Public News App Privacy Policy

1. Information the App Collects

• Network connectivity: The app checks whether your device has an internet connection so it can show fresh content or serve cached articles when you are offline. This uses the Android ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE permission. We do not use this to track your location.
• Article view counts: When you open a story, the app may send the article identifier to our servers once per session so we can record an anonymous view count. This is not linked to a user account in the app.
• Standard server logs: When the app requests articles, categories, or search results from our API, our servers may log technical information such as your IP address, request time, and user agent, as is common for web services.
• Local device storage: To support offline reading, the app stores article text, metadata, and images on your device using a local database and HTTP cache. This data stays on your device unless you clear app storage or uninstall the app.

The app does not request access to your contacts, camera, microphone, location, phone number, or personal files.

2. How We Use Information

• To fetch and display news articles, categories, authors, and search results.
• To cache content on your device for faster loading and offline access.
• To maintain aggregate article view statistics.
• To keep the service secure and troubleshoot technical issues.

3. Third-Party Services

The app interacts with the following services:

• Public App API: Article and category data are loaded from our backend at backend.public.kim.
• Content delivery: Article images may be served from our content delivery network (CDN).
• External links: Links inside articles may open in your device's in-app browser (such as Chrome Custom Tabs). Those sites have their own privacy policies, which we do not control.

The Public News app does not include third-party advertising SDKs or in-app analytics trackers at this time.

4. Data Stored on Your Device

Cached articles and network responses are stored locally to improve performance and enable offline reading. You can remove this data at any time by clearing the app's storage in Android settings or uninstalling the app.

5. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We may share limited technical data with service providers that help us operate our API and content delivery infrastructure, or when required by law.

6. Children's Privacy

Public News is intended for a general audience. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us and we will take appropriate steps.

7. Your Choices

• Clear app data or uninstall the app to remove locally cached content.
• Disable mobile data or Wi-Fi to limit network requests (cached content may still be available).
• Use the website at publicapp.in instead of the app if you prefer not to store articles on your device.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes take effect when posted on this page. Continued use of the app after an update means you accept the revised policy.

9. Website Privacy Policy

For privacy practices related to the Public App website, accounts, and publishing platform, see our general Privacy Policy.

10. Contact Us

Questions about this policy or the Public News app? Email publicapp@publicapp.in.