Privacy Policy

01 Information Collection and Use

We do not collect, store, or transmit any personal information or data from your device. Specifically:

• Personal Data: We do not collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, or any other personally identifiable information.
• Usage Data: We do not track how you use the app, your location, or your device information.
• Permissions: Any permissions requested by the app (e.g., Camera or Storage) are used strictly for the app's local functionality and are never uploaded to any external servers.
• Update check: Once a day the app fetches firedown.app/status.json to learn whether a newer version exists. That request carries the app version and a token that changes every month and cannot be linked from one month to the next (it is derived on your device from a secret that never leaves it). We use it only to count how many installs are active; our server keeps a salted hash of it, never your IP address beyond the short-lived web server log, and never anything about what you browse or download.

02 Third-Party Services

The App contains no analytics, no advertising networks and no trackers of any kind. Nothing reports your browsing, your downloads or your usage to anyone.

The optional features described in section 03 do involve other companies' infrastructure, and we would rather name it than imply it doesn't exist. None of it can read your data:

• Cloudflare: Our bookmark-sync server sits behind Cloudflare, which handles ciphertext and connection metadata only. The encryption keys never leave your device, so those bytes are as unreadable to Cloudflare as they are to us.
• The storage provider you choose for backup: If you back up files, they are written, already encrypted, to the place you choose: a folder you pick, for example in Google Drive, Dropbox or Nextcloud, whose app syncs it; a WebDAV server you sign in to; or an S3 storage bucket you give Firedown the keys to, such as Backblaze B2, Wasabi or MinIO. That provider works under its own privacy policy, receives ciphertext only and cannot read it. We have no agreement with any provider and receive nothing from them.

The browser engine and the ad blocker also make requests of their own, as they do in any browser:

• Google Safe Browsing: To warn you about malware and phishing, the engine downloads Google's lists of dangerous sites. When a page you open matches an entry, it asks Google about a short prefix of a hash of the address, never the address itself. You can turn this off in Settings.
• Mozilla: The engine downloads data it needs from Mozilla, such as its tracker-blocking lists and, when you translate a page, that language's model. These requests do not say which pages you open.
• Filter list publishers: uBlock Origin regularly updates its lists of ads and trackers from their publishers. These requests do not say which pages you open.

03 Data Storage

By default, all data generated within the App stays stored locally on your device. We do not have access to it, and it is deleted if you uninstall the App.

Firedown also offers an optional bookmark sync feature, off by default, that keeps your bookmarks in step across your own devices. When you turn it on, the only thing uploaded is end-to-end-encrypted data we cannot read:

• Ciphertext only: Your bookmarks are encrypted on your device before they leave it. Our server stores only opaque ciphertext: never your titles, URLs or any contents.
• No account, no email, no phone number: A recovery code generated on your device is the sole key. We never see it, and it cannot be recovered if you lose it.
• Firedown's own server: Encrypted bookmarks are stored on our own server, with no analytics and no tracking.

Firedown also offers optional backup for your downloaded files, free and off by default, under the same zero-knowledge model. Here is exactly how it works, because "encrypted" on its own is a word, not a guarantee:

• Encrypted on your device, before it is written: Each file gets its own key and is encrypted on your phone. That key is itself locked with a key derived from your recovery code, which never leaves your device. Whoever holds the backup has nothing that could decrypt it.
• Where the bytes live: In the place you choose: a folder picked through Android's folder picker (in Google Drive, Dropbox or Nextcloud, on an SD card, or on the phone itself), a WebDAV server, or an S3 storage bucket. Each backed-up file becomes two encrypted files with random names: the file, and a small companion holding its name, type, dates and preview image. No server of ours is involved, and we keep no record of what you back up, or where.
• Your sign-in stays on your phone: The password of a WebDAV server and the keys of a bucket are stored encrypted on your phone, are never backed up, and are forgotten when you choose another place. Nothing already in the old place is deleted.
• What the provider can see, stated plainly: file sizes, how many files you have backed up and when, a folder name derived from your recovery code, the IP address the files are uploaded from, and whatever it already knows from your account with it. It cannot see file names, file contents, thumbnails, or what any file is. We see nothing at all.
• Your recovery code is the only key: Lose it and your backed-up files are permanently unrecoverable, by you, by us and by the provider. There is no reset link, because there is no account and no second copy of the key.
• The Safe Folder is never backed up: Files you put in the Safe Folder stay on your device and are excluded from backup entirely.

Because everything is end-to-end encrypted, our core promise still holds: we cannot read your data.

How backup works: the threat model, what the provider can and cannot see, and the limits we don't hide.

04 Children's Privacy

Our App does not collect any information from anyone, including children under the age of 13. We are fully compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

05 Changes to This Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. However, since we do not collect any data, any changes will likely be for clarity or to comply with new legal requirements. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

06 Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to reach out.