PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy outlines how HeyKu Studio ("we," "us," or "our") collect, use, and disclose your personal information when you use any of our mobile applications available on the Google Play Store (collectively, the "Apps") and related services. It also explains your privacy rights and the legal protections afforded to you. We are committed to safeguarding the personal information of our users and their contacts.
By using any of our Apps or services, you consent to the collection, use, sharing, and processing of your personal information as described in this policy. We use your personal data to enhance and deliver our services effectively.
PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED
Types of Data Collected:
Personal Information User Provide
Account Information (Google Sign-In): When you choose to sign in with Google to unlock features such as Print Share, we collect and store an internal user identifier, together with the account email address, display name, and profile photo URL returned by Google. Signing in is optional; core printing and scanning features work without an account.
User Content (Print Share): When you use the Print Share feature to send a print job to another device, the file you select (documents, PDFs, images) is uploaded to our cloud storage so the receiving device can download and print it. We also store the group name, invite code, member list, and print request status required to coordinate the share.
Push Notification Token: We collect and store the push notification token of your device so that we can notify you when a new Print Share request arrives, when a request status changes, or when a group member takes action. The token is refreshed and deleted along with your account.
Contact Correspondence: If you contact us for support, we retain the message content and any information you voluntarily provide in it to respond to your request.
Information Collected Automatically
Device Data: We collect data about the device you use to access our services, including IP address, device model, operating system, screen resolution, mobile carrier, time zone settings, network type, and identifiers for advertising (GAID for Android).
Cookies: Our services utilize cookies to collect information to enhance user experience, understand user engagement and improve our services.
Data Obtained from Third Parties
Google Firebase (Cloud Backend): We use Google's Firebase platform as our cloud backend to handle sign-in, store Print Share data and files, deliver push notifications, run crash reporting, and manage configuration. Data described in the sections above is processed under Google's data protection commitments.
Firebase Analytics: Used to collect aggregated and anonymized analytics data about user interactions with the app, as well as subscription-related events, for the purpose of understanding usage patterns and improving app performance. Firebase Analytics does not collect information that directly identifies individual users.
Facebook SDK: Used to measure and analyze the performance of advertising campaigns and to understand how users interact with our ads. Data collected is processed in accordance with Facebook's privacy policies and applicable data protection laws.
Adjust: Used to track and attribute advertising performance, as well as subscription-related events, to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and optimize user acquisition efforts.
Other Sources: Data about you may also be collected from publicly available sources to further enhance our services and customer understanding.
YOUR CONSENT AND USAGE PERSONAL INFORMATION
Granting Consent:
By registering or creating a profile on our platform, you explicitly agree to our processing of your personal data as detailed in this Privacy Policy.
How We Utilize Your Information:
We use the personal information collected to:
Enhance Service Delivery: Provide and maintain the quality of our services.
Personalize Experience: Tailor content and advertisements to better match your interests and improve your overall service experience.
Manage Your Account: Support the management of your service usage, enabling access to various functionalities as a registered user.
Communicate: Contact you with updates, security alerts, and promotional messages through email or other forms of communication.
Security and Fraud Prevention: To detect, prevent, and address fraud, security risks, and other malicious or illegal activity.
Legal Compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, and governmental requests.
Enforcing Terms: To enforce our Terms of Use and other policies.
Analytical Use and Compliance:
We analyze anonymized or aggregated data to enhance our services and ensure compliance with legal requirements, aiding in the prevention of fraud and illegal activities.
Advertisements and Analytics:
Third-party analytics may be used to understand service usage patterns and improve service delivery. These analytics are derived from data collected through cookies and similar technologies, which do not contain personally identifiable information.
Cookies:
Cookies are utilized to understand user interactions and store preferences related to your service use. You can manage these settings to adjust your privacy preferences.
Your Privacy Rights:
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications and can manage, access, or modify your personal data, except where retained for legitimate business or legal reasons.
Policy Updates:
This Privacy Policy is subject to updates, which will be reflected in the revised document available on our platform. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued engagement with our services after such updates constitutes your acceptance of the terms.
By using our services, you confirm that you understand and agree to the terms set out in this Privacy Policy, ensuring a secure and transparent user experience.
SHARING AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We do not share your data with other companies, organizations and individuals unless one of the following circumstances applies:
Sharing with your Consent:
We do not share your personal information with third parties without your explicit consent. Where consent is required for sharing specific data, we will seek this consent separately.
Legal Compliance and Protection of Rights:
We may disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
Comply with a legal obligation, subpoena, court order, or other valid legal process.
Protect and defend our rights or property.
Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service.
Protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public.
Protect against legal liability.
Service Providers and Partners:
We may share only the minimum personal information necessary with third parties to provide, improve, promote, and protect our services. These include:
Service Providers: We may share Personal Data with third-party vendors, consultants, and other service providers who perform services on our behalf (e.g., cloud hosting, data storage, payment processing (e.g., Google Play Billing), customer support, analytics (e.g., Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics), marketing, and advertising (e.g., Google AdMob). These service providers are contractually obligated to protect your data, and are granted access only to the information necessary to perform their functions. They are prohibited from using your personal information for other purposes.
