dB Now — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 30 September 2026

dB Now is a sound level meter for your phone. This policy explains what happens to your information when you use it.

The short version: dB Now uses the microphone to measure how loud things are, and never records, stores or sends the sound. Your settings, saved checks and noise logs stay on your phone. We don't have accounts, analytics or a server. The free version shows ads from Google, which collects some device data to show them. dB Now Pro removes the ads.

The microphone

dB Now listens only while it is open on your screen, and only to work out sound levels. The sound is turned into numbers in the phone's memory as it arrives and then discarded. No audio is ever recorded, saved to storage or sent anywhere. The waveform graph draws the newest 20 milliseconds and keeps nothing.

You can turn off dB Now's microphone access at any time in your phone's settings; the app then shows no reading.

What stays on your phone

dB Now stores these only on your device:

• your settings, and your calibration offsets and profiles
• the checks you save: when, how long, and the minimum, average and maximum level
• noise logs (dB Now Pro): one level and one peak for each second, the name you type, the phone model, and which microphone mode was used

We never receive this information and have no way to see it. There are no accounts, no cloud sync and no analytics or crash-reporting services. dB Now never asks for your location: a log's place is only the name you give it. Measuring, calibrating and logging all work with no internet connection.

Threshold alerts (dB Now Pro) are notifications your phone raises itself, silently, when a level you set is passed. Nothing is sent to a server.

Exports: a noise log leaves your phone only when you tap Export CSV, through your phone's share sheet, to the place you choose.

Deleting it: delete a saved check or a noise log from the Log screen, or reset calibration from the Calibrate screen. Uninstalling dB Now deletes everything it stored.

Ads (free version only)

The free version shows ads from Google AdMob: one banner above the tabs on the Meter and Log screens. Never a full-screen or video ad, and the ad software is muted: dB Now's ads never make sound.

dB Now asks Google for non-personalised ads only. They're chosen from what's on screen and your general location, not from a profile of you, and dB Now never asks to track you across other apps.

To show ads, count them and stop fraud, Google may still collect:

• your IP address, and an approximate location derived from it
• information about the ads you see and tap
• diagnostic information about how the ads perform

dB Now never gives the ad software any sound, measurement or log.

In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, Google's consent form asks before any ads are shown. You can change your choice at any time from Ad privacy choices in dB Now's Settings.

Google's use of this information is covered by Google's policy: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

dB Now Pro removes all ads, and the ad software does not start at all for Pro users.

Purchases

dB Now Pro is a one-time purchase handled entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play. We receive confirmation that you bought Pro, never your payment details. Apple's and Google's own privacy policies cover the purchase.

Children

dB Now is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new "Last updated" date.

Contact

Questions about this policy: pinbit.support@gmail.com