Privacy Policy - Soundica
Operated by Soundica. Effective 2026-09-24. Version 1.4.
This is the general privacy policy for Soundica, an independent studio publishing voice-first apps for phones and Android Automotive. It describes the privacy practices that apply across every app Soundica publishes. Each individual app also has its own privacy policy with details specific to that app (data sources, regional notes, regulator references); the per-app policies take precedence over this general document where they differ.
1. Scope
This policy applies to soundica.app and to every mobile and Automotive application published by Soundica, including (current line-up): K-Pop Today, Bollywood Today, Anime Brief, Tinh Tú, Hype ID, KPop Tropic, Shayari Today, Flying Hathi, Sparrow Sprint, Classic Serenade, Podlingo, Podlingo Asia, Podlingo India, Quietide, Circuitly, Tickerly, Tomecast, Calmink, and Soundica FM.
2. Our general practice
Soundica apps are designed to work without a user account, without sign-in, and without tracking identifiers. Across all apps:
- No accounts. We do not require you to sign up, log in, or provide an email address.
- No advertising identifiers. We do not read the Android Advertising ID.
- No third-party analytics or crash-reporting SDKs by default. If a future version of any app adds optional analytics, you will be asked for consent first.
- No sensitive runtime permissions. Our apps do not request contacts, location, microphone, camera, SMS, or call-log access.
- Text-to-speech. On phones, tablets, and Android Automotive, read-aloud audio is produced by the TextToSpeech engine installed on your device; we never receive the text or the audio, although the engine vendor may synthesise on its own servers under its own privacy policy. On Appning by FORVIA head units, which have no speech engine, narration of public headlines is pre-generated on our servers and streamed as audio files. No user data is involved in either case.
- Local settings only. In-app preferences (reading speed, autoplay and read-aloud toggles, selected category or language, one-time hint flags, appearance mode, and, on head units, the selected country or market) are stored in the app's private local storage and never leave your device.
3. Data processed when you use an app
Even though we do not collect personal data, ordinary use of any internet-connected app involves limited processing at the transport layer:
- Content requests. When an app refreshes its content it sends a request to our backend (hosted on Cloudflare Workers, with media files on Cloudflare R2 object storage). The request contains only: the content category, a generic app User-Agent, and (inevitably) your device's public IP address. We do not store IP addresses or request logs beyond what Cloudflare retains for short-lived security and abuse-prevention purposes.
- Images and thumbnails. When you view a thumbnail, your device fetches the image from the original publisher's CDN. Publisher CDNs may log the image fetch under their own privacy policies. Soundica does not relay or store article pictures; see the image-lookup and publisher-logo notes below.
- Article image lookup (phone version). Many publisher feeds do not include a picture. To find one, the phone version of the App sends the web addresses of the articles currently on screen to a Soundica image-lookup service (a Cloudflare Worker at img.soundica.app). The service fetches the article's public page, reads its standard preview-image tag, and returns the picture's address; where a headline was discovered through Google News, the service first resolves the Google News link to the publisher's own address. The request contains only the article addresses, a generic app User-Agent, and your device's public IP address at the transport layer. No account, device identifier, or reading history is attached, and nothing ties a request to you. Resolved picture addresses are cached on the service for up to 30 days, keyed by the article address only; tracking parameters (utm, fbclid, gclid and similar) are stripped before caching. The image itself is still downloaded by your device directly from the publisher's CDN; Soundica does not relay or store the picture. The Android Automotive and FORVIA head-unit versions do not use this service.
- Publisher logos. Most publisher logos are bundled inside the App. Where a logo is not bundled, the App may request it from a Soundica logo service (img.soundica.app), which fetches the publisher's publicly available site icon, caches it on Soundica's edge network for up to 30 days, and serves it to the App. The request contains only the publisher's website address, never your identity, location, or reading history. Logos are shown unmodified and solely to identify the source of a headline.
- Narration on FORVIA head units. The Appning by FORVIA head-unit version has no on-device speech engine. For that version only, Soundica pre-generates spoken audio of the public headlines and summaries on its servers and stores the audio files on Cloudflare R2 object storage; the App streams them like any other media file. This audio is generated from publisher content, not from anything you say or type, and the request carries only the file name, a generic app User-Agent, and your device's public IP address at the transport layer.
