Privacy policy

1. Summary

• You do not need an account. Arivna has no sign-in and no servers of its own that receive your browsing.
• The app contains no analytics, telemetry, crash reporting or advertising code.
• Your history, bookmarks, tabs, downloads list and settings are stored only on your phone, in the app's private storage. Android backup of this data is turned off (allowBackup="false"), so it is not copied to cloud backups.
• The app itself connects to a small number of servers: filter list servers (to keep the ad blocker up to date), your chosen search engine (for search suggestions while you type, if you leave that on) and icon services (for website icons on the home screen). Section 6 lists every one.
• We do not sell or share your personal data. We do not have it.

2. Who we are

Arivna Browser is made by Nirvana Team, India (the "data fiduciary" or "controller" for the purposes of this policy, referred to as "we" or "us"). You can reach us at contactus@arivna.com.

This policy covers the Arivna Browser Android app (package name com.arivna.browser), whether installed from GitHub Releases or Google Play, and this website. It does not cover the websites you open in Arivna; each of them has its own privacy policy.

3. What we do not collect

Arivna does not send us, or anyone acting for us:

• the pages you visit, your searches, bookmarks or history;
• usage statistics, device identifiers, advertising IDs or installation counts;
• crash reports or diagnostic logs;
• your location, contacts, photos or files.

The only time we receive personal data is when you choose to contact us, for example by email or by opening an issue on GitHub. We then see what you send (such as your email address and message) and use it only to reply and fix the problem.

If you install Arivna from Google Play, Google may give us aggregated statistics it collects as the store operator (such as install counts and crash rates reported by Android). These figures do not identify you, and Google's privacy policy applies to that collection.

4. Data stored on your phone

To work as a browser, Arivna keeps the following on your device, inside the app's private storage that other apps cannot read. None of it is uploaded by Arivna.

The network request log (which shows what the ad blocker allowed or blocked on a page) is kept in memory for the current tab only and is not saved.

5. How to delete your data

• Delete browsing data: Settings > Delete browsing data lets you choose tabs, history (including recent searches), cookies and site data, cache, site permissions and the downloads list.
• Delete browsing data on quit: switch this on in Settings to delete your chosen kinds of data every time you quit Arivna.
• One site: open the site info sheet from the address bar to clear that site's cookies and data.
• Everything: Android Settings > Apps > Arivna > Storage > Clear storage, or uninstall the app. Because we hold no copy, this removes Arivna's data completely (downloaded files in your Downloads folder are yours and stay).

6. Connections the app makes

Besides loading the websites you open, Arivna's own code makes these connections. All of them use HTTPS. None of them includes an account, user ID or device identifier.

6.1 Filter list updates

Arivna Shield, the built-in ad and tracker blocker, ships with its filter lists inside the app. To keep them current, Arivna checks for new versions when you open the app and the lists are more than 24 hours old. You can turn this off with the "Auto-update daily" switch on the Privacy shield screen (Settings > Enhanced Tracking Protection > Privacy shield), or update manually with "Update now". The lists are downloaded from the servers of the projects that maintain them:

• raw.githubusercontent.com (GitHub): uBlock Origin lists
• easylist.to: EasyList and EasyPrivacy
• pgl.yoyo.org: Peter Lowe's list
• malware-filter.gitlab.io (GitLab Pages): URLhaus malicious URL list
• filters.adtidy.org (AdGuard): AdGuard Mobile and AdGuard Tracking Protection
• secure.fanboy.co.nz: EasyList Cookie List

Each request is an ordinary file download. It sends a generic user agent (Mozilla/5.0 Arivna) and, if Arivna already has the list, the list's If-None-Match (ETag) and If-Modified-Since values so the server can answer "not changed". Like any internet request, the server can see your IP address and the time. Nothing about your browsing is sent.

6.2 Search suggestions

When "Show search suggestions" is on (the default) and you type in the search bar, Arivna sends what you have typed so far to your chosen search engine to get suggestions. In private tabs this is off unless you turn on "Show in private sessions". The suggestion services used are:

• Google: suggestqueries.google.com (Google is the default search engine)
• DuckDuckGo: duckduckgo.com
• Bing: api.bing.com
• Brave Search: search.brave.com
• Ecosia: ac.ecosia.org
• Startpage, Yahoo and search engines you add yourself: no suggestions are requested.

The search engine's own privacy policy applies to these requests and to the searches you make. You can change the search engine or turn suggestions off in Settings > Search.

6.3 Website icons

Icons for pages you visit come from the page itself as it loads. For home screen shortcuts to sites you have not visited yet (including the default shortcuts shown on first launch), Arivna fetches an icon in this order, stopping at the first that works:

1. the site itself: https://site/favicon.ico
2. DuckDuckGo's icon service: icons.duckduckgo.com
3. Google's icon service: www.google.com/s2/favicons

The icon services receive the site's domain name (for example wikipedia.org) and your IP address. No cookies are sent. Icons are then stored on your phone so they are not fetched again.

6.4 Voice search

Voice search uses the speech recognition service installed on your phone (usually Google's). In normal tabs that service may process your voice online, under its own provider's privacy policy (for Google, the Google Privacy Policy). In private tabs Arivna only uses on-device recognition, and voice search is unavailable if your phone has no on-device speech model. Arivna receives only the recognised text and treats it like typed text.

6.5 Downloads

When you download a file, Arivna requests it from the website that offers it, sending the same information the page would (the browser's user agent, the referring page and that site's cookies) so that downloads behind a login work.

