Effective date: October 8, 2026 (previous version: September 1, 2026)
Bearing is a compass application for Android, published by Stoner Physics
LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company ("we", "us"). This policy explains what the app does with information, and
what the third-party services inside it do. It applies to the app
com.bearingcompass distributed on Google Play.
Bearing has no accounts, no analytics, and no servers of its own. Your location, your heading and your sensor readings are processed entirely on your device and are never transmitted to us or to anyone else.
The free version displays one banner ad supplied by Google AdMob. The ad service — not the compass — collects advertising identifiers and device information, and uses Android's advertising APIs for interest-based ads and for measuring ad conversions. Buying the one-time "Remove ads" purchase stops all ad requests, so no further ad data is collected.
Nothing. We operate no servers, no accounts, no logging and no analytics. We never receive your location, your heading, your device identifiers or any usage data. There is no first-party data collection of any kind.
Location permission is optional. Without it, Bearing works as a magnetic compass. If you grant it, your position is used on your device only, for two purposes:
Your location is not transmitted, uploaded, logged or stored. It is held in memory while the app is running and discarded when it closes. The app contains no network code that sends location anywhere — no HTTP client, and no network requests in the compass interface. Bearing does not pass your location to the advertising service.
Under the compass, "More from us" opens a panel describing another app we publish, with a button that links to that app's page on Google Play. Nothing in the panel is loaded from the internet: its text and picture are part of the app. Bearing makes no network request when you open the panel or tap the button, and sends no data with the link: tapping it hands the address to the Play Store app (or your browser, if the Play Store is not installed), which then loads the page. What Google Play collects is covered by Google's policy, not this one: see policies.google.com/privacy.
Heading is computed on your device from the magnetometer, accelerometer and gyroscope. Sensor data never leaves the device and is not stored.
The free version shows a single banner advert served by Google AdMob. Google acts as an independent controller of the data it collects through this advert. Bearing sends Google no location and no sensor data, but the advertising components included in the app can access:
| Data | Purpose |
|---|---|
Advertising ID (AD_ID) |
Identifying your device for ad delivery, frequency capping and measurement. This is a resettable identifier. |
| IP address and approximate location derived from it | Serving region-appropriate adverts and complying with local law. This is derived by Google from the network connection; it is not your GPS location, which Bearing never shares. |
| Device and app information | Device model, operating system version, language, screen size, and the fact that the advert was requested by this app. |
Interest categories (Android Topics API) |
The app declares
android.permission.ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS, which
allows the advertising service to receive coarse interest categories
inferred by the operating system, so that adverts can be
interest-based rather than random. |
| Advert interactions (Google Play "App activity") | Which advert was shown, whether it was viewed and whether it was tapped. Used for delivering adverts, limiting how often the same advert repeats, and billing advertisers. This is activity inside the advert, not your use of the compass. |
| Diagnostics (Google Play "App info and performance") | Crash and performance information generated by the Google components included in the app, used by Google to keep the advertising and billing libraries working. We do not receive it. |
Conversion measurement (Android Attribution API) |
The app declares
android.permission.ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION, which
allows the advertising service to measure whether an advert led to an
action, across apps, without identifying you to us. |
These correspond to the categories shown in this app's Data safety section on Google Play: Device or other IDs, Approximate location, App activity (app interactions) and App info and performance (diagnostics). Approximate location there means the coarse location Google derives from your IP address for advert delivery — not the GPS position the compass uses, which is never shared.
What Google does with this data is governed by Google's Privacy Policy and Google's advertising privacy information. Google may share it with its advertising partners.
Removing ads. The one-time "Remove ads" purchase stops the app requesting or displaying adverts, so no further advertising data is collected from you. A consent check may still run at startup so that, if you are in a region where consent applies, you can review or withdraw a choice you made previously.
Controlling advertising on your device. You can reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in Settings → Security & privacy → More privacy settings → Ads (the exact path varies by manufacturer), and you can opt out of interest-based adverts there. Deleting the advertising ID prevents apps, including this one, from receiving it.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the app uses Google's User Messaging Platform to ask for your consent before personalised adverts are shown. Where consent is our legal basis, you may withdraw it at any time using the Privacy options control inside the app, which reopens the same consent form. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already took place.
Because we hold no data about you, there is nothing for us to retrieve, correct or delete — a request to us would find no records. Rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection in relation to the advertising data described above are exercisable against Google, which controls it: see policies.google.com/privacy. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.
Data controller for this app: Stoner Physics LLC, 1150 E B St, Casper, WY 82601, United States, contact stonerphysics22@gmail.com.
We do not sell your personal information for money. However, the use of advertising identifiers and the interest and attribution APIs described above constitutes "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising under California law. The categories involved are identifiers (advertising ID, IP address) and inferences (interest categories).
To opt out, either buy the one-time "Remove ads" purchase, which stops ad requests entirely, or delete your advertising ID in your device's Android ads settings as described above. You may also contact us at the address above. We do not knowingly share the personal information of anyone under 16.
The one-time "Remove ads" purchase is processed by Google Play Billing. We never see or receive your payment details. The app stores only whether the purchase is active, on your device, and re-checks that entitlement with Google Play.
Bearing stores a small number of settings locally. These stay on the phone, are never transmitted, and are removed when you uninstall the app:
bearing-mode — whether you last used true or magnetic northbearing-theme — your chosen light/dark themebearing-accent — your chosen accent colouradFree — whether the ad-removal purchase is activeemptyStrikes — how many launches in a row Google Play
reported no purchase, so that one bad answer from Play does not remove a
purchase someone has paid for| Permission | Reason |
|---|---|
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION |
Optional. Declination and coordinate display, on-device only. |
INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE |
Required to fetch adverts and to contact Google Play for the purchase. The compass itself works fully offline. |
AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID,
ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS,
ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION |
Added by the Google AdMob components, for the advertising uses described above. |
BILLING | The one-time ad-removal purchase. |
VIBRATE | Haptic feedback when you lock a bearing. |
WAKE_LOCK, FOREGROUND_SERVICE |
Declared by the Google Play services components included in the app. |
Bearing is not directed at children under 13, and we collect no data from anyone. The free version shows adverts served by Google, so we do not recommend it for young children; the paid version shows none.
If this policy changes, the updated version is posted at this URL with a new effective date.
Stoner Physics LLC, 1150 E B St, Casper, WY 82601, United States · stonerphysics22@gmail.com