CheapestApp privacy policy

CheapestApp for Android, iPhone and iPad · Effective date: 24 September 2026

No account is required to use CheapestApp. Product searches contact external search services and product websites. Settings and saved delivery locations are stored on your device. Google AdMob provides advertising. On Android, Google ML Kit also processes diagnostic and usage metrics separately from on-device image and text processing. Platform differences are explained below.

1. Who is responsible

CheapestApp is provided by ANIMIST OÜ, registry code 14092388 (the “developer”, “we”, or “us”). Contact us about privacy or your personal information at appstore@animist.ee.

This policy covers CheapestApp for Android (package com.animist.cheapestapp), iPhone and iPad, and these support pages. Features vary by platform, device and version. Retailers, search providers, Apple, Google and any selected system-service providers also have their own responsibilities and privacy notices for their services.

2. Product searches and external websites

When you search, the app sends product names, model identifiers, search terms, product links and relevant country or region context to search services. It requests retailer and comparison pages to identify offers. If you include personal information in a search or pasted URL, that information may be sent with the request; avoid entering passwords, payment details or private account links.

These requests disclose your IP address and ordinary connection information to the service receiving them. CheapestApp does not operate a developer-hosted account or search-history database. This does not mean external providers receive no data or keep no logs.

Built-in search services include Microsoft Bing/Bing Shopping, Brave Search, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Available search services can change through provider-configuration updates. When a configuration URL is supplied by the app or entered in Settings, its server receives requests for service settings, not your product search text. Your product queries go to the configured search services. Use only configuration sources you trust; additional production providers must be reflected in this notice before they are enabled.

Currency conversion may request exchange rates from ExchangeRate-API, Frankfurter, or the configured service-settings host. These rate requests do not include your saved delivery address or product query. The receiving service can still see your IP address and connection information.

Opening an offer or browser-search link takes you to a third-party service. Purchases, payments, customer accounts, cookies and order support there are governed by that service’s terms and privacy practices. CheapestApp does not process retailer payments.

On Android, text or a product link you explicitly share with CheapestApp, or choose to open with it, can fill the search field. The app does not automatically submit that input as a search. Review it before searching, especially when a link contains personal information.

3. Information stored on your device

The app stores preferences, saved delivery locations, cached product offers and related search text or keys, exchange rates, provider settings and advertising-consent state locally. Saved locations can include a label, country, city, postal code, street and apartment. On iPhone and iPad, they may also contain a resolved address and coordinates. The Android version uses manually entered locations and does not obtain GPS coordinates.

Saved street, apartment and location-label fields are not added to product-search requests. Relevant regional context is used to tailor searches. Local app data may also be included in device backups, depending on your operating-system and backup settings. Android backup and device-transfer support is enabled, so eligible saved settings and data may be restored through those system services. This is not an ANIMIST-operated cloud account or synchronization service.

4. Optional permissions and on-device features

iPhone and iPad

Location: when you choose “Use Current Location” and permit access, the app obtains your location and uses Apple’s mapping/geocoding service to resolve an address. You can instead enter a delivery location manually.
Camera: scanning recognizes product text or codes using the device’s scanning features. The app does not upload the camera image to a developer server. Recognized text can become a product query when you search.
Microphone and speech recognition: voice input uses Apple’s speech-recognition service. Audio may be processed by Apple’s servers depending on system availability and settings; do not assume voice input is always offline. Recognized text becomes your search input.
Apple Intelligence and translation: supported on-device system features can help interpret product input and translate titles. The subsequent product search still contacts external websites.
Notifications: if permitted, the app can notify you when a search finishes. Product information in a notification may be visible on your lock screen, depending on your settings.

You can revoke optional permissions in iOS Settings. Typing a search remains available without camera, microphone or location permission. Apple’s handling of system-service data is described in its privacy information.

Android

Delivery location: enter and manage locations manually. The Android app does not request precise or approximate device-location permission. Search and advertising providers can still infer a general location from your IP address.
Photos and text recognition: “Take a photo” opens a camera application and receives a preview image; “Choose an image” uses the system content picker to read the image you select. Google ML Kit recognizes text on your device. CheapestApp does not upload the image to an ANIMIST server or scan the rest of your photo library. Recognized text fills the search field and can be sent to search providers when you search. The camera or picker provider controls its own permissions, storage and any cloud access.
Voice input: the app opens the device’s available speech-recognition activity and receives recognized text. The speech provider may process audio online under its own privacy practices; voice input is not guaranteed to work offline. CheapestApp does not directly record or retain that audio. Review the returned text before searching.
On-device input interpretation: on supported devices, Google ML Kit and AICore use Gemini Nano to refine a product request locally. The app can request a model download when needed. This processing does not send the input or generated output to Google as a cloud AI prompt; the resulting product search still contacts external search services. A local fallback remains available when the model is unavailable.
Permissions and availability: the current Android implementation does not directly request camera, microphone, location, broad photo-library or notification permission. Camera, content-picker and speech activities may request their own access. Manage those providers and their permissions in Android Settings. Search-completion notifications described for iOS are not currently implemented on Android.

