Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 22, 2026

This policy explains how Soft Serve Consulting (PTY) Ltd. handles information when you use our website or apps that link to this policy, including SABnzbd Remote 2.0, Control Center, Unified Press SA, Unified Press UK, Unified Press USA and Unified Press NL. Different apps use different features; the sections below distinguish their data flows.

Soft Serve Consulting (PTY) Ltd. is based at Bain Str 7, Wellington, 7655, Western Cape, South Africa. Contact us about privacy at enquiries@soft-serve.co.za. This notice explains our practices; it does not replace a consent request where one is required.

1. Information stored on your device

Unified Press

The news apps do not require an app account. Downloaded news, bookmarks, read/archive flags, source selections and display preferences are stored on your device. Searching downloaded news is performed locally. The apps do not provide a Soft Serve cloud account that synchronises your bookmarks or preferences.

You can remove saved items using the app’s available controls, or remove app-local data through your device settings. Clearing app data or uninstalling does not by itself delete information already sent to a server or SDK provider. Your operating system or backup service may retain or restore app data according to its settings; manage those copies through that service.

SABnzbd Remote 2.0 and Control Center

Server connection settings, such as server addresses, ports, paths, API keys and optional authentication credentials, and app preferences are primarily stored in app-private storage on your device. Requests needed to operate your configured server are sent to that server using the settings you provide. We do not operate your SABnzbd server. Its operator controls its request logs and stored data.

2. Information Soft Serve receives or controls

Some app and website activity necessarily involves sending information off your device, even where no app account exists:

News-service requests: Unified Press contacts our backend to retrieve news and available publishers. Our hosting and web-server infrastructure receives technical request information, including IP addresses, request times, requested paths, response status and client information, and keeps access/error logs for operation, security and troubleshooting.
Article votes: when you like or dislike an article, the app sends the article identifier/title and the vote change to our backend. The news database stores aggregate article vote totals rather than registered user voting profiles. Technical request logs may still be generated.
Support and website submissions: if you email us or submit information through our website, we receive the information you send, such as your email address and the contents of your request.
Information processed on our behalf: some analytics, diagnostics or other data may be stored by a service provider for us rather than on our own servers. Data does not cease to be under our responsibility merely because a provider stores it.

We use information we control to provide the requested service, maintain reliability and security, investigate faults, respond to support or privacy requests, and meet applicable legal obligations. Do not send passwords, API keys or unrelated sensitive information in support or privacy requests.

3. Data collected through advertising and analytics SDKs

Our apps integrate third-party software development kits (SDKs). The current Unified Press Android editions include Google AdMob, Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics. These SDKs can transmit information directly to Google, without that information passing through our news database. SDK collection is still part of the app’s data practices.

Google AdMob: advertising-related information can include IP addresses used to estimate approximate location, advertising/app/device identifiers, app and advertisement interactions, and technical performance information. Google uses this information for advertising, measurement and fraud prevention, subject to the applicable configuration and choices.
Google Analytics for Firebase: information can include app-instance/device identifiers, app usage and interaction events, device/app information and approximate geographic information. Our app also reports some operational errors as analytics events.
Firebase Crashlytics: information can include crash stack traces, app/device state, installation identifiers and diagnostics. Analytics events may also be used as breadcrumbs to help diagnose a crash.

These are technical and usage data; lack of an app account does not mean the app collects no personal data or that every identifier is anonymous. Unified Press does not require precise GPS location, contacts, microphone or camera access for its core news-reading features. Approximate location may nevertheless be derived from IP addresses by SDK providers.

Who controls SDK data depends on the service and its terms. Where Google or another provider processes personal data on our behalf, we handle requests concerning data we control and use the provider’s available controls and procedures. Where a provider processes data independently, its privacy policy, retention rules and user controls apply to that processing. These distinctions do not exclude responsibilities we retain under applicable law.

Relevant provider information and controls:

4. Consent and privacy choices

Where applicable, Unified Press displays Google’s advertising consent message. When available, the privacy-options entry in app Settings lets you revisit those choices. Your device and Google account may provide additional advertising-identifier or advertising controls.

