Privacy Policy — SafeScan

English · 한국어

Effective: 20 October 2026 (first effective 15 September 2026)

App name: SafeScan (Korean: 세이프스캔) · Package: com.almightyhg.safescan

1. Summary

SafeScan checks a QR code or link for phishing and malicious-app risk before you open it. There is no account, no sign-in and no field for your name or phone number. Your check history stays on your device only and is deleted automatically after 90 days. Codes you save yourself (Favorites and QR Books) stay until you delete them — the app must not quietly erase what you collected on purpose.

Checking a link does, however, mean that the address you are checking sometimes has to leave the device (to resolve a short link, to ask Google's unsafe-site list, or when you tap Report yourself). Section 3 lists exactly what goes where. Nothing else leaves the device.

2. Stored on your device only

Item	Contents	Where	Deletion
Check history	The address checked, the verdict, the evidence and the time	Device storage (SQLite)	Deleted automatically after 90 days. You can delete everything at any time from the History tab
Saved codes (Favorites and QR Books)	Addresses and codes you chose to save, the name and note you added, which book they are in and when it was created, and the time they were last re-checked	Device storage (SQLite)	Never deleted automatically. Remove them one by one, by book, or with [Empty this list] under Library → QR Books. Deleted with the app
Report queue	A report you tapped while offline, held until it can be sent	Device storage	Deleted once sent
Settings	Ad grace-period start, launch count (for the review prompt), blocklist refresh time	Device storage	Deleted with the app

• This data is also excluded from cloud backup and device transfer (allowBackup=false plus backup exclusion rules).
• Camera frames and pictures you pick are never stored. They are processed on the device only for the moment it takes to read the code, then discarded.

3. What leaves the device — what, when, and where

When	What is sent	To	Why
When you check a short link (bit.ly, han.gl, …)	That short link	The short-link service's server	To find the real destination the app follows redirects only. It first sends a HEAD request (which does not fetch page content); only if that service refuses HEAD does it retry once with GET, and even then the response content is discarded unread. It sends no cookies or referrer.
When you check an address (if Google lookup is enabled)	The address being checked	Google Web Risk API	Asks whether the address is on Google's real-time list of unsafe sites. Well-known legitimate domains are not sent. Google's handling: Google Cloud Privacy Notice
When you check an address	A SHA-256 hash of the address (not the address itself)	Firebase Firestore (the developer's project)	To see how many other users have reported that address. Because it is a hash, the server cannot recover the original address.
When a Google lookup is made	Monthly lookup counts and a count of response types (success, denied, quota exceeded, failed), with your anonymous ID — no addresses, domains or results are sent	Firebase Firestore (the developer's project, one document per anonymous ID)	To notice before the free Google lookup quota (100,000 per month) runs out and to detect lookups being refused. It is never used to limit how many checks you can run.
Only when you tap "Report phishing"	The reported address, its domain, the reason you chose, the app's verdict, the time, your anonymous ID and (if you wrote one) your note	Firebase Firestore (the developer's project)	So that, after review, the address can be added to the blocklist. The note is optional and the screen asks you not to include personal details.
On launch	A per-installation anonymous ID (a random value created by Firebase Anonymous Authentication) and a device-integrity token (Play Integrity / App Check)	Firebase	So that the same person reporting the same address several times counts once, and so that requests from tampered apps can be rejected. The ID is not linked to a name, phone number or email, and changes if you uninstall the app. In handling these requests Firebase receives your device's IP address (unavoidable for any internet request); the developer does not store it.
On launch (at most every 12 hours)	A settings request including the app version	Firebase Remote Config	To download settings such as the blocklist update URL and feature switches. No personal data is sent.
When an ad is shown	Device information such as the advertising ID (processed by Google)	Google AdMob	See section 4

• Your check history and the list of addresses you have checked are never uploaded. There is no transfer beyond this table.
• The Google unsafe-site lookup is switched on and off remotely by the developer. When it is off, that row does not happen.

4. Advertising

This app shows Google AdMob ads.

