WavCast Privacy Policy

Who we are

WavCast is made by JC Mobile App Studio LLC, a one-person studio based in Pennsylvania, USA. We are the operator of the app and are responsible for the data described here. "We" and "us" in this policy mean JC Mobile App Studio LLC. You can reach us at [email protected].

Short version

• WavCast has no accounts. We never ask for your name, email, or phone number.
• We do not run first-party analytics. We do not track which screens you view, what you play, or how long you listen.
• Your library lives on your device. Cloud sync is off until you turn it on. On iPhone it uses your own private iCloud. On Android it uses a Google Firebase database that we operate, under a random key that is not tied to your name or Google account.
• The free version shows Google AdMob ads (banners, full-screen ads between actions, and an ad when the app opens). Any paid option, Remove Ads or WavCast Plus, turns AdMob off.
• AdMob may use your advertising ID for personalized ads only where you allow it: App Tracking Transparency on iPhone, Google's consent form and ad settings on Android.
• Some features send limited data to third parties so they can work: search terms to Podcast Index and Radio-Browser, your chosen city to Google News, coordinates to Apple or Google when you tap Detect My City, and Apple Intelligence requests to Apple's Private Cloud Compute on iOS 27.
• We never sell your personal information.
• You can delete what WavCast holds. See Delete your data below.

What we receive vs. what third parties receive

Data that reaches us (systems we operate):

• Android cloud sync (only if you turn it on). Your synced library is stored in a Google Cloud Firestore database in a Firebase project we operate. Details are in Cloud sync below. Google runs the infrastructure under the Firebase privacy terms.
• Shared episode and station links. When you share an episode or station, WavCast creates a link on our website (jcmobileappstudio.com/apps/wavcast/...). The link contains the episode or station ID, the timestamp, the episode and show title, and the publisher's page address. When anyone opens that link in a browser, our website, hosted on Cloudflare Pages, reads those values to build the page. We do not store them, but Cloudflare processes the request, including the visitor's IP address, under the Cloudflare privacy policy.

That is all. We do not receive your listening history, downloads, transcripts, summaries, location, or advertising ID.

Data handled by third parties under their own policies:

• Google AdMob (free version only): advertising ID where permitted, device and app information, IP address, and ad interactions. Google Privacy Policy.
• Apple: iCloud sync on iPhone (if you turn it on), Private Cloud Compute for Apple Intelligence features on iOS 27, reverse geocoding for Detect My City, and App Store purchases. Apple Privacy Policy.
• Google on Android: reverse geocoding for Detect My City (through your phone's location services), Android backup, Google Play purchases, Google Cast, and the Firebase infrastructure behind sync. Google Privacy Policy.
• Podcast Index (podcast search and lookups) and Radio-Browser (station directory): your search terms, the country or genre you browse, and your IP address. See podcastindex.org and radio-browser.info.
• Google News RSS: some news sections, including local news for the city you pick, are fetched from news.google.com with the city or topic in the request.
• Podcast publishers, radio stations, and news sites: when you play, download, or open something, your device fetches it directly from the source, which sees your IP address and the app's user agent (it identifies the request as WavCast).

Where your data lives, and cloud sync

When you subscribe to a podcast, mark an episode played, save a bookmark, organize folders, pick a news city, or change a setting, that data is stored on your device.

Cloud sync is off by default on both platforms. You turn it on in Settings. Once it is on, WavCast uploads changes as you make them, and Sync Now and Restore from Cloud run a full sync when you tap them. It syncs your podcast subscriptions (show title, author, description, artwork and feed addresses), radio favorites, bookmarks, folders, episode playback progress, and deletion markers so a removed item stays removed on your other devices. Your news city, downloads, transcripts, and settings are not synced.

On iPhone, sync uses Apple's CloudKit and stores that data in the private database of your own iCloud account. We cannot see or access it.