Refusing personalised advertising does not necessarily stop all advertising-related or diagnostic processing. The current in-app advertising choices are not a general on/off switch for Firebase Analytics or Crashlytics. Changing a consent choice or resetting an advertising identifier does not itself erase all previously collected data. Provider controls and deletion processes are described in the links above.

5. Publisher websites, images and other services

News images may be loaded directly from publishers or their image-hosting services. Opening a publisher’s article loads its website, which may receive technical request information, use cookies or require its own account or subscription. Those publishers control their own services and explain their processing in their privacy policies. A publisher account is separate from Unified Press.

Likewise, a SABnzbd server or other endpoint you configure receives the requests you send to it. Contact its operator about data it holds.

6. Website cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to support its functions and, where enabled, traffic measurement. Cookies may last for a session or remain until they expire or are removed. You can manage browser cookies through your browser settings and any consent controls provided by the website. Website cookie choices and in-app advertising choices are separate.

7. Sharing and processing locations

Information is disclosed to our hosting and other service providers as needed to operate the service, and through the advertising, analytics, diagnostic and publisher interactions described above. Advertising involves data sharing; provider terms and your available choices govern the relevant processing. We may also disclose information when legally required, to protect the service or people’s rights and safety, in a business transfer, or for another purpose explained to you with consent where required.

Service providers may process information in countries other than your own. Applicable legal requirements and the relevant provider arrangements govern that processing and any required safeguards.

8. Retention

We retain personal information we control for the purposes described here, including service operation, support, security and applicable legal obligations. Retention differs between local app data, support correspondence, technical logs and provider-held records.

Local app data remains subject to your app/device controls and backup settings.
Our news databases have scheduled cleanup intended to retain approximately two weeks of articles when cleanup runs. Older articles can remain between runs or be received again from a publisher. This article-maintenance process is not a retention or deletion policy for user data, server logs, analytics, advertising or crash reports.
SDK/provider-held data is subject to the applicable service’s retention/deletion procedures, contractual terms and any retention settings we control. There is no single two-week or 90-day deletion period covering all services.
Information may need to be retained for legal obligations, security, disputes or other applicable grounds. Deletion from active systems and expiry of backup copies may follow different processes.

9. Access, correction and deletion requests

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information Soft Serve controls, including information a service provider processes on our behalf. Email enquiries@soft-serve.co.za with the subject Privacy request.

Tell us which app or website your request concerns, what you want us to do, and enough context to locate the relevant information, such as the approximate dates of a support conversation or service interaction. We may request proportionate additional information to verify the request and locate the records. Do not send passwords or API keys.

We will review the request, act on data we control in accordance with applicable law, and use available service-provider procedures where relevant. Some SDK records use installation or device identifiers rather than your email address; we may not be able to locate them from an email address alone. We will explain material identification limitations, applicable retention requirements or other reasons that affect the request, rather than promise that every record can be erased immediately.

For data a provider controls independently, its own privacy policy and user controls govern access and deletion. We can identify the relevant provider and direct you to its process, but cannot delete a Google account, a publisher account or independently controlled provider records for you. This does not remove our responsibility for data processed on our behalf.

Deleting app-local data, requesting deletion from Soft Serve and using a provider’s deletion controls are separate actions. A request to one party does not automatically erase records held independently by another.

10. Security

Unified Press uses HTTPS to contact its production news APIs. Google documents HTTPS/TLS encryption in transit for the SDK data described above. No system or security measure can guarantee absolute security.

SABnzbd Remote 2.0 and Control Center can connect to servers you configure. If you select an HTTP rather than HTTPS endpoint, information sent to that server may be unencrypted. This user-configured server setting is separate from Unified Press’s production news-service connection.

11. Children’s privacy

Our service is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

12. Changes and contact

We may update this policy to reflect changes to our apps or data practices. Published revisions will show an updated date, and we will provide additional notice where required.

Privacy and support contact: enquiries@soft-serve.co.za.