Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy applies to the mobile application Papers (referred to as "the App", "we", "us", or "our"), developed by Getasew Tilahun.

We hold a deep commitment to user privacy, intellectual freedom, and transparency. This policy outlines how data is treated when you install and use the Papers application on Android or other supported platforms.

2. Information We Do Not Collect

Papers does not collect personal data of any kind. Specifically:

• No Personal Identifiers: We do not ask for or collect your name, email address, physical address, phone number, or government identifiers.
• No Account Registration: There are no user logins, accounts, or profile creations required to use any feature of the app.
• No Location Data: The App never requests, accesses, or tracks your precise or approximate physical location (GPS or network-based).
• No Device Identifiers: We do not collect advertising IDs (GAID), hardware serial numbers, MAC addresses, or telephony identifiers.
• No Financial Data: The App is completely free and does not process payments or collect payment card or banking information.
• No Sensitive Hardware Access: The App does not access your microphone, camera, contacts, phone state, or photo library.

3. Information Stored Locally on Your Device

To provide a comfortable reading experience, Papers stores certain non-personal operational data locally on your device using standard Android sandboxed local storage (Shared Preferences and App Cache):

• Reading Preferences: Selected desk theme (Light Parchment or Dark Desk), chosen font size, and line spacing.
• Reading Progress & Bookmarks: Your current percentage read in each monograph and any chapter bookmarks you intentionally save.
• Offline Cached Content: Public-domain and open-access monographs you choose to read, cached locally so they can be read without an active internet connection.

All local data stays exclusively on your physical device. It is never transmitted, synchronized, or uploaded to any external server.

4. Network Communications & Content Retrieval

When you browse the archive or read a paper, the App connects via encrypted HTTPS to a public GitHub repository hosting structured, open-access academic texts.

These network requests are standard web retrieval calls (GET requests) for public JSON monograph files. No user profile, device ID, or identifying metadata is sent with these requests.

5. Third-Party Services & Tracking

We deliberately exclude third-party monetization and analytics tools:

• No Third-Party Advertising: Papers contains zero commercial advertisements and includes no advertising SDKs (such as Google AdMob, Unity, or AppLovin).
• No Behavioral Tracking: We do not utilize user tracking SDKs (such as Firebase Analytics, Mixpanel, or Facebook SDK).
• Typography: Font resources are rendered using open-source typography (Newsreader and Inter). Standard font caching follows Google Fonts platform guidelines without user profiling.

6. Permissions Used

The App requests only the minimal technical permissions required for its core reading functionality:

• android.permission.INTERNET: Required solely to fetch public open-access monograph texts from the public repository and check for catalogue updates.
• android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE: Used solely to determine whether an internet connection is available so the App can seamlessly switch to offline cached reading mode.

7. Children's Privacy (COPPA & Families Policy)

Papers does not target children under the age of 13, nor does it knowingly collect any personal information from children. Because the App collects no personal information whatsoever from any user, it is fully compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Google Play Families policy requirements.

8. Data Security

Because we do not store your data on external servers, there is no remote database susceptible to breach or unauthorized access. All network communications for fetching public papers are strictly encrypted using Transport Layer Security (HTTPS/TLS). Locally cached papers and reading states are protected within Android's secure application sandbox.

9. User Data Control & Deletion

You have complete control over all data stored on your device:

• You may clear all reading history, cached monographs, and saved preferences at any time through your Android device settings: Settings > Apps > Papers > Storage > Clear Storage / Clear Cache.
• Uninstalling the Papers app permanently removes all locally stored reading records and cached papers from your device.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect any changes in legal requirements or app features. If changes are made, the revised policy will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date.

11. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, or inquiries regarding this Privacy Policy or your privacy while using Papers, please feel free to contact us: