Trove Privacy Policy

Widdle Studios · Effective October 7, 2026

Trove is a search app for the files on your Android phone. It is built so that your files and what you search for stay on your phone. This policy explains exactly what Trove does with data.

Your files and searches stay on your phone

• Trove reads the photos, videos, audio, documents and other files on your phone to build a search index. The index is stored only on your phone, encrypted.
• Understanding your files (text recognition and the EmbeddingGemma AI model) happens entirely on your phone. Your files, their contents, your search queries, your search history and the name you enter are never uploaded to us or anyone else.
• Trove has no accounts and no servers of its own. We cannot see your data.

When Trove uses the internet

• Model download. When you choose to, Trove downloads its AI model (about 485 MB) from Hugging Face (huggingface.co). Like any download, this reveals your IP address to Hugging Face. Nothing about your files is sent.
• Ads (free version). Trove shows a banner ad served by Google AdMob. To serve and measure ads, Google may collect your device's advertising ID, IP address, general location derived from it, device and app information, and how you interact with ads. Ad requests never include your files, file names or searches. Google's use of this data is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. Where the law requires it (for example in the EEA and UK), Trove asks for your consent first, and you can change your choice anytime in Settings › Privacy › Ad Privacy Choices. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings.
• Purchases. Removing ads is a one-time purchase handled by Google Play. Google processes your payment; we receive only confirmation of the purchase, never your payment details.

Permissions

• Photos, videos and audio and All files access: to find and index your files so you can search them. Files are only read, never changed or uploaded.
• Notifications and background activity: so indexing can continue, and show its progress, when the app is closed.
• Internet: for the model download, ads and purchases described above.

Deleting your data

Everything Trove stores is on your phone. Uninstalling Trove, or clearing its storage in Android Settings, deletes the index, your search history and the downloaded model. You can also clear your search history or delete the model from Trove's Settings.

Children

Trove is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update this page and its effective date.

Questions? Contact Widdle Studios at studioswiddle@gmail.com.