Applies to: GIF Widget for Android (com.veloxapp.gifwidget)
Provided by: VELOX APP LTD (company no. 17186614), 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
1. Who we are
GIF Widget ("the app") is developed and published on Google Play by VELOX APP LTD ("we", "us"), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17186614, with its registered office at 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom.
This policy covers the GIF Widget Android app only. Our company privacy policy covers this website and emails you send us. For any privacy question, contact [email protected].
2. Summary
- The app has no account or sign-in.
- The GIFs and videos you choose are processed and stored only on your device and are never uploaded to us or anyone else.
- The app uses Google Firebase to count a few anonymous in-app events, to receive crash reports, and to fetch our support contact details. No file names, images, videos or personal details are sent.
- The free version shows ads, served by Unity LevelPlay and its partner ad networks, which may use your device's advertising ID. Pro removes all ads. See section 6.
- We do not sell your data or share it with anyone for their own purposes.
- The optional Pro purchase is handled entirely by Google Play.
3. GIFs and videos you choose
You choose a file with Android's own file picker, or by sharing a GIF or video to the app from another app. Android then gives the app access to that one file only. The app does not ask for permission to read your photo library, and it cannot see your other files.
The app reads the file, turns it into a series of still frames in the size and shape you pick, and saves those frames together with your widget settings in the app's private storage on your device. Your home screen uses these frames to play the widget, including after the phone restarts. The original file is not changed or copied elsewhere, and neither the file nor its frames are sent anywhere.
Animations you prepare but never place on your home screen are deleted automatically once they are more than a day old. The frames of a widget are deleted when you remove that widget from your home screen.
4. Widget settings and tap actions
For each widget, the app stores your settings on your device, including what happens when you tap it. If you choose to open another app, the app stores that app's name and package name. If you choose to open a website, it stores the web address you typed.
To let you pick an app, the app asks Android for the list of apps on your phone that can be opened from the home screen. This list is only shown to you in the picker. It is not stored apart from the one app you choose, and it never leaves your device.
When you tap a widget set to open a website, or the help link to dontkillmyapp.com inside the app, the page opens in your web browser. That website's own privacy policy then applies.
5. Usage statistics and crash reports (Google Firebase)
The app uses three Google Firebase services. Google processes this data on our behalf, as our processor, under the Firebase data processing terms and the Google Privacy Policy. The data is sent over an encrypted connection.
Firebase Analytics counts how the app is used, so we can see what works and decide on pricing. The app itself records only these events:
- Widget added: whether it was added from the app or from the home screen's widget list, and how many widgets you have.
- Widget removed: how many hours the widget had been on your home screen.
- Pro screen shown: why it opened (for example, the free widget limit was reached, High quality was chosen, or you opened it yourself).
- Contact button used: whether you chose WhatsApp or email, and from which screen.
Firebase Analytics also records some events automatically: app installs, sessions, your country, and in-app purchase events (which product was bought and its price). These come with general technical details such as the device model, Android version and app version, and a random app-instance ID created by Firebase. That ID is not linked to your name, Google account or any other personal details. Analytics data is kept for 2 months and then deleted.
Firebase Crashlytics receives a report when the app crashes, so we can fix the problem. A report contains technical details such as your device model, Android version, app version and the stack trace (the place in the app's code where the crash happened).
Firebase Remote Config fetches our current support contact details (the WhatsApp number and email address used by the contact buttons), so we can change them without an app update.
No file names, images, videos, frames, web addresses or personal details are sent to Firebase. Firebase does not use the advertising ID, and its ad personalisation, ad user data and ad storage settings are all switched off. The ads described in section 6 are separate from Firebase. Test (debug) builds of the app send nothing to Firebase.
6. Advertising (free version)
Free users see a banner ad under the list of their widgets and can choose to watch a short rewarded video ad to add one more widget. Pro users see no ads, and the advertising software is not started for them. Ads never appear on the widgets themselves.
