OCRfolio
Text recognition runs on your phone. OCRfolio has no account and no server of its own. The only things that talk to the internet are the advertising, consent and usage statistics services described in sections 4 and 5.
1. Overview
OCRfolio (package name com.ardi.ocrfolio) is an Android app that keeps your PDF files in one library, adds searchable text to scanned PDFs using optical character recognition (OCR), lets you read them in an in-app viewer, and searches the text of all your files. This policy describes what the app does with your information.
OCRfolio does not ask you to create an account, and it does not collect your name, email address, phone number or precise location.
2. Your PDF files
When you add a PDF, OCRfolio copies it into the app's private storage and reads it to render pages, recognize text and build a search index. This may include the document's content, page images, recognized text, file names and, for protected files, the password you type to open them.
OCRfolio does not send your PDF files, their text, page images, file names or passwords to us, to an OCR server, to an advertising provider or to the usage statistics service. Recognition uses models that are packaged inside the app and runs on your device. An ad is shown before each new scan starts, so starting a scan needs an internet connection. Reading and searching the PDFs in your library works offline.
If you enter a password to open a protected PDF, it is kept in the app's memory only while it is needed and is never written to storage. Password-protected PDFs added to the library are kept as they are and are not scanned.
When you export a PDF or open it with another app, that app handles the file under its own privacy practices.
3. Where your files are kept
Everything OCRfolio stores is kept in its private app storage on your device:
- Library: your original PDF, and a searchable copy once text recognition has finished. Folders you create and bookmarks you add are saved with them.
- Search index: the text and word positions read from your PDFs, so that search and highlighting work offline.
- Work in progress: temporary pages and page-by-page checkpoints so a long conversion can continue after an interruption. These are removed when the conversion is finished or cancelled.
- Settings: your recognition language, quality and processing choices.
This data is excluded from Android cloud backup and device-to-device transfer, and the app's backup option is turned off. Other apps cannot read it. A copy leaves the app only when you choose Export and pick a location with Android's file picker.
4. What leaves your device
OCRfolio has no crash-reporting service and no server of its own that receives your data. The app uses the internet for two purposes: showing advertising and the consent form that goes with it (section 5), and sending usage statistics through Google Analytics for Firebase, described below. Your documents are never part of those requests.
Usage statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase)
Why: to understand how the app is used so we can improve it (for example, how many scans start, finish or fail, and which screens are used), and to measure advertising (how often an ad could be shown and whether it was ready).
What is collected: an app instance ID, your device's advertising ID, an approximate location derived from your IP address, device, operating-system and app version details, app lifecycle events such as the first open, sessions and the screens you view, and these app events: a scan started, finished or failed (the page count as a range such as "11-50", whether some pages failed, and a failure category), a library search was done (the number of results as a range), and an ad display opportunity (the ad format and whether an ad was ready). Data is sent over an encrypted connection.
What is never sent: your PDF files or their content, recognized text, page images, file names, file locations, passwords and the words you search for.
Consent: where consent is required (for example in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom), the Google User Messaging Platform form described in section 5 asks for your choice, and your answer is passed to Google Analytics through Google Consent Mode. It decides whether identifiers may be stored for analytics and advertising, whether your data may be used for advertising, and whether ads may be personalized. Elsewhere usage statistics are on by default, and data for advertising and ad personalization follow Google's EU user consent policy defaults.
How to turn it off: switch off Settings → Storage & privacy → Send usage statistics to stop collection on your device, change your consent in Privacy & ad choices where it is offered, and reset or delete your advertising ID in your device's Android settings (Settings → Privacy → Ads).
Google processes this data as described in Google's Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
5. Advertising
OCRfolio is free and shows ads through Google AdMob: a banner at the bottom of the screen, an ad before a text-recognition run starts, ads on the progress and result screens, and an ad when you return to the app on one of those screens. A consent service, Google User Messaging Platform, asks for your choice where the law requires it.
To show and measure ads, prevent fraud and apply your choices, Google and its ad partners may process information such as your IP address, your device's advertising ID and other identifiers, device and operating-system details, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and how you interact with ads. This is collected by those services, not by OCRfolio, and it never includes your documents. How Google handles it is described in Google's Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
Where consent is required (for example in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom) you will be asked before personalized ads are used, and you can change your answer at any time in Settings → Storage & privacy → Privacy & ad choices. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in your device's Android settings (Settings → Privacy → Ads).
6. Permissions
| Permission | Why OCRfolio uses it |
|---|---|
| Internet, network state | Only to load ads and the consent form (section 5) and to send usage statistics (section 4). |
| Advertising ID, ad services (attribution, topics) | Declared by the Google advertising library for ad delivery and measurement, and also read by Google Analytics for Firebase (section 4). You control it in your device settings. |
| Notifications | To show progress and completion of a conversion while the app is in the background. You can decline it and still use the app. |
| Foreground service (data sync) | To keep a long text-recognition run going while you use other apps. A notification is shown while it runs. |
| Wake lock | To stop the phone from sleeping in the middle of a conversion. |
OCRfolio does not request access to all your files, your contacts, your camera, your microphone or your location. PDFs are added with Android's document picker, which gives the app access only to the files you choose.
7. Your choices and deletion
- Delete a file or folder: choose Delete from its menu in the library. The original, the searchable copy, the search index and its bookmarks are removed from the app.
- Move or export: Move reorganizes files inside the library; Export saves a copy to a location you choose.
- Delete everything: clear the app's storage in Android settings, or uninstall the app.
- Ads: change your consent in Privacy & ad choices and manage your advertising ID in Android settings, as described in section 5.
- Usage statistics: turn off Send usage statistics in Settings → Storage & privacy, as described in section 4.
Copies you exported to other places are not affected by deleting a file from the library. OCRfolio has no account and no server of its own, and usage statistics are tied only to the app instance and advertising IDs, so we cannot look up, correct or delete them for you by name. Clearing the app's storage or uninstalling it resets the app instance ID, and you can reset or delete your advertising ID in Android settings.
8. Children's privacy
OCRfolio is a general-purpose document tool and is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when the app, the services it uses or the law change. The date at the top of this page shows the latest revision. If a change affects how your information is handled, we will say so in the app's update notes.
10. Contact
For questions about OCRfolio or this policy, use the developer contact details shown on OCRfolio's Google Play store listing.