This policy explains how the Argus Sentinel Android app handles information when you use its security, account, and optional family features. Contact the Argus Sentinel team at support@argussentinel.com.au about this policy or your information. The separate Argus browser extension and Windows app have their own practices.
Information the app handles
Account details. Firebase Authentication processes your email address and sign-in credentials when you create or use an account. Google sign-in is also available. The first and last name you provide are stored in your Firebase profile.
Apps and device security. Argus can inspect installed app names and package identifiers, installation and removal events, foreground app activity, app permissions and components, APK metadata, and your device model and Android version. APK scanning can extract feature identifiers, hashes, and URL strings embedded in the APK. The app keeps observed features, classification results, and quarantine state locally to detect changes and avoid repeated classifier requests. Account-linked Firebase telemetry can include install events, installer source, APK size, requested-permission and app-component lists, device details, and scan results.
Network protection. When the Argus VPN is enabled, the app can observe destination IP addresses, domains and DNS requests, HTTP host names or TLS server names, connection times, and block decisions. It uses these details to check threat lists, show recent activity, apply website policies, and enforce quarantine. It does not decrypt HTTPS content. Locations displayed for network activity are estimated from IP data rather than a device location permission.
Optional message protection. If you grant notification access, Argus can read the sender and text of supported messaging notifications for local risk analysis. If you separately enable Gmail protection and authorize Gmail access, the app retrieves recent inbox messages, including sender, subject, body, links, and attachment filenames, for analysis on your device. Flagged Gmail messages can be kept in encrypted app storage. If you choose to mark a message as spam, the app asks Gmail to move it to Spam. The Android app does not intentionally upload message bodies to its classifier or Firebase.
Optional family and guardian features. Linked accounts can share device names, security status, threat summaries, and detection reasons. An approved guardian enrollment can share installed-app inventory and threat findings with the approved guardian, who can issue supported app-control instructions. The enrolled device downloads website-filtering policies.
Diagnostics, notifications, and pairing. Firebase Analytics, Crashlytics, and Performance Monitoring are enabled by default in release builds and can send app activity, crash, and performance diagnostics to Google. You can turn diagnostics off in the app. Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers service announcements, which the app keeps in its local notification inbox. Camera access is requested for QR-code pairing when you choose that feature.
How information is used and shared
Argus uses the information above to identify potentially harmful apps and destinations, explain detections, support quarantine and approved guardian controls, synchronize account history, troubleshoot the app, and maintain its security features.
For cloud classification, Argus sends an app package identifier, an app identifier, and mapped feature IDs to its Google Cloud classifier. The classifier returns a score, label, and explanations. The request does not contain the APK file itself. Account-linked telemetry and scan results are stored separately in Firebase.
Research sharing is separate and off by default. If you opt in with a verified account, Argus can send limited samples to Firebase Realtime Database: a pseudonymous installation identifier, an APK or app hash, mapped and limited unmapped features, the predicted label, and the scan source. Turning research sharing off stops new submissions and requests removal of that account’s research samples. Protection and classification continue without research sharing.
Google provides Firebase Authentication, Firestore, Realtime Database, diagnostics services, Gmail access, and the Google Cloud classifier. The configured classifier endpoint is in Thailand and the research Realtime Database is in Singapore. Other Google services may process information in other countries. Authorized Argus administrators may access cloud records for security, support, and service operation. Approved linked accounts and guardians receive the information described for their respective features. Visiting this policy website also gives Firebase Hosting ordinary connection information, such as an IP address and request time.
Storage and retention
The in-app network activity log is held in memory for a rolling 15 minutes. An export you request is written to your device’s Downloads folder and remains there until you remove it. The app can keep up to 100 classification-history entries and up to 100 flagged Gmail messages locally. Its app-feature cache persists across restarts and updates so unchanged features do not need to be sent to the classifier again.
Account telemetry, scan results, profile details, and optional family or guardian records are held in Firebase. There is no single automatic retention period for all of these cloud records in the Android app. Optional research samples include an expiration timestamp about 29 days after creation; that timestamp does not by itself establish when every stored copy or backup is erased. Google may retain service and security logs under its own practices.
Clear scan history removes account telemetry and scan-result records from Firestore and clears local classification history. It does not remove the app-feature cache or files you exported to Downloads. The in-app account-deletion flow attempts to remove research samples, account telemetry, scan results, the profile, and the Firebase Authentication identity. It currently requires password reauthentication, so a Google-only sign-in user may need to request deletion through support. Optional family and guardian records are managed separately, and exported files remain on the device. Uninstalling the app removes its app-private local storage under Android’s normal behavior; it does not remove exported files or necessarily delete cloud records. Contact us about records these controls do not cover.
Your choices and automated decisions
You can manage monitoring, VPN network telemetry, Gmail protection, research sharing, and diagnostics in the app, subject to Android permissions and approved guardian controls. A saved quarantine decision may keep the VPN running even if optional network telemetry is turned off. You can revoke Android permissions in system settings, although this can disable the related protection.
Classification is automated and can be wrong. A threat decision may warn you, quarantine an app, or restrict its network access. Contact us if you believe a decision is incorrect.
Access, correction, deletion, and complaints
Email support@argussentinel.com.au to ask for access to or correction or deletion of information associated with your account, or to make a privacy complaint. Tell us which account and records your request concerns. We may need to verify that you control the account before disclosing or changing its information. We will review the request and respond through the support channel. If you are in Australia and remain dissatisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when the app or its data practices change. The date above identifies this version.