Privacy

What stays on your phone

Your list of installed apps, your searches in the Android app, and the version comparisons that find updates. None of these are uploaded. The catalog is the same for everyone, so what it holds says nothing about you.

Search runs on the phone, with a model that ships inside the app, so it works offline.

What leaves your phone

• Catalog updates. Zapstore asks the catalog relay for what changed since your last update. The request says how far your copy goes and which Zapstore version you run. It does not say which apps you have.
• App downloads. Files come from the developer’s release source, such as GitHub, or from Zapstore’s CDN. Whoever serves the file sees your IP address unless you use Tor or a VPN.
• What you choose to share. Comments, zaps, stacks and reports are public. Tapping Refresh with your web of trust on the install sheet sends one request, signed with your pubkey, to a service that ranks the people you follow.
• Bug reports, if you opt in. The app sends no telemetry. During setup, Zapstore asks whether to send anonymous bug reports. They stay off unless you say yes.

Bug reports

When bug reports are on, a crash or logged error is sent as an encrypted message from a one-time key to the Zapstore team. It holds the Zapstore version, the Android version and the error with its stack trace, and no account, device ID or app list. The relay that carries it sees neither who sent it nor what it says. Turn bug reports on or off at any time in Settings.

Using Tor

In Settings, Network is Direct (the default) or Tor. With Tor, every connection Zapstore makes goes through it: catalog updates, relays, downloads and images. If Tor cannot start, Zapstore does not fall back to Direct. Anything tied to your pubkey uses a separate Tor circuit.

What our servers and this website record

Search on this website runs on our servers, because a web page cannot hold the whole catalog. Searches are not logged, and each IP address may only make so many per minute. Search in the Android app runs on your phone.

The website counts page views with Simple Analytics, through our own server, so your IP address is not sent to them. A page view records the path, the referrer, the browser, the language, the time zone and the screen size.

What an app page says about the app

An app page shows Shares data when the app includes a library that can send analytics, an identifier or a crash report, and Ads when it includes an ad library. The catalog relay reads this from the APK itself, so it does not depend on what the developer says.

Accounts and Social

You need no account to browse, install, or update. To comment, zap, or share stacks, you sign in with your pubkey through a Nostr signer app or a browser extension. Turning Social off in Settings signs you out and removes social features from the app. See Social.