Privacy Policy
Who we are
Eklavya Studios publishes Silicon Shorts, an Android app that shows short technology news summaries. This page is the public privacy policy for the Google Play listing.
What the app does with data
You can read the feed without an account. If you sign in with Google, we store an account so bookmarks and settings can follow you. We do not sell personal information. The app does not show ads and does not include an analytics or crash-reporting SDK. The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Information you give us
Google sign-in provides a user id, name, email address, and profile photo URL, handled by Firebase Authentication. If you sign in, we save to Cloud Firestore, in a document only you can read or write: bookmarked story ids, language, theme, reading format, notification topic preferences, and a last-sync time. Guest bookmarks and settings stay on the device.
Information collected automatically
Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers topic alerts and the morning brief. Google receives a device messaging token and the topics you subscribe to. We do not store that token in our own database. Story text and images are cached on the phone so the feed can open offline. When you open a story, the app requests that page from the original publisher. The publisher, and services embedded in that page, can see your IP address and may set cookies in the in-app browser. Notification permission and boot completion are used only to show alerts you turn on. Those schedules stay on the device.
Why we use it
We use account data to sign you in, sync the library you save, and remember preferences. We use messaging data to send alerts you enable. We use on-device caches to show stories quickly and offline. Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, the legal bases are contract, legitimate interests, and consent for notifications and optional sign-in. Where India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act applies, we process personal data to provide the app, and you may withdraw consent for optional processing by turning those features off or deleting the account.
Who else receives it
Google Firebase (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Messaging, and Hosting) processes data to run the app. Original publishers receive a normal web request when you open their article. If you choose to translate an article in the in-app reader, its address is sent to Google Translate, which fetches and translates the page. We do not share your account or bookmarks with advertisers, data brokers, or other readers. We may disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect users and the service from abuse.
Where it is stored and how long
Cloud account data is stored by Google Firebase, which may process data in the United States and other countries where Google runs its service. We keep the cloud profile until you delete the account. Story caches and guest preferences remain on the device until you clear app storage, uninstall, or erase on-device bookmarks while deleting the account. Public news stories are not your personal data.
Your choices and rights
You can use the app without an account, turn notification topics and the morning brief off, and deny notification permission in Android settings. You can delete the cloud account in the app (Preferences, then Delete account and cloud data) or by emailing breejesh.rathod@gmail.com from the Google account email. See how to delete your account. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or export personal data, to object or restrict certain processing, and to complain to a privacy regulator. We respond within 30 days. Uninstalling removes on-device data. It does not delete the cloud profile.
Security
Cloud profile documents are readable and writable only by the signed-in user that owns them. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure.
Changes
If this policy changes in a material way, we update the date above and the in-app copy. Where a new consent is required, we ask again.