---
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title: "Privacy Policy | The Podcast App"
description: "Privacy information for The Podcast App covering account, sync, purchases, and Brain features."
source_url: "https://thepodcastapp.dev/privacy"
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markdown_url: "https://thepodcastapp.dev/privacy.md"
language: "en"
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# Privacy Policy | The Podcast App

# Privacy Policy for The Podcast App

Covers account, sync, purchases, and Brain features for The Podcast App.

## 1. Who We Are

**Magnolia Apps** 
 Email: support@thepodcastapp.dev

## 2. Data We Collect

### Account and app data

- Email address and display profile details, if provided.
- Account user ID used for sign-in, synchronization, and permitted product measurement.
- Podcast subscriptions, listening history, playback positions, queue, and favorites.
- Premium status and subscription state.
- Diagnostic information used to identify and fix software defects.

### Device and security data

- Device tokens for delivering push notifications.
- App installation and non-advertising device identifiers used for app functionality, security, and permitted product measurement.
- Firebase App Check attestations and anti-abuse signals.
- Device model, operating-system version, app version, locale, and other diagnostic context.

### Purchase data

- Store transaction receipts, product IDs, timestamps, and expiration state.
- Verification metadata produced by our backend validation workflow.

### AI feature data

- Episode metadata including title, description, podcast name, chapters, and duration.
- Transcript text available from feeds or generated in app workflows.
- Your AI chat prompts and AI responses.
- Audio URL references for AI transcription generation.

### Shared transcript cache note

When a transcript is generated with our primary Gemini 3 Flash transcription path, it may be stored in a shared cache keyed to episode or audio identity, not your account identity, so other users can reuse it and reduce duplicate processing.

### Product measurement and diagnostics

First-party product measurement is default-disabled. At session start, our server returns only `allowed` , `gated` , or `unknown` after a transient network-region check; it does not return or persist a country. Collection is enabled only for `allowed` . Offline, unknown, malformed, or service-failure results leave collection disabled.

- When allowed, user ID, app/device ID, purchase history, product interactions, and other diagnostic data are linked to the account or app installation for app functionality and product analysis.
- Product events may include categorical feature or error codes, screen or action names, counts, durations, and length metrics. They do not include raw search queries, prompts, text, email addresses, error messages, exceptions, stacks, tokens, URLs, or request/response bodies.
- Crash reports are used only to diagnose app failures. They are not linked to the account and may contain technical crash details such as a stack trace and device/app context. The Crashlytics SDK's automatic collection is disabled. The app retains reports locally at first, keeps them across sessions whose region is not yet resolved, sends eligible queued reports only after a later allowed session, and deletes them when a session resolves to a consent-required region.

We do not use this information for advertising, ad measurement, data brokerage, or tracking across other companies' apps or websites.

## 3. How We Use Data

- Provide core playback, synchronization, account, and subscription functionality.
- Deliver AI summaries, key moments, transcript generation, and episode chat.
- Improve recommendation quality and product reliability.
- Detect abuse and unauthorized use.
- Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.

## 4. Service Providers

- **Google Firebase** for authentication, Firestore, Cloud Functions, push delivery, first-party product measurement, crash reporting, and backend infrastructure.
- **Google AI (Gemini API)** for summaries, transcript generation, and chat responses.
- **Apple App Store / StoreKit** and **Google Play Billing** for subscriptions and receipt validation.
- **Google Sign-In** and **Sign in with Apple** for optional account sign-in.
- **Podcast discovery providers** such as Podcast Index and Apple Podcasts fallback APIs.

Processor privacy links: [Firebase](https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy) , [Google](https://policies.google.com/privacy) , [Apple](https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/) , [Podcast Index](https://podcastindex.org/privacy) .

## 5. Recommendations

Recommendation features use your in-app activity (the podcasts you subscribe to and the episodes you play) to surface relevant content inside the app. You can adjust recommendation behavior in app settings.