Business Partners: We may share limited data such as: Contact details and demographic information, … with our business partners with whom we collaborate to provide you the best services or promotional offers. This is only done with your explicit consent and is strictly controlled under confidentiality agreements, ensuring compliance with privacy laws and limiting use to the agreed purposes.
Business Transfers:
If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, sale of company assets, or transition of service to another provider, your Personal Data may be shared or transferred as part of such a transaction, subject to standard confidentiality arrangements.
Public Interactions:
If you engage in activities on public areas of our services, your information can be seen by others and may be read, collected, or used by them. You are advised to exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information in these areas.
Cookies:
We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interactions. This helps us offer better site experiences and tools in the future. You may manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings.
PRINT SHARE FEATURE
Print Share lets you send a print job from your device to a group of trusted devices you have joined (for example, a home or office print group). To make this possible we process the following data:
Files You Upload: The document, PDF, or image you select to send is uploaded to our cloud storage under an isolated path bound to the group. Only members of the group can request its download URL. Files are removed by our cleanup routine once the request reaches a terminal state (completed, cancelled, or expired).
Group and Member Data: Group name, invite code, member identifiers, and role are stored in our cloud database so the app can enforce access rules and display membership.
Print Request Metadata: Title, sender/receiver UID, printer target, status, and timestamps are stored so both ends can track the request.
Local Thumbnails: A small preview of the file may be generated on-device and stored with the request to help the receiver identify what they are about to print.
You can leave a group, delete a request, or delete your account at any time from within the app; the associated files and metadata will be removed subject to legal retention obligations.
APP-SPECIFIC PERMISSIONS
The main Permissions used by Printly - Smart Printer are described below.
Permission: android.permission.INTERNET
This permission allows the application to access the internet for essential app functionality including discovering and communicating with network printers, synchronizing shared print requests through cloud services, verifying in-app purchases, displaying ads in the free version, and reporting crash analytics to improve app stability. No personal documents or user files are transmitted to our servers without your explicit action to share or print them.
Permission: android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
This permission allows the application to check the current Wi-Fi connection state so that the app can determine whether a compatible network is available for discovering and connecting to Wi-Fi printers via the eSCL protocol. No Wi-Fi credentials are collected or transmitted.
Permission: android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE
This permission allows the application to enable multicast and manage Wi-Fi connections necessary for printer discovery on the local network. This is used only during active printer setup and discovery flows.
Permission: android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_MULTICAST_STATE
This permission allows the application to receive multicast/mDNS packets required to discover printers advertised on the local network. It is enabled only during printer discovery and disabled when discovery ends.
Permission: android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
This permission allows the application to detect network connectivity changes so that print jobs and share requests can be queued when the network is unavailable and resumed automatically when connectivity is restored.
Permission: android.permission.CAMERA
This permission allows the application to access the device's camera so that users can scan physical documents, capture pages for OCR text extraction, and photograph content to be printed. The camera is used only when the user actively initiates a scan or capture action. No images are captured or stored without the user's explicit action.
Permission: android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT / BLUETOOTH_SCAN / BLUETOOTH / BLUETOOTH_ADMIN
These permissions allow the application to discover and pair with nearby Bluetooth thermal printers so that users can send print jobs over Bluetooth. Bluetooth scanning is only active during printer setup, and no data other than the print payload the user submits is transmitted to the paired printer.
Permission: android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION / ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
These permissions are required by the Android platform in order for Bluetooth scanning to return nearby printers on Android 11 and below. The app does not use location for tracking, does not store location data, and does not transmit location information to any server.
Permission: android.hardware.usb.host
This feature allows the application to communicate with USB thermal printers connected directly to the device via USB OTG. USB access is only requested when the user chooses to send a print job to a connected USB printer, and the OS displays a standard permission dialog for each USB device.
Permission: android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS
This permission allows the application to display notifications for print progress, shared print request status, and successful completion of scan or print operations. Users may disable notifications at any time through system settings.
Permission: android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE
This permission allows the application to run a foreground service so that long-running print jobs, document conversion, and shared print synchronization can complete reliably when the user switches to another app. A visible notification is displayed whenever the service is active, ensuring full transparency.
Permission: android.permission.USE_BIOMETRIC
This permission allows the application to use the device biometric authentication (fingerprint or face unlock) to protect sensitive features such as digital signing of PDF documents. The biometric prompt is handled entirely by the Android system; the app never receives or stores your biometric data.
Permission: android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (Android 12 and below)
This permission allows the application to read documents, PDFs, images, and Office files stored on the device so that users can select files to print, scan, or edit. The app only accesses files that the user explicitly selects through the file picker and does not scan or index storage in the background.
Permission: android.permission.READ_MEDIA_IMAGES
This permission allows the application to read image files on Android 13 and above so that users can select photos to print or use as source material for scanning and editing. Only images the user explicitly picks are accessed.
