Merchant Manager Privacy Policy

This policy describes how m23n (“we,” “us”) handles information when you use Merchant Manager (listed as “Merchant Center for Google”), our iOS app for monitoring and managing a Google Merchant Center catalogue: product approval status, disapprovals and their fixes, performance insights and promotions. Merchant Manager is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google LLC. By using the app you acknowledge the then-current version of this policy.

Your data stays yours: Merchant Manager reads your Merchant Center data directly from Google’s Merchant API on your device and shows it to you. We do not operate a server that stores your catalogue, and we never sell or share your merchant data with advertisers.

1. Who we are

For privacy requests and questions, contact us at support@m23n.com.

2. Categories of information

The list below describes categories of information that may be involved depending on which features you use. Not all categories apply to every user; the app also offers a demo mode with sample data that involves none of your Google data.

2.1 Sign in with Apple

You may create your app identity with Sign in with Apple. Apple provides a stable user identifier and, on first sign-in, optionally your name and e-mail address (or a private relay address if you choose “Hide My Email”). These values are stored only in the iOS Keychain on your device and are used to greet you and to keep your settings together. They are not sent to our servers.

2.2 Google account & Merchant Center data

To show your catalogue, the app asks you to sign in with Google using OAuth 2.0 and requests the following scopes:

• “Manage your product listings and accounts for Google Shopping” (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/content) – to read your Merchant Center accounts, products, statuses, issues, reports and promotions, and to write the product edits you make in the app.
• Basic profile (openid, email, profile) – your name, e-mail address and profile picture, used only to label the connected account in the app and to sign you into Firebase Authentication for image uploads (section 2.3).

With your consent the app retrieves from the Google Merchant API: the Merchant Center accounts you can access, your products and their attributes (titles, prices, images, availability, identifiers), approval statuses and item-level issues, account-level issues, performance reports (clicks, impressions, conversions, conversion value) and promotions. This data is fetched over HTTPS directly from Google to your device, kept in memory and in the app’s local cache, and displayed to you. When you edit a product in the app (title, description, price, sale price, availability or image link), the change is written back to your Merchant Center through the same API.

OAuth access and refresh tokens are stored in the iOS Keychain on your device and are never transmitted to us. You can revoke the app’s access at any time from the app’s settings (“Sign out of all accounts”, which also revokes the token with Google) or from your Google Account’s third-party access page.

Limited Use disclosure: Merchant Manager’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular, Google user data obtained through these scopes is:

• used only to provide and improve the user-facing features described in this policy (viewing and managing your Merchant Center catalogue);
• not transferred to third parties, except as necessary to provide those features (for example uploading a product photo you choose to the storage service described in section 2.3), to comply with applicable law, or with your explicit consent;
• not used or transferred for serving advertisements, including retargeting, personalised or interest-based advertising;
• not sold, and not provided to data brokers or information resellers;
• not used to determine credit-worthiness or for lending purposes, and not used to build databases or profiles about you;
• not used to develop, improve or train generalised or non-personalised artificial intelligence or machine learning models. We do not use any Google API, including Google Workspace APIs, for that purpose, and we do not transfer Google user data to third parties for that purpose;
• not read by humans, except with your explicit permission for support, where necessary for security purposes (such as investigating abuse), to comply with applicable law, or where the data has been aggregated and anonymised for internal operations.

2.3 Product photos you upload

If you replace a product image from your photo library, the photo is resized and compressed on your device (metadata such as location is removed) and uploaded to a storage bucket we operate on Firebase Cloud Storage (Google Cloud). The resulting public URL is written to your Merchant Center product as its image link so that Google can crawl it. Because Merchant Center requires product images to be publicly reachable, these uploaded images are accessible to anyone who knows the URL. To authorise the upload the app signs you into Firebase Authentication with your Google sign-in; Firebase receives your Google account identifier and e-mail address for that purpose. You can ask us to delete uploaded images at the address above.

2.4 Anonymous identifier

On first launch the app generates a random identifier (a UUID) and stores it in the iOS Keychain. It is used as your user id for analytics, crash reporting and subscription management. It is not derived from your Apple ID, Google account, advertising identifier or hardware serial number. Because it lives in the Keychain, it may survive reinstalling the app.

