Privacy Policy

This English version is provided for convenience. In case of any discrepancy, the Portuguese (Brazil) version prevails.

Your privacy is a design principle of Veredas Reader. This Policy explains clearly which data is processed, by whom, for what purpose and how you can exercise your rights, in accordance with Brazil's General Data Protection Law (Law No. 13,709/2018 – LGPD) and the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Law No. 12,965/2014).

1. Who the controller is

The App is developed and made available by Torres Applications, the brand used by independent developer Maykow Roberto Lima Torres, based in Pernambuco, Brazil, who is the controller of any personal data processed through the App, under article 5, VI, of the LGPD.

2. In a few lines

3. What we do NOT collect (privacy by design)

The App was built to work locally. Torres Applications does not collect, transmit or store on servers:

• the files of your books, documents, comics, audiobooks or videos;
• your reading progress, bookmarks, highlights or quotes;
• your notes, comments, collections, tags or shelf organization;
• your reading preferences (theme, font, margins, language and the like).

All of this is saved in the App's local storage, inside your device, and only you have access to it. The usage statistics in section 7.2 include none of it.

4. File access and permissions

4.1. The App only searches for and opens files when you ask. For the on-device book search, you choose between: (a) allowing Android's all files access, in which case the App searches the device for the file types you selected (books, comics and audiobooks and, if you wish, PDFs); or (b) pointing to a single folder, and only that folder is examined. The search runs entirely on the device, only when you ask, and shows you the list it found so you can review it before importing anything. Nothing leaves the device, and there is no automatic or background scanning. You can revoke the permission at any time in Android settings.

4.2. Read aloud with the system voice. This mode uses your device's operating system speech engine. Depending on the manufacturer and the voice selected, some speech engines may process the text online, under the system provider's policies. If you prefer, choose a voice installed on the device or use the natural voice.

4.3. Read aloud with the natural voice (optional). The natural voice turns text into audio entirely on your device, using the Supertonic 3 voice model by Supertone Inc. The text being read and the generated audio are not sent to Torres Applications or to any third party.

To use the natural voice, you need to download the model (about 380 MB) once, and only if you want to, by tapping Download natural voice. The download first comes from an unmodified copy of the model's public files, kept by Torres Applications on Cloudflare's infrastructure (Cloudflare, Inc.); if that copy is unavailable, the download continues directly from Supertone's public repository on Hugging Face (huggingface.co).

As with any website visit, whoever delivers the files receives technical connection data, such as your IP address, device type and the date and time of access. Cloudflare processes it as a processor on behalf of Torres Applications, only to deliver the files and protect the service, and may keep technical records for a short period, under its policy: cloudflare.com/privacypolicy. Torres Applications does not use this data to identify anyone and does not link it to you. Hugging Face, when used, processes it as an independent controller under its own policy: huggingface.co/privacy. No data about you or your reading is sent in this download.

The model is kept in the App's local storage, separate from your reading data and outside the backup file. You can delete it at any time with the Remove option, under Listen or Settings. To pick the right pronunciation language, the App analyzes excerpts of the text on the device itself; this analysis is neither stored nor sent anywhere.

4.4. Notifications and listening with the screen locked (Veredas Premium). To keep reading aloud with the screen locked, while reading is on the App keeps an Android service running that shows a notification with the book title and Pause, Resume and Stop buttons. On Android 13 or later, the App asks once for the notification permission; if you refuse, reading still works, just without the buttons. All of this happens on the device and nothing is sent.

4.5. Store rating. After a few days of use, the App may ask whether you would like to rate it (at most once every 30 days, and never again after you rate it). If you accept, it simply opens the Veredas page on Google Play, where the rating follows Google's rules.

4.6. Date of first use (ad-free period). So that the 14-day ad-free welcome period applies only once, the App also stores the date it was first opened in Android's automatic backup, made by the system itself in your Google account. Only this date goes into that backup — no books, notes or any other data — and Torres Applications has no access to it. You can turn off automatic backup in Android settings.

