* Privacy policy
Dumb Down — an app by OFFLINE DC INC
Dumb Down is a companion app. It runs on your smartphone and helps you set up and live with a dumb phone: pairing the two devices, copying your contacts across, typing on the big phone so the words appear on the small one, and getting you signed in to the services your dumb phone uses.
Everything below follows from that. We handle only what the setup actually needs, and we don't build a profile of you along the way.
The short version
Dumb Down reads your contacts and relays sign-in information to your paired dumb phone, at your request. Anything that travels between your two phones is encrypted on the device it leaves from. We don't sell your data, we don't show ads, and the app contains no analytics, tracking, or crash-reporting SDKs. Dumb Down does not read, send, or store your text messages, and requests no SMS permission.
1. What the app handles
Contacts
When you tap sync on the Contact Sync screen, the app reads the names and phone numbers in your contacts and packages them as a vCard file. That file is encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM, using a key established when you paired your two phones, and then uploaded to our sync server so your dumb phone can collect it. Contacts saved on the dumb phone travel back to your smartphone the same way, and are added to your contacts list.
Only the encrypted file reaches our server. Only your two paired phones hold the key needed to read it. Contact syncing runs when you ask it to — the app doesn't sync in the background — and your contacts are never used for advertising, analytics, or profiling.
Phone numbers
Setup needs both numbers: your smartphone's and your dumb phone's. Both are stored on your device. Your smartphone number is also sent to our server so we can set up and confirm text syncing and call forwarding. What we keep on our side is the phone number itself and a flag recording whether setup succeeded — not the contents of any message or call.
Signing in to Google Messages
Your dumb phone sends and receives texts through Google Messages, which means it needs to be signed in to your Google account. Dumb Down helps you do that in one of two ways: you sign in to Google inside the app, or you sign in on your computer and scan the resulting code with your phone's camera.
Either way, the app takes the resulting Google session cookies, encrypts them on your device, and passes them through our relay to your paired dumb phone, which stores them and uses them to sign in. The relay hands the encrypted message straight to your dumb phone; we don't store these cookies on our servers, and we can't read them. We never ask for, see, or store your Google password.
Typing on your dumb phone
When you use your smartphone as a keyboard for your dumb phone, what you type is encrypted on your device and relayed to the paired phone. It isn't stored on our servers or retained after it arrives.
Camera
The camera is used for exactly one thing: scanning the sign-in code from your computer screen. No photo or video is saved, and nothing from the camera is uploaded.
Pairing your devices
To link the two phones, the app sends a randomly generated device identifier and the platform name ("android") to our server, which returns a short pairing code you enter on the dumb phone. This identifier isn't an advertising ID and isn't shared with anyone.
Call forwarding
The app works out the right carrier code for forwarding calls to your dumb phone and shows it to you. Dumb Down doesn't place calls itself and holds no call permission — the code goes to your phone's own dialer, where you place the call.
2. What the app does not do
Dumb Down does not access SMS or MMS messages. It holds no SMS permission, reads no messages, sends no messages, and runs no notification listener. (Earlier versions of this policy described SMS forwarding; the app no longer works that way.)
It also does not: sell or rent personal data; share personal data with advertisers or data brokers; show ads; include analytics, attribution, tracking, or crash-reporting SDKs; access your location, photos, microphone, calendar, or files; or track you across other apps and websites.
3. Permissions the app asks for
Android will prompt you for each of these, and you can refuse or revoke any of them in your device settings. Refusing one turns off the feature that needs it and nothing else.
- Contacts (read and write) — to copy contacts to and from your dumb phone.
- Camera — to scan the sign-in code from your computer.
- Internet — to reach the pairing, sync, and relay services.
4. Who else is involved
We run our own backend on Heroku, a cloud hosting provider, which processes data on our behalf and under our instructions. When you sign in to your Google account, that exchange happens directly with Google and is governed by Google's privacy policy. We share personal data with no one else.
5. How long we keep things
- Encrypted contact files — held on the sync server only until your paired phone collects them, then replaced by the next sync.
- Relayed messages (sign-in cookies, typed text) — passed straight through; not written to disk.
- Phone numbers and setup status — kept while your devices are paired.
- Data on your device — your numbers, chosen carrier, and pairing details live in the app's storage and are removed when you uninstall it or clear its data.
6. Your choices
You decide whether to sync contacts and whether to sign in. You can revoke any permission at any time in your device settings, unpair your phones from inside the app, or uninstall the app, which clears everything it stored locally.
To ask what we hold about you, or to have it deleted from our servers, email team@offline.community. We'll respond within 30 days.
7. Children
Dumb Down isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email us and we'll delete it.
8. Changes to this policy
If we change how the app handles information, we'll update this page and move the "last updated" date at the top. Material changes will also be noted in the app.
9. Contact us
Questions about this policy, or about anything above:
team@offline.community
OFFLINE DC INC, Washington, DC