2.5 Analytics & crash reports

We use Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics to understand how the app is used and to fix crashes. They collect app events (for example which screens are opened and whether a purchase completed), coarse device and app information (model, OS version, app version, language, country derived from IP), the anonymous identifier above and, for crashes, stack traces and the sequence of events before the crash. Analytics events may include counts (for example how many products or disapprovals you have) but never product titles, prices or other content from your Merchant Center. We do not use the advertising identifier (IDFA) and do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites.

2.6 Purchases & subscriptions

Merchant Manager is a paid app: access requires an active subscription or a lifetime purchase billed through the Apple App Store. Entitlement and transaction data are processed by Apple and RevenueCat under their policies, keyed by the anonymous identifier above, solely to validate access and support “Restore Purchases.” We do not receive your payment card details.

2.7 Notifications

If you allow notifications, the app schedules local notifications on your device, for example when a product is newly disapproved after a background check or to show a limited-time offer. No push token is sent to our servers. You can turn notifications off in iOS Settings at any time.

2.8 Support communications

If you contact us by e-mail, we receive the content of your message and the address you use. We use this information only to respond to you.

3. How we use information

• Show your Merchant Center accounts, products, statuses, issues, insights and promotions
• Apply the product edits and image replacements you make in the app
• Check your catalogue in the background and notify you about new disapprovals
• Validate your subscription or lifetime purchase
• Measure usage, diagnose crashes and improve the product
• Comply with law and respond to lawful requests

4. Sharing, transfer & disclosure

Your Merchant Center data is exchanged only between your device and Google; we do not operate a server that receives it. The only parties that process information from the app are:

• Google LLC – the Merchant API and OAuth endpoints that the app talks to on your behalf, under your own Google terms.
• Firebase (Google Cloud) – Cloud Storage for product photos you choose to upload, Firebase Authentication to authorise those uploads (receives your Google account identifier and e-mail address), and Analytics / Crashlytics for usage and crash data that never contains your catalogue content.
• Apple and RevenueCat – purchase and entitlement data for subscriptions, keyed by the anonymous identifier only.
• Authorities – only where required by applicable law or a valid legal request.

We do not sell your information and do not share it with advertisers, data brokers or any other third party. If m23n is ever involved in a merger or acquisition, Google user data will continue to be handled in accordance with this policy and the Limited Use requirements, and you will be notified before any change takes effect.

5. Retention & deletion

Google user data (Merchant Center data and your basic profile) is held on your device only, in memory and in the app’s local cache, and is removed when you sign out of the Google account or delete the app. OAuth tokens are deleted from the Keychain and revoked at Google when you sign out; you can also revoke access from your Google Account’s third-party access page at any time, after which the app can no longer retrieve any data. Uploaded product images remain in our Firebase Cloud Storage bucket, together with the associated Firebase Authentication record, until you ask us to remove them; we delete them within 30 days of a verified request. Analytics data is retained by Firebase for up to 14 months and crash data for 90 days, after which it is automatically deleted. To exercise access, correction or deletion rights for any of the above, contact support@m23n.com and quote the anonymous identifier shown in the app’s settings if asked. We respond within 30 days.

6. Security

All traffic between the app and Google or Firebase uses HTTPS (TLS). OAuth tokens and identities are stored in the iOS Keychain, which is encrypted by the operating system and protected by your device passcode or biometrics. Google sign-in uses the system web authentication session with PKCE; the app never sees your Google password. Because Google user data is not copied to any server we operate, there is no server-side database of your catalogue to be breached, and access to the Firebase project is restricted to the developer with two-factor authentication. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Children

Merchant Manager is a business tool and is not directed to children under 16. Do not use the app in a way that violates applicable child-privacy laws.

8. Changes

We may update this policy as Merchant Manager evolves. We will post the current version on this page and may provide additional notice for material changes (for example in the app).

9. Related policies

Our website and WristChat (Slack) are covered by a separate policy: Privacy Policy (WristChat & m23n.com). Terms for this app: Merchant Manager Terms of Service.