- Crash logs. If an app crashes, Android's platform-level crash mechanism may store a crash trace locally. Soundica does not receive crash reports automatically.
The soundica.app website
- No cookies or trackers. The website sets no cookies, uses no analytics, and stores nothing in your browser.
- Hosting. The website is served through Cloudflare. As with any website, your browser's request (including your public IP address) passes through Cloudflare, which may keep short-lived logs for security and abuse prevention.
- Web fonts. The website loads its typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser contacts Google's servers when a page opens. Google processes that request under its own privacy policy.
- Contact form. If you use the contact form, the name, email address, subject and message you enter are sent through FormSubmit (formsubmit.co), a form-delivery service, which forwards them to Soundica by email. We use this information only to reply to you and keep it only as long as the conversation needs, after which it is deleted. You can instead write to
admin@soundica.app directly.
4. Legal basis (EU/UK GDPR)
Under GDPR Art. 6(1)(b), the limited processing described above is necessary to deliver the service you have asked for (showing content, reading it aloud, playing a game). Messages sent through the website contact form are processed so we can answer your request (Art. 6(1)(b)) or, for business enquiries, on the basis of our legitimate interest in responding (Art. 6(1)(f)). No consent banner is required because we do not set tracking cookies, do not use the data for profiling, and do not share it with advertising partners.
5. Data retention
The apps do not store personal data on our servers, so there is nothing to retain from app use. The only personal data Soundica holds is what you choose to send through the website contact form or by email, kept only as long as needed to handle your message. Cached content on the edge is keyed by source URL only and never by user. Local settings stay on your device until you uninstall the app.
6. International transfers
Our backend runs on Cloudflare's global edge network. Requests are served from the geographically nearest Cloudflare data centre, which may be outside your home region. Because no personal data is stored, no Standard Contractual Clauses or transfer impact assessments are needed for the apps themselves.
7. Your rights
Depending on your jurisdiction, you have the right to access, correct, erase, restrict, object to processing, and request portability of your personal data under laws including the EU/UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), Canada's PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25, the Korean Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Japan's APPI, Singapore PDPA, India's DPDP Act 2023, and the Australian Privacy Act.
Since Soundica does not hold any personal data about you in the first place, requests to access or delete will usually be answered with "we have no data linked to you." You always have the unconditional right to delete any Soundica app from your device, which removes all locally-stored settings.
To exercise these rights, contact Soundica at admin@soundica.app. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.
8. Children
Soundica apps are not directed to children under 13 (under 16 in some EU member states, under 14 in Korea). We do not knowingly collect information from children.
9. Third-party content
Headlines, thumbnails, summaries and other content displayed in Soundica apps are retrieved from publicly available RSS feeds and public APIs published by independent outlets. The list of sources varies per app. See each app's own privacy policy for the specific source list. Soundica does not host or embed publisher websites; only the headline and a short attributed snippet are shown inside the apps. Where an app offers a link to the full story, tapping it opens the publisher's own website in your device's browser, at which point that publisher's own privacy policy applies.
10. Security
All network traffic between our apps and our backend is encrypted with TLS (HTTPS). Clear-text traffic is blocked at the OS level via an Android Network Security Configuration. Each app requests only the minimum permissions needed (Internet access, foreground-service playback for audio apps, optional notifications). One exception applies to the audio apps that stream from the Internet Archive (archive.org): because some archive.org media addresses still redirect to plain HTTP, those apps permit unencrypted connections to archive.org and its subdomains only. This affects only public-domain or Creative Commons media files; no personal data is carried on those connections. The phone version may ask for notification permission at first launch so playback controls can be shown in the notification shade; you can decline, and the App works without it.
11. Per-app privacy policies
For details specific to each app (including its content sources, regional regulator references, and grievance-officer contacts where applicable), see the app's own privacy policy:
12. Changes
If this policy changes materially, we will update the "Effective" date here and, where required by law, prompt you in-app.
13. Contact
Soundica: admin@soundica.app