Arb VPN — Privacy Policy

01 Data inventory

1.1 Stored only on your device (never transmitted by us)

The split-tunnel app picker reads the list of launchable apps installed on your device so you can pick which ones bypass the VPN. That list is read on your device and shown to you. It is never sent to us. Only the package names you actually choose are saved, and only on your device.

The diagnostic log records timestamps, an error tag, an error message and a stack trace. Before anything is written to disk, text that matches the shape of a WireGuard key is replaced with [REDACTED_KEY]. This log stays on your device. It leaves only if you tap "Report a problem" and deliberately share it yourself through Android's share sheet — at which point it goes wherever you send it (your email app, a messaging app, and so on). We do not upload it, and there is no crash-reporting or analytics SDK in the app.

Your WireGuard private key never leaves your device. It is not sent to our server, is not in any network request, and is not written to the diagnostic log.

1.2 Sent to and stored by our server

Your public IP address is personal data under the GDPR and similar laws. We record it only at the moment your app registers a device, and only to make that rate limit work. It is not recorded while you browse, is not linked to any traffic, and is not used for advertising or profiling.

We also write server error logs when a device registration or revocation fails. Those entries contain the device ID and the error text — no keys, no IP address, no traffic.

1.3 What our VPN server does not log

We verified each of the following against the actual WireGuard server configuration and installation script:

• No traffic content. There is no packet capture, no proxy, no TLS interception. Traffic is forwarded by the Linux kernel and network-address-translated out.
• No browsing or connection history. No record of the sites, IP addresses or services you reach through the tunnel.
• No DNS query logs. We do not operate a DNS resolver at all (see section 3 on Cloudflare).
• No traffic logging directives of any kind in the WireGuard interface configuration.

What WireGuard itself unavoidably holds in memory while running: each peer's public key, its allowed tunnel IP, and the time of its most recent handshake, plus the cumulative byte counters we read for the fair-use cap. That is inherent to how WireGuard works. It is not a record of your activity, but it is not nothing, and we would rather state it than pretend otherwise.

02 Advertising (please read this part)

Arb VPN is free and is paid for by ads served through the Google Mobile Ads SDK (AdMob). The SDK is initialised when the app starts.

This is the part of the app that collects the most data, and none of that collection is done by our own code. Google's SDK collects — independently of anything we store — data such as your device's advertising identifier, IP address, device and operating-system information, coarse location inferred from your IP address, and ad interaction and measurement signals. Google uses this to select, deliver, cap and measure ads, and to detect ad fraud. We do not receive your advertising ID or your IP address from Google; we see only aggregate earnings reporting.

Ad formats in this build:

• Interstitial ads — integrated and shown. Only after a completed disconnect, never during connection, at most once every 3 minutes and at most 4 per app session.
• Banner and rewarded ads — supported by the app but not shown anywhere in this build.
• The "Sponsored" card in the server list does not currently load an ad.

Regardless of which formats are live, the SDK is initialised at app start and will collect the signals described above.

To understand and control what Google collects:

• Google's advertising privacy information: policies.google.com/technologies/ads
• Google's Privacy Policy: policies.google.com/privacy
• You can reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings → Google → Ads.

Your choice about personalised ads. The app uses Google's User Messaging Platform to ask for your consent before any ad is requested. If you are in a region where consent is required, you will see Google's consent form the first time you open the app, and the advertising SDK is not started until you have answered it. If you decline, or if consent cannot be obtained, the VPN still works normally — no feature of the app is withheld.

03 Third parties

We do not sell your data. We do not share it with data brokers. We do not run any analytics SDK.

04 Where the server is, and why that matters

Arb VPN currently runs a single VPN server. In the app it is presented as the "United States" location, because that is how it is presented to the services you visit. The physical machine is located in Malaysia. We are telling you this because it is true and because it affects you: your traffic physically transits and exits that machine, and is subject to the laws of Malaysia, as well as those of the State of Florida, United States where the operator is established.

No specific US city is claimed anywhere in the app; the location entry is labelled "Automatic" for that reason.

If you use the app from outside those countries, your data is transferred internationally as an inherent part of using a VPN. By using the service you understand that this transfer is the service.

05 Children

Arb VPN is not directed to children. It is not intended for anyone under 13, or under 16 in jurisdictions where that is the applicable age. We do not knowingly collect data from children. Because the app has no accounts, we have no way to determine a user's age. If you believe a child has used the app and you want the associated device record removed, contact support@arbsbuy.com and we will delete it.

The app serves advertising and is not enrolled in Google Play's Designed for Families programme.

06 Your rights and how to exercise them

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or restrict the processing of your personal data, and to complain to a data protection authority.

Because we hold no account and no name, the practical mechanisms are:

Deleting your server-side record. The app calls a revoke endpoint that removes your device's WireGuard peer from the server and marks the device revoked. Revoking stops the tunnel immediately, but by itself it leaves the device record and its byte totals in place. For full erasure — the device record, its byte counters and its usage history — email support@arbsbuy.com with your device ID and we will delete it.

Deleting everything on your phone. Android Settings → Apps → Arb VPN → Storage → Clear storage, or simply uninstall. This destroys your device ID, both WireGuard keys, all settings, and the diagnostic log. A new device ID is generated if you use the app again, and we have no way to connect the two.

Access. Email support@arbsbuy.com with your device ID and we will tell you what is held against it. We cannot identify you by name, so we can only answer for a device ID you are able to supply.

We aim to respond within 30 days.

Legal bases (EEA/UK users). Where the UK GDPR or EU GDPR applies to you, we rely on:

• Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) for the data needed to actually provide the tunnel you asked for: your device ID, your WireGuard public key, the tunnel IP we assign, and connection timestamps. Without these there is no service to deliver.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) for the short-lived registration IP log and the data-transfer totals. Our interest is keeping a free service usable and available — preventing bulk automated sign-ups, and enforcing a fair-use limit so one user cannot exhaust capacity for everyone. We have kept both to the minimum that achieves this: IP addresses are held for 30 days, transfer figures are byte totals only and reveal nothing about what you did.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) for personalised advertising, collected through Google's consent form the first time you open the app. You can decline; the VPN works either way.

You may object to processing based on legitimate interests, and you may withdraw advertising consent at any time.

07 Security

The device ID and both WireGuard keys are stored using Android's EncryptedSharedPreferences, with an AES-256 master key held in the device keystore. Your WireGuard private key is generated on your device and is never transmitted. VPN traffic itself is encrypted by WireGuard. Release builds perform no network request logging.

The control-plane setup requests described in section 1 are sent over an encrypted HTTPS connection.

No system is perfectly secure, and we do not claim otherwise.

08 Changes

If this policy changes materially we will update the "last updated" date above and, where the change is significant, note it in the app or in its Play Store listing.

09 Contact