Your privacy
Last updated 16 July 2026
Buddy is a DIY helper. You point your phone at something broken at home, talk to it, and Buddy walks you through a safe, legal fix. This page explains, in plain English, what Buddy does with your camera, your voice and anything you tell it. The short version is that Buddy is built to keep as much as possible on your own phone, and it never sells your information to anyone.
The one thing to know first: your camera video is never saved and never uploaded to us. Buddy looks through the camera live to help you in the moment, and that is all. What it sees is not recorded, kept or sent anywhere for storage.
Buddy is an independent app made and run by its developer, based in Australia. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean the developer of Buddy, and "you" means the person using it. We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
Buddy is designed to need very little about you. Here is the full picture.
Buddy has no login and no user accounts. It does not ask for your email, phone number, address or payment details. It does not run advertising, and it does not use tracking cookies to profile you.
Some things have to leave your phone for Buddy to work at all. We keep that list short and we tell you what each one is for.
When you first open Buddy, it asks for your agreement to record the session for research, so the app can be made better over time. Here is exactly what that means.
We use the information above only to run Buddy for you: to see and understand the problem, to hold the conversation, to show you steps and the right parts, to remember the fixes you chose to save on your phone, and, where you have agreed and it is switched on, to improve the app. We do not use it for advertising, and we do not sell or rent it to anyone.
Camera video is not kept at all. Saved fixes and the on-device activity record stay on your phone until you delete them or clear the app's data, and Buddy automatically trims the oldest activity entries so the list cannot grow without limit. Any research record that has been sent (only if that collection was on) is kept by the developer for as long as it is useful for improving the app, and then removed.
Because Buddy relies on Google's Gemini AI and on Cloudflare hosting, some information is processed on servers that may be outside Australia, including in the United States. By using Buddy you understand that this overseas processing is necessary for the app to work. These providers run their own privacy and security programs for the information they handle.
Most of your information lives on your own device, so you are in direct control of it. You can view your saved fixes and activity in the app, delete any single item, or clear all of it at once. Removing Buddy from your device, or clearing the browser's storage for it, removes that information.
Under the Australian Privacy Principles you also have the right to ask us for access to any personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it. Because we deliberately hold almost nothing centrally, in most cases there will be nothing for us to send. If you have a question or a request, contact us using the details below.
Buddy is a general-audience home-repair helper and is not directed at children. It is meant for adults doing small jobs around the home. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
Buddy keeps its attack surface small on purpose: no accounts, no passwords to leak, camera video never stored, and connections to the AI made over an encrypted link using a short-lived session key. No method of transmission over the internet is ever completely secure, but keeping so little, centrally, is the strongest protection we can offer.
Buddy gives general guidance and is not a licensed tradesperson. It will not help with work that needs a licence in Australia, such as gas, fixed wiring, or work on your water supply pipes, because that work is illegal for an unlicensed person and can be dangerous. When a job crosses that line, Buddy stops and tells you to get a licensed professional. Please follow that advice.
If our data practices change, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, Buddy will ask for your agreement again the next time you open it.
If you have a privacy question, a request, or a complaint about how Buddy handles your information, contact the developer at idandrop9@gmail.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can raise it with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.