On Android, sync stores that data in Google Cloud Firestore, in a Firebase project we operate. The app signs in to Firebase anonymously (no name, email, or Google account) and files your library under a random key that it creates and keeps in your Google backup (Android Block Store and the app's own backed-up settings), so a reinstall or a new phone restored from that backup can find your library again. We do not read, sell, or analyze the synced data, and it is used only to move your library between your own devices. Google, as our infrastructure provider, processes the connection, including your IP address.

Android backup. Separately from cloud sync, WavCast allows Android's own backup. Your library database and app settings can be included in your Google account backup and in device-to-device transfers. That is Google's service, and you control it in Android Settings.

Advertising (Google AdMob)

The free version of WavCast shows ads through Google AdMob: banner ads, full-screen ads between some actions, and an ad when you open the app. AdMob may collect your device's advertising identifier (where you allow it), device and app information, your IP address, ad-interaction data, and diagnostics from its own SDK, under the Google Privacy Policy. We do not use that data ourselves. Buying Remove Ads, or WavCast Plus on either platform, turns AdMob off: the ad SDK is not started for paid users.

Sale, sharing, and targeted advertising

We do not sell your personal data. In the free version, Google AdMob may use your advertising ID to show ads, including personalized (targeted) ads where you allow it.

• On iPhone, iOS asks whether WavCast may track you across apps and websites. This prompt exists for AdMob. If you allow it, AdMob can use your Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) for personalized ads. If you decline, AdMob does not receive the IDFA. You can change your choice in iOS Settings, Privacy and Security, Tracking.
• On Android, WavCast shows Google's consent form (the User Messaging Platform) in regions where it is required, such as the EU and UK, and you can change your answer later from Settings in the app. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID and opt out of ad personalization in Android Settings, Google, Ads (or Privacy, Ads, depending on your phone).
• Buying Remove Ads or WavCast Plus removes ads entirely.

Location (only on Detect My City)

When you tap "Detect My City" in the News tab, your phone asks for location permission (on Android, approximate location only). WavCast requests a single, roughly kilometer-level location and sends those coordinates to a reverse-geocoding service to turn them into a city name: Apple's MapKit on iPhone, and your phone's built-in geocoder on Android (on most Android phones this is provided by Google). WavCast then discards the coordinates and keeps only the city name on your device. To show local headlines, the city name is included in requests to news feeds, including Google News. WavCast does not track your location in the background and never sends location to us. You can skip detection and pick a city by hand.

Transcripts and speech recognition

When you generate a transcript for a downloaded episode that does not include one, the episode's audio is processed by your phone's on-device speech recognition: Apple's speech framework on iPhone, set to on-device only, and Android's on-device recognizer. The audio is not sent anywhere, and the transcript is stored on your device. On iPhone, iOS may ask for speech recognition permission. On Android, the system requires the microphone permission to use its recognizer at all, even though WavCast feeds it the episode's audio and does not record you. If on-device recognition is not available, the feature reports that it is unavailable instead of sending audio to a server.

Apple Intelligence, Private Cloud Compute, and Gemini Nano

Episode summaries, chapters, answers to questions about an episode, the list of shows mentioned in it, clip captions, and the daily news briefing are generated from the episode's text (transcript and show notes) or the headlines.

• iPhone with iOS 27: WavCast prefers Apple Foundation Models on Private Cloud Compute, Apple's server environment where your request is processed and not retained. If Private Cloud Compute is unavailable, it uses the on-device model.
• Other iPhones: Apple's on-device model.
• Android: Google's on-device Gemini Nano through ML Kit.

None of this text is sent to us or to any other AI provider. If no supported model is available, the feature is unavailable rather than falling back to another server.

Purchases

Remove Ads is a one-time purchase. WavCast Plus is an auto-renewing yearly subscription, and on iPhone it is also available as a one-time lifetime unlock. Purchases are handled by Apple's App Store on iPhone and Google Play on Android. We never see your card, Apple ID, or Google account. Your purchase status is checked with the store on your device and can be restored with Restore Purchases. You manage or cancel a subscription in your App Store or Google Play account settings.

