Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 October 2026
Effective date: 3 October 2026

Applies to: the LightningVPN apps for Android phones and tablets, Android TV / Google TV, and Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets (com.lightning.live), whether installed from Google Play or the Amazon Appstore; the LightningVPN service; and the website at vpnlightning.com.

1. The short version

We sell privacy, so we collect only what we need to run the service.

We do not log, store or share your browsing activity, DNS queries, traffic destinations, or the IP address you connect to our VPN servers from. We cannot tell you which sites you visited through our VPN, because we never write it down.

What we do hold is the minimum needed to give you an account and keep it working:

your email address (or phone number, if you sign in that way), so you can log in and recover access;
a device record for each device you sign in from, so we can enforce the device limit your plan includes;
your subscription status and the store record of your purchase (Google Play or Amazon Appstore), so we know whether your plan is active;
crash reports, and on the Google Play version app analytics, so we can find bugs and see which features are used;
short-lived security logs of requests the app makes to our account API, kept for 14 days (section 3.4).

We do not sell your personal information, and we never have. The app contains no advertising SDKs, shows no ads and does not collect any advertising identifier.

Which version you have changes a few details

The app is the same everywhere, but the store you installed it from decides how you pay and which Google services are present. Where this policy differs by version, it says so:

Payments — Google Play version: Google Play Billing. Amazon Appstore version: Amazon In-App Purchasing.
Sign-in options — Google Play version: email, "Continue with Google", phone number, TV pairing code. Amazon Appstore version: email and TV pairing code.
Crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics) — both versions.
App analytics (Firebase Analytics) — Google Play version only. The Amazon Appstore version does not include it.
Push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging) — Google Play version, and Amazon Appstore installs on devices that have Google Play Services. Fire TV and Fire tablets do not receive them.
In-app update and review prompts — Google Play version only. The Amazon Appstore updates the app itself.
Live support chat (Zoho SalesIQ) — both versions.

2. Who we are

LightningVPN is operated by VPN Lightning LLC, registered at 30 N Gould St Ste 41275, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States. For the purposes of the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation we are the data controller for the information described in this policy.

For any question or request about your data, write to [email protected].

3. Information we collect

3.1 Account information

Email address — collected when you create an account, sign in with email, or request an email one-time code. Used for authentication, password reset and service-critical email.
Password — collected at email sign-up and sign-in. Used for authentication only, and stored as a salted hash, never in readable form.
Phone number — only if you choose phone sign-in (Google Play version). Used to send your verification SMS and identify your account.
Google account identifier and email — only if you choose "Continue with Google" (Google Play version). We receive a Firebase identity token from Google and exchange it for a LightningVPN session. We never receive your Google password.
Account ID, plan, expiry date and entitlements — recorded at sign-in and renewal, so we know what your plan allows: device count, multi-hop, dedicated IP, anti-tracker and kill switch.

If you use the app as a guest, we do not ask for an email address. A guest session is identified only by a device identifier, described in section 3.2.

3.2 Device information

When you sign in, start a guest session, or pair a TV, the app sends us:

Device name — the manufacturer and model reported by Android or Fire OS, for example "Samsung SM-G991B" or "Amazon AFTMM";
Platform type — Android or Android TV (Fire TV is reported as Android TV);
A device identifier — the Android SSAID (Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID), a value scoped to this app and this device, which resets if you factory-reset the device;
App version;
A WireGuard public key generated on your device, needed to establish the encrypted tunnel. The matching private key never leaves your device.

This is what appears in your account's device list, and it is what lets us enforce the simultaneous-device limit on your plan. You can remove devices from your account at any time.

3.3 Signing in on a TV

A TV remote is a poor keyboard, so the TV app can show a short pairing code and a QR code. The QR code contains only a link to vpnlightning.com/tv with that pairing code. You open it on your phone or computer, sign in there, and the TV is signed in to your account. The code expires a few minutes after it is issued and carries no personal information. While the code is on screen the TV keeps a connection open to our API so it learns the moment you approve it. Nothing is read from the phone you scan with.

On