## 6. Data Retention

- Account and sync data: retained until account deletion.
- Recommendation data: up to 90 days unless a shorter operational window applies.
- AI transcript, summary, and chat artifacts: generally up to 180 days.
- Shared transcript cache entries: generally up to 180 days.
- Purchase verification records: retained per store and compliance requirements, typically up to 1 year.
- Product measurement and diagnostic records: retained under our configured provider retention settings; unsent crash reports are retained across sessions whose region is not yet resolved and deleted when a session resolves to a consent-required region.

## 7. Data Storage and Transfers

- Local app data is stored on-device.
- Cloud data is stored in Firebase and Google Cloud infrastructure.
- Data may be processed outside your country, including outside the EU/EEA where permitted with appropriate safeguards.

## 8. Your Rights and Choices

- Access, correction, export, and deletion requests.
- Delete account in-app or via [/delete-account](https://thepodcastapp.dev/delete-account) .
- Manage notification preferences in app settings.
- Contact us at support@thepodcastapp.dev for privacy requests.

## 9. Security

- Transport encryption using HTTPS/TLS.
- Authentication and access controls for cloud data.
- App integrity and anti-abuse safeguards.
- Reasonable administrative and technical protections.

No internet transmission or storage system is 100% secure.

## 10. Children

The app is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.

## 11. Changes to this Policy

We may update this policy. Material updates will be reflected by a new last-updated date and may be announced in-app.

## 12. Contact

Questions or privacy requests: support@thepodcastapp.dev

## Sources and further reading

- [Apple Podcasts](https://www.apple.com/apple-podcasts/) Apple's official podcasts app/platform homepage
- [Spotify](https://www.spotify.com/) Spotify homepage (podcasts + music listening)
- [Pocket Casts](https://pocketcasts.com/) Cross-platform podcast player (Automattic)
- [Podcast Index](https://podcastindex.org/) Open, independent podcast index and API
- [Listen Notes](https://www.listennotes.com/) Podcast search engine and API
- [Edison Research](https://www.edisonresearch.com/) Leading US audio/podcast audience research firm
- [Podnews](https://podnews.net/) Daily global podcast-industry news of record
- [The Podcast Academy (The Ambies)](https://www.thepodcastacademy.com/) Membership body behind the Ambies awards

## Your Questions, Answered

### Do I need an account to use The Podcast App?

No. The app works fully offline without an account, so you can subscribe, queue, download, and listen without signing in. Optional sign-in with Google or Apple enables cross-device sync of your subscriptions, queue, and playback progress. If you do provide an email or profile details, they're used for sign-in and sync, not sold or shared for advertising.

### Does The Podcast App sell my data or track me across other apps?

No. The privacy policy states data is not used for advertising, ad measurement, data brokerage, or tracking across other companies' apps and websites. First-party product measurement is default-disabled and only enabled when a server-side, region-based check returns an explicit allowed result. Offline, unknown, or failed checks leave measurement off, so the default posture is not to collect.

### What happens to my transcripts and AI chat data?

AI features may process episode metadata, transcript text, and your chat prompts and responses through the Google Gemini API to produce summaries and answers. Transcripts made with the primary Gemini path can be stored in a shared cache keyed to the episode, not your account, so other users can reuse them. AI transcript, summary, and chat artifacts are generally retained up to 180 days.

### How do I delete my account and data?

You can delete your account directly in the app or through the /delete-account page on the site. Account and sync data are retained until deletion. You can also request access, correction, or export of your data, and manage notification preferences in settings. For any privacy request, contact support@thepodcastapp.dev, the address listed throughout the policy.

### Are crash reports linked to my identity?

No. Crash reports are used only to diagnose app failures and are not linked to your account, though they may contain technical details like a stack trace and device and app context. The Crashlytics SDK's automatic collection is disabled; reports are held locally, kept across sessions whose region isn't yet resolved, and deleted when a session resolves to a consent-required region.

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