AchalaPrivacy
What Achala keeps, why, where it is kept, and how to delete it.
Last updated 5 November 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, and nothing is sold. Google Analytics is used for anonymous usage statistics.
Who runs Achala
Achala is made and run by Dixith Labs, 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 on your device. Nothing is sent to us.
In the Achala app for Android they are kept in the app's own storage on the phone (before version 2.0.1 of 14 October 2026, the app showed the web app through Chrome, and they were kept in Chrome's storage for achala.dixith.com). Clearing the app's storage (Settings, Apps, Achala, Storage) or uninstalling it removes them. From version 2.0.2 of the app they are also part of the phone's own Android backup, if the phone backs up its apps: they come back when the phone is restored onto a new one; your sign-in does not, and you sign in again, and the daily reminder is set again with one tap. In a browser they are kept in that browser's storage, and clearing the browser's data for achala.dixith.com removes them.
So keep a copy: Settings, Your data, Save a copy saves one file with your journal (sittings, notes and how you felt), your settings and your reminder's time, days and place, which you can keep in Drive or email to yourself; on another phone, Settings, Your data, Bring back from a copy puts them back, with no account. After ten sittings Achala suggests one now and then. The file holds what you entered; it holds nothing of your sign-in.
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
Every Dixith app (Anudina, Abhyasa, Achala, Ayojana, Soundarya Lahari, the Bhagavad Gita, Ghatika Focus, Angana and Laya) shares 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 of them. An emailed six-figure code always works too, for a first sign-in and whenever the password is forgotten.
You may also sign in with Continue with Google (from website 2.0.4 and Android 2.0.3, 17 October 2026). Google then sends our server a signed note with the email address, name and picture of the Google account you choose, and its Google account number. Only the email address is kept; nothing else from Google is kept: not your name, picture or contacts, and never your Google password, which we never see. In a browser, the sign-in screen shows Google's own button, loaded from Google, so Google learns that the screen was opened, whether or not you use it. It signs you in to the same Dixith account as an emailed code to that address. What the Dixith account itself keeps, for every app, is set out on one page: dixith.com/labs/privacy.
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.
In the Achala app for Android, from version 2.0.1, the phone rings the reminder itself: the time, days and, for a sunrise reminder, the place rounded to about 10 km are kept on the phone, and nothing is sent to our server or to a notification service. 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 code.
- Google Analytics is used for anonymous usage statistics. It counts which screens are opened, roughly where from and on what kind of device, and it sets two cookies so it can tell a returning visitor from a new one. It never receives your sittings, notes, reminders or email address. You can turn it off on a device in Settings, Anonymous usage statistics; it then sends no usage statistics from that device. (Added 29 September 2026; until then Achala carried no analytics. The switch was added on 13 October 2026.)
- 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 Settings, Your data; at the foot, 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 save a copy 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 every Dixith app keeps 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: Settings, Your data, Download as a spreadsheet or Save a copy.
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, Guides 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.
Inside the Achala app for Android 2.0.2 and later, the contact page also offers a box, not ticked, to add the list of recent errors on that phone: what went wrong in the app, where and when, with web addresses, email addresses and long numbers taken out, and nothing about you, your sittings or your notes. It is kept only on the phone (the last 50, the oldest dropped first, never in a backup) and sent only if you tick the box, with your message.
Changes
If this page changes in a way that matters, the date at the top will change.
5 November 2026, website 2.0.19: the switch for anonymous usage statistics is now in Settings itself, beside Your data (it was under Help). Nothing about what Achala keeps has changed.
29 October 2026, website 2.0.13: Ghatika is now called Ghatika Focus in the list of apps that share the sign-in. Nothing about what Achala keeps has changed.
17 October 2026, website 2.0.4 and Android 2.0.3: you may sign in with Continue with Google (the email address only is kept from Google); the page names all seven Dixith apps that share the sign-in, and links to the Dixith account's own privacy page.
16 October 2026, website 2.0.3 and Android 2.0.2: on Android, what Achala keeps on the phone is part of the phone's own Android backup (the sign-in is not); Save a copy makes one file that brings everything back on another phone; the contact page in the app can add the phone's list of recent errors to a message, only if you tick the box. Corrected: this page still said the Android app kept the journal in Chrome, and that its reminder came through a notification service; both ended with version 2.0.1 on 14 October 2026.