the foreground.

For some apps, recognizing which screen is open requires the service to query the current window's view identifiers: the internal layout names of the screen's interface elements, such as the identifier of a video container. This is the only thing Elseway's window access is used for. Elseway never reads, processes, or stores the content of your screen: no messages, no text, no images, no keystrokes. All processing happens on your device, in the moment, and none of this information is recorded or leaves your device.

On iOS. Elseway uses Apple's Screen Time system (the Family Controls, Device Activity, and Managed Settings frameworks), which you authorize once with a system prompt. When you choose which apps to watch, Apple hands our code an opaque token, not an app name: Elseway never learns which apps you picked. Elseway is told that a watched app was opened by a Shortcuts automation you set up yourself on your device, which simply signals "this app was opened" so the feed can be shown. Optional daily limits are measured by the operating system on your device against a usage threshold you set. Elseway does not receive the contents of your screen, your messages, or your activity inside other apps.

Photos (optional). If you grant photo access, Elseway builds its entire feed from your own camera-roll photos, displayed to you on your device. A photo is only ever picked from your library after a lightweight on-device check (screening out things like screenshots, documents, or very dark shots). That check also runs entirely on-device, nothing about your photos is sent anywhere to perform it. Your photos are never uploaded, copied, or transmitted anywhere. Decline the permission and your library is never read; the feed simply has fewer cards.

What Elseway stores

Elseway keeps its settings and usage statistics (for example, which apps you track, your timer settings, and counters like "scrolls averted this week") in local storage on your device only. This data is never transmitted, and uninstalling Elseway deletes all of it. On Android, Elseway also opts out of Android's automatic cloud backup, so this data is never copied into your Google account's device backups. It exists on your device and nowhere else.

Analytics

Elseway uses PostHog (PostHog Inc., hosted on PostHog's US Cloud in the United States) to understand how the app's features are used, for example that a feed was opened, a scroll was averted, or an onboarding step was completed. These events are anonymous product-usage signals only: no name, email, account identifier, or photo content is ever attached to them, and Elseway has no user accounts to link them to in the first place. Analytics data is used solely to improve the app and is never sold or shared with third parties beyond PostHog acting as our data processor.

Overseas disclosure

Because our analytics provider is hosted in the United States, the limited anonymous events described above are processed and stored overseas, in the United States. No information that identifies you is included in those events. Everything else Elseway handles (your settings, statistics, and photos) stays on your device and is never disclosed to anyone, in Australia or overseas.

Your privacy rights

Because Elseway has no accounts and the analytics are anonymous, there is no personal profile for us to show, change, or delete, and the settings, statistics, and photos on your device are already under your control (uninstalling deletes them).

Access, correction, and complaints (Australia). Under the Australian Privacy Principles you may ask about any personal information we hold about you; in practice we hold none that is linked to you. If you have a question or concern, contact us at feedback@elseway.app. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

EU and UK users (GDPR). Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, our legal basis for the limited analytics is our legitimate interest in understanding how features are used so we can improve the app. Because these events are anonymous, they are not personal data we can tie to you. You have the right to object to processing and to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

What Elseway does NOT do

Children

Elseway is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this URL with a new effective date. Material changes will be noted in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions or concerns: feedback@elseway.app. Postal address: 7 Eden Park Drive, Unit 5 Suite #1037, Macquarie Park NSW 2113.