Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Fuel Signal is operated by David Ilievski (“we”, “us”). David Ilievski is responsible for the personal data processing described in this policy. Contact us at apps@davidilievski.dev for privacy questions or requests.

The app provides fuel-price outlooks, market indicators and AI-assisted news analysis. This policy covers our service; external websites and app stores have their own privacy policies.

2. Information we handle and why

Fuel Signal does not request your precise location, contacts, photos, microphone, health information or payment details. It has no user account system and currently has no advertising SDK, Google Analytics or Firebase Crashlytics integration. When AdMob launches, its SDK will perform advertising-related measurement and diagnostics as described below, even though we do not use a separate analytics or crash-reporting SDK.

Our database stores market snapshots, public news, source references and generated analyses. These are shared service content, rather than a personal fuel-purchase or reading history. AI-assisted news research uses public sources; the app does not send your local reading preferences or push tokens to the research model.

This policy website uses no cookies, browser storage, analytics scripts, third-party fonts or embedded tracking content.

3. Optional push notifications

Phone notifications start off on a new installation. Enabling the Home notification switch requests operating-system permission and registers the app for the shared fuel-analysis topic through Firebase Cloud Messaging. Notifee displays notifications on your device.

You can switch notifications off in the app or block them in your device settings. Switching off in the app unsubscribes from the topic and disables Firebase messaging auto-initialization. Blocking permission in device settings prevents display; it does not itself erase identifiers held by the notification provider. Disabling notifications is not a request to delete an existing Firebase installation ID.

You can read the forecast without enabling notifications. Availability and delivery depend on your platform, connectivity and notification services. Alerts may be delayed, duplicated or unavailable.

4. Advertising with Google AdMob (upcoming)

Launch status: we plan to use Google AdMob to show ads and help fund Fuel Signal. The current app does not load the Google Mobile Ads SDK or request ads. The practices in this section apply when an ad-supported version launches. This policy website will remain free of advertising and advertising trackers.

Data the advertising service may handle

When enabled, Google’s Mobile Ads SDK will send information directly from the app to Google and participating advertising partners. What is sent depends on the platform, SDK version, ad configuration, your privacy choices and operating-system permissions. It may include:

• Device and advertising identifiers: Android advertising ID, app set ID, Apple’s advertising identifier (IDFA) when permitted, and other app- or device-scoped identifiers. Google’s Android disclosure also identifies account-related identifiers where applicable; Fuel Signal does not ask you to sign in to a Google account.
• Connection and device information: IP address, approximate location inferred from it, device/operating-system information and app information. We do not plan to request GPS or precise-location permission for ads.
• Advertising activity: ads requested or displayed, impressions, taps, video views and other interactions, including certain app interactions such as launches.
• Diagnostics: crash information and performance measurements such as launch time, hangs or energy use, used to maintain and improve ad delivery.
• Privacy choices: consent or opt-out status and related signals, stored on your device and communicated to the relevant advertising services to apply your choices.

Google describes these categories in its Android SDK data disclosure and iOS SDK data disclosure.

Purposes and recipients

Google and participating ad partners use this information to select and deliver ads, measure impressions and performance, limit repeated displays, produce advertising reports, detect invalid traffic and fraud, and maintain security and reliability. Where permitted and with consent where required, it may also be used to personalize ads based on interests inferred from activity across apps and websites. We expect to receive advertising reports, such as impression and revenue totals; we do not plan to build a backend database of your advertising identifiers or send your local read-post markers, support emails or push tokens to AdMob.

Google is the planned advertising provider. Any participating ad-technology providers and their purposes will be identified through the consent information supplied with the ad-supported release. If we add separate mediation networks, we will disclose them and their policies before their data collection begins. Advertisers’ destinations receive information when you follow an ad and apply their own policies. See how Google uses information from partner apps and Google’s Privacy Policy.

Consent, storage and your controls

Before launching ads, we will provide the required consent and privacy controls, using Google’s User Messaging Platform or another Google-certified consent platform where required. In the EEA, UK and Switzerland, we will request consent for personalized advertising and access to device storage where required. We will not treat accepting this policy or enabling push notifications as advertising consent. The ad-supported release will provide a way to reopen applicable ad privacy choices and change or withdraw consent.

Advertising SDKs may store or access identifiers and other information on your device; ad content may use cookies or similar technology. Personalized ads can use activity across services. Non-personalized ads use contextual signals, such as the app’s content or approximate location, but can still process IP addresses, use permitted device storage and measure ads or prevent fraud. They do not mean “no data collection”. Depending on your choices and legal requirements, the app may request non-personalized or limited ads, or show no ads where necessary.

On Android, you can use your device’s advertising privacy settings to reset or delete the advertising ID, where available. On iOS, you can manage tracking permission in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. We will request Apple’s App Tracking Transparency permission before accessing IDFA or engaging in tracking that requires it. Refusing tracking permission does not itself prevent all contextual ads or operational processing. Google My Ad Center provides additional Google ad controls; their scope depends on your account and the Google service. Device or Google-account controls do not replace the app’s consent choices and do not automatically delete previously processed data.

