Privacy Policy

Smriti ("we", "our", or "us") is a private reading app, built by NeoArka. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices you have when you use the Smriti mobile app and related services. This policy covers the Smriti app specifically — see NeoArka's website Privacy Policy for the neoarka.com site itself.

Summary

• We collect only what Smriti needs to work: your library, reading sessions, the notes you save, and — if you create one — your account details.
• PDF and EPUB files you open in Smriti stay on your device. We never upload them.
• We do not sell your data, show ads, or use third-party analytics or advertising trackers.
• All data is encrypted in transit, and you can delete your account and data at any time from inside the app.

Information We Collect

Information stored on our servers:

• Account information: if you sign up with email, your name, email address, and a hashed password. If you sign in with Google, your name, email address, and Google account identifier (see Google Sign-In).
• Reading data: books in your library, shelves, reading progress, pages read, and reading sessions (start and end times, pages covered). Your reading streak and Reading Garden are calculated from these sessions.
• Notes and contexts: quotes, concepts, principles, questions, and other content you choose to save — including highlights you choose to save as contexts.
• Companion conversations: messages you send to the in-app reading companion and the AI-generated replies.
• Device identifier: a randomly generated ID created by the app (not a hardware or advertising ID), used for guest mode and for moving your data into an account if you sign up.
• Subscription information: your plan and subscription status. Payments are handled entirely by Google Play — we do not receive or store your card or payment details.
• Technical data: information needed to operate and secure the service, such as IP address, request times, and error logs.

Information that stays on your device and is never sent to us:

• Imported documents: PDF and EPUB files you open in the in-app reader, along with your reading position within them.
• Highlights and annotations: highlights and notes you make inside a document, until you choose to save one as a context.
• Preferences: theme, reader settings (font, layout, zoom), and Reading Garden scene settings.

How We Use Information

• Provide core app features: library management, progress tracking, the reading journal, streaks, the Reading Garden, and context capture.
• Authenticate your account, keep you signed in securely, and make your data available across devices.
• Send transactional emails, such as sign-up verification codes and password reset links. We do not send marketing emails.
• Power the optional AI reading companion and suggest contexts from your conversations for you to review.
• Look up book details and covers when you search for or add a book.
• Check your subscription status and apply plan limits.
• Maintain, secure, and improve the app and backend services, and prevent abuse.

We do not use your reading data, notes, or conversations for advertising, and we do not use them to train AI models.

AI Reading Companion

The companion is optional. When you use it, your message is sent to our AI provider to generate a reply, together with the context needed for a useful answer:

• During a reading session: the book's title and author, and recent messages in that conversation.
• In the library companion: a short summary of your library (book titles and authors by shelf) and titles or excerpts of your recently saved contexts, so suggestions reflect what you actually read.

When a session ends, your conversation may be analyzed to suggest contexts. Suggestions are never saved unless you choose to keep them. The contents of imported PDF or EPUB files are not sent to the companion.

Google Sign-In

If you choose "Continue with Google", Google shares your name, email address, and Google account identifier with us. We use this only to create and sign in to your Smriti account. We do not request access to your Google Drive, contacts, or any other Google data, and our use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Guest Mode

You can use Smriti without creating an account. In guest mode, your library, sessions, and notes are stored on our servers under the random device identifier described above, so they are saved between launches. Guest data is not linked to your name or email. If you later create an account, your guest data is moved into it.

How We Share Information

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We share it only with service providers that process it on our behalf to run Smriti, and only as needed for that purpose:

• Hosting and network: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure hosts our API servers, and Cloudflare sits in front of them to provide encryption and protection against abuse.
• Database: MongoDB Atlas stores account and reading data.
• AI processing: Groq processes companion messages and generates context suggestions.
• Email delivery: Resend delivers verification codes and password reset emails.
• Sign-in: Google, if you choose to sign in with Google.
• Book information: Open Library and Google Books are queried with your book searches (search terms or ISBNs only — no personal information) to return titles, authors, and covers.
• Billing: Google Play Billing handles subscription purchases and management.

We may also disclose information if required by law, to enforce our Terms of Service, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or others.

International Data Transfers

Our service providers may process and store your information in countries other than your own. Wherever your information is processed, we take steps to protect it consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Permissions and Device Storage

• Files: Smriti opens a PDF or EPUB only when you pick one using Android's system file picker. It does not request broad access to your storage and cannot see other files on your device.
• Microphone: voice input for the companion uses your device's speech recognition service where supported. Speech may be processed by that platform service (for example, Google) under its own privacy terms; Smriti receives only the resulting text.
• Local storage: the app stores sign-in tokens, preferences, a cached copy of your plan, and imported documents in its private app storage on your device.

Data Retention

We retain your information while your account is active or while you continue using guest mode. You can permanently delete your account and all associated server data at any time, either in-app (Profile → Delete Account / Delete My Data) or via email request — see Delete Your Data for details. Deletion is immediate for in-app requests and completed within 30 days for email requests. Documents and highlights stored only on your device can be removed from the book in the app, by clearing the app's storage, or by uninstalling Smriti.

Security

We protect your information with encryption in transit (HTTPS), hashed passwords, short-lived sign-in tokens that can be revoked, and rate limiting on sign-in and other sensitive endpoints. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your data and will notify you as required by law if a breach affects it.

Your Rights and Choices

• Use Smriti in guest mode without creating an account.
• Use the AI companion only if you want to — every other feature works without it.
• Create an account to access your data across devices.
• Delete your account and data in-app at any time, or contact us to access, correct, export, or delete your information — see Delete Your Data.

Depending on where you live (for example, under the GDPR or India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act), you may have additional rights, such as objecting to processing or lodging a complaint with a data protection authority. Contact us and we will respond within the time required by applicable law.

Children's Privacy

Smriti is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your country), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example when we add new features. We will revise the "Last updated" date when changes are posted and, for material changes, take reasonable steps to let you know.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact NeoArka at support@neoarka.com.