Privacy policy

Last updated: 27 September 2026

Lavender Browser ("Lavender", "the app") is a web browser for Android published by Ariamax, Rijswijk, the Netherlands ("we", "us"). This policy covers the app and this website, lavender.ariamax.nl.

1. Who is responsible

Ariamax, Rijswijk, the Netherlands, registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK) under number 42005482. Email: lavender-support@ariamax.nl. Ariamax's company website has its own privacy policy.

For the processing that Google does when you use Safe Browsing or translation (section 4), Google is responsible under its own privacy policy.

2. What Lavender keeps on your phone

Everything Lavender needs is stored in the app's private storage on your phone, where other apps cannot read it:

• your browsing history (kept for 90 days, then deleted automatically), bookmarks and open tabs;
• the icons of sites you visit, shown next to your bookmarks and history;
• your wellbeing rules (paused sites, time limits, categories, exceptions) and how many minutes you used each limited site today;
• your PIN, stored only as a salted hash, never as the PIN itself;
• your notes, encrypted with a key that is kept in Android's secure key store and never leaves your phone;
• your settings, the category lists and any translation language packs you downloaded;
• the cookies and site data that websites store in the browser, as in any browser. Private tabs keep their own cookies and forget everything when the last private tab closes, and they save no history.

No cloud copy. Lavender does not upload any of this, and it has switched off Android's automatic backup to Google Drive and the copy to a new phone during setup, so none of it leaves your phone that way either.

Deleting it. Settings → Clear browsing data removes history, cookies and site data. You can delete notes, bookmarks and rules one by one. Clearing Lavender's storage in Android's settings, or uninstalling the app, removes everything at once.

3. What we collect

Nothing. Lavender has no account, no advertising, no analytics and no crash reporting, and it never sends your browsing, rules, notes or usage to us. We cannot see which sites you visit or what you pause.

4. When Lavender connects to the internet

4.1 The websites you visit and your search engine

Like any browser, Lavender loads the pages you open, and each website receives what every website receives: your IP address, the page you ask for, your browser type and the cookies it set before. What you type into the address bar that is not a web address goes to the search engine you picked (DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Ecosia, Qwant, Brave Search, Google or Bing). Those websites and search engines handle that data under their own privacy policies. Lavender refuses cookies from third parties (trackers embedded in pages).

4.2 Warnings for dangerous sites (Google Safe Browsing)

When the option "Lavender's filter + Google Safe Browsing" is chosen (the default; you choose during setup and can change it in Settings → Safety), Android's web engine checks the addresses you visit against Google's list of dangerous sites. For this it sends Google a short, partial code (a hash prefix) of the address, not the address itself, and Google does not learn which page you open. This is done by Android System WebView, part of your phone, under Google's privacy policy. With "Lavender's filter only", nothing is sent to Google; only Lavender's built-in scam list is used.

4.3 Page translation (Google ML Kit)

Translation uses Google's ML Kit and happens on your phone: the text of the page is never sent anywhere. The first time you translate into or from a language, its language pack (about 30 MB) is downloaded from Google's servers. When you use translation, ML Kit also sends Google information to measure and improve its service:

• device information (manufacturer, model, Android version) and the app's name and version;
• a per-installation identifier, which is not meant to identify you or your phone;
• performance figures and error codes, the languages you translate between and the language that was detected.

Google uses this for diagnostics and usage statistics, sends it encrypted and, according to Google, does not pass it on to others (see Google's ML Kit data disclosure). Nothing is sent if you never use translation. Downloaded language packs can be removed in Settings → Translation.

4.4 Category list updates

The category lists are built into the app. To keep them current, Lavender downloads newer versions of the lists you use, on Wi-Fi only, weekly by default (Settings → Update category lists: daily, weekly, monthly or never), or when you tap refresh. The files come from The Blocklist Project (served by GitHub) and the UT1 blacklists of Université Toulouse 1 Capitole. Those servers see your IP address and which file was downloaded, as with any download; nothing about you or your browsing is sent.

4.5 Links that open another app

When you tap a link that belongs to an app on your phone (a video meeting, a bank or government login), Lavender hands the link to that app, which then works under its own privacy policy.

5. This website

lavender.ariamax.nl sets no cookies, runs no scripts and loads nothing from other companies; its fonts and images come from our own server. Like every web server, ours keeps access logs (IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time) to keep the site secure and running, and deletes them after a short period. The site is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany (European Union).

6. Donations

You can support Lavender with an optional one-time or monthly donation in the app (menu → Donate). Google Play handles the payment under its own terms and privacy policy. Lavender itself sends nothing about a donation anywhere: it asks Google Play, through the Play Store app on your phone, for the prices and to complete your payment, and it does so only while the donate window is open, or at the next start while a payment is still being completed. From time to time the app may invite you to support Lavender. What it needs for that, such as when to ask again, stays on your phone.

For each donation, Google Play gives us the order details it gives every developer: the order number, the product, the price, the date and your country or region. We do not receive your name, email address or payment details. We use the order details only for our bookkeeping and keep them as long as Dutch tax law requires.

7. Legal basis

We do not process personal data about you through the app, so no legal basis is needed on our side for the app itself. The connections described in section 4 happen because you use those features, and you can avoid them: choose "Lavender's filter only", do not use translation, and set list updates to "never". The website's access logs rely on our legitimate interest in running a secure website.

8. Children

Lavender is not directed at children under 13 and collects no personal data from anyone. If a parent sets it up on a child's phone, all data stays on that phone as described above.

9. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, correct and delete personal data about you, to restrict or object to its processing and to receive it in a portable format. Because we hold no personal data about Lavender users, there is usually nothing for us to give you or delete; your data is on your phone and under your control (section 2). For data processed by Google (sections 4.2 and 4.3), use Google's own tools and contact points. You can also lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

10. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when Lavender, the services it uses or the law change. The date at the top shows the current version; important changes are announced in the app or on this website.

11. Contact

Ariamax, Rijswijk, the Netherlands
KvK 42005482
Email: lavender-support@ariamax.nl