4.7. Sunday reading reminder. If you turn this option on (it is offered only once and lives in Reading preferences › Reminders), the App schedules, on the device itself, one notification a week, on Sundays at 6 p.m., with the title of a book you started and have not finished yet. The scheduling is done by Android, with no server involved: no data leaves your device because of reminders. On Android 13 or newer, the system asks for your permission to show notifications. You can turn the reminder off at any time in the same option or in Android's notification settings.

5. Ads in the free version (Google AdMob)

5.1. To keep the App free, the free version shows — after the first 14 days of use, during which there are no ads — ads provided by Google AdMob, a Google service: banners on the shelf, in the reader and in the player, and optional rewarded videos, which you choose to watch to unlock, until you close the App, features such as read aloud, PDF optimization and PDF-to-EPUB conversion. Where the law requires it, Google's consent form appears before any ads, and the Ad privacy option in the menu lets you review your choice. To serve ads, measure them and prevent fraud, the AdMob SDK may automatically collect:

• the device advertising identifier (Advertising ID on Android, or IDFA on iOS when authorized). It is a code generated by the system that you can reset or disable, and it does not reveal your name or e-mail;
• ad interaction data, such as impressions and taps;
• technical device and network data: IP address (used for approximate location and security), connection type, manufacturer, model, language and operating system version.

5.2. Legal bases (article 7 of the LGPD). Personalized ads, based on interests, depend on your consent, which you may give or refuse and withdraw at any time. Non-personalized ads, based only on context and approximate location, rely on the legitimate interest in keeping the App free, while respecting your rights and expectations. Where the laws of your country require consent for any ad-related processing, consent will be requested.

5.3. Google acts as an independent controller of the data it collects through AdMob and processes it under its own privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy. Learn how Google uses data from partner apps at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

5.4. How to control ads. You can:

• reset or delete the advertising identifier in your system settings (on Android, under Settings > Google > Ads or Settings > Privacy > Ads, depending on the device; on iOS, under Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking);
• manage personalization at myadcenter.google.com;
• subscribe to Veredas Premium, which shows no ads.

6. Subscription and payments

Subscribing to Veredas Premium, paying, renewing and cancelling are handled entirely by the app store (Google Play). Torres Applications does not collect, access or store card numbers, tax IDs or bank details. The App only receives from the store a confirmation that the subscription is active, kept on the device and used solely to unlock the Premium features (no ads, listening with the screen locked and full-screen videos). Validation happens on the device: no purchase data is sent to Torres Applications servers.

7. Crash diagnostics and usage statistics

7.1. Crash diagnostics. App stores may automatically collect aggregated crash and performance reports (for example, device model, system version and where in the code the failure occurred), according to your device settings and the store's policies. These reports do not include the content of your books or notes and are used only to fix bugs.

7.2. Usage statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase). To understand how the App is used, fix problems and measure our promotion (for example, Google Ads campaigns), the App uses Google Analytics for Firebase, a Google service. It records events such as the first open, sessions and Premium purchases, plus a few of the App's own events: book imported or opened (only the file format, such as EPUB or PDF), read-aloud started (only the kind of voice), PDF converted (only the number of pages) and Premium subscription (only the plan's period). To do so, it may collect a random identifier of the App installation, the advertising identifier, the approximate location (derived from the IP address), the device model, the system version and the language. The title, author, text or content of your books, and your notes, are never sent. Torres Applications only sees aggregated reports. The legal basis is the legitimate interest in maintaining and improving the App (article 7, IX, of the LGPD); where the law requires consent, as in the European Union and the United Kingdom, your choice in Google's privacy form, shown on first launch, applies. Google processes this data under the Google Analytics Terms and its own privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy.

8. Data sharing

The App does not share your book files. What you can send to another app is a passage of up to 200 words, carrying the work's credit, or your backup file, which contains no books — in both cases on your own initiative and through your system's own sharing feature. Passage sharing is meant for study, criticism, review or private use, and responsibility for any misuse lies with whoever shares, under section 6 of the Terms of Use.

Torres Applications does not sell, rent or share personal data. The only data flows with third parties are those described in sections 4.3, 5, 6 and 7 (the optional natural voice download from Cloudflare or Hugging Face, Google AdMob, the app store, the store's crash diagnostics and Google Analytics for Firebase). Data may also be provided to authorities when required by law or court order.

