The short version
- Your QR codes, secrets, pictures, and the text and contacts you share to QRench are read on your phone and never leave it.
- QRench never reads your contact list. Add to contacts opens your Contacts app, and you decide what to save.
- We have no servers, no accounts, no analytics and no ads.
- To read QR codes and barcodes, QRench uses Google's ML Kit, which sends Google usage statistics about the reader — never your QR codes or pictures.
- Your Library stays on your phone. It is not backed up, and it does not move to a new phone.
1. Who we are
QRench is an Android app by Knowledge Channels Technologies. It makes and reads QR codes that carry a hidden secret next to their normal public content.
2. Information we collect
We collect nothing. QRench's own code makes no network connections. We do not receive your QR codes, secrets, pictures, passwords, contacts, the text you share to QRench, or any usage or device information.
3. Google ML Kit
QRench reads the public content of a QR code, and barcodes, with Google's ML Kit barcode scanner, which runs on your phone. The images and the scan results stay on your phone. ML Kit sends Google statistics about how the scanner performs and is used, which Google uses to maintain and improve it. This is why the app has internet access. See Google's ML Kit terms and Google's Privacy Policy.
The hidden secret is read by QRench's own code, on your phone. It is never given to ML Kit.
4. What stays on your phone
The Library
A QR code you save — one you made, or one you scanned — keeps its name, public content, secret and creation date in the app's private storage. A secret without a password is stored as text. A secret with a password is stored only in encrypted form: the password is never stored. A scanned secret with a password is saved in the encrypted form it was read in, even after you enter the password to see it.
Settings
Your choices in Settings, and whether you have seen the welcome screen.
Pictures, text and contacts
A picture you choose with Photo, and a picture, text, link or contact you share to QRench from another app, is read on your phone. QRench does not keep a copy, unless you save a QR code made from it to your Library. When you save or share a QR code image, QRench writes it to your gallery or hands it to the share function of your phone.
Contacts
QRench has no permission to read your contacts, and it never reads your contact list. When you tap Add to contacts on a scanned contact, QRench opens your phone's Contacts app with the contact's details filled in. You decide whether to save it, and in which account; from then on, your Contacts app and that account (for example Google Contacts) handle it.
No backup
QRench turns Android's backup off. Your Library is not copied to your Google account or to another phone. If you uninstall QRench or change phones, your Library is deleted.
5. Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Camera | To scan QR codes and barcodes. Camera images are read on your phone and are not stored. |
| Internet, network state | Added by Google ML Kit for the statistics in section 3. QRench's own code does not use them. |
| Storage (Android 10 and lower only) | To save a QR code image to your gallery. |
Choosing a picture uses Android's photo picker, which needs no permission. QRench does not ask for permission to read or change your contacts.
6. Passwords and encryption
A secret with a password is encrypted on your phone with AES-256-GCM. The key is made from your password with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 (100,000 rounds). We cannot read it, and if the password is lost, nobody can recover the secret.
A secret without a password is hidden, not encrypted: anyone with QRench can read it.
7. Links
When you tap a link in a result, it opens in your browser. The website's own privacy policy then applies. QRench never opens a link by itself.
8. Google Play
QRench is distributed through Google Play. Google may collect information under its own policies, for example crash reports if you allow them on your phone. We may see these reports in summary form. They do not contain your QR codes or secrets.
9. Children
QRench collects no information from anyone, including children.
10. Changes to this policy
If QRench ever changes how it handles data, we will update this policy, with a new effective date, before the new version of the app is published.