Privacy

V2 trials: consent and advertising

The iPhone app uses Google AdMob and Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) to show non-personalized ads in the FREE Scope Feed and collect privacy choices. TestFlight and App Review use Google test ads. An ad is not an ARKOSCOPE publication, source or analysis.

The advertising flow applies only to SCOPE FEED when FREE status is established and privacy conditions are met. Recognized monthly or annual PRO, including an accepted grace period, does not trigger advertising-engine startup or ad requests. While entitlement is undetermined, the Feed remains ad-free. Access to previous privacy choices may remain available after switching to PRO.

UMP updates choices and presents the applicable form. You can revisit your choices through the app’s advertising privacy option when available. Refusal, an error or the absence of an ad does not block the Feed. Withdrawing consent or switching to PRO removes ad cards and stops new requests; it cannot retroactively cancel an exchange already transmitted.

The integration aims to serve non-personalized ads, does not request ATT permission to improve advertising, and disables the SDK’s Publisher first-party ID and Publisher Privacy Personalization option. These settings do not mean that no advertising data is collected or processed. Google SDKs may process an IP address and approximate location, device identifiers depending on permissions and configuration, app and ad interactions, and performance and diagnostic data. Processing may support ad delivery and measurement, operation, security and service improvement. For the iPhone app, ARKOSCOPE adds no Firebase, separate analytics SDK or multi-network mediation; the Android app uses Firebase Cloud Messaging only for notifications (see “ARKOSCOPE for Android”). On iPhone, ARKOSCOPE does not request ATT permission, does not access the IDFA and does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites.

ARKOSCOPE does not provide Google with the ARKOSCOPE account identity, followed projects, PRO dossiers, a portfolio, private preferences or internal dossier URLs for targeting. Ads do not influence editorial rules and never become engine sources.

The iPhone integration selects Google Advertising Products as its advertising partner in UMP. This does not mean that no other parties participate in Google’s processing. See Google’s information about partner apps, privacy policy and advertising information. These describe processing, retention, transfers and choices offered by Google. ARKOSCOPE does not guarantee one retention period for all data processed by Google.

The app retains choices managed by UMP according to its operation, a local marker for finding previously used options, and a temporary in-memory ad cache. Withdrawing consent is not an automatic request to erase data already held by Google. ARKOSCOPE privacy requests can be sent to privacy@arkoscope.com; requests concerning Google use the methods in its policy.

An inappropriate ad can be reported through the controls provided with it or to ARKOSCOPE support. Do not include advertising identifiers, personal documents or financial information in a report.

Android. The Android app integrates the same Google Mobile Ads SDK and UMP. Since version 0.7 (23), the build intended for distribution includes an AdMob ad unit for a single slot in the FREE SCOPE FEED: ARKOSCOPE’s code first collects UMP privacy choices where required, then initialises advertising and requests an ad only when FREE status is established and those choices allow it. A recognised PRO subscription never initialises advertising and requests no ad. Until AdMob authorises full serving, ads may not be shown. Earlier builds request no consent and show no ad. Internal testing uses Google test ads. The SDK declares Android’s advertising ID permission (AD_ID) and the related advertising permissions. Depending on UMP’s decision for your region and your choices, ads are non-personalised, limited or personalised. The rules above on PRO, refusal and withdrawal apply in the same way.

This section describes the iPhone app’s advertising behavior. In the App Store version, eligible FREE users can see non-personalized Google ads in SCOPE FEED; VISION PRO remains ad-free. TestFlight and App Review use Google test ads. The app is currently off sale, so this information does not announce public availability.

ARKOSCOPE for Android

Status. The Android app is distributed through Google Play; its availability may be limited to certain countries or to testers. This section describes the Android app; the other sections describe the iPhone app unless they say otherwise.

