Privacy Policy — Markwhat
Summary
Markwhat is a free Markdown reader for Android. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions, no account, and no sign-up. You never give us your name, email address, phone number, or any other personal detail, because the app never asks for one.
Everything you do with your files — opening, reading, editing, organising, exporting to PDF — happens entirely on your device. The contents of your Markdown files are never uploaded to us or to anyone else.
The one thing that does leave your device is anonymous diagnostic data (crash reports and feature-usage counters) sent to Google Firebase, so we can fix bugs and understand which features matter. That data is not linked to your identity, and Section 3 lists every event we send. Section 3.4 explains how to stop it.
1. What this policy covers
This policy describes how the Markwhat Android application handles information. It applies to the app as distributed through Google Play.
It does not cover Google Play itself, or any other app you use to send or receive Markdown files (WhatsApp, Gmail, Google Drive, Telegram, and so on). Those services have their own privacy policies.
For data-protection purposes, the data controller / data fiduciary for the limited diagnostic data described in Section 3 is:
ANPB FirstPoint Technologies Private Limited
(trading as FirstPoint Studios)
Corporate Identity Number (CIN):U62011TS2026PTC217833
Registered office: H. No. 11-13-388, Rd No. 13, Alakapuri Colony, Ramakrishnapuram, Saroornagar, K.V. Rangareddy - 500035, Telangana, India
Email: support@firstpointstudios.com
Google acts as our processor for that data.
2. What Markwhat does on your device
Markwhat opens, indexes, renders, edits, and exports Markdown (.md) files that you have explicitly given it access to — either by opening a file through the Android share / "Open with" chooser, or by picking a folder through the Android Storage Access Framework (SAF).
All file reading, rendering, editing, and PDF export happens locally on your device. The contents of your files are never transmitted off the device by Markwhat.
2.1 What is stored locally
The app stores the following on your device only:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| An index of folders you granted access to (the SAF tree URI and the folder's display name) | So your library persists between launches |
An index of the .md files found in those folders (display name, size, modified time, source bucket) | So the Library tab can list them without re-scanning |
| Folders you create inside the app and which files you put in them | So your organisation persists |
| A "Recents" list of files you have opened (display name, size, source bucket, timestamp, starred flag) | So you can get back to a file quickly |
| Local snapshot copies of files opened from sources like WhatsApp or Gmail | Those apps revoke access to the original file shortly after you open it; the snapshot keeps the file readable in Markwhat afterwards |
| App preferences (theme, default open mode) | So the app looks and behaves the way you set it |
| PDFs you export, written to the app's cache directory before sharing | So the Android share sheet can hand the file to another app |
None of the above is transmitted to us. It lives in the app's private storage.
2.2 Deleting local data
You can remove this data at any time:
- Individual items — delete Recents entries in the app (this also deletes their local snapshots), or remove a tracked folder in Settings.
- Everything — uninstall Markwhat, or use Android Settings → Apps → Markwhat → Storage → Clear storage.
Uninstalling or clearing storage does not touch your original .md files. Those stay wherever they already live.
3. What Markwhat sends off your device
Markwhat includes two diagnostic services from Google's Firebase platform: Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics. They are the only reason the app uses the network at all. (Markwhat does not declare the INTERNET permission itself; it is added to the app by the Firebase SDK.)
Neither service ever receives the contents of your Markdown files.
3.1 Firebase Crashlytics — crash reporting
If the app crashes or hits an error, Crashlytics sends a report containing:
- the stack trace and exception details (which code path failed),
- device model, Android version, and available memory / storage state,
- the app version,
- a randomly generated installation identifier, and
- recent internal log lines the app recorded as warnings or errors.
Those log lines are fixed diagnostic strings written by us — for example "PDF export threw" or "Mermaid render 2/5 failed". We deliberately do not write filenames, folder names, or file contents into them.
