InkPrint Privacy Policy
Effective 22 September 2026 · Last updated 7 October 2026
English · 中文
InkPrint does not collect, transmit, or share any personal data. It has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no servers. Everything it handles stays on your own device and your own local network.
What InkPrint does
InkPrint turns an Android device — typically an e-ink reader — into a virtual network printer. Other devices on the same Wi-Fi network discover it over Bonjour/mDNS and send documents to it using the standard IPP printing protocol. Each document is saved on the device as a PDF for reading. InkPrint never prints to paper and never forwards a document anywhere.
Information we collect
None. The developer operates no backend service and receives no data from the app. InkPrint contains no analytics, crash-reporting, advertising, or tracking libraries of any kind, and it makes no network connections to the developer or to any third party.
Information processed on your device
The following is handled entirely on your device to make printing work. It is never sent off the device by InkPrint.
| What | Why | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| The documents you print | They are the thing being printed | Saved as PDF files on the device. By default they are kept in the app's own folder and copied to the shared Documents/InkPrint/ folder so your reader app can open them. If you choose a save folder in the app, documents are moved into that folder instead; InkPrint only gets access to the folder you pick, through the system folder picker. They remain on the device until you delete them. |
| Documents printed to the "InkPrint EPUB" printer | To rebuild them as a reflowable e-book | Their layout is analysed and, for scanned pages, their text recognised on the device, by models that ship inside the app. The resulting EPUB is saved like a PDF (above); the original PDF is deleted unless you choose to keep it. Nothing is sent off the device and no model is downloaded. |
| Document titles | Used to name the saved file so you can recognise it | Stored on the device as part of the file name. |
| The user name reported by the sending computer, and the job title | Required by the IPP protocol to answer a sender's "what is my job status?" query | Held in memory only, for the duration of the job. Never written to storage, and discarded when the printer service stops. |
| Your device's network IP addresses (Wi-Fi/Ethernet, and Tailscale or VPN if active) | A printer has to announce an address for other devices to reach it | Shown in the app so you know where to print. Only the local network address is broadcast, over mDNS, on your local network. These are private addresses that are not reachable from the public internet. |
Network behaviour
InkPrint listens for print jobs on your local network and announces itself over
mDNS on that same network. If your device is also on a private network such as
Tailscale or a VPN, devices on that network can reach the printer too. InkPrint
never initiates a connection: it does not connect to the internet, and it has no
remote endpoint to connect to. The INTERNET permission Android
requires is used solely to open a listening socket.
Permissions
| Permission | Why InkPrint needs it |
|---|---|
INTERNET | Run the local IPP print server socket |
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, ACCESS_WIFI_STATE | Detect whether Wi-Fi is connected and show the address to print to |
CHANGE_WIFI_MULTICAST_STATE | Receive the multicast traffic that Bonjour/mDNS discovery depends on |
WAKE_LOCK | Keep the printer reachable while the screen is off |
FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE | Keep the print server running, with a visible ongoing notification |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS | Show the service status and tell you when a document arrives |
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED | Optionally restart the printer service after the device reboots |
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (Android 9 and older only) | Save received documents where your reader app can find them. On Android 10 and newer this is done through the system media store and no storage permission is requested. |
Sharing
InkPrint does not share data with anyone. There are no third-party SDKs, no advertising partners, and no data processors, because no data ever leaves your device.
Retention and deletion
Received documents stay on your device until you remove them. You can delete
them with any file manager, or remove all of them at once by uninstalling the
app — note that files in the shared Documents/InkPrint/ folder, or
in a save folder you chose, survive uninstallation and can be deleted manually.
InkPrint also lets you rename, move and delete received documents in the app.
Security
Please be aware of how InkPrint works so you can decide where to use it:
- Like most consumer network printers, InkPrint accepts print jobs from any device on the same local network (or on a Tailscale/VPN network your device is part of) without a password. Use it on networks you trust, and stop the service when you are not using it.
- Print traffic on the local network is not encrypted, which is normal for IPP printing but means it is only as private as the network you are on.
- Received documents are stored unencrypted on the device, in a shared folder (or the save folder you chose) that other apps with storage access can read.
Children
InkPrint is a general-purpose utility. It is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from anyone, of any age.
Open source
InkPrint is open source. Every claim on this page can be checked against the code at github.com/charlie-xing/InkPrint.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this address with a new "last updated" date. Material changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.
Contact
Questions about this policy or about InkPrint's handling of data: xjohn1666@gmail.com