Sign-in, account and sessions. Account-based features use Sign in with Apple in its web version; there is no Google sign-in. Android accounts are separate from iPhone accounts. ARKOSCOPE requests neither your name nor your email address from Apple and stores neither. The server stores the pseudonymous identifier supplied by Apple, the account creation date, sessions, session renewal families, sign-in attempts and single-use challenges, together with fingerprints of the device key. A session gives access for 30 days and can be renewed within a family that lasts at most 180 days. Sensitive requests require proof of possession of a key created in the device’s hardware-backed keystore; this key cannot be exported, and the server checks its attestation and the app’s signing certificate. Signing out asks the server to revoke the session family.

Google Play review sign-in. A separate sign-in with a username and password exists only for Google Play app review. These review accounts are created and controlled by ARKOSCOPE; users cannot create one. The server stores only salted hashes of their credentials, with the same session and device-key data as any Android account. In the app, a review account is deleted like any account (More → your account → Delete my ARKOSCOPE account).

On the device. The app stores your SCOPE GUARD choices and their notification settings, your notification and advertising consent choices (including the standard consent strings written by Google’s UMP), the app language and welcome state, a session file encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore, and device keys that cannot be exported. Temporary files created for sharing are deleted automatically. The session file is excluded from Android backup and from device-to-device transfer; other local settings may be included in a device transfer, depending on the device. “Forget my choices on this device”, in Settings, erases SCOPE GUARD choices and local notification preferences.

Google Play purchases. ARKOSCOPE VISION PRO is sold through Google Play Billing. Google Play processes payment, renewal and cancellation; ARKOSCOPE never receives your payment details. To grant and keep your access up to date, ARKOSCOPE’s server verifies your subscription with Google (Google Play Developer API) and receives Google Play real-time developer notifications about it. The subscription is linked to your ARKOSCOPE account. At purchase, the app passes Google Play a pseudonymous identifier generated by ARKOSCOPE for your account (obfuscated account identifier), so that the purchase can be linked to that account; it does not identify you to Google.

Notifications. The Android app includes Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) only to receive notifications. It includes neither Firebase Analytics nor any audience-measurement or crash-reporting tool, and sends no logs to ARKOSCOPE. Automatic initialisation is disabled: a notification token is created at Google only if you are signed in, accept notifications and grant Android’s notification permission. The token is then sent to ARKOSCOPE’s server with your notification settings (followed projects, alert level per project, language, time zone and quiet hours), whatever your plan, only to send you alerts about the projects you follow. Alerts are reserved for VISION PRO and are currently sent only within a limited pilot. Withdrawing your choice deletes the token at Google and, together with these settings, on ARKOSCOPE’s server.

Integrity checks. When the catalogue is loaded, the app requests a Google Play Integrity token. ARKOSCOPE’s server sends it to Google to decode it and checks that the app is the genuine version obtained from Google Play, on a genuine device; Google processes information about the app, the device and the Google Play licence under its own terms. The verdict is used only to grant access to the catalogue; it is not linked to your ARKOSCOPE account.

Advertising. See “V2 trials: consent and advertising”, Android paragraph.

Services contacted directly by the app. When SCOPE FEED opens, the app loads the Fear & Greed index directly from Alternative.me, which receives the device’s IP address and the standard request headers; no identity data is attached. When the Feed shows them, images and videos from X are loaded directly from X’s servers, which receive the device’s IP address and the standard request headers. The app never contacts CoinGecko: market data go through an ARKOSCOPE server.

Logs and retention. Cloudflare Workers logs are enabled on the Android account service: they record request and response metadata and the service’s decision, and Cloudflare keeps them for a few days. Retention periods for Android account data are not yet set: until they are, expired sessions and sign-in attempts remain stored until the account is deleted. There is no account export.

Account deletion. In the Android app: More → your account → Delete my ARKOSCOPE account. An Android account can also be deleted without the app from the account deletion page, after signing in with Apple; that page lists what is deleted and what is kept. Deleting the account does not cancel a Google Play subscription, does not revoke the Sign in with Apple authorisation and does not affect an iPhone account.