9. International transfers

Google (including Google Analytics for Firebase), the app stores, Cloudflare and Hugging Face (for the optional natural voice download) may process data on servers outside Brazil. These transfers take place under the cases provided in article 33 of the LGPD and with the safeguards adopted by those providers.

10. Backup

10.1. The backup file is created on your device and handed to you. It is not sent to any Torres Applications server.

10.2. The backup contains your progress, marks, notes, shelf organization and cover thumbnails. It does not contain the books. The file is not encrypted: keep it as a personal document. When you send it by e-mail, cloud storage or another app, it also becomes subject to the privacy rules of the service you chose.

11. Security

Since your reading data stays on the device itself, its main protection is your device's. We recommend keeping the screen lock enabled and the system up to date. We take technical measures so that the App only accesses what you authorize and does not send your reading data off the device.

12. Retention and deletion

12.1. Reading data: stays on your device for as long as you want. You can delete books and notes in the App itself, and full removal happens when you clear the App's data or uninstall it.

12.2. AdMob data: kept by Google for the periods set out in Google's privacy policy.

12.3. Natural voice model: stays on your device until you remove it, clear the App's data or uninstall it. Technical data from the download is kept by Cloudflare and, when used, by Hugging Face, for the periods set out in their policies.

12.4. Usage statistics: data linked to the installation identifier is kept in Google Analytics for the configured retention period, of at most 14 months; aggregated reports, which identify no one, may be kept longer. The installation identifier is erased when you clear the App's data or uninstall it.

13. Your rights (article 18 of the LGPD)

At any time you may request: confirmation that processing takes place; access to the data; correction of incomplete or outdated data; anonymization, blocking or deletion of unnecessary data; portability; information about with whom data is shared; and withdrawal of consent. You may also object to processing based on legitimate interest.

In practice:

• Reading data: since it exists only on your device, you access, correct and delete it yourself in the App. Portability is provided by the Backup and restore feature, which exports your data to a file.
• Advertising data: use the controls in section 5.4 and Google's tools.
• Usage statistics: they are linked to a random installation identifier, not to your name. Clearing the App's data or uninstalling it creates a new identifier. You can also reset the advertising identifier as described in section 5.4.
• Any other request: write to torres.software.app@gmail.com. We will reply within the time limits set by the LGPD.

14. Users in the European Union, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom

If you are in the European Union or the European Economic Area, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679) also applies to you. In the United Kingdom, the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply. Torres Applications respects the rights these laws give you:

• Controller and contact: as stated in section 1, at torres.software.app@gmail.com.
• Legal bases (article 6 GDPR): consent for personalized ads and for the usage statistics in section 7.2, given in Google's privacy form shown on first launch and changeable at any time under Ad privacy in the menu; performance of a contract for the Veredas Premium subscription; and legitimate interests for non-personalized ads, security, fraud prevention and crash diagnostics.
• Your rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, portability, objection and withdrawal of consent at any time, without affecting processing carried out before it. Send your request to the e-mail above; we reply within one month, stating the measures taken or, where applicable, why we do not hold the data requested: Torres Applications keeps no user accounts and no servers with your reading data, which stays only on your device. Data processed by Google (ads and usage statistics) can also be managed with the Google tools listed in section 5.4.
• Complaints: you may lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of the EU or EEA country where you live or, in the United Kingdom, with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
• International transfers: Torres Applications is based in Brazil, and Google and the other providers named in this Policy may process data outside the EEA and the United Kingdom, with the safeguards they adopt, such as the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.
• Automated decisions: Torres Applications does not make decisions that produce legal effects concerning you based solely on automated processing.

15. Children and teenagers

The App is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from children. Use by children and teenagers should take place with the knowledge and supervision of their parents or guardians, as provided in article 14 of the LGPD.

16. Changes to this Policy

This Policy may be updated to reflect changes in the App or in the law. The date at the top shows the current version. Material changes, especially those involving new data processing, will be announced in the App before they take effect and, where necessary, your consent will be requested.

17. Language

This Policy may be made available in other languages for convenience. In case of any discrepancy, the Portuguese version prevails.

18. Contact

Questions or requests about privacy and data protection: torres.software.app@gmail.com