For the Oriole Android app · Last updated 1 September 2026
The short version. Oriole has no accounts, no advertising, and no analytics or tracking of any kind. Your settings, bookmarks and keys stay on your phone. When you search, your search words go to the server you chose, and nothing is contacted at all until you make that choice. When you stream or download, you join a BitTorrent swarm, and your IP address is visible to the other people in it, exactly as it is with any BitTorrent client.
Oriole ("the app") is an independent Android application developed by an individual developer ("we", "us"). This policy explains what the app does with information. It covers the app itself and the optional public-domain library server that we operate. It does not cover other servers you may choose to connect the app to, or the wider BitTorrent network, both of which are outside our control.
The following is stored locally on your phone and is not transmitted to us:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Server address and access key | So the app knows where to search. The key is held in Android's encrypted storage where the device supports it; on the rare device whose keystore refuses, the app stores it unencrypted and tells you so in Settings. |
| AI search API key (optional) | Only if you choose to use AI search with your own key. Stored the same way as above. |
| Bookmarks | The results you chose to keep, so they still work later. |
| Settings | Wi-Fi-only, buffer size, and similar preferences. |
| BitTorrent network state | A few kilobytes recording which BitTorrent nodes answered last time, so the next file starts sooner instead of finding the network from scratch. It is a list of network addresses, holds nothing about you or what you watched, is never sent to us, and goes when you uninstall. |
| Downloaded file data | Held in storage reserved for the app while streaming, fully walled off from other apps on Android 10 and newer; on Android 9 and older it sits in the app's own folder of shared storage, which other apps with storage access could technically read. Clearing the cache in Settings, or uninstalling the app, removes it. |
Files you deliberately save are yours, and are written outside the app's own storage so that clearing its cache never touches them. On Android 10 and newer they go to your device's Downloads folder by default and remain there after uninstall. You can choose a different folder in Settings; picking one grants Oriole lasting access to that folder and nothing else, which Android remembers until you change it or uninstall the app. On Android 9 and older, writing there would require broad access to your storage that this app does not ask for, so they go to the app's own folder in shared storage instead, and Android removes that folder when you uninstall. The app reports the actual location when a save finishes rather than always naming Downloads.
Oriole asks on first launch where files should come from, and contacts nothing until you answer. Once you have chosen, searching sends your search words and filters, plus the access key for that server, to that server over an encrypted HTTPS connection. Your device's IP address is necessarily visible to it, as it is to any website you visit. If you point the app at someone else's server, that server's operator decides what to do with those requests; their policy applies, not ours.
If you use the built-in library, the above requests come to a server we run. It receives your search words and your IP address. We keep short-lived operational logs for security and to keep the service running, we do not use them to build profiles of users, and we do not share them with anyone except where we are legally required to. We do not link searches to any identity, because we do not have one for you.
AI search only works if you supply your own OpenRouter API key. When you use it, your question and the search results being considered are sent to OpenRouter and the model provider you selected, under your own account and their privacy policies. If you never enter a key, no such request is ever made.
AI search may also use a web search. To recognise a title you have half-remembered, the model can run a small number of web searches — by default at most one per question. That search is carried out by OpenRouter, not by the app: Oriole sends your question to OpenRouter and nowhere else, and OpenRouter passes what it needs to its own search provider under its privacy policy. Your question can therefore reach a search engine as well as a model. You can turn this off in Settings, and it never happens without an API key.
Tracked topics use the same path while you are not watching. A topic is a query you save so the app can re-run it on a schedule you choose. Each run sends that query, and the results being considered, to OpenRouter exactly as an AI search does — in the background, on your own key and at your own cost. Topics exist only if you create them, they can be paused or deleted individually, and the app stops checking on its own when the phone has gone unused for a while, so a forgotten topic does not keep spending. With no key and no topics, nothing runs in the background.
Streaming or downloading a torrent means participating in a peer-to-peer swarm. This is how BitTorrent works: your IP address is visible to the other peers and trackers in that swarm, and theirs to you. Those peers are unrelated third parties, not us, and we neither collect nor receive that information. Peer and tracker traffic is also not encrypted the way a website is, so the fact that you are using BitTorrent can be visible to anyone who can observe your network. If any of this matters for your situation, use a VPN or do not use BitTorrent software.
To find peers, the app announces to a list of public BitTorrent trackers. That list
is refreshed at most once a day from a public, uptime-checked list
published at github.com/ngosang/trackerslist, fetched from GitHub or a
public mirror. The request is an ordinary download of a text file: it sends nothing
about you, your searches or what you are watching, though — like any web request —
your IP address is visible to whoever serves it. It happens only once the download
engine starts, which is after you have chosen a source, and never on first launch.
A copy is kept on the phone, so the app still works if the list cannot be reached.
| Permission | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Internet, network and Wi-Fi state | To reach your chosen server and the BitTorrent swarm, and to honour the Wi-Fi-only setting. |
| Foreground service (media playback / data sync) | So playback and downloads continue with the screen off, with a notification you can stop from. |
| Notifications | To show what is playing or downloading, and to send the digest for a topic you chose to track. Declining costs you the notification, not the feature. |
| Wake lock / Wi-Fi lock | To stop the device sleeping mid-download or mid-playback. |
| Wi-Fi multicast | To find televisions and Chromecast devices on your own network when you tap Cast. Discovery is a standard local broadcast asking what is on the network; it stops when you pick a device, and nothing about your network is sent anywhere. |
To play a file while it is still arriving, the app runs a small HTTP server on the phone itself. It listens on the local network as well as on the phone's own loopback address, because a television you cast to fetches the file over the network and cannot read the app's memory. Every request to it must carry a long random token that is generated afresh each time the server starts, so other devices on the same Wi-Fi cannot browse or download what you are watching. The server serves only files the app is currently working with, and it reaches nothing outside the app's own storage.
Oriole is not directed at children and is not designed for use by children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age where you live). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Because we hold no account and no profile for you, there is normally nothing personal of yours for us to export or delete. You can remove everything the app holds by clearing the cache in Settings and uninstalling it. If you believe we hold information about you and want it removed, write to us at the address below and we will act on it.
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and material changes will be noted in the app's release notes.
Questions about this policy, or about privacy in the app: orioleandroidapp@gmail.com.