Privacy Policy & Data Safety

PharmaCode ("we", "our", or "us") provides open-access academic learning materials, Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) NEP 2020 syllabus guides, free downloadable unit notes, GPAT prep kits, and the PharmaHelper AI academic study tutor. This Privacy Policy informs users of our mobile application (Package ID: com.pharmacode.bpharm) and associated web portal (https://pharmacode.vercel.app) regarding the collection, handling, storage, and protection of user data.

1. Zero Mandatory Accounts & Free Educational Access

PharmaCode is built upon a philosophy of open academic education for pharmacy students across India. You are not required to create an account, provide your real name, submit your phone number, or enter any financial/payment information to access our core features. You can browse all 8 semesters of B.Pharm curricula, read unit notes, and download study PDFs completely anonymously.

2. Optional Account Data (Firebase Authentication)

Students may optionally register or log in using Google Sign-In or Email/Password to sync personal bookmarks and study history across devices. In such cases:

• Collected Data: Basic profile identifiers (Display Name, Email Address, and chosen avatar key).
• Handling: Authentication is handled securely through Google Firebase Authentication infrastructure. We never store plain text passwords.
• No Selling of Data: User email addresses are never sold, rented, or shared with third-party commercial marketing brokers.

3. Permissions Requested by the Android Application

In adherence to Google Play's Principle of Least Privilege, PharmaCode requests only minimal permissions strictly required to deliver core educational functions:

Permission	Technical Identifier	Exact Purpose & Justification
Internet Access	android.permission.INTERNET	Fetches latest syllabus curriculum updates, unit notes, and queries the PharmaHelper AI study tutor.
Network State	android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE	Monitors connectivity to serve cached offline study content when no internet connection is detected.
Notifications (Optional)	android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS	Sends voluntary daily PCI revision flashcard reminders and semester exam schedule updates. Can be disabled anytime in app settings.
Exact Study Alarms	android.permission.SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM	Schedules local study reminders and revision timers requested directly by the student.
Storage Handling	Android Scoped Storage	Saves downloaded PDF notes directly to the device's standard Downloads directory. PharmaCode does NOT request broad external storage access (MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE).

4. PharmaHelper AI Study Tutor & Prompt Data Handling

The PharmaCode mobile app features PharmaHelper, an AI tutor designed for pharmacy concept revision and syllabus explanation:

• Encrypted In-Transit: User chat questions are transmitted strictly over secure TLS 1.3 encrypted HTTPS connections to enterprise AI inference providers (Groq Inc., Google Gemini, NVIDIA NIM).
• Purpose Limitation: Prompts are processed strictly in real-time to generate academic explanations and relevant subject references.
• No Foundation Model Training: Your academic chat prompts are not used by PharmaCode to train or fine-tune public foundation AI models.
• Local Sandbox Storage: All chat message histories are saved strictly on your device inside the app's private sandbox. You can permanently wipe your entire chat history at any time using the "Clear Chat" feature in the app.

5. Third-Party SDKs & Advertising Disclosures

To keep high-quality pharmacy study notes and AI tutoring free for students nationwide, PharmaCode integrates trusted industry-standard SDKs that comply with Google Play Developer Policies:

• Google Mobile Ads (AdMob): May display non-intrusive banner or interstitial advertisements. AdMob may collect and process Google Advertising IDs (AAID) and general device telemetry to deliver contextual ads, cap impression frequencies, and combat ad fraud. For details, review Google Advertising Privacy Policy.
• Google Firebase Analytics & Crashlytics: Collects aggregated, non-personally identifiable diagnostic information (device models, Android operating system versions, and stack traces) to resolve crashes and optimize performance on low-RAM devices.

6. Google Play Data Deletion Policy & Procedures

In accordance with Google Play's 2026 User Data and Data Deletion requirements, users maintain total control over their data:

7. Children's Privacy & Families Policy

PharmaCode is designed specifically for undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy university students (B.Pharm, D.Pharm, M.Pharm, Pharm.D), faculty members, and competitive exam (GPAT/NIPER) aspirants. The application is intended for users aged 17 and older. We do not knowingly target, solicit, or collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If we learn that a user under 13 has provided personal information, we will immediately delete it.

8. Data Security Practices

We implement rigorous security safeguards to protect your information:

• All network communications between the mobile application and our backend/AI servers are encrypted using TLS 1.3.
• API credentials and sensitive configurations are obfuscated using bitwise XOR encoding and protected with ProGuard/R8 code minification.
• Local user preferences and bookmarks are confined to Android sandbox storage, isolated from other apps on your device.

9. Policy Changes & Regulatory Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect new educational features or changes in Google Play Developer Program Policies. Updates will be published directly on this page with an updated "Effective Date". Continued use of the app constitutes acknowledgment of the updated terms.