AchalaPrivacy
What Achala keeps, why, where it is kept, and how to delete it.
Last updated 27 September 2026. Applies to the Achala app on Android and to the web app at achala.dixith.com.
In short: Achala works without an account, and then everything stays on your device. If you sign in, your email address and your sittings are kept on our server so they are safe and in step across your devices. There are no ads, no tracking and no analytics, and nothing is sold or shared.
Who runs Achala
Achala is made and run by Dr Shashikiran Umakanth, Udupi, Karnataka, India, as part of dixith.com. For any question about your data, write to us through the contact page.
Without an account
You can use every part of Achala without signing in. Your sittings, notes and settings are then kept only in the app's storage on your device. Nothing is sent to us. Clearing the browser's data for achala.dixith.com removes them. On Android the journal is kept by Chrome, so uninstalling the Achala app alone may leave it in Chrome, and clearing Chrome's data removes it. Use More, Download a backup if you want a copy; after ten sittings Achala suggests one now and then.
With an account
Signing in is optional. It keeps your journal safe if you lose your phone, and shows the same practice on all your devices. When you sign in, this is what our server keeps:
| Your email address | To sign you in with your password or a six-figure code, and to know which sittings are yours. We send no other email. |
|---|---|
| A name, if you add one | Only to greet you. It is optional. |
| Your daily goal | The number of minutes you choose, so every device shows the same goal. |
| Your sittings | For each one: the day and time it began, how long it lasted, its kind (timer, open-ended or breathing) and breathing pattern, whether it ended early, and, if you gave them, how you felt before and after and a note. Notes are kept on the server as you wrote them, so that they reach your other devices; they are not encrypted there. |
| Your sign-ins | For each signed-in device: a scrambled form of its key (never the key itself), the kind of device, such as "Android", and the dates it was first and last used. |
| Dates | The day your account was made and the day it was last used. Days only, not times. |
A sign-in code is kept in scrambled form for 15 minutes, until it is used or expires. To stop anyone flooding a mailbox with codes, the server counts requests for an hour against scrambled values that cannot be turned back into an email or network address.
One sign-in for the Dixith apps
Anudina, Abhyasa, Achala and Ayojana share one sign-in, your Dixith account: your email address and, if you choose to set one, a password. The password is kept only as a one-way hash, which cannot be turned back into the password, and it is the same in all four apps. An emailed six-figure code always works too, for a first sign-in and whenever the password is forgotten.
When you sign in, our server also gives your browser a small cookie named dixith_account, for dixith.com and the apps' addresses under it. It holds a random key, of which our server keeps only a scrambled form. Page scripts cannot read it, and it is used for one thing only: so that another Dixith app on the same device can offer "Continue as" and sign you in with one tap, and so that "Sign out of all Dixith apps on this device" reaches all of them. It is not used for advertising or tracking. A device left unused for a year is forgotten. (On an iPhone, each app added to the Home Screen keeps to itself, so there you sign in to each app once.)
The Dixith account keeps your email address, the password hash if you set one, the days it was made and last used, and for each device signed in, its kind (such as "Android") and dates. What each app keeps stays with that app: your sittings and notes are not shown in the other apps.
The daily reminder
If you turn on the daily reminder, your browser gives Achala an address at its own notification service (Apple's, Google's, Mozilla's or Microsoft's), and our server keeps it with the time, time zone and days you chose. For a reminder that follows the sunrise, it also keeps the town you chose, or, if you asked Achala to use where the phone is, that position rounded to about 10 km, which is all sunrise needs. A test reminder is sent the same way; the phone notes only the time the last one arrived, to tell you whether the test got through. At that time the server sends an empty signal to that address and your device shows the reminder. The signal carries no words and nothing about you. Turning the reminder off, or deleting your account, removes all of this. You do not need an account for a reminder; if you are signed in, it is linked to your account so it can stay quiet on days you have already sat.
On Android, the reminder appears as Achala's own notification, and Android asks your permission for notifications when you turn it on. You can turn notifications off at any time in the phone's settings.
The Android app during a sitting
From version 1.1.0 the Android app rings the bells itself while the screen is off, so it keeps the sitting's times, bells and sound choices on the phone for as long as the sitting lasts. Nothing of this leaves the phone. It shows a notification while you sit, with Pause, Resume and End. If you choose Silence notifications while sitting, it asks for permission to turn on Do Not Disturb, turns it on for the length of the sitting, and puts it back as it was.
What Achala does not collect
- No location, except the town or rounded position you give for a sunrise reminder, as above. No contacts, photos, microphone or phone identifiers. The sounds are made on your device; nothing is recorded.
- No advertising, and no advertising or analytics code of any kind.
- No IP address is written down by Achala. (Like any website, our hosting company's web server keeps standard access logs for a short time for security and fault-finding.)
Where it is kept, and who can see it
Your account and sittings are kept in a database on dixith.com's server, hosted by Hostinger. Everything travels over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Sign-in codes are sent by email through dixith.com's email provider.
Your data is never sold, rented or shared with anyone for their own use. The only people who can see it are you and the person who runs Achala, who uses an administrator view to keep the service working, for example to see how many people use it. That view shows when and how long each person sat, never their notes or how they felt, and never where a sunrise reminder is set for. For how people feel it shows only averages across everyone. The database itself holds your notes as you wrote them, and only the person who runs Achala can reach it.
How long it is kept
For as long as you have an account. A device that is not used for a year is signed out automatically. Deleting your account removes everything at once, as below.
Deleting your account and data
In the app: open More; at the foot of the Account card, choose Delete my Achala data, tick the box and confirm. Every sitting, every Achala sign-in and every reminder is removed from the server at once, and from that device. Your Dixith account and the other Dixith apps are not touched. This cannot be undone, so download a backup first if you may want one.
Everything at once: in the same place, Delete my whole Dixith account removes your email address, your password, and everything Anudina, Abhyasa, Achala and Ayojana keep for you. You type your email address to confirm.
Without the app: use the contact page, choose "Delete my account", and give the email address you signed in with. Say whether you mean only this app's data or your whole Dixith account. We reply to that address to confirm, then delete the account in full within 7 days and tell you when it is done.
You can also keep your account and simply take a copy: More, Download as a spreadsheet or Download a backup.
Not a medical service
Achala is a timer, a breath pacer and a journal. It makes no claim about health, and the before and after ratings are your own impressions, kept for you. Inside the app, More, Help has short notes on who should not hold the breath and on what to do if sitting unsettles you.
Children
Achala is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.
When you write to us
The contact page sends your name (if you give one), your email address and your message to us once, by email, so we can reply. They are not stored on the website. To keep out automated spam, the page solves a small puzzle in your browser and the server counts messages per hour against a scrambled form of the network address; no outside service is involved.
Changes
If this page changes in a way that matters, the date at the top will change.