• Ads appear only as a banner at the bottom of the screen and as an interstitial on some screen transitions (with per-session and daily caps).
• No ads are shown during the first 72 hours after installation.
• No ad is ever placed in front of a safety action on the verdict screen (Close, Report, the 3-second confirmation). There is no limit on the number of checks, and you never have to watch an ad to run a check.
• App open ads and exit ads are not used.
• The Google Mobile Ads SDK built into the app automatically collects the following and sends it to Google (encrypted in transit) for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention:
  • Approximate location — estimated from your IP address (precise location such as GPS is not used)
  • App interactions — ad-related usage such as ad impressions and taps
  • Diagnostics — app and SDK performance information
  • Device identifiers — advertising ID and app set ID
  See the Google partner sites policy. You can reset your advertising ID or opt out of ad personalisation under Settings → Google → Ads on your device.

5. Why permissions are used

Permission	Used for	If you decline
Camera	Reading QR codes only. Frames are never stored or transmitted	You can still check from a photo or by pasting
Internet	The transfers in section 3, and ads	Address-pattern checks, look-alike domain detection and the on-device blocklist keep working offline

• Pictures are chosen through the Android system photo picker, so no storage or media-read permission is requested. A picked picture is used only to read the code and is not stored.
• Text handed over from another app via Share (for example the stock camera app) is used only for the check and is kept only as part of the check history.

6. What is never collected

• Name, phone number, email, address, date of birth — there is no input field for any of these.
• Precise location (GPS), contacts, call or SMS logs, list of installed apps — the app does not request permission to read any of these. (Approximate location is handled by the ads SDK from your IP address, see section 4; the developer never receives location data.)
• No analytics SDK (such as Firebase Analytics) and no crash-reporting SDK is bundled. The app-interaction and diagnostic data in section 4 is handled by the ads SDK and is not sent to the developer.
• Camera frames or original pictures. When a contact, Wi-Fi or payment QR is read, the app does not save, connect or pay on your behalf — it only shows you what the code contains.

7. Retention and deletion

• Check history: deleted automatically after 90 days on the device. Delete immediately via Library → History → Delete all.
• Saved codes (Favorites and QR Books): no expiry. You collected them on purpose, so the app never deletes them for you. Remove them at any time under Library → QR Books — one item, a whole book, or [Empty this list] — and they go with the app when you uninstall it. This data is never sent to a server either.
• Report data: kept in the developer's project for as long as needed for review and blocklist maintenance. Reports carry no name or contact details, so the developer cannot identify an individual user. To request deletion, email the reported address and the approximate time to the address below.
• Anonymous ID: replaced with a new value when you uninstall the app or clear its data.

8. Third parties and international transfer

• All transfers listed in section 3 go to services operated by Google LLC (Firebase · Web Risk · AdMob). Those servers may be located outside your country (for example in the United States).
• The developer does not sell collected information and does not share it with third parties beyond the services above.
• The blocklist includes, as a supplementary source, the phishing-site URL dataset published by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) on the Korean Open Government Data Portal (KOGL Type 1). This dataset ships inside the app and contains no user data.

9. Children

This app is not directed at children under 13 (under 14 in Korea) and does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

10. About the verdicts

Check results are for reference only and do not guarantee 100% safety. SafeScan is not an antivirus and does not remove malicious apps. Before entering personal or financial information, double-check in the official app.

11. Contact

Email: smartdaitso@gmail.com

12. Revision history

Date	Change
2026-09-15	First version (for v1.0.0)
2026-09-18	Added Favorites and QR Books (v1.1.0). Sections 2 and 7 now state that codes you save yourself are never deleted automatically. Nothing new leaves the device
2026-10-01	Section 3 now lists Google lookup usage counts (monthly numbers and response types, stored per anonymous ID). No addresses or results are sent
2026-10-20	Section 4 now lists the four data types the ads SDK collects automatically (approximate location, app interactions, diagnostics, device identifiers); section 6 corrected from "location" to "precise location"; section 3 now states that Firebase receives the IP address and that short-link checks may retry with GET (matching the Play Data safety answers and the app's actual behaviour). The app itself is unchanged