EmberShare Privacy Policy

Last updated: 6 October 2026

EmberShare is a local media server and file-sharing app. This policy explains what happens to your data when you use it. See also our full Terms of Service.

1. Who we are

EmberShare is developed by The Discover Network, a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity No 1193870). Any reference to "we"/"us" below means The Discover Network. You can reach us via the app's Contact Us screen, or by email (use the app's Contact Us screen, or enable JavaScript to see the address here).

2. The short version

EmberShare doesn't have accounts of its own, doesn't include analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs of any kind, and doesn't operate any cloud storage or sync service itself. The files you import, and the tags you give them, stay on your device, unless you choose to turn on the optional cloud backup feature (section 7), in which case they go directly to your own Google Drive account, not to us. The only personal data that ever reaches us directly is what you choose to type into the Contact Us form.

3. Your files and tags

Files you import and the tags/metadata you add to them are stored in the app's local database on your device, and, if you choose to turn on cloud backup (section 7), in your own Google Drive account. Either way, we never see this data, and nothing is uploaded to any server we operate.

When you use EmberShare's sharing features — the local Server (Wi-Fi/hotspot), Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi Direct — files are sent directly between your device and the other device(s) you choose to connect to, over the network you choose to use. None of this traffic passes through any server run by us; we have no visibility into what's shared, with whom, or when.

4. Contact Us / bug reports / feature requests

The Contact Us form sends the following to a backend we operate on Amazon Web Services (eu-west-1, Ireland), which forwards it by email to our own inbox via Amazon SES:

Field	Purpose
Your message	The bug report or feature request itself
Reply-to email (optional)	Only sent if you choose to give one, so we can reply
App version, device model, Android version, language, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Direct availability	Sent automatically with every message, to help us diagnose the issue — not editable by you
IP address	Used briefly to prevent spam/abuse of the form (see below), and included in the email for the same reason

Your IP address is also held for up to about an hour in a rate-limiting table, purely to stop the form being spammed; it's deleted automatically after that and used for no other purpose. AWS is a data processor for us here, not a party we share your data with for their own use, and none of this leaves the EU.

We keep contact-form emails only as long as we need to handle your enquiry. We don't sell, share, or use this information for marketing.

5. Permissions the app requests

Permission	What it's actually for
Camera	Only used if you scan a QR code to receive files from another EmberShare device. The camera feed isn't recorded or sent anywhere.
Location (fine/coarse), Nearby Wi-Fi devices	Required by Android itself to use the local hotspot and Wi-Fi Direct features — EmberShare doesn't read, store, or transmit your actual location, and never uses these APIs to determine it.
Wi-Fi state / network state	To run the local file-sharing server and detect network connectivity.
Notifications, foreground service	To show the required persistent notification while the local server is running, and keep it alive in the background.
Google Sign-In / Drive access	Only requested if you turn on cloud backup in Settings (section 7). EmberShare requests only the narrowest Google Drive scope (drive.file), limited to the folder it creates for you, never access to the rest of your Drive.

6. Device backups

We allow Android's standard device backup feature for EmberShare, so if you back up your phone to your own Google account, your file list and tags are included and can be restored if you switch devices. This backup is entirely between you and Google: it's controlled by your device's own backup settings, and we have no access to it.

7. Cloud backup (optional)

EmberShare includes an optional cloud backup feature, off by default and turned on only if you choose to in Settings. When it's on, your files and their tags are uploaded directly from your device to your own Google Drive account, not to any server we operate. You sign in with your own Google account for this; as noted in section 5, EmberShare only ever requests access to the specific folder it creates in your Drive, not access to your wider Drive.

This feature also lets you connect to a backup folder someone else has shared with you (for example, an organisation sharing a common set of files) for read-only browsing/restore; you can't write to a folder you don't own this way. Google Drive's own sharing works by Google account, so if someone shares a folder with you, your Google account email becomes visible to them as the person they shared it with, the same way it would for any other Google Drive share; that's Google's sharing mechanism, not something we add.

Either way, we have no access to, and no visibility into, any of this: what you back up, what's inside a folder shared with you, or who else has access to it.

EmberShare's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use Google Drive access only to back up and restore your files for you, and we don't use it for advertising or share it with anyone else.

8. Children

EmberShare is a general-purpose file-sharing utility, not directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect personal data from children.

9. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you can ask us what personal data we hold about you (in practice, only what you've sent us via the Contact Us form), ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. To do any of these, contact us using the details in section 1.

10. Changes to this policy

We'll update this page if what the app collects or how we use it changes. Material changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date above.