Notifications, alarms, and connected devices

If you allow notifications, WavCast uses them for new-episode alerts, download completion, and radio alarms. They are generated on your device from feeds it fetches itself, and we run no push server. On Android, radio alarms also ask for permission to schedule exact alarms. The Apple Watch and Wear OS companions, CarPlay, and Android Auto get your library from your phone directly. If you cast to a Chromecast or other Google Cast device, the stream address and episode details are sent to that device, which then fetches the audio.

Permissions WavCast may request

• Location, only when you tap Detect My City. Approximate only on Android.
• Speech recognition (iPhone) or microphone (Android), only when you generate a transcript on device.
• Notifications, optional, for new-episode alerts and radio alarms.
• Exact alarms (Android), optional, so radio alarms fire on time.
• Tracking (iPhone) or ad consent (Android, where required), for AdMob personalized ads. Optional.

What WavCast does not collect

• We do not collect your name, email, phone number, or contacts.
• We do not run first-party analytics, telemetry, or crash reporting.
• We do not read your synced library, in iCloud or in Firebase.
• We do not upload audio, transcripts, or summaries to our systems.

Data retention

• On your device: kept until you delete it in the app or uninstall WavCast.
• iCloud sync (iPhone): kept in your iCloud until you delete it; we cannot access it.
• Firebase sync (Android): kept until you ask us to delete it. There is no automatic expiry.
• Shared links: not stored by us. Cloudflare may keep request logs under its own policy.
• Third parties (AdMob, Apple, Google, Podcast Index, Radio-Browser, publishers) keep data under their own policies.

Delete your data

1. On your device. Delete or uninstall WavCast. That removes your library, downloads, transcripts, settings, and purchase cache from the phone.
2. iCloud (iPhone). Turn off sync in WavCast Settings, then delete the WavCast data in iOS Settings, your name, iCloud, Manage Storage. We cannot see or delete this data ourselves.
3. Firebase sync (Android). Turn off Cloud sync in WavCast Settings so nothing new is uploaded. Then email [email protected] with the subject "Delete my WavCast data", or use the WavCast support form. Because your library is stored under a random key and not under your name, we may need your help to identify it, and if we cannot identify it we will tell you. Where we can, we delete the synced library within 30 days and confirm by email.
4. Android backup. Manage or delete your Google backup in Android Settings or your Google account.
5. Advertising data. AdMob's records are held by Google. Reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings, or turn off tracking in iOS Settings, Privacy and Security, Tracking.

Purchase records stay with Apple or Google under their own policies so your purchase can be restored later.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Oregon, Indiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island and other US states, or the EU/UK), you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or get a copy of personal data, and to opt out of targeted advertising, sale, or profiling. Many of these laws may not apply to a studio our size, but we honor these requests from everyone.

To make a request, email [email protected]. We respond within 45 days, and we will not discriminate against you for asking. If we decline your request, you can appeal by replying to our answer with "Appeal", and we will respond within 45 days (60 days at most, as some laws allow). If your appeal is denied, you may contact your state attorney general. To opt out of targeted advertising in WavCast, use the tracking and ad settings described above, or buy Remove Ads.

Children

WavCast is a general audio app and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information through WavCast, contact us and we will delete it.

International users

We are based in the United States. Data we hold, which is only the optional Android sync data, is processed in the US or wherever Google operates the Firebase project, and third parties may process data in other countries under their own policies.

Security

Every connection WavCast makes uses HTTPS. iCloud sync is protected by Apple's iCloud security. Firebase sync requires a signed-in (anonymous) app session and the 256-bit random key for your library, and the database does not allow listing other libraries. Your device passcode or biometrics protect what is stored on the phone. No system is perfectly secure, and we recommend a strong passcode and two-factor authentication on your Apple or Google account.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update the "Last updated" line above and post the new version at this URL. Material changes are also noted in the app's release notes.

Contact

JC Mobile App Studio LLC, Pennsylvania, USA. Questions or requests: [email protected]