One honest caveat: a crash report includes the underlying exception's own message, and in rare failure cases an Android system exception can embed the file path or content URI of the file being read or written. That path may contain a filename. We do not use this, we do not index or search on it, and it is discarded with the rest of the crash report at the end of the retention window — but we would rather tell you it can happen than claim an absolute we cannot guarantee.
3.2 Firebase Analytics — feature usage
Markwhat logs a small set of anonymous, event-level counters. This is the complete list of custom events the app sends:
| Event | What it carries |
|---|---|
file_opened | Source bucket (e.g. whatsapp, downloads) and a size band (tiny / small / medium / large / huge) |
intent_open | The URI authority that delivered the file (e.g. com_whatsapp_provider_media) — which app sent it, never the path |
save_to_folder | Whether the destination folder was newly created (true / false) |
folder_created | No parameters |
folder_tracked | No parameters |
pdf_export_started | Number of Mermaid diagrams in the document, and a size band |
pdf_export_completed | Duration in milliseconds, number of Mermaid diagrams |
pdf_export_failed | A truncated error reason string |
No filename, no folder name, no file path, and no file content is included in any of these events. Size bands are deliberately coarse so that a specific document cannot be recognised from its size.
Firebase Analytics also automatically collects a standard set of fields described at support.google.com/firebase/answer/6318039 — including approximate location (country or region, derived from IP address, not GPS), device model, operating system version, app version, and install source. It does not collect your name, email address, contacts, precise location, or anything you create with the app.
3.3 Identifiers, and why we don't claim "zero personal data"
We do not know who you are. We have no account system, so we hold no name, email, phone number, or profile.
However, we want to be precise rather than reassuring: Firebase assigns your installation a randomly generated identifier, and processes your IP address in order to derive an approximate country. Under the EU/UK GDPR and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, a pseudonymous device identifier and an IP address can count as personal data even though they do not name you. So rather than claiming we collect no personal data at all, we state plainly what we do collect:
- We collect no personal details from you, because we never ask for any.
- We do process pseudonymous, device-level diagnostic identifiers through Firebase, as described above.
- We make no attempt to link those identifiers to a real person, and we have no means to do so.
Advertising identifiers are explicitly disabled. Markwhat ships no ads and does no ad attribution. We actively strip the Android advertising-ID permissions that the Firebase SDK would otherwise add, and we disable ad-personalisation signals, ad user data, and advertising-ID collection in the app's configuration.
3.4 How to stop diagnostic data collection
Because the diagnostic data is anonymous, the reliable way to stop it is to uninstall Markwhat. Uninstalling ends all collection immediately.
Markwhat does not currently offer an in-app switch to disable diagnostics. We keep crash reporting and usage diagnostics enabled because they are how we find and fix bugs in an app that has no other feedback channel — no account, no telemetry tied to a user, and no way for us to reproduce a failure we cannot see. The trade-off we have made in exchange is strict data minimisation: no file contents, no filenames, no folder names, no advertising identifiers, and no profiling, as detailed above.
3.5 What we never do
- We never read, transmit, or store the contents of your Markdown files.
- We never transmit your filenames or folder names as data we collect, index, or analyse. (See the crash-report caveat in Section 3.1.)
- We never sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for their own purposes. We do not "sell" or "share" personal information as those terms are defined under US state privacy laws.
- We use no advertising network, no advertising SDK, and no tracking or profiling SDK other than the two Firebase services named above.
- We do not build user profiles, and we do not use your data to make automated decisions about you.
- We do not contact you. The app has no email-collection mechanism, no account system, no sign-in, and no push notifications.
4. Legal basis for processing
EEA / UK (GDPR). We rely on our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in keeping Markwhat stable and improving it — specifically, diagnosing crashes and understanding which features are used. We have limited that processing to anonymous, event-level data with no file contents, no filenames, and no identity, which we consider proportionate and minimally intrusive. You have the right to object at any time; because we cannot identify you, the effective way to exercise that objection is to uninstall the app (see Section 3.4).
