Privacy Policy — NaviCast
App name: NaviCast
Application ID: com.gioitv.navicast
Developer: gioitv (gioitv86@gmail.com)
Effective date: 2026-05-08
Last updated: 2026-09-06
1. Summary
NaviCast is an Android companion app that forwards turn-by-turn navigation icons from your phone to your paired smartwatch. Watch support currently covers Huawei devices, over Huawei Health and Huawei Wear Engine.
Notification content — the turn text, addresses, ETA and place names NaviCast reads — is never collected, stored, or transmitted off your device, on any tier. It is processed locally and discarded.
The one thing that does leave your phone is location, and only on the Ultimate tier once you enable the live map: coordinates go to open-source mapping services so they can return map tiles, a route and place names. See section 2b.
If you read nothing else, read this:
- ❌ No user accounts, no login.
- ❌ No analytics, no tracking, no advertising SDKs.
- ❌ No notification content (text, addresses, ETA, place names) is ever uploaded, stored on a server, or shared with third parties.
- ❌ No contacts, microphone, camera, SMS, or storage access.
- ⚠️ Location — Ultimate tier only, and only once you enable the live map. See section 2b.
- ✅ Reads Google Maps notifications (only) on your device, converts them to a watch-friendly notification, and hands it to the paired watch — today through Huawei Health or Huawei Wear Engine.
- 💳 NaviCast is free to try. After a free trial period, a one-time in-app purchase unlocks the app permanently. The purchase is processed entirely by Google Play Billing — NaviCast never sees, handles, or stores your payment-card details, and no purchase is tied to any account we hold (we hold none).
2. Data we collect
None. NaviCast does not collect, transmit, or persist any personal data. Specifically:
| Data type | Collected? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal identifiers (name, email, phone, account ID) | ❌ No | App has no account system |
| Location | ⚠️ Yes — Ultimate tier only | Powers the live map and standalone navigation; coordinates are sent to open-source mapping services. See section 2b |
| Contacts, SMS, call logs | ❌ No | These permissions are not requested |
| Notification content (Google Maps maneuver text, addresses) | ⚠️ Read only on-device | Used only to render an icon + distance label on a local notification. Never persisted, logged, or transmitted. |
| Device identifiers (IMEI, advertising ID) | ❌ No | App does not read device IDs |
| Crash reports, analytics, diagnostics | ❌ No | NaviCast ships without Firebase, Crashlytics, Sentry, or any analytics SDK |
| Files, photos, media | ❌ No | Storage permission is not requested |
| Payment / card details | ❌ No | One-time purchases are processed by Google Play Billing. NaviCast never receives your card number, billing address, or any payment instrument data. |
| Purchase status | ⚠️ On-device only | After you buy, NaviCast stores a local “unlocked” flag and queries Google Play to confirm your entitlement. This flag is not personal data and is not transmitted to us (we run no server). |
App settings (watch model preset, distance unit, language, theme, vibration toggle, onboarding completion flag) are stored locally on your device using Android Jetpack DataStore in the app’s private storage area. These settings:
- Never leave your device.
- Are wiped on app uninstall.
- Contain no personal data — only your UI preferences.
2b. Location — Ultimate tier only
The Ultimate tier adds a live map and a standalone navigation mode. NaviCast requests precise
location (ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) only when you turn that feature on. The Standard and
Pro tiers never request location.
Location is used to:
- centre the map on where you are, and render the map image sent to your watch;
- compute the route and the distance to the next turn;
- turn coordinates into place names when you search for or share an address.
Your coordinates are sent to the following open-source mapping services, solely for those purposes, and only while you are actively navigating:
| Service | Receives | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
api.maptiler.com or tiles.openfreemap.org |
the map area around you | map tiles |
valhalla1.openstreetmap.de |
origin and destination | route calculation |
photon.komoot.io |
coordinates or a search term | place search and reverse geocoding |
NaviCast has no server of its own, keeps no location history anywhere but on your device,
and never uses location for advertising, analytics, or profiling. NaviCast does not request
background location (ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION).
The location foreground service runs only after you press Start and stops the moment you
press Stop. Turning the map off, or revoking the location permission in Android Settings, ends
this completely.
3. Permissions we request
NaviCast requests only the minimum permissions needed to do its job:
| Permission | Why we need it |
|---|---|
BIND_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SERVICE |
To read Google Maps’ navigation notification on your phone. This is the only way to know when a maneuver is coming. The system enforces this via the “Notification access” toggle in Settings — you control when NaviCast can read notifications. |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS (Android 13+) |
To create a local notification with the maneuver icon, which the watch companion app (Huawei Health today) forwards to your watch. |
FOREGROUND_SERVICE + FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE |
To keep our notification listener alive during navigation (Android otherwise kills it after a few minutes on some devices). |
com.android.vending.BILLING |
To offer the one-time in-app purchase that unlocks the app after the free trial, via Google Play Billing. No payment data is handled by NaviCast. |
We do not request: contacts, SMS, microphone, camera, storage, Bluetooth, phone state, “query all packages”, or background location.
