Privacy Policy

1. Information We Store Locally

The following is stored only on your device, using the standard platform store (SharedPreferences on Android, NSUserDefaults on iOS). Ham Listening holds no passwords, tokens or secrets, so no secure store is needed. None of this is sent to any Unixeer server.

• Callsign — optional. Used to pick a sensible default country in the receiver picker and to pre-fill the Support form. No callsign or license is required to listen.
• Maidenhead grid locator — optional. Used to sort "receivers near me" and for display.
• Favorites & bookmarks — the receivers and frequencies you save.
• App preferences — your last receiver, selected IARU region, demodulation mode (AM/LSB/USB/CW/NFM), theme (light/dark) and font scale.

2. Receive-Only — No Microphone, No Transmit

Ham Listening is strictly receive-only. It tunes public SDR receivers and plays the audio they send back.

• It does not transmit on any frequency or network — it is a listening client, not a transceiver.
• It does not use your device microphone or camera — including when you record. The recording feature saves the radio audio the app receives over the internet, never anything picked up by your device. See section 4a.
• It does not track or request your location. The receiver picker groups sites by country using your optional callsign prefix or grid — never GPS.

3. Connecting to Third-Party Public Receivers

When you open a receiver, the app connects over the internet to a public KiwiSDR / WebSDR site that you choose, and to the worldwide directory that lists those sites.

• These receivers and the directory are operated by independent third parties — volunteer operators — not by Unixeer. Each has its own policies, availability and infrastructure, which are outside our control.
• The app sends a short, polite ident string (app name/version) so hosts can see the traffic is a well-behaved listener, and it respects sites that opt out of external clients.
• Public receivers are a shared, volunteer-funded resource — please listen considerately. Review the terms of any site you connect to.

4. Background Audio

So you can keep listening while you use other apps or lock the screen, Ham Listening keeps its audio session alive in the background (the audio background mode on iOS, a foreground media service on Android). This is used only to keep the received audio playing, and the waterfall rendering pauses while backgrounded. If you have started a recording, it continues in the background as well.

4a. Recording What You Receive

Ham Listening can save the radio audio it receives to a file on your device. This is not a microphone recording: the app captures the same audio stream it is already playing for you, which arrives over the internet from the public receiver you chose.

• Recordings are started and stopped only by you, with the record button on the operating screen. The app never records on its own.
• To make the button useful, the app keeps the most recent 30 seconds of received audio in memory at all times, so that half minute can be included when you press record. It is held in memory only, is continuously overwritten, is never written to disk unless you press record, and is discarded when you close the app.
• Recordings are stored in the app's own private storage on your device. On iOS they are kept outside the iCloud-backed area, so they do not consume your iCloud storage.
• Nothing is uploaded. Unixeer has no server and never receives your recordings. A recording leaves your device only if you share it yourself, using your device's standard share sheet, to an app you choose.
• You can delete any recording from the Recordings page at any time, which removes the audio files from the device. Uninstalling the app removes all of them.
• Your responsibility: recordings are for your own use. Broadcast content is generally protected by copyright, and some countries restrict recording or passing on radio communications that are not public broadcasts. Please check the rules that apply where you are, and respect the terms of the receiver you were listening to.

5. Sharing & Saving Screenshots

You can share or save a waterfall screenshot. If you choose "Save Image", iOS asks permission to add the picture to your photo library (write-only) — the app never reads your existing photos. Sharing uses your device's standard share sheet.

6. No License Needed — Responsible Listening

No amateur radio license is required to listen with Ham Listening. You remain responsible for using public receivers considerately and in line with the hosts' rules and any local regulations that apply to reception where you are.

7. What We Do NOT Collect

• No Unixeer account, sign-up or login.
• No analytics, no crash-reporting telemetry sent to us.
• No device identifiers (no IDFA, no GAID).
• No advertising or third-party tracking SDKs.
• No microphone, camera or location access.
• We never receive your callsign, grid, favorites or preferences — they stay on your device.

8. Children's Privacy

Ham Listening shows no advertising, has no in-app purchases, and sends no personal data to Unixeer. It is a receive-only listening tool, well suited to newcomers and shortwave listeners. The app is designed to comply with COPPA, GDPR-K and equivalent child-privacy frameworks.

9. Data Retention & Deletion

All settings and favorites are stored only on your device. To delete everything Ham Listening holds, clear the app's data or uninstall it — that removes your stored callsign, grid, favorites and preferences. There is no Unixeer account or server data to request deletion of. Any record of your session held by a public receiver you used is governed by that site's own policy.

10. Network Activity & Third-Party Services

By design, Ham Listening makes the network connections needed to fetch the public-receiver directory and to stream audio and waterfall data from the receiver you select, and opens your mail app when you tap "Send email" on the Support page. It uses standard open-source Flutter packages (such as shared_preferences, url_launcher, share_plus, flutter_sound and flutter_foreground_task) to do its job. Unixeer does not integrate any advertising, analytics or tracking SDKs.

11. Changes to This Policy

As Ham Listening gains features, this policy may be updated to stay accurate. The current version will always appear at this URL and ship with the app.

12. Contact

Questions about privacy? Email unixeer@gmail.com. We typically reply within a few days.