Ads are provided through Unity LevelPlay (Unity Technologies and ironSource) and the ad networks it works with, currently Unity Ads and ironSource Ads. To show and measure ads, prevent fraud and limit how often an ad appears, these companies collect, and may share with their partners: your device's advertising ID, your IP address (and the approximate location derived from it), device and app information, ad interactions and diagnostics. They act under their own privacy policies, for example Unity's privacy policy. We give them no content of your files and no account data, because there is none.
Your choices. Where the law requires it (the EEA, the UK and some US states) the app first shows a Google consent form, and ads are requested only as you allow. You can change that choice at any time under Help > Privacy options (shown where required). You can also reset your advertising ID or opt out of ad personalisation in Android's Settings > Privacy > Ads. Buying Pro stops all ads and the advertising software.
7. Purchases
GIF Widget Pro is an optional one-time in-app purchase made through Google Play Billing. Google processes the payment and your Google account details under the Google Privacy Policy. We never receive your payment card details.
The app asks Google Play whether you own Pro, confirms a new purchase with Google Play, and saves a single yes/no value on your device so Pro works offline. The app learns only whether you own Pro.
Google gives us order records for sales in Google Play Console, such as the order number, date, product, price and country. We use these only for accounting, refunds and our legal obligations, and keep them for as long as UK law requires financial records to be kept (usually 6 years).
8. Contacting us from the app
The app has buttons to contact us by WhatsApp (+447700183931) or by email ([email protected]). They do nothing until you tap one. The button then opens WhatsApp or your own email app with a pre-filled message that includes the app version, your device model, your Android version and whether you have Pro, so we can help you faster. You can edit the message before you send it, and nothing reaches us unless you send it.
Chats on WhatsApp are also covered by WhatsApp's (Meta's) privacy policy, and emails by your email provider's policy. We use your messages only to answer you, as described in our company privacy policy.
9. Information from Google Play
Like every app developer on Google Play, we can see statistics that Google provides in Google Play Console, such as the number of installs and, if you have chosen to share usage and diagnostics data with Google, crash and performance reports. Google collects this data under the Google Privacy Policy. The statistics are aggregated or do not identify you to us, and we use them only to fix problems and improve the app.
The app may occasionally show Google Play's in-app review card, and remembers on your device when it last did. A rating or review you leave there is handled by Google Play. Reviews on Google Play are public, and we may reply to them there.
10. Permissions
The app does not request access to your photos, camera, microphone, location, contacts or phone. It uses the internet permission for the Google services and ad networks described above, the Google Play Billing permission for purchases, and, in the free version, the advertising ID permission (and the related Android ad-services permissions) that the ad software uses.
11. Backups
The app's data is excluded from Android cloud backups and from device-to-device transfers. It stays on the device where you created it.
12. Deleting your data
- One widget: remove the widget from your home screen. Its frames and settings are deleted.
- Everything on your phone: uninstall the app, or go to Android Settings › Apps › GIF Widget › Storage › Clear storage. All data the app has saved is deleted.
- Usage statistics: analytics data is deleted automatically after 2 months. Uninstalling the app stops any more data being sent.
- Purchases: your Pro purchase is recorded by Google against your Google account, so you can restore it on a new phone. Google's order records are managed by Google, and the order records we receive are kept as described in section 7.
The usage statistics and crash reports we receive through Firebase do not include your name or contact details. If you have a question about your data, or about an order, email [email protected].
13. Security
Everything the app saves is kept in its private storage on your device, which Android protects from other apps. Data sent to Google Firebase and Google Play is encrypted in transit.
14. Children
The app is not directed at children under 13. It does not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, including children. It is not part of Google Play's Designed for Families programme, and the ad software is told that the user is not a child.
15. Your rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to access, correct or delete personal data we hold about you, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable format. Email [email protected] and we will respond within one month. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
16. Changes to this policy
If the app's handling of data changes, we will update this policy and its effective date before releasing that version of the app.
17. Contact
VELOX APP LTD
128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]