India (DPDP Act, 2023). ANPB FirstPoint Technologies Private Limited is an Indian company and a Data Fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. This policy serves as the notice of the purposes for which the diagnostic data in Section 3 is processed: application stability, crash diagnosis, and feature-usage measurement, and nothing else. We process no personal details, and we retain nothing that identifies you. Grievances may be raised under Section 10 below.
Elsewhere. Where local law requires a different basis, we process this data to provide and maintain the app you have chosen to install, and for no other purpose.
5. Data sharing, storage, and international transfers
The only third party that receives Markwhat data is Google, through the Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics services, acting as our data processor. Google's handling of that data is governed by the Firebase Data Processing and Security Terms and Google's Privacy Policy at policies.google.com/privacy.
Firebase processes and stores data on Google's servers, which may be located outside your country, including in the United States. Where such transfers involve personal data from the EEA or UK, Google relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and its own supplementary safeguards.
Beyond Google, we share nothing with anyone, except where we are legally compelled to do so by a valid legal request — noting that, given what we hold, there is nothing that would identify a user to disclose.
6. Retention
- Local data on your device — kept until you delete it, clear the app's storage, or uninstall the app. We have no ability to delete it remotely.
- Crash reports — retained by Firebase Crashlytics for approximately 90 days, then deleted automatically.
- Analytics events — retained for the window configured in our Firebase project, which does not exceed the Firebase maximum of 14 months. Aggregated, non-identifying statistics (such as total install or crash-free-user counts) may be retained longer.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal data, to withdraw consent, to data portability, and to lodge a complaint with your data protection authority.
We want to be straightforward about what this means in practice for an app like Markwhat:
- Everything meaningful is already in your hands. Your files, your library, your recents, and your preferences are on your device. You can view, change, or delete them yourself at any time, and we cannot see any of it.
- For the diagnostic data, we hold no key that connects it to you. We have no account, no email address, and no identifier you could quote to us. That means we are generally unable to locate "your" records in order to produce or delete them individually — not as a policy choice, but because the data was collected without any link to your identity in the first place.
- Stopping future collection is immediate and entirely under your control — uninstall the app (Section 3.4).
If you still wish to make a request, contact us at the address in Section 10 and we will do what is technically possible and tell you honestly where the limits are. We will respond within one month, as required under the GDPR.
8. Permissions
Markwhat requests no runtime permissions at all — no storage permission, no camera, no contacts, no location.
Access to your files goes entirely through the Android Storage Access Framework. You explicitly select a file or a folder using the system picker, and the app receives access only to exactly what you selected, and nothing else. You can revoke a tracked folder from within the app's Settings at any time.
9. Children
Markwhat is a general-purpose utility. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 (or under 16 where local law sets a higher threshold).
The app contains no ads, no in-app purchases, no user-generated-content feed, no chat, and no social features, and it collects no personal details from anyone. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, contact us at the address in Section 10 and we will act on it.
10. Contact
Questions about this policy, or about how Markwhat handles data:
- Email: support@firstpointstudios.com
- Entity: ANPB FirstPoint Technologies Private Limited (trading as FirstPoint Studios)
- CIN:
U62011TS2026PTC217833 - Registered office: H. No. 11-13-388, Rd No. 13, Alakapuri Colony, Ramakrishnapuram, Saroornagar, K.V. Rangareddy - 500035, Telangana, India
Grievance redressal (India). If you are in India and wish to raise a grievance under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, email support@firstpointstudios.com with "DPDP Grievance" in the subject line. We will acknowledge within 7 working days and resolve within the timelines prescribed under the Act.
We aim to respond to all privacy questions within 7 working days, and in all cases within the one-month period required by the GDPR.
11. Changes to this policy
If we update this policy, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top. Material changes — anything that expands what we collect or how it is used — will additionally be flagged in the app's release notes for the version that introduces the change.
Continuing to use Markwhat after a policy update means you accept the updated policy. If you do not accept it, uninstall the app.