6.6 Links to other apps and stores

If a page tries to open another app that is not installed, Arivna may open that app's Google Play page. When "Open links in apps" is set to Always or Ask, Android can hand a link to the matching app on your phone.

7. Android System WebView

Arivna draws web pages with Android System WebView, the Chromium-based web engine provided and updated by Google (or your phone maker) as part of Android. Arivna does not change how WebView works internally. In particular:

• Safe Browsing is switched on. WebView checks the addresses of pages against Google Safe Browsing to warn you before you open sites known to be dangerous. Google describes how Safe Browsing handles data in its own documentation and privacy policy.
• If you have allowed your phone to share usage and diagnostics data with Google in your Android settings, WebView may send Google its own diagnostic data. This is controlled by your Android settings, not by Arivna.
• WebView is updated through Google Play or your phone maker's update system.

8. Websites you visit

As with any browser, the websites you open (and the services they load) receive your IP address, browser user agent, the pages you request, the cookies they set and anything you type into them. Their privacy policies apply. Arivna Shield blocks many known ad and tracking requests before they are sent, and can block cross-site cookies if you turn that on, but no blocker catches everything.

9. Permissions

Arivna asks Android for these permissions. Camera, microphone and location are only used when you allow them, and Android shows its own prompt the first time.

• Internet and network state: to load web pages and know whether you are online.
• Camera and microphone: only when a website asks (for example a video call) and you allow it, or when you tap the microphone for voice search. You can block them for all sites or per site.
• Location (approximate and precise): only when a website asks for your location and you allow it.
• Modify audio settings: needed by WebView for audio in calls and media on websites.
• Notifications: to show download progress and finished downloads. On Android 13 and newer you are asked first.
• Foreground service (data sync) and wake lock: so downloads keep running when you leave the app or the screen turns off.
• Storage (Android 8 and 9 only): to save downloads to your Downloads folder. Newer Android versions do not need this.

The transparency page explains each permission in more detail.

10. Private tabs

Private tabs use a separate, temporary WebView profile with its own cookies and storage, and do not use the cache. Pages opened in private tabs are not added to history, recent searches, the saved session, recently closed tabs or the downloads list. When the last private tab closes, the private profile is deleted. Files you download in a private tab are still saved to your Downloads folder. Private tabs are offered only when your phone's WebView version supports separate profiles.

Private tabs do not hide your IP address or your activity from websites, your network operator or your employer.

11. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

The setting "Tell websites not to share & sell data" is on by default. While it is on, Arivna sends the DNT: 1 and Sec-GPC: 1 signals and sets navigator.globalPrivacyControl on pages. Websites decide whether to honour these signals; in some places the law requires them to.

12. Sharing and selling of data

We do not sell, rent or share personal data, and we do not use it for advertising. Arivna contains no third-party SDKs for advertising, analytics or crash reporting. The only third parties that receive data because of the app's own code are the services described in section 6, and only the data described there.

13. Children

Arivna is a general-purpose web browser. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, including children. A browser can open any website, so parents should use Android's parental controls (such as Google Family Link) if they want to limit what a child can see. If you believe a child has sent us personal data by email, contact us and we will delete it.

14. Security

Your data stays in the app's private storage, protected by Android's app sandbox and, on most phones, by device encryption. Arivna warns you about invalid HTTPS certificates, blocks file access from web pages, and keeps WebView remote debugging off unless you switch it on in Settings. Keep Android System WebView updated, because it contains the web engine's security fixes. No system is perfectly secure; if you find a vulnerability, please report it as described on the transparency page.

15. Data retention

Data on your phone stays until you delete it, the app removes it (for example tabs you set to auto-close, or icons beyond the cache limit), or you uninstall the app. Emails you send us are kept only as long as needed to handle your request and keep a reasonable record of support, then deleted. GitHub issues are public and stay on GitHub under GitHub's terms unless you or we delete them.

16. Your rights

Because the app's data is on your phone, you can see, correct and erase it yourself at any time, as described in section 5. For any personal data you have sent us (for example in an email), you can ask us to:

• tell you what data we hold about you and how we use it (access);
• correct or complete it (correction);
• delete it (erasure);
• withdraw consent you gave earlier;
• nominate another person to exercise these rights if you die or become unable to;
• hear and address a complaint (grievance redressal).

These match the rights given by India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and we honour them for everyone, wherever you live. Write to contactus@arivna.com. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India or to the data protection authority in your country.

17. This website

• The website uses no cookies, no analytics, no advertising and no third-party scripts, fonts or embeds.
• If you use the light/dark switch, your choice is saved in your browser's local storage on your device (key arivna-theme). It is never sent to us.
• The site is static and is served by a hosting provider (Vercel). Like any web host, the provider may keep standard server logs, such as IP address, requested page, time and browser user agent, to run and secure the service, under its own privacy policy. We do not use these logs to track visitors.
• Links to other sites (GitHub, Google Play, Instagram and others) take you to services with their own privacy policies.

18. Changes to this policy

If the app or website starts handling data differently, we will update this page before or with that change and change the effective date at the top. Material changes will also be noted in the changelog. The source code of every version is public, so changes can be checked.

19. Contact and grievances

Nirvana Team, India
Email (privacy questions and grievance contact): contactus@arivna.com

Please write "Privacy" in the subject line. We aim to acknowledge messages promptly and to resolve grievances within the time required by applicable law.