The app does not ask for any special permissions, and does not collect any personally identifiable information. We only store a random device identifier that the app will generate when you start the network tests. Please see a detailed privacy policy for the app below.
Privacy Policy
Scope
Any person who uses the CensorWatch mobile application.
Collection and use of your personal information
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) will not collect any personally identifiable information from your device. The app will run network tests and relay the recorded measurement and response to our server. When you first launch the CensorWatch mobile application, a random string will be generated, which will be associated with the measurement information sent to our servers.
Collection and use of your non-personal information
Certain non-personal information will be collected by our servers. For each network measurement, the following information is collected by our servers: timestamp, the device's (randomly-generated) identifier, your internet protocol (IP) address, the state you selected in the app, and the response received for the network test.
Disclosure and transfer of collected information
The CIS and its affiliates (such as research and advocacy organisations, and individual researchers) will only use the collected data for research purposes (limited to mapping web censorship and net neutrality violations in India). The aggregated data (which contains no personally identifiable information) may also be published openly (with prohibitions on commercial use) to encourage more research on web censorship and net neutrality violations.
We use ipinfo to determine the name of your internet service provider (ISP). We only retain the name of your ISP, and delete your IP address within twenty-hours of it being recorded (soon after the ipinfo resolution).
Security
We are using hosting services and servers that maintain their systems in accordance with best security practices. Your data is transmitted between your device and our servers using HTTPS, to prevent eavesdropping. We review our information collection, storage, and processing practices, including physical security measures, to prevent unauthorized access to our systems.
Subject to Change
This privacy policy is subject to change and may be updated or revised from time to time. All such changes will be published here: we will indicate the changes, and the date of changes on this page. Your rights under this privacy policy will not be significantly reduced without your explicit consent.
Misc.
If you have downloaded the app from the Google Play Store, please also refer to Google's privacy policy.
If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please send an email to communications [at] cis-india [dot] org.
Update (2023)
While analysing data collected by Censorwatch, we observed that our database accidentally retained some users' IP addresses. First, the response headers sent by servers sometimes mirrored the users' IP address. Our scripts were not able to catch all these instances at first. We deleted all response headers from our database now. Second, for a very small portion of our early users, our script that deleted users' IP addresses failed to run successfully. We deleted all such users' IP address from our database now. Note that these IP addresses were never published openly, were not used for any analysis by CIS staff, and have now been completely deleted from our database. We sincerely apologise for the technical oversight, and are happy to answer any questions at our email address communications [at] cis-india.org.