Where US state privacy law gives you the right to opt out of targeted advertising or the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information, the ad-supported release will provide the applicable opt-out mechanism and communicate your choice to supported ad services. You may also contact apps@davidilievski.dev about these rights. We do not sell personal information for money; disclosure for cross-context personalized advertising can nevertheless count as a sale or sharing under some laws. We will not knowingly use personalized ads for children or users below the applicable age of consent.

5. Who receives information

• Hosting providers: our VPS hosting infrastructure processes connections and operational data to serve the app and website.
• Google Firebase: provides optional push messaging and processes the identifiers and service information described above. See Firebase’s privacy and security information and Google’s Privacy Policy.
• Apple: delivers notifications on supported iOS builds through Apple Push Notification service. See Apple’s Privacy Policy.
• Google AdMob (upcoming): Google and participating ad providers will process the advertising data described in section 4 when ads launch, subject to applicable choices and permissions.
• Email providers: process correspondence when you email us.

We may disclose information where necessary to comply with law, respond to lawful requests or protect the rights and security of users and the service. We do not rent personal data or sell it for money. The planned advertising disclosures and applicable targeted-advertising opt-out rights are explained in section 4.

Market data is fetched by our server from sources such as straits.live. Your app does not send your device’s requests directly to those market-data endpoints. When you open an external source link, the destination receives connection information and its own policy applies.

6. Retention and deletion

• On your device: preferences and read-post markers remain until app data or browser site data is cleared. Uninstalling generally removes local app data, although operating-system backups may restore it. Notification deduplication keeps up to 50 recent event identifiers.
• On our infrastructure: we do not keep a routine access-log history of your app reads. Limited operational logs rotate according to the host’s journal storage limits. Relevant records may be kept longer while resolving an incident or meeting a legal obligation.
• Support correspondence: we keep messages for as long as needed to resolve your request and handle related follow-up or legal obligations. You can ask us to delete them.
• Notification providers: Firebase controls the lifecycle of messaging identifiers. Google states that Firebase installation IDs remain until a deletion API request, with removal from live and backup systems within 180 days after that request. Turning notifications off or uninstalling should not be treated as immediate deletion from Google’s systems. See the linked Firebase policy for its current retention details.
• Advertising data (upcoming): Google and participating providers will retain advertising data according to their applicable policies and the purpose of processing, including ad delivery, measurement, security, fraud prevention and legal obligations. There is no single retention period we can promise for all AdMob data. See Google’s retention explanation. Consent settings may remain on your device until changed or app data is cleared, and providers may retain records needed to document choices. Withdrawing consent stops future consent-based processing; it does not automatically erase earlier records. Contact us about data we hold, and use Google’s privacy tools or the relevant provider’s request process for data they control.
• Market and news history: shared market snapshots and editorial content are retained without a scheduled expiry; these are not your personal app-usage history.

To request deletion of personal information we hold, email apps@davidilievski.dev. There is no account to delete. We may need limited information to verify a request or locate provider-held data because we do not keep a user-to-device directory. We will explain any data we cannot locate or must retain; do not send passwords or private device credentials.

7. Security and international processing

The production app API and this website use HTTPS to encrypt data in transit. Backend credentials are kept server-side, and database access is restricted. No transmission or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Hosting, email and notification providers, and Google and advertising partners when ads launch, may process information outside your country, including in the United States. Firebase and Google advertising services use global infrastructure. Google states that Mobile Ads SDK data is encrypted in transit using TLS. Where applicable law requires safeguards for international transfers, we rely on the relevant provider’s contractual data-protection terms and applicable transfer mechanisms. Contact us for information about safeguards relevant to your request.

8. Your choices and privacy rights

Where the EU or UK data-protection rules apply, we process connection data to provide the service you request and for our legitimate interests in maintaining its reliability and security. Optional notification processing is based on your choice to enable it and, where required, your consent. Support data is used to respond to your request, administer the service and meet applicable legal obligations. When ads launch, personalized advertising and non-essential device storage will rely on consent where required. Necessary security, fraud prevention and service operation may rely on legitimate interests or legal obligations where permitted; any required consent still applies. The consent information will explain purposes and provider choices for the actual advertising configuration.

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, erase or receive a copy of your personal data, restrict or object to processing, and withdraw consent. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before withdrawal. We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about you through automated processing.

Email us to exercise your rights. We will respond within the period required by applicable law. You may also complain to your local data-protection authority. You can use the app without optional notifications and clear local data using your device or browser settings.

9. Children’s privacy

Fuel Signal is a general-information service and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, contact us so we can investigate and arrange appropriate deletion.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app, service providers or legal requirements change. The date at the top identifies the current version. For material changes, we will provide an appropriate notice and request consent where required.