Effective August 12, 2026
What Parole Decoder does
Parole Decoder is an independent educational app and website that helps families read public Texas corrections records. It is not affiliated with TDCJ or the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Information we do not collect
We do not require an account. We do not operate advertising or product-analytics trackers, sell personal information, build advertising profiles, or collect contacts or precise location.
Searches and public records
When you use the ordinary lookup feature, the query is sent directly from your device or browser to the State of Texas open-data service. Search results are public government records. Parole Decoder does not receive or store ordinary lookup queries on its own server. The State of Texas may process requests under its own privacy and logging practices.
Information stored on your device
The app stores saved TDCJ numbers, selected public-record snapshots for people you save, displayed field-change history, onboarding status, language preferences, and a cached public-dataset identifier on your device. Saved people, their alert choices, and their record history are not synchronized through iCloud key-value storage. The updated app removes its legacy iCloud key-value entries when it launches. The history is created by comparing successful public-record observations; it is not an official effective-date record. Removing a saved person deletes that person’s displayed history from the app, subject to normal device backups.
Optional automatic change alerts
If you choose to turn on automatic alerts, Parole Decoder sends a random installation identifier, an Apple push-notification token, your language, and the public TDCJ numbers you explicitly select for monitoring, up to your plan limit, to its monitoring server. No email address, contact list, precise location, or payment-card details are sent with this registration.
The server periodically checks the corresponding public TDCJ records and stores the person’s public-record name, current facility, selected parole and release fields, and detected changes so it can notify your device. Lock-screen notifications and their delivery payload do not include a person’s name, TDCJ number, or changed public-record value. When you open a change notification, the app securely refreshes the record after authenticating the installation. Apple processes the device token and notification delivery under Apple’s privacy practices.
You can turn off automatic alerts in Settings. The app then asks the server to delete the installation, its saved-number subscriptions, and associated delivery records. Public-record snapshots and change events no longer needed by any active subscription are removed. If the deletion request cannot connect, the app tells you to try again.
No product analytics
The app and website do not send product-interaction analytics. The website deletes the random browser credential created by its former analytics script and does not replace it. Our hosting and the State of Texas open-data service may still process ordinary request logs under their own operational and privacy practices.
Purchases
In-app purchases are processed by Apple. Parole Decoder does not receive your payment-card details. To protect paid automatic alerts from unauthorized use, the app may send Apple’s signed transaction proof to the monitoring server. The server verifies it using Apple’s verification tools and stores the transaction identifiers, product identifier, App Store environment, purchase/signing dates, expiration or revocation status, and verification time with the anonymous monitoring installation. The signed proof itself is not stored. An App Store server notification that arrives before any installation has claimed its purchase may be retained for up to 180 days so a later verified registration can apply the correct entitlement; unclaimed records are then deleted. Deleting the final monitoring installation for a purchase deletes its entitlement, transaction identifiers, and related purchase-notification records. The server keeps only a one-way hash of the original transaction identifier and its App Store environment as a deletion marker so a later Apple notification cannot recreate the deleted record; that marker is erased if you explicitly enable monitoring again with a newly verified proof. If Apple has revoked or refunded the purchase, the marker also records the revocation time and is retained for the life of the service solely to prevent a revoked proof from restoring access. These markers are not used for analytics or advertising.
External links
The app and website link to official Texas government pages, TIFA, the 988 Lifeline, and other resources. Those services have their own privacy practices.
Children
Parole Decoder is intended for a general audience and does not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes and contact
We may update this policy when the product or its data practices change. The effective date above will be updated. Questions or privacy requests can be sent to gwsiny@gmail.com.