Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Bengal Heroes is developed, maintained, and published by Bengal Bytes. For any privacy queries, fact verification requests, or data-deletion inquiries, contact our Data Protection Team at contact@bengalbytes.com.

This Privacy Policy applies to the Bengal Heroes Android application (package: com.bengalbytes.bengalheroes) distributed via the Google Play Store, its official web portals, and deep links (scheme: bengalheroes://hero/<id>).

2. Data We Do Not Collect

We respect your personal boundary and practice strict data minimization:

• We do not access, request, or store your phone number, contacts list, SMS, call history, or device files.
• We do not request precise GPS location, camera permissions, or audio microphone access.
• We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any data brokers or advertising exchanges.
• We do not use intrusive full-screen App Open Ads that disrupt application startup.

3. Data Stored On Your Device (Local Storage)

The following information is stored strictly within the app's sandboxed local storage on your device and is wiped immediately upon uninstalling the app (or when clearing app data from Android Settings):

• Saved Heroes & Favourites: Bookmarked historical figures and recent search history.
• Offline BCS Quiz Progress: Accumulated Gyan Bindu (XP) points, best scores, daily streaks, hearts, and completion records.
• Offline Content Cache: Static biographies and historical question banks (heroes.json, quiz_bank.json).
• Local Preferences: Theme selection, language choice (English / Bengali), and onboarding state.
• Local Chat History: The latest messages cached locally on-device for instant, offline presentation.

4. Data We Process When You Use Optional Features

The educational encyclopedia is 100% accessible offline without sign-in. If you choose to engage with our optional online features, we process:

• Google Sign-In (Community Chat & Discussions): When signing in via Google, Firebase Authentication processes your Google user ID (UID), public display name, email address, and avatar URL solely to authenticate your identity and attribute your contributions.
• Community Chat Messages: The text and timestamps of messages you post, synchronized via Firebase Realtime Database and Cloud Firestore (asia-southeast1 region). To ensure conversational privacy and prevent unbounded storage accumulation, chat messages are retained for a rolling window of 15 days, after which they are permanently and automatically deleted.
• Hero Biography Comments & Tributes: Public perspectives and feedback shared under historical hero profiles, attributed to your public display name.
• Daily BCS Quiz Leaderboard: An anonymous device UUID, chosen display name, XP total, streak count, and timestamp, synchronized with Deno KV to compile the competitive top-50 leaderboard.
• Crowdsourced Fact Reports ("তথ্য সংশোধন"): Submitted historical correction notes, citations/book references, and an optional contact email if editorial follow-up is requested.

4a. User-Generated Content (UGC) & Safety Moderation

In strict compliance with Google Play Developer Program Policies regarding User-Generated Content (UGC), Bengal Heroes enforces rigorous moderation to maintain a respectful, family-friendly educational space:

• Automated Real-Time Moderation: All messages in community chat and hero comments are screened locally on-device before transmission using our proprietary multi-dialect profanity engine. The engine detects and blocks profanities, hate speech, vulgarity, harassment, sexually explicit content, religious/ethnic defamation, and masked obscenities (including leetspeak number substitutions and symbol separation) across English, Bengali Unicode script, and phonetic Banglish. Messages containing violations cannot be sent.
• Zero Tolerance Policy: Abusive conduct, hate speech, defamation, obscenity, cyberbullying, sexual remarks, commercial spam, and incitement to violence are strictly prohibited. Non-compliant accounts are subject to immediate, permanent restriction.
• Curator Announcements & Badging: Official historians and Bengal Bytes team members are verified with a distinct golden shield badge ("CURATOR") and announcement banners. Curators actively monitor public community threads and hold administrative authority to purge offending content and revoke posting privileges.
• In-App Reporting & Deletion: Users can flag objectionable content or abusive participants. Users can also delete their own messages directly inside the app by long-pressing their message.

5. Security & Encryption Standards

• Encryption in Transit: All data transmitted between the Bengal Heroes app, Firebase, and our Deno KV Edge API is strictly encrypted using industry-standard HTTPS / TLS 1.3 encryption.
• Authentication Token Security: Auth credentials and tokens are secured via Firebase Authentication with automated token refresh. Plaintext passwords are never stored.
• Database Security Rules: Firestore and Realtime Database rules enforce authenticated writes, prevent unauthorized user impersonation, and safeguard polling and tributes.
• Server-Side XP Validation: Leaderboard scores and XP are computed and verified to prevent tampering.

6. Third-Party Services & Advertising Compliance

Our app incorporates trusted industry SDKs compliant with Google Play Developer Policies:

• Google AdMob: Displays adaptive banners, native units, rewarded videos, and interstitials. Strictly no app-open ads are used. Rewarded video ads are strictly opt-in and user-initiated (e.g. to recover hearts in the BCS quiz or unlock additional daily community chat messages). The app complies with Google Play Families and COPPA content guidelines. You can reset or delete your AAID and opt out of personalised advertising in Android → Settings → Privacy → Ads. See the Google Privacy Policy.
• Firebase (Authentication, Realtime Database, Cloud Firestore, Crashlytics, Analytics & Performance): Powers authentication, low-latency community chat streaming, crash diagnostics, and network performance metrics. Custom analytics events do not include search text, chat content, or email addresses. See the Firebase Privacy Policy.
• Deno Deploy / Deno KV: Hosts the edge synchronization API, question pools, and competitive leaderboards. See the Deno Privacy Policy.
• Google Fonts: Web fonts loaded on this portal.

7. Advertising & User Consent (AdMob & Families Policy)

Advertising revenue keeps Bengal Heroes free and accessible to students across Bangladesh and worldwide. We implement Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) to obtain consent where required (EEA, UK, Switzerland) before loading personalized ads. Rewarded ads are always user-initiated, and interstitial ads are capped by a cooldown guard to prevent intrusive popups.

8. Data Retention & 15-Day Auto TTL Schedule

• Community Chat Messages: Retained for a rolling maximum period of 15 days, after which messages are automatically and permanently purged from active database storage via automated TTL cleanup. Users can also delete their own messages immediately at any time.
• Hero Biography Comments: Retained while relevant to historical discussions; deleted upon user request or moderation.
• Leaderboard Records: Retained while actively participating in quiz rankings; inactive accounts may be pruned periodically.
• Fact Corrections: Retained for editorial verification. Accepted corrections become part of the encyclopedic database without identifying information.
• Local App Data: Cleared immediately upon app uninstallation or clearing cache in device settings.

9. Your Data Rights & Deletion Process

In accordance with the Google Play User Data Policy, GDPR, and global privacy standards, you have the absolute right to request access to, correction of, or permanent erasure of your data:

• Web Deletion Portal: Use our integrated Account & Data Deletion Tab to send an automated pre-filled request to contact@bengalbytes.com.
• In-App Deletion: In the app, navigate to Settings → Account & Privacy → Sign Out & Purge Local Data, or long-press your chat message to delete it directly.
• Email Direct: Email us directly at contact@bengalbytes.com from your registered Google account email.

All deletion requests are verified and permanently fulfilled within 7 to 30 days without any questioning.

10. Children's Privacy

Bengal Heroes is an educational application intended for general audiences, students, and competitive exam candidates (such as BCS and university admissions). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under the age of 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal details, please notify us at contact@bengalbytes.com, and we will purge the record immediately.

11. Contact Our Data Protection Team