Privacy Policy

For the Methodox Black Forest Android application (io.methodox.blackforest_mobile_android) · Last updated 4 November 2026

What the app is

Methodox Black Forest is a player for media files you already have: music, audiobooks and video. Every file is read and decoded on your phone by the app itself. There is no streaming, no online catalogue, no server component, and no online service behind the app.

Information we collect

None. Nothing the app reads or records is sent to us, and the app itself sends nothing off your phone. Specifically, the app does not collect, and does not send us:

• Names, email addresses, phone numbers, or any other contact details
• Accounts or login credentials — the app has none
• Location, contacts, the microphone, the camera, or call information
• Advertising identifiers or device identifiers of any kind
• Usage analytics, telemetry, crash reports, or diagnostics
• Your media files, your library, what you play, or how far you got

No network access

The app does not declare the INTERNET permission, and Android therefore refuses it any network connection. It cannot upload, report, phone home, or check for anything online. This is enforced by the operating system, not merely promised by us.

Your media files

Black Forest reads audio and video files, and the lyrics, subtitle and picture files beside them, only on your device, and only where Android lets it: through the permissions below, and through folders you choose. The Google Play version asks only for Android's permissions to read your music and audio and your videos (on Android 12 and older, the storage read permission); on Android 13 and newer, pictures beside your files, such as cover.jpg, and on some phones lyrics and subtitle files, are read only from folders you choose in Settings, and you can remove those folders at any time.

Where it looks:

• Music comes from your phone's Music folder and any other folders you add to the music library.
• Videos come from the Movies, DCIM (where the camera saves videos) and Download folders, and from your music library folders.
• Folders lets you browse the folders on internal storage or an SD card, showing the music and videos in each, and play them.
• Folders you choose in Settings (under "Covers, lyrics and subtitles"): the app looks at the names of the files in them, and reads only the pictures, lyrics and subtitle files beside your music and videos.
• A file you open with Black Forest from another app is the only file the app receives from that app.

Besides the media files themselves, the app reads only these files beside them: lyrics (a .lrc or .txt file with the same name as a track), subtitles (.srt, .vtt, .ass, .ssa, .sub or .sup files whose names start with the video's), and pictures in the same folder as a track, video or book (cover.jpg, folder.jpg and the like, or else the first picture in that folder), which it shows as cover art.

The app never changes, moves, renames or deletes your files, and writes nothing outside its own private storage.

Data stored on your device

To be a library rather than a file list, the app keeps the following in its private storage on your phone. None of it is sent to us; the sections below say what Android itself can see of it.

• The library. For each media file it has scanned: its location on the phone, its folder, the tags in the file (title, artist, album, genre, year, track number), its length and size, and any lyrics embedded in it. Also the folders in your music library.
• Playlists you make, and the files in them.
• Audiobooks you add: the folder, title and author, and your place in the book, its speed, and how much of it you have heard.
• Positions in videos, so they continue where you stopped.
• Play history: how many times each file was played, and when it was last played. This feeds "Recently played" and a file's details.
• Settings, and the last music queue, so playback can resume after the app was closed. Android itself remembers the folders you choose in Settings, as permissions the app holds until you remove them.
• Cached files: cover art taken from your files, stills from your videos, cover cards drawn for books without a cover, and copies of subtitle files and folder pictures read from the folders you chose in Settings.

All of this is removed when you clear the app's storage in Android Settings, or when you uninstall the app. Removing a folder from the library, a playlist or a book in the app never touches your files.

The app does not opt out of Android's own backup. If backup is turned on for your phone, Android may include the app's library and settings (not its cached files) in your device backup, which is stored with your Google account and can be restored to a new phone. That backup is made by Android under your backup settings, not by the app, and we never receive it.

The notification, the lock screen and Bluetooth

While something is playing or paused, the app shows a media notification with the title, the artist or book, and the cover, and with playback controls. The notification is set to show on the lock screen.

Like other Android media players, Black Forest shares the same information — what is playing, its cover, and the queue — with Android's media session. That is how the lock screen, the notification, Android's media controls and Bluetooth headphones show what is playing and control it. Through Android's standard media browser interface, it also offers its library (books, albums, playlists and recently played, with covers) to other media-controller apps on the phone, so that you can choose what to play from them; the app does not limit which media-controller apps on your phone can connect. Covers are handed over as small copies from the app's cache.

What a Bluetooth device or a watch does with what it displays is governed by that device, not by this policy.

Calls and connected devices

To pause for a call and resume after it, the app watches Android's audio mode and audio focus. It does not request any phone permission, cannot see who is calling, and reads no call information.

So that a headset or car stereo that connects cannot start playback by itself, the app notes the moment an audio device connects. It looks only at the kind of device (Bluetooth, wired or USB), not at its name or address, and stores nothing about it.

Permissions

The app requests these permissions, and no others:

• READ_MEDIA_AUDIO and READ_MEDIA_VIDEO, on Android 13 and newer, to read your music and audio and your videos
• READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, on Android 12 and older only, which stands in for those two there
• FOREGROUND_SERVICE and FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK, so playback continues with the screen off or the app in the background
• POST_NOTIFICATIONS, on Android 13 and newer, for the playback notification and its controls

It does not request the internet, All files access, location, contacts, microphone, camera, or phone permissions. The folders you choose in Settings are granted through Android's own folder picker, read-only.

The clipboard

On a file's Details screen, tapping a value copies it to the clipboard, at your request. The app never writes to the clipboard on its own, and never reads from it.

Data retention

We hold no data about you, on any server, for any length of time, because none is ever collected and there is no server. On your phone, the library, playlists, books, positions and play history last until you remove them in the app, clear the app's storage, or uninstall it.

Third parties

There are none. No advertising network, analytics provider, crash-reporting service, cloud backend, or third-party SDK that collects data is present in the app. No information about you is shared or sold, because none is ever obtained. The app is built on Android's own support libraries and on VideoFoundation, a media library that runs inside the app; without network access, nothing in the app can send data anywhere.

Children

Black Forest is a general-purpose media player. It is not directed at children, and because it collects no information from anyone, it collects none from children — nothing is knowingly gathered from a child under 13, or under the age of digital consent in your jurisdiction. The app contains no advertising, no in-app purchases, and no way to communicate with anyone through it.

Changes to this policy

If the app's behaviour ever changes in a way that affects your privacy — for example, if a future version were to request a permission it does not request today — this page will be updated and the date above revised before that change ships. Material changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about privacy in our apps generally:

Methodox Technologies, Inc.
contact@methodox.io