🗞️ NewsQ – Daily Local News

Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 18, 2026  |  Effective: June 18, 2026  |  Package: com.newsq.news

1. Introduction

NewsQ – Daily Local News ("we", "us", or "our") is an individual developer project that provides a personalised local news service through the NewsQ mobile application (com.newsq.news) on the Google Play Store and the website newsqapp.com.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, with whom we share it, and the choices you have. By using NewsQ, you agree to this policy. This policy applies to the NewsQ mobile application only.

2. Information We Collect

a) Information you provide directly

b) Information collected automatically

3. How We Use Your Information

4. Personalised Advertising — Google AdMob

⚠️ NewsQ displays personalised advertisements powered by Google AdMob. AdMob uses your Android Advertising ID and app usage data to show you ads relevant to your interests. Ad revenue helps us keep NewsQ free for all users.

Google AdMob collects and uses the following for advertising:

Google's advertising practices are governed by the Google Privacy Policy and Google AdMob Partner Guidelines.

How to opt out of personalised ads:

Even after opting out, you will still see non-personalised ads in NewsQ.

5. Content Moderation — Google Cloud Vision AI

When you submit images or videos for publishing, the media is automatically checked using Google Cloud Vision AI for illegal, harmful, or policy-violating content (explicit material, violence, hate content) before publication. Content flagged as violating our policy is automatically rejected. You can view rejected content and the reason in the Rejected News section of the app.

Google Cloud's data practices: Google Cloud Privacy Notice.

6. AI-Enhanced Content — Google Gemini

📌 Important: When you publish a news article, the title and description you submit are automatically sent to Google Gemini AI to enhance, expand, and improve the readability and attractiveness of your content. The AI-enhanced version is what gets displayed to other users. Your original submission is retained on our servers. By publishing content on NewsQ, you consent to this AI processing.

Google Gemini's data practices: Google Privacy Policy.

7. Mobile Number Verification — 2Factor.in

When you set up your profile to publish news, your mobile number is verified via OTP using 2Factor.in. Your phone number is used solely for identity verification and is not shared with advertisers or used for marketing.

8. Third-Party Services

ServicePurposeData SharedPrivacy Policy
Google AdMob Personalised advertising Advertising ID, device info, usage data View
Google Sign-In (Firebase Auth) Account authentication Name, email, profile picture View
Firebase Cloud Messaging Push notifications Device token View
Firebase Crashlytics Crash reporting Crash logs, device info View
Google Cloud Storage Storing news images and videos Uploaded media files View
Google Cloud Vision AI Automated content moderation User-submitted images and videos View
Google Gemini AI AI content enhancement Published news title and description View
Google Play Services In-app reviews and app updates App usage metadata View
2Factor.in Mobile OTP verification Mobile phone number View
AWS EC2 Backend API hosting News feed data, user preferences View

We do not sell your personal information to any third party.

9. Data Sharing

10. News Feed Personalisation and Lazy Loading

Your news feed is personalised based on your manually selected location (state, district, constituency) and language preferences. The feed uses lazy loading (pagination) — news loads in batches as you scroll. Your scroll behaviour and reading patterns are used to fetch the next batch of personalised content from our server. A location-specific splash screen image is shown when you open the app.

11. User-Published Content

12. Authentication and Account

NewsQ uses Google Sign-In (Firebase Authentication) as the only login method. We do not use passwords for authentication. Profile information including username and mobile number is stored on our secure AWS EC2 backend server.

13. App Updates and Reviews

NewsQ may display an optional app update card when a new version is available, and an optional in-app review prompt after a certain number of swipes. Both are completely dismissible — no action is required from you.

14. Data Retention & Account Deletion

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. You can delete your account at any time directly within the app:

Go to Menu → Delete Account, then confirm.

Deleting your account permanently removes your personal data from our systems, including your profile information, saved preferences, comments, and any content you submitted. This action cannot be undone.

If you are unable to access the app, you can also request account deletion by emailing us at newsqadmin@gmail.com. We will process deletion requests within 30 days.

Please note that we may retain certain limited information where required for legal, security, or fraud-prevention purposes, or in anonymized/aggregated form that no longer identifies you.

15. Children's Privacy

NewsQ is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. We configure Google AdMob to serve non-personalised ads only for users identified as minors, in compliance with COPPA and Google's Families Policy.

16. Data Security

No method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

17. Your Rights

Contact us at newsqadmin@gmail.com to exercise any of these rights.

18. Applicable Law

NewsQ is operated from India and serves users in India. This Privacy Policy is governed by the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act).

19. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you by updating the "Last updated" date above and where appropriate via an in-app notification. Continued use of NewsQ after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

20. Contact Us