Permission: com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID
This permission allows the application to access the device's advertising identifier for the purpose of serving relevant ads in the free version of the app. The advertising ID is used solely for ad personalization and analytics. Users can reset or opt out of personalized ads through their device settings. No personally identifiable information is collected.
Permission: com.android.vending.BILLING
This permission allows the application to communicate with the Google Play billing service so that users can purchase the premium version of the app to unlock additional features and remove ads. This permission is required for processing in-app purchases securely through Google Play and does not access any financial information directly.
These permissions are essential for the app to function properly and are strictly used in accordance with Google Play's regulations to ensure a secure, efficient, and user-respecting operation. The app prioritizes user rights and privacy, implementing these permissions to enhance user experience without compromising privacy and security.
INFORMATION SECURITY AND TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
International Data Transfers:
Your personal information may be transferred to and processed in countries outside of your country of residence, including where our servers are located or where our service providers operate. These countries may have data protection laws that are different from those in your jurisdiction.
We take appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information remains protected according to the security standards outlined in this Privacy Policy, regardless of where it is processed. This includes implementing strong contractual arrangements (such as Standard Contractual Clauses) and security measures to protect your data during international transfers.
Safeguarding Measures:
We implement strong contractual arrangements and security measures to protect your data when it is transferred internationally. This includes using encryption, secure data transfer protocols, and ensuring that all data handlers comply with our data protection and privacy standards.
Data Security Practices:
To protect your personal information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse, we employ a variety of security technologies and procedures. These include encryption, firewalls, and access controls that restrict who can access your data and how it is used. Our security measures are designed to provide a level of protection that matches or exceeds industry standards.
Handling Data Risks:
While we endeavor to secure your data, the transmission of information over the internet can never be guaranteed to be completely secure. We encourage you to take precautions to protect your personal information when using digital services, including monitoring your account settings and access privileges.
Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process, including encrypting data at rest and in transit, access controls, and secure development practices. However, please note that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Data Retention And Deletion
We retain your Personal Data only for as long as necessary for the purposes stated in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).
Account Information: We generally retain your account information for as long as your account remains active.
User-Generated Content and Usage Data: We retain user-generated content (such as scans, converted documents, shared print requests) and usage data for as long as necessary to provide the services you use or for legitimate business purposes, unless you request earlier deletion.
Other Data: Other types of data are retained for periods necessary to fulfill the purposes for which they were collected.
When your account is deleted or upon receiving a valid data deletion request, we will securely delete or anonymize your Personal Data according to our internal procedures and applicable law, subject to any legal obligations or legitimate business needs (e.g., fraud prevention, dispute resolution) requiring us to retain certain information. Please note that residual copies may take some time to be fully removed from backup systems.
Correcting and Updating Your Information:
You have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information. If your personal data changes, or if you no longer wish to use our service, you may correct, update, or remove the information by making a direct request to us.
ACCESSING AND UPDATING PERSONAL INFORMATION
Your Rights to Access and Control Personal Data:
You have the right to access, review, and manage your personal data stored by us. Under applicable laws, you can request information about the data we hold on you, as well as request updates, corrections, or deletions of any inaccuracies.
How to Manage Your Information:
You can exercise your data protection rights through several options:
Update and Correct: Directly modify your personal details via your account settings.
Privacy Controls: Adjust settings to manage the use of your data, including opting out of targeted advertising and managing communication preferences.
Limitations on Access:
In certain circumstances, as permitted or required by law, your ability to access or control your personal data may be limited. The scope of access may also vary by the specific services and products you utilize.
Processing Requests:
We endeavor to promptly fulfill requests to access or modify personal information. You can initiate these requests through the contact options available on our platform.
Additional Support:
If certain personal data cannot be accessed or controlled via our standard tools or if you have specific inquiries regarding your data rights, please reach out to us directly for assistance.
Transparency and Accountability:
We regularly review and report on the requests we receive to access or control personal data, ensuring transparency and accountability in our data handling practices.
MINORS
Data Collection and Consent:
Our Service is not intended for use by children under the age of 13 (or a higher age threshold if required by applicable law in your jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under this age without verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from a child without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers promptly. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us.
Parental Rights:
Parents or guardians have the right to review, manage, and delete their child's information. We provide tools and support to facilitate these actions.
Revoking Consent:
At any time, parents or guardians can revoke their consent and request the deletion of their child's information from our systems.
Reporting Issues:
For issues regarding the protection of minors' data, please contact us immediately.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may revise our Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or service offerings. When updates are made, we will notify you by sending an email and/or displaying a prominent notice on our service. Additionally, we will update the 'Last updated' date at the top of the Privacy Policy, which can be viewed on this page.
For significant changes, we may also send a push notification directly through the service.
We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed of how we are protecting the personal information we collect. Continued use of the service after any updates signifies your agreement to the revised policy.
CONTACT
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or wish to make a request regarding certain personal information, you are encouraged to contact us. The contact information is:
HeyKu Studio
heyku.studio@gmail.com