Google ML Kit diagnostics on Android

On-device processing does not mean that the SDK sends no data. Google ML Kit sends technical metrics to Google, including device and app information, installation identifiers, performance, feature usage and errors. GenAI features can also use user or device identifiers and configured-language information. Metrics may include image format, input/output size and model events, rather than the image or product-request contents themselves. Google uses these metrics for diagnostics, usage analysis and service maintenance. The SDK may also contact Google for model and compatibility updates.

See ML Kit privacy information, ML Kit data disclosures and Google’s privacy policy. ML Kit processing is separate from advertising consent; changing advertising choices does not turn these SDK metrics off.

5. Advertising and your choices

CheapestApp uses Google AdMob banners on both platforms. Depending on consent, device settings and the advertising configuration, Google’s SDK may process IP addresses and approximate location, device or app identifiers, advertisements viewed, app and advertising interactions, crash information and performance diagnostics. These can support ad delivery, measurement, analytics and fraud prevention.

On Android, these identifiers can include the Android advertising ID, app set ID and, where applicable, identifiers associated with signed-in accounts. Available Android advertising-ID controls let you reset or delete that ID; this does not prevent all other SDK processing. See Google Mobile Ads data disclosures.

Google’s User Messaging Platform manages applicable advertising privacy choices. Where available, open CheapestApp Settings and choose “Manage advertising privacy choices” to revisit them. Declining optional advertising consent does not disable product search; the ads available may differ. Operating-system permissions and advertising consent are separate controls.

Read Google’s privacy policy and how Google uses information from partner apps. Advertising partners and purposes applicable to you are described in the consent interface. Device identifiers are subject to applicable operating-system restrictions.

6. Support requests and this website

If you contact support, we receive your email address, message and any attachments you choose to send. We use them to respond and investigate the issue. Please remove personal addresses, payment details and unrelated personal information from screenshots.

These pages contain no advertising, analytics scripts, embedded media or tracking cookies of their own. Website hosting and email providers may process ordinary access logs and support correspondence. Hosting logs may contain IP addresses, request times, requested paths and browser information.

7. Purposes and legal grounds

Where European data-protection law applies, we process information necessary to provide the app functions you request, rely on legitimate interests where appropriate to maintain service security and respond to support enquiries, and obtain consent for optional processing where required. We may also process information to meet legal obligations. Third-party services explain their own purposes and legal grounds in their privacy notices.

You may withdraw consent for future processing without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal. An operating-system permission alone is not a substitute for any separately required advertising consent.

8. Retention and deletion

Saved delivery locations remain until you delete them in the app or remove the app’s data. Preferences and consent settings remain until changed or removed.
Cached offer data is normally eligible for reuse for up to 30 minutes. Expiry prevents reuse; it does not guarantee that every byte is immediately erased from storage or backups.
Validated provider settings may remain locally as a fallback until replaced or app data is removed. Exchange-rate caches are maintained separately.

Delete individual saved locations in the app. On iOS, deleting the app removes its ordinary local app data; merely offloading it retains data. On Android, use the app’s storage settings to clear storage/app data, or uninstall it, to remove its ordinary local settings and saved data. Clearing only the cache does not erase settings and saved locations held in app preferences.

Backups, browser data, selected source images, camera-app copies, downloaded system models and third-party records have separate controls and retention policies. Restoring a system backup may bring back saved app data. We cannot directly erase data independently held by a retailer, search provider, Google, Apple or your selected system-service provider. Use that provider’s privacy controls for information it holds.

9. Your rights and international processing

Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of personal data, restrict or object to processing, and withdraw consent. Send requests concerning data we hold to appstore@animist.ee. We may need proportionate information to verify a request. These rights can be subject to legal conditions and exceptions.

You can also complain to your local data-protection authority. In Estonia, this is the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon).

Internet services, advertising providers, hosting and email services may process data outside your country, including outside the European Economic Area. Applicable safeguards and transfer arrangements depend on the service and must be reviewed in the relevant provider’s privacy information. Contact us for information about the hosting and email providers we use.

10. Changes and contact

We will update this page when app data practices change and show the effective date above. Material changes may also require a notice in the app or renewed consent. For questions, contact appstore@animist.ee or visit CheapestApp support.