We do request precise location — Ultimate tier only, and only once you enable the live map. See section 2b.
You can revoke BIND_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SERVICE at any time:
Settings → Apps → Special access → Notification access → toggle NaviCast off.
When this is off, NaviCast cannot read any notification, including Google Maps. The forwarding stops immediately.
4. Third-party services
NaviCast uses Google Play Billing for purchases, and — on the Ultimate tier only — open-source mapping services for the live map. Specifically:
- ❌ No Firebase, Google Analytics, or any Google Play Services SDK beyond standard Android system services and billing.
- ❌ No Crashlytics, Sentry, Bugsnag, or other crash reporters.
- ❌ No advertising SDKs.
- ❌ No social login.
- ✅ Google Play Billing — used solely to process the one-time in-app purchase that unlocks the app after the free trial.
- ✅ Huawei IAP — the same role as Google Play Billing, for installs from AppGallery.
- ✅ MapTiler / OpenFreeMap, Valhalla, Photon — Ultimate tier only, for map tiles, routing and place search. These receive your coordinates while you navigate. See section 2b.
Google Play Billing. When you choose to buy, NaviCast hands you off to the Google Play Store app, which collects and processes your payment entirely on its side. NaviCast receives back only a purchase token / entitlement state confirming the unlock — never your card number, billing address, or any payment instrument. Google’s handling of that payment data is governed by Google’s Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy), not by us.
NaviCast interacts with Huawei Health only indirectly: it posts a regular Android notification, and Huawei Health (which you install and configure separately) reads it the same way it reads any other notification. We don’t use Huawei Health’s APIs directly.
5. Data sharing
Apart from the two cases below, we share no data with anyone, and nothing else leaves your device. Notification content is never transmitted anywhere, under any tier.
Specifically:
- We do not sell your data.
- We do not share with advertisers.
- We do not share with analytics providers.
- We do not share with law enforcement (we have no data to provide).
The first exception is location on the Ultimate tier: while you navigate, your coordinates go to the open-source mapping services listed in section 2b so they can return map tiles, a route, and place names. Those services are operated by third parties under their own privacy policies. We send them nothing but the coordinates and search terms needed for the request — no identifier, no account, no notification content.
The second exception is payment processing: if you make a purchase, your payment is handled directly between you and Google Play, under Google’s own privacy policy. NaviCast neither receives nor forwards that payment data — we only learn whether the unlock succeeded.
6. Children’s privacy
NaviCast is not directed at children under 13. The app does not knowingly collect any data from anyone, including children. Because nothing is collected, nothing concerning children needs to be stored, deleted, or reported.
7. Your rights
Because NaviCast collects no data, there is no data to access, delete, or export. However:
- To stop the app from reading notifications: revoke notification access (Settings → Apps → Special access → Notification access → NaviCast → off).
- To stop the app entirely: uninstall it. All local settings are wiped.
- To request information: contact the developer (see §10 below). We will respond within 30 days.
If you live in the EU/UK (GDPR/UK DPA), the EEA, California (CCPA), or similar jurisdictions, your rights to access/rectify/delete personal data are preserved by default — there is simply no personal data being processed.
8. Security
NaviCast follows defensive security practices:
- All processing is on-device only. There is no server.
- Notification content is held in volatile memory (RAM) for the duration of one navigation session, then released.
- No notification content is logged in release builds (verified by source code audit + ProGuard rules).
- The signed release APK is built via an automated CI pipeline; the signing key never leaves the developer’s secured environment.
- Source code is closed-source and reviewed before each release.
9. Changes to this policy
If we ever change this policy, we will:
- Update the “Last updated” date at the top.
- Note the change in app’s release notes (Play Store).
- If the change is material (e.g., we ever started collecting any data — which we have no plans to do), we will require explicit user consent before the change takes effect.
You can check the current version at: https://gioiktvt.github.io/navicast-legal/privacy-policy.html (English) or https://gioiktvt.github.io/navicast-legal/privacy-policy-vi.html (Vietnamese).
10. Contact
For questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy:
- Email: gioitv86@gmail.com
Please use English or Vietnamese.
11. Trademark notice
“Google Maps” and the Google Maps logo are trademarks of Google LLC. “Huawei”, “Huawei Health”, “Huawei Watch”, “Huawei Band”, “Huawei Watch GT”, “Huawei Watch Fit” are trademarks of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
NaviCast is an independent third-party companion app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google or Huawei. NaviCast does not use these companies’ APIs (other than reading public Android notifications, which any user-installed app with notification access can do).
This policy is written in plain English. The Vietnamese version is at privacy-policy-vi.md. Both versions are legally equivalent; in case of disagreement, the Vietnamese version controls for users in Vietnam, the English version controls elsewhere.