Privacy Policy
Malawi Clinical Guidelines — offline clinical reference for the Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines
Version 1.0 · Effective 10 July 2026 Data controller: CFSystem (Christopher Francis), Malawi Contact: christophertrays@gmail.com
1. The short version
This app does not collect your personal data. It does not have a server. It has no account system, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. It works with the phone in aeroplane mode, permanently.
Everything you save — bookmarks, recently viewed conditions, notes, your chosen language, theme and facility level — stays on your phone, in the app's private storage. None of it is transmitted anywhere. We cannot read it. If you uninstall the app, it is gone.
The remaining sections say the same thing at the length the law expects.
2. Who we are
CFSystem (Christopher Francis) is the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act, 2024. The supervisory authority is the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).
The clinical content is the Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines, 6th Edition (2023), published by the Ministry of Health, Malawi, and reproduced under permission granted by the Secretary for Health. The Ministry is not the publisher of this app and is not responsible for it.
3. What data the app processes
| Data | Where it lives | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookmarks | Your phone only | So you can find a condition again | Contract (s.26(b)) |
| Recently viewed conditions | Your phone only | "Continue reading" | Contract |
| Your notes | Your phone only | So you can annotate a condition | Contract |
| Language, theme, text size | Your phone only | So the app looks the way you set it | Contract |
| Facility level (HC/DH/CH) | Your phone only | To filter the Essential Medicines List | Contract |
That is the complete list. There is no sixth row.
We do not collect: your name, your phone number, your email, your location, your device identifier, your IP address, your contacts, your photos, your usage patterns, or anything about the patients you treat.
4. Your notes, specifically
The notes feature lets you type free text against a condition. Do not write patient names, hospital numbers, or any other identifying detail into it. The app warns you of this each time you open the field.
If you do so anyway:
- The note is stored unencrypted in the app's private storage. Another app cannot read it on an unrooted phone, but anyone holding your unlocked phone can.
- It is excluded from Google Auto Backup and from device-to-device transfer.
We set
android:allowBackup="false"specifically so that patient-identifiable data cannot leave the country to a personal Google Drive account without your knowledge. This was a deliberate decision, not a default. - It is never transmitted to us or to anyone else.
Patient-identifiable health data is sensitive personal data under s.2 of the Data Protection Act, 2024. If you record it, you become a data controller in respect of it, and the obligations under Part V of the Act fall on you and your employing institution — not on us. Use your facility's records system.
5. Network access
The app ships with the entire book inside the installed package. It does not
require an internet connection and does not request the INTERNET permission.
If a future version adds an optional content-update check, it will:
- connect only when you tap "Check for updates";
- send only the content version number you currently hold;
- receive only a manifest and, if you accept, a signed content file;
- transmit nothing about you, your notes, or your usage.
Your IP address would be visible to the hosting provider for the duration of that request, as it is for any internet request. We would not log it.
When that version ships, this section will be rewritten before it does, not after.
6. Contacting the developer
If you email us to report a content error, we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use it to answer you and to fix the error, and nothing else. Do not include patient details in a bug report — describe the condition code and what is wrong with it.
The support address is shown in Settings → About the developer.
7. Sharing
The "share" button on a condition page hands the text to whichever app you choose — WhatsApp, email, notes. Once it leaves this app, that app's privacy policy governs it, not ours. We have no visibility into what you share or with whom.
8. Third parties
The app contains no analytics SDK, no advertising SDK, no crash reporter, and no social login. It makes no third-party network calls.
Open-source libraries are compiled into the app but none of them phone home.
The app is distributed through Google Play, which collects installation and device data under its own privacy policy, over which we have no control and from which we receive nothing beyond aggregate, anonymous install counts.
9. Children
The app is a professional clinical reference intended for health workers. It is not directed at children and collects nothing from anyone, of any age.
10. Your rights
Under Part IV of the Data Protection Act, 2024, you have the right to access, correct, erase, restrict, port, and object to the processing of your personal data.
Because we hold none of your personal data, we cannot fulfil an access request: there is nothing to give you. You exercise every one of these rights directly:
- Access and portability — the data is on your phone.
- Correction — edit or delete any note or bookmark in the app.
- Erasure — clearing the app's data, or uninstalling it, deletes everything.
If you believe we have breached the Act, you may complain to MACRA.
11. Security
- No data in transit, because there is no transit.
- Data at rest sits in Android's per-app private storage, protected by the operating system's sandbox and by your device passcode.
- Backup and device-transfer extraction are disabled.
- Notes are not encrypted at rest. Do not treat this app as a secure store. It is a book, not a records system.
There is no server to breach. In the event of a security defect in the app itself, we will publish a fix and, where the Act requires it, notify MACRA within 72 hours of becoming aware.
12. Cross-border transfer
None occurs. Nothing leaves the device.
13. Retention
Until you delete it. We hold nothing, so we retain nothing.
14. Changes
If a future version processes data differently, this policy will be updated and you will be asked to accept the change before that version processes anything. Silent policy changes are how trust is lost.
The effective date at the top of this document is authoritative.
15. Contact
christophertrays@gmail.com Blantyre, Malawi
Complaints: Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).