MxDown Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2026-11-07
Developer: MxDown
Contact email: mxdownapp@gmail.com
MxDown (“the app”) is a video downloader and local player with a built-in browser. Our principle is simple: your browsing history, bookmarks and downloads stay on your device. The app has no accounts and we don’t collect your personal information.
1. What we don’t collect
- The app has no sign-up or sign-in and never asks for your name, email address or phone number.
- The app has no third-party analytics, statistics or crash-reporting services. It does show ads (Google AdMob); see “Advertising” below.
- We don’t upload the addresses you visit, your search terms, bookmarks, downloaded files or playback history to our servers.
Advertising
The app shows ads served by Google AdMob: a full-screen ad when you start a download (at most once every few minutes, never while you are playing a video) and a card in the finished-downloads list. To serve and measure ads, AdMob may collect and use your device’s advertising ID, IP address and ad interaction data, subject to Google’s own policies (https://policies.google.com/privacy). Your browsing history, bookmarks, search terms and downloaded files are never passed to AdMob.
Where the law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area and the UK) the app asks for your consent before requesting ads and lets you change your choice later under Settings → Ad privacy settings. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in your Android settings.
2. Data stored on your device
The following data is kept only in the app’s private storage and is deleted when you uninstall the app:
| Data | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Browsing history (the latest 500 entries), bookmarks, open tabs, search engine setting | Lets you pick up where you left off | You can clear entries one by one or all at once in the app’s History and Bookmarks pages |
| Download task list, temporary files | Shows progress and allows resuming | Temporary files are cleaned up when a task finishes or is removed; the Storage page can also clean them up |
| Web data (cookies, cache, site local storage) | Kept by the system WebView to keep you signed in to sites and speed up loading | Same as any browser |
| Site-rules cache | See section 4 | A very small text file |
The videos and audio you download are saved in your device’s shared folders (by default Download/MxDown; you can switch to Movies/MxDown and Music/MxDown in Settings) and are never uploaded anywhere.
3. Network connections: where your device connects
- Websites you visit. The built-in browser connects directly to the sites you type or tap. Those sites handle your visit under their own privacy policies; we don’t process these requests. A few sites still use unencrypted HTTP: when you visit one, other people on the same network may be able to see the pages and content you view, and the address bar shows the full
http://address. We only make such a connection when you open or download such an address yourself, and we never downgrade an HTTPS address to HTTP. - Search terms. Keywords (not addresses) typed in the address bar are sent to the search engine you chose in Settings (Bing, Google, Baidu or DuckDuckGo), which handles them under its own privacy policy. We don’t process these requests.
- Clipboard. The app reads the text on your clipboard only when you tap the “Paste & go” button under the address bar, and uses it only on your device. Checking whether the clipboard holds text does not read its content.
- Links shared to the app. When you share a link to MxDown from another app, the app reads the web address (http/https) in it on your device only and opens it in a new tab; nothing is uploaded.
- Content you download. When downloading, the app connects directly to the server that provides the file and, like a browser, sends a User-Agent, the source page (Referer) and the cookies that site already has in the WebView so that the server accepts the request. Cookies are used only for that request; we don’t read them to store or upload them. If the file’s address itself is
http://, that request (including the cookies sent with it) is not encrypted. - When detecting videos. When you open the video detection list, the app may ask the video’s server for the file size or read details such as quality and duration (HLS playlists), in the same way as a download. If the site’s data includes a preview picture of a video or image, the list requests that small picture from the server that provides it (sending only a User-Agent and the source page, no cookies); it is shown on your device and kept in memory only, never saved or uploaded. For a downloadable video file the site gave no picture for, the list may read the first frame of that file from the server that provides it (only a User-Agent and the source page are sent, no cookies); the frame is likewise only shown and kept in memory.
- Site-rules update (the only request sent to our server). To comply with app store policies and applicable laws, the app periodically requests a list of sites it won’t download from from
mxdown.cc. The request contains only the app variant (flavor), the version number and the Android version number — no device identifier and none of your usage. As with any network request, the server necessarily sees the request’s IP address. We do not keep access logs of requests to our site. The site’s hosting provider may process request data under its own policy.
4. Permissions
| Permission | Why it is needed |
|---|---|
| Network (INTERNET) | Browse the web, download files, update the site rules |
| Foreground service (data sync) | Keeps downloads running after you switch to another app or lock the screen, with progress in the notification |
| Foreground service (media playback) | Keeps local video/audio playing in the background, with playback controls in the notification |
| Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS, Android 13 and later) | Shows download progress, alerts when a download finishes or fails, and playback controls. Asked on your first download; downloads still work if you decline. The completion alert can be turned off in Settings |
| Network state (ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE) | Tells whether the current connection is metered (for the optional “Wi-Fi only downloads”) and whether the network is available when playing network sources. Only the connection type is read — not the network name or location |
| Keep awake (WAKE_LOCK) | Stops the device from sleeping and interrupting background playback |
The app does not request storage, camera, microphone, location, contacts or SMS permissions. Files are saved through the system media library interface, so the app never needs to read your other files.
5. System backup and switching phones
Your bookmarks, browsing history, open tabs, download records, playback positions and web data (cookies, site local storage) are not included in Android’s cloud backup (such as Google backup) and are not carried over when you switch devices. After moving to a new device they need to be added again.
Only a few preferences that contain no browsing information (save location, number of simultaneous downloads, Wi-Fi only downloads, the completion-alert switch and appearance) may be backed up to your own account under the system’s rules. Backups are managed by the operating system and your account provider; we can’t access them. You can turn off app data backup in system settings.
6. Third-party components
The app uses open-source components for playback and format handling (Android Media3 and FFmpegKit). They run locally on your device and don’t send data to us or to any other third party.
7. Children
The app is meant for a general audience and is not designed for children under 13; we don’t knowingly collect children’s information. The built-in browser can reach the open web, so guardians should use the system’s parental controls where appropriate.
8. Copyright and compliance
Please download only content you own or are authorised to save, and follow each site’s terms of service and local law. The app doesn’t bypass DRM (digital rights management) or access restrictions and doesn’t download DRM-protected content.
9. Your rights
We don’t hold your personal data, so there is normally nothing for you to access or delete. You can clear history, bookmarks and download records in the app at any time, or uninstall the app to delete all local data. If you have questions about this policy, contact us at the email address above.
10. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the effective date. Significant changes will be mentioned in the app’s release notes.