PDF Squeeze has no account and no way to identify you. Every document you compress or scan is processed on your phone and is never uploaded. The app does record anonymous counts of which features are used, so that it can be improved, and that can be switched off in Settings. Both are described in full below.
What changed in version 4.0
Earlier versions of this app requested no internet permission at all. That was a stronger statement than any policy, because there was nothing to take on trust: the app could not have sent anything anywhere even if it had wanted to.
Version 4.0 requests INTERNET, for the anonymous usage counts
described below and for nothing else. This is worth stating plainly rather
than burying, because it is a real change and you are entitled to weigh it.
What has not changed is the part that matters most: your documents
are still processed entirely on your device, and there is still no code
anywhere in this app that uploads a file.
Version 4.0 also added a document scanner, which is why the app now requests the camera.
Your documents
PDFs, images and scans are handled entirely on your phone. Specifically, the app:
- reads only the file you pick through Android's system file picker, or one you open or share into the app;
- writes the result only where you choose to put it;
- keeps a temporary working copy in the app's own private cache, which Android clears on its own.
No document is uploaded, copied elsewhere, or seen by anyone but you. No filename, no page content, and no file size ever forms part of the usage counts described below.
The scanner and the camera
The app requests CAMERA so it can photograph a document. It
is asked for the first time you open the scanner, not at install, and
declining leaves the rest of the app working normally.
Finding the edges of a page, correcting its perspective and cropping it are done by Google's on-device document scanner, a component of Google Play services already present on most Android phones. It runs on your device. Pages are handed to it and handed straight back; nothing is uploaded to Google, and Google Play services operates under Google's own privacy policy. On devices where that component is unavailable, the app falls back to its own camera screen, which uses the permission directly.
Everything after that point — the filters, the black-and-white conversion, the compression, the PDF itself — is this app's own code running on your phone.
Anonymous usage counts
The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase to record how it is used. What is recorded is limited to which features are opened and completed: which compression quality was chosen, whether black and white was used, whether a scan was finished or abandoned, which filter was picked. It exists to answer questions like which features are worth improving and which are never touched.
What is never recorded: any filename, any file size, anything from inside a document, any image, your name, your email address, your phone number, or your contacts. There is no account to attach anything to, because the app has none.
Firebase does assign a randomly generated identifier to the installation, and derives an approximate region from the IP address of the request. That identifier is not your advertising ID, is not shared with advertisers, and is destroyed when you uninstall the app. The app does not use it to build a profile, and there is nothing in it that could be traced back to a person.
The advertising ID is switched off deliberately and at two levels: the permission the analytics library would otherwise add is removed from the app before it is built, and ad-personalisation signals are disabled in the app's configuration. This data is processed by Google on our behalf under Firebase's privacy terms. We do not sell it, share it with advertisers, or use it for advertising of any kind.
You can switch this off. Open Settings in the app and turn off Count Which Features Are Used. With it off, the app records nothing and sends nothing: collection is stopped at the Firebase library itself rather than merely at the point the app would have reported something, and the installation identifier and anything held behind it are discarded. It takes effect immediately, not at the next launch. Uninstalling also stops it completely.
What stays on your device
The app keeps a few small preferences in its own private storage area, readable only by this app:
- Your theme choice and whether the app should reopen with the settings you used last time.
- The compression method, quality and black-and-white choice you last used.
- A local tally of the same feature counts described above, kept so the app can behave sensibly — for example, so it asks for a rating once and never again.
- Whether you have the usage counts switched on.
The local tally stays on the phone whether the usage counts are switched on or off; switching them off stops anything leaving the device, which is a separate thing from the phone keeping a note for itself. None of this is personal information, and uninstalling removes all of it.
Permissions
The app requests three, and no others.
INTERNETandACCESS_NETWORK_STATE— for the anonymous usage counts, and nothing else.CAMERA— for the scanner's fallback capture screen, asked for when you first open the scanner.
There is no storage permission. Files come in through Android's system picker and go out through the system saver or the media store, both of which only ever grant access to the specific file involved, never blanket access to your storage. The app does not request contacts, location, or phone state.
Sharing and exporting
The app can hand a compressed PDF, a scanned image, or a scanned PDF to Android's standard share sheet. Nothing is transmitted by the app itself: you choose the destination, and whichever app you pick handles it from there under its own privacy policy.
Links to our website and to the Play listing are handed to your browser or to the Play Store app in the same way, using a standard Android intent.
Children
The app is a general-purpose document tool, suitable for any age and rated accordingly on Google Play. It is not directed at children, and it collects no personal information from anyone of any age. The usage counts described above are anonymous, carry no identity, and are not used to build a profile or to target advertising.
Changes
If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted on this page with a new date above, and any new collection will be described here before the release that introduces it, not after.
Version 4.0 added the document scanner, the camera permission, and the anonymous usage counts with the setting to switch them off. Versions before 4.0 requested no permissions and collected nothing.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or to raise a privacy concern:
moneyclaritytech@gmail.com
We aim to reply to privacy enquiries within 30 days.