Torrent Stream Privacy Policy

1. What this policy covers

This policy applies to the Torrent Stream app for Android (package name com.inceptionapps.torrentstream). This website has its own privacy notice.

2. No account, no identity

You do not register, sign in, or give us a name, e-mail address or phone number to use Torrent Stream. We do not run a server that receives your torrents, your downloaded files or your library. The only identifiers involved are the ones Google’s services use: a random app instance ID for Firebase (section 6) and, on the free plan, your device’s advertising ID (section 7).

3. What the app stores on your phone

All of the following is kept on your phone. None of it is sent to us.

• Torrents you add — the torrent itself, its name and its file list, and which files you chose to download.
• Downloaded files — by default in Download/Torrent Stream, where your file manager and other apps can open them and where they stay if you remove the app. If you choose App storage in Settings, they are private to Torrent Stream and removed with it.
• Torrent state and resume data — progress, mode and what is already downloaded, so a download continues where it stopped.
• Settings — download rules, stream buffer, notifications, theme, language and default tab.
• Favourites you mark in your library.
• Small prompt counters that keep questions such as the rating question from being repeated.

4. BitTorrent: what trackers and peers see

To download and share, Torrent Stream uses the BitTorrent protocol, as every BitTorrent client does. That means direct connections between your phone and others, without us in between:

• Trackers and the DHT. The app asks the trackers named in a torrent, and the DHT (a network run by other BitTorrent users), for peers. They receive your IP address and the torrent’s info hash, the identifier of the torrent you take part in.
• Other peers connect to your phone and exchange pieces with it. They see your IP address, the torrent you take part in and which pieces you have. Anyone taking part in the same torrent can see this while you do.
• Web seeds, HTTP servers named in a torrent, are contacted directly to fetch pieces and see your IP address.
• Seeding. While a torrent downloads, and afterwards while Seed after download is on, the app uploads pieces of it to other peers. You can turn seeding off in Settings, or stop it for one torrent.

Anonymous mode hides the client’s name and version from peers; it does not hide your IP address. A VPN hides your IP address from peers and trackers. VPN-only mode (Premium) pauses downloads when your VPN disconnects, so they do not continue without it.

Trackers, peers and web seeds are run by others. We do not choose or control them.

5. Other players and casting to a TV

To play a video while it downloads, the app runs a small stream server on your phone. When you choose Open with, another video player on the phone gets a local stream link from it. When you cast to a TV (Premium), your Cast device fetches the video from your phone over your local network. Nothing passes through our servers.

6. Analytics, crash reports and app settings

The app uses three Google Firebase services. Google processes this data for us.

Never sent to Firebase: torrent or file names, magnet links, info hashes, file paths, or anything else that says what you download or watch.

Consent (EEA and UK). Analytics storage is used only if you agree in Google’s consent form. Until then, and if you decline, Google’s Consent Mode sends only cookieless pings without identifiers. Outside the EEA and the UK, analytics is on.

Debug and test builds of the app send nothing to Firebase. How Google handles this data is described in the Firebase privacy information.

7. Advertising, consent and the advertising ID

On the free plan, Torrent Stream shows ads supplied by Google AdMob: a banner in the library, full-screen ads between playback segments and when the app opens, and an optional rewarded video you can watch to turn ads off for a while (2 hours by default).

To serve ads, Google uses your device’s advertising ID and device information. The advertising ID is a resettable identifier kept by Android, not by us. You can reset or delete it in Android settings at any time.

Consent (EEA and UK). Before the ads SDK starts, the app runs Google’s consent form (User Messaging Platform). Where consent is required, the form asks first, and ads are requested only once a valid choice exists. Your choice is saved in the app’s own storage; clearing the app’s data clears it, and the form asks again.

The app does not pass your torrents, files or library to the ads SDK. What Google does with ad requests is governed by Google’s own policies, linked above.

Premium subscribers see no ads, and the ads SDK is not started for them.

8. Subscription and payments

Torrent Stream Premium is a monthly or yearly subscription sold through Google Play.

We never see your payment details. Buying, renewing and cancelling happen in Google Play, and the app only learns whether a subscription is active. We keep no purchase records on a server of our own. Google Analytics records Google Play purchases by itself, without payment details. Restore purchases on the More screen asks Google Play again.

9. Ratings, sharing and writing to us

Everything in this section happens only when you choose it.

• Rating. After you add a torrent, the app may ask “Enjoying Torrent Stream?”. With 4 or 5 stars, Google Play’s own review card opens, and what you write there goes to Google Play under your Google account. With 1 to 3 stars, the app offers Write to us. The number of stars is recorded as an analytics event (section 6).
• Write to us opens your own e-mail app with a message that already contains the app version, phone model, Android version, language and plan. You can edit or delete those lines, and nothing is sent unless you send it. When you write, we receive your message and your e-mail address and use them only to answer you.
• Share opens Android’s share sheet with a link to the app on Google Play. You choose where it goes.

10. Permissions and why they are asked for

Internet

To download and share torrents, stream to other players and to a TV, and reach the Google services above.

Network and Wi-Fi state

To apply Download on Wi-Fi only and VPN-only mode, and to pause downloads when the connection drops.

Wake lock and a foreground service

To keep downloading with the screen off. The service is of the data sync type and shows the downloads notification while torrents are active.

Notifications

For download progress and for the “ready to watch” and “finished” alerts. Optional; you can turn each one off in Settings.

Storage, on Android 8 to 10 only

To save files into Download/Torrent Stream. On Android 11 and newer the app does this without a storage permission.

Ignore battery optimisation

Asked once, with an explanation, so Android does not stop downloads while the phone sleeps. Optional.

Added by Google’s libraries

Google’s libraries declare the advertising ID and Android’s ad services permissions (AdMob and Analytics), Google Play billing (the subscription) and the Google Play install referrer (Analytics).

Not requested at all

Torrent Stream does not ask for your location, camera, microphone, contacts, calendar, phone, SMS or photo library.

11. Device backups

Torrent Stream turns off Android’s app-data backup, so its library, torrent state and settings are not included in the backup to your Google account. Files saved in Download/Torrent Stream are ordinary files in your phone’s storage, outside the app.

12. What we do not do

• We do not run a server that receives your torrents, your files or your library.
• We do not send torrent or file names, links, info hashes or file paths to analytics, crash reports or advertising.
• We do not host, index, link to or recommend any content.
• We do not sell or rent your personal data.
• We do not require an account, and we do not build a profile about you.

13. Children

Torrent Stream is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal data in an e-mail, please contact us and we will delete it.

14. How long data is kept

• On your phone — until you delete it. Delete a torrent (with or without its files) in the app, or clear the app’s data or uninstall it to remove everything the app stored.
• Google Analytics — event data is kept for a limited time, at most 14 months.
• Crashlytics — crash reports are kept for 90 days.
• E-mails you send us — as long as we need them to answer you.

Full instructions, including how to ask about the analytics data, are on the data deletion page.

15. Changes to this policy

When the app starts using a new service or sending new data, this policy changes before that version reaches you, and the date at the top of the page changes with it.

16. Contact

For any privacy question or request about Torrent Stream, use the contact page or write to inceptionapplication@gmail.com. We aim to answer within 30 days.