PerliBlue Privacy Policy
Effective 24 September 2026
1. Summary
- There is no account and no sign-in. PerliBlue has no server of its own. We do not know who you are and we never receive what you scan.
- Everything stays on your device. The devices you find, their addresses, names and advertisement payloads, your favourites, notes and session recordings are stored only in the app's own storage. Nothing is uploaded.
- Android asks for location permission for a Bluetooth scan. That is Android's rule, not ours. PerliBlue never reads, stores or sends your geographic position — see section 4.
- Distances are guesses from signal strength, worked out on the device from how loud a radio sounds. There is no GPS in this app.
- The free app shows ads, supplied by Google AdMob. Section 6 explains what that means and how to change your choices.
2. Who we are
PerliBlue is published by Perlicom Systems Limited, a company registered in Ireland under company number 546999 ("we", "us"). For the very limited personal data processed in connection with the app we are the data controller. Contact: support@perlicom.com.
Google acts as an independent controller for the data its advertising services collect, under Google's own privacy policy (policies.google.com/privacy).
3. What the app does
PerliBlue is a Bluetooth tool. It listens for nearby Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth Classic radios and shows you what they are broadcasting: signal strength, an estimated distance, the manufacturer behind the address, and a decoded reading of the advertisement (iBeacon, Eddystone, AltBeacon, BTHome, Ruuvi and other common formats, using the Bluetooth SIG tables shipped inside the app). You can connect to a device over GATT to browse its services and characteristics and read, write or subscribe to them; star a device as a favourite and be told when it comes into or leaves range; use the Finder screen to walk a signal down; record a scan session to a file; and broadcast a test iBeacon from your own phone.
All of that runs on your device. PerliBlue has no backend, no account system and no cloud.
4. Permissions, and exactly what each one is for
These are every permission the Android app declares.
| Permission | What PerliBlue uses it for |
|---|---|
BLUETOOTH_SCAN | To listen for nearby Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth Classic devices. This is the app's core function. |
BLUETOOTH_CONNECT | To connect to a device you choose in order to browse its GATT services, to read the Bluetooth adapter's name and its list of paired devices, and to turn the adapter on or off when you ask. |
BLUETOOTH_ADVERTISE | Only for the Tools screen's "Advertise as iBeacon", which makes your own phone broadcast a test beacon. If you never use it, the permission is never requested. |
BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH_ADMIN | The same two jobs on Android 11 and older, which used the earlier permission names. They are capped at API 30 and are not requested on newer phones. |
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION | Not used for geolocation. Android classifies a Bluetooth scan as location-capable, because beacons can reveal where you are; without this permission Android silently strips beacon frames out of the results, which would break the decoders that are the point of the app. PerliBlue asks Android only whether location services are switched on (a prerequisite for scan results on older Android versions). It never asks for a position, contains no GPS or geocoding code, and stores and sends no coordinates. |
FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_CONNECTED_DEVICE | For the optional "Scan with the screen off" switch in Tools, which keeps a scan running when the screen is off so favourites and the Finder keep working in your pocket. Android requires an ongoing notification while it runs, with a Stop button. |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS | Two notifications only: the ongoing one above, and the optional alert when a favourite device arrives or leaves. Both can be turned off. |
INTERNET | The update check described in section 5, and the advertising in section 6. No scan data is ever sent over it. |
REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES | Only for the copy downloaded from our own website, which can install its own update. The Google Play copy is updated by Google Play and does not use this path. |
Bluetooth hardware is declared as an optional feature, so the app can still be installed on a device without it.
Permissions the app does not have: no camera, no microphone, no contacts, no call or SMS access, no photo or media library access, no broad file-system access, and no background location.
5. What is stored, and what leaves your device
5.1 On your device
- Settings — distance model, units, scan defaults, theme and similar — in the app's private storage.
- Favourites: the devices you starred, with any alias, colour or note you added.
- Session recordings, if you start one: a file in the app's own folder containing the packets seen during that session, which includes the Bluetooth addresses, names and raw advertisement bytes of devices around you. Nobody but you can read it unless you share it.
- The live list of devices and their signal history exists only in memory while the app is running.
Uninstalling the app, or clearing its storage in Android Settings > Apps > PerliBlue > Storage, deletes all of it.
5.2 Leaving your device
- Only when you choose to share. Export or share a scan snapshot, a device record or a session file and it goes wherever you send it, through Android's own share sheet. We are not sent a copy and are not told.
- The update check. The app fetches a small version file from
assistant.perlicom.comto see whether a newer version exists. The request carries no account, no device identifier and nothing about your scans; like any web request our server sees your IP address and a standard user-agent, which appear only in short-lived logs kept for security and troubleshooting. In the Google Play copy, updates come from Play instead. - Advertising, as described in section 6.
That is the complete list. The Bluetooth addresses, device names, advertisement payloads, signal strengths, estimated distances, favourites and notes that PerliBlue shows you are never uploaded to us or to anyone else.
