# Help/Privacy/Android

From XOWA: the free, open-source, offline wiki application

## Overview

XOWA is commited to user privacy. Throughout the app, it follows these four guidelines:

- Request minimal permissions.
- Store minimal user data.
- Never upload user data.
- Provide ways to remove user data.

## What permissions does XOWA require?

XOWA requires 5 permissions:

### Read External Storage (as of 2016-04-17)

- This permission is needed to read XOWA databases on the micro-SD card.
- No other directory is read aside from the chosen XOWA directory. In other words, XOWA does not use this permission to read through all your folders on the micro-SD card.

### Internet (as of 2016-04-17)

- This permission is used to retrieve full-scale images from the Wikipedia website.
- This permission is never used to upload data to the internet

### Access Network State (as of 2016-04-17)

- This permission is used in tandem with the Internet permission to retrieve full-scale images from the Wikipedia website. It is always paired with the Internet permission. See http://developer.android.com/training/basics/network-ops/connecting.html

### Write External Storage (as of 2016-06-19)

- This permission is used to download wikis from the internet and store them on the external micro-SD.
- Only files and folder within the following folder will be changed: `/Android/data/org.xowa`

### Wake Lock (as of 2016-06-19)

- This permission is used to prevent the device from sleeping. It is necessary for Download Central wherein it may take many hours to download English Wikipedia.

## What information is stored in XOWA?

XOWA only collects user data related to application usage. For example:

- Opening pages will generate entries in the History screen.
- Searching for pages will generate entries in the Search screen.
- Saving pages will generate entries in the Saved pages screen.
- Pages with images will save temporary files to the applications cache.
- Logging data is saved in temporary data.

XOWA collects no other data in the background.

## When does XOWA share this information?

XOWA never shares user data. XOWA never uploads data. All data remains on your device unless you choose to do something with it.

XOWA does allow the user to manually send email in 2 places:

- Application crash reports: After the application crashes, the user can send the crash report to the developer
- Application logs: The Log screen allows the user to email the selected log to the developer.

No automatic emails are ever sent.

## How does XOWA store this information?

- Data for the History and Search and Saved pages screen are saved with application data.
  - This data can be cleared on its respective screen. For example, the History button has a trash can icon to clear all entries.
- XOWA saves all images to temporary cache. To clear this cache, please do the following:
  - On Android, go to Settings -> Apps -> XOWA -> Storage
  - Press "Clear Cache"
- XOWA saves all logging data to a temporary folder. To clear this data, please do the following:
  - In XOWA, go to Settings -> Logs
  - Press the "Delete Current" or the "Delete All" icon

## Contact

For any questions or clarifications, please contact gnosygnu at gmail dot com.

### XOWA

- Main page
- Screenshots
- Video
- Download XOWA
- Download wikis

### Getting started

- Requirements
- Installation
- Simple Wikipedia
- English Wikipedia
- Other Wikipedias

### Android

- Setup
- Video

### Help

- About
- Contents
- Media
- Feedback

### Blog

- Current

### Links

- Wikimedia dumps
- XOWA @ archive.org
- English Wikipedia

### Donate

- archive.org
- Wikipedia