Last updated: 27 August 2026.
These terms are the agreement between you and whoever publishes WhyScan. By installing or using the app, you accept them. They are deliberately short: the app has no accounts, charges nothing and stores nothing off your device, so most of what a document like this usually says does not apply here.
1. What WhyScan is
A barcode and QR reader that works offline. It reads with the camera, from an image you already have, or from a code typed by hand; it keeps a local history; and it lets you copy, share, annotate and export what you read.
2. Licence to use
You are granted a personal, free, non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to install and use WhyScan on devices you control, for any purpose — personal or professional — that is not prohibited in section 4.
WhyScan's source code is public and released under the Apache 2.0 licence. Any use of the code — copying, modifying, redistributing it — is governed by that licence and not by this document, which is about the app as distributed.
3. What you bring
- A compatible device. WhyScan is not responsible for failures of the operating system, of the camera hardware or of manufacturer components.
- Camera permission, if you want to read live. It is yours to grant and yours to revoke, and the app still works without it.
- Your own backups. The history lives only on your device and syncs nowhere. If you uninstall the app, change phones or clear its data, it is gone. Exporting to CSV, JSON or text exists precisely for that.
4. Acceptable use
You may not use WhyScan to:
- read or process codes in order to gain unauthorised access to systems, accounts, premises or services that are not yours;
- forge, duplicate or circumvent controls — tickets, coupons, labels, seals — where doing so infringes someone's rights or the law;
- infringe intellectual property, privacy or any other third-party right with what you read;
- do anything the law that applies to you prohibits.
You are responsible for what you scan and for what you do with the result.
5. Code content, and why this matters
A barcode or QR code is content written by a third party, and whoever prints it controls its entire contents. A code can carry a link to a fraudulent site, a Wi-Fi network set up to intercept traffic, or misleading text.
WhyScan always shows the content before doing anything with it and never opens a link on its own
— you have to tap it. It also hands the system only known schemes — http, https, mailto,
tel, sms and geo — and rejects any other.
Even so, the final check is yours: look at where a link goes before you open it. Whatever happens on the site or in the app that opens is outside our control and our responsibility.
6. Third-party services
On Android, one of the scanning engines is the Google Play Services code scanner. When it is used, the reading is done by that Google component, subject to its own terms and privacy policy. You can choose not to use it: in Settings → Advanced, turning on the engine workbench lets you pick, by hand, any of the engines that run entirely inside the app.
Distribution of the app through a store is additionally governed by that store's terms.
7. No warranties
WhyScan is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.
Specifically, and because it is what can actually go wrong with a code reader: no guarantee is made that every scan is correct or that every code is readable. Accuracy depends on lighting, the state of the print, the camera hardware and which engine ends up reading it. Do not use WhyScan as the only source for critical decisions — medical, financial, logistical or security-related — without checking the value another way.
8. Limitation of liability
To the extent the law allows, whoever publishes WhyScan is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, nor for loss of data, profits or opportunities, arising from the use or inability to use the app.
None of this excludes liability that the law does not permit to be excluded. In particular, if you are a consumer, your statutory rights remain intact.
9. Changes and availability
WhyScan can change, and this document with it: the date above says when it last did. Continuing to use the app after a change means accepting it. The app may also stop being updated or distributed; what you have installed will keep working for as long as your device allows, without depending on any server of ours, because there is none.
10. Privacy
What data the app handles and where it stays is in the privacy policy, which forms part of these terms.
11. Contact
For any question about these terms, write to [email protected].
If yours is an application defect rather than a legal question, a public issue at https://github.com/dgfigueroa29/WhyScan/issues gets there sooner.