5.3 Optional usage counts
Settings contains "Count which features I use". It is off by default. If you switch it on, the app counts actions such as "a scan was started". The counts are stored on your device and are not sent to us; switching the option off erases them. They never include a Bluetooth address, a device name, an alias or an advertisement payload.
6. Advertising
The free version of PerliBlue for Android is supported by advertising supplied by Google AdMob. Ads appear in two places only: a small banner at the foot of the Settings screen, and occasionally a full-screen ad at a natural break — when you leave a screen you have finished with. PerliBlue never places an ad over a live scan, over the Finder, over a device's details or over a GATT read or write, and a full-screen ad is rate-limited so it cannot become a recurring interruption. The Linux desktop version contains no advertising SDK at all.
To serve those ads, Google may process your device's advertising ID, coarse device and app information (model, Android version, app version, language) and your IP address, from which an approximate, city-level location is derived, as an independent controller under its own policies. It also records whether an ad was shown, seen or tapped, and diagnostics from the ads SDK itself.
We pass Google nothing from your scans. The devices you find, their addresses and names, the payloads you decode, your favourites, your notes and your session recordings are not shared with the ad SDK, with an advertiser, or with anyone else, and no ad is targeted using them.
- In the EU, EEA and UK the app asks for your consent before any personalised advertising, through Google's certified consent flow. You can reopen it and change your answer at any time from the privacy options in the app's settings.
- On Android you can reset or delete your advertising ID, and switch off ad personalisation, in Settings > Privacy > Ads (on many phones: Settings > Security & privacy > Privacy > Ads, or Settings > Google > Ads). Deleting the ID stops PerliBlue's ads being personalised. You can also manage Google ad settings at myadcenter.google.com.
- How Google uses data from apps that use its services is described at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
7. Why we process data, and our lawful bases
| Processing | Who | Lawful basis (GDPR Art. 6) |
|---|---|---|
| Personalised ads (advertising ID, ad interactions, approximate location) | Google AdMob | Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) in the EU/EEA/UK; you can withdraw it as described in section 6 |
| Non-personalised ads, ad measurement, fraud prevention, SDK diagnostics | Google AdMob | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) in funding the free app and keeping it working and secure; storage of identifiers on the device relies on consent where the ePrivacy rules require it |
| Update-check server logs | Us | Legitimate interests in delivering updates and securing our servers |
| E-mails you send us | Us | Legitimate interests in answering you |
Retention. Support e-mails are kept while needed to deal with your request and then deleted. Server logs are rotated after a short period. Data collected by Google is retained under Google's policies. Everything the app itself stores lives on your device until you delete it.
International transfers. Google may process data outside the EEA, relying on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
Security. Every network connection the app makes uses encryption (HTTPS/TLS).
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use what you scan for advertising or for any other purpose.
8. What the app does NOT do
- No account, no sign-in, no profile.
- No upload of the devices you find, their addresses, names or payloads.
- No geographic location: no GPS, no coordinates, no geocoding, no background location.
- No analytics SDK that follows you across other apps or websites, and no crash-reporting SDK of ours.
- No camera, microphone, contacts, messages or call history.
- No sale of personal data, under any definition, to anyone.
9. Your rights (GDPR)
If you are in the EU, EEA or UK you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or port your personal data, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to withdraw consent at any time. Because we hold almost nothing about you, most requests will concern Google: you can exercise them directly through your Google account and Android ad settings, or e-mail support@perlicom.com and we will help. We reply within one month.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission (www.dataprotection.ie) or with the supervisory authority where you live or work.
10. California privacy rights (CCPA / CPRA)
In the last 12 months the following categories of personal information were collected through PerliBlue, by Google's ads SDK: identifiers (advertising ID, IP address); internet or other electronic network activity (ad views and taps, SDK diagnostics); and approximate geolocation derived from IP address. No sensitive personal information is collected. We do not sell personal information for money; because the free app uses Google AdMob, the disclosure of identifiers and ad interactions to Google for personalised advertising may be considered "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising. You can opt out by deleting your advertising ID or turning on "opt out of ads personalisation" in Android's ad settings, or by e-mailing support@perlicom.com with the subject "Do Not Sell or Share". We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.
11. Using PerliBlue responsibly
PerliBlue shows you what nearby radios are already broadcasting in public. Broadcast data can still identify a person's equipment, so use the app lawfully: do not use it to follow, locate or profile a person, and do not connect to or write to equipment you do not own or have permission to work on. Section 5 of the Terms of Use says the same in contract terms.
12. Children
PerliBlue is a technical tool intended for adults. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16.
13. Changes to this policy
We will update this page if the app or the law changes, and change the effective date above. If a change materially affects how your data is used, we will also tell you in the app or on the Google Play listing.
14. Contact
Perlicom Systems Limited (company number 546999, Ireland)
E-mail: support@perlicom.com