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Privacy policy

Effective date: August 24, 2026

This is the privacy policy for Holler, an Android SSH client ("we", "us").

What data the app collects

The app collects the minimum data needed to function as an SSH client.

Data	When	Where it's stored	Sent to us?
SSH hostname, port, username	When you fill in the connect form	On your device only (Android DataStore)	No
SSH password	While a session is active	In memory only by default. If you tick "Remember password" on a profile, written on-device through androidx.security.crypto.EncryptedFile (AES-256-GCM, master key in Android Keystore). Unticking the box deletes the ciphertext immediately.	No
SSH private keys (if you import any)	When you import them	On your device, encrypted via androidx.security.crypto.EncryptedFile (AES-256-GCM, master key in Android Keystore)	No
Private-key passphrases	When prompted during connect	In memory only — never written to disk	No
SSH host-key fingerprints	After the first successful connect to each server	On your device only (DataStore), used to detect host-key changes on later connects	No
Terminal session contents (commands, output)	While a session is active	In memory only	No
Microphone audio (voice typing)	When you tap Gboard's mic	Handled entirely by Google's Gboard, not Holler	No (Gboard's privacy policy applies)

The app does not collect or transmit:

• Analytics, usage telemetry, or crash reports
• Advertising identifiers
• Location, contacts, calendar, or any other Android personal data API
• Any information about which SSH servers you connect to

What the app sends over the network

When you initiate an SSH connection, the app opens a TCP connection to the hostname and port you specified, and conducts the SSH protocol with that server. No traffic goes to any third party, including us.

If you enable Gboard voice dictation, the audio is captured and transcribed by Gboard (a Google product) before the resulting text is delivered to Holler. Holler has no visibility into the audio. Gboard's data handling is governed by Google's privacy policy.

Background SSH sessions

When you have at least one active SSH connection, Holler runs a foreground service so Android won't kill the process while you switch to another app. This is what keeps tmux sessions, long-running commands, and Claude Code instances alive while you're not looking at the app.

The service:

• Exists only when you have one or more active sessions. It is removed automatically when the last session is closed.
• Transmits nothing of its own. It is purely a lifecycle anchor for the SSH connections you have explicitly initiated; the only traffic going out is the SSH protocol on the channels you opened.
• Is bound to a persistent notification ("Holler is running N sessions"). The notification is informational only — it does not carry data to any external service.

If you want zero background activity, close all session tabs (Ctrl+W or the × on each tab). The service stops and Android treats the app as ordinary foreground-only.

Third-party libraries

The app is built on:

• The Termux terminal-emulator and terminal-view libraries (Apache 2.0) for terminal rendering and the text-input bridge.
• sshj (Apache 2.0) for the SSH protocol.
• BouncyCastle (Bouncy Castle License — an MIT-style permissive license) for crypto primitives.
• net.i2p.crypto.eddsa (Apache 2.0) for Ed25519 key support.
• AndroidX Security Crypto (Apache 2.0) for at-rest encryption of saved passwords and imported private keys.

None of these libraries make network calls of their own beyond the SSH connection you initiate. They do not phone home.

Permissions the app requests

• INTERNET — required to open the TCP connection to your SSH server.
• ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE — to detect whether the device has a network before attempting to connect, so the connect screen can show a clear error instead of a long timeout.
• FOREGROUND_SERVICE and FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC — to declare and run the foreground service described in "Background SSH sessions" above. The data-sync type is the closest match Android offers for "ongoing user-initiated network session"; it does not imply we sync any data of our own.
• POST_NOTIFICATIONS — required by Android 13+ to show the persistent notification that the foreground service is bound to. The notification is informational ("Holler is running N sessions") and is removed when the last session closes.

Holler does not request microphone permission. Voice typing runs entirely inside Gboard, which already has its own permissions; the app never receives audio.

Data retention and deletion

To delete all data the app has stored, uninstall the app. Android removes all app-private storage on uninstall, which includes connection details and any imported keys.

Children's privacy

The app is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.

Contact

Questions: support@hollerssh.com

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, the new version will be published at this URL with a new effective date. Material changes (e.g. the app starts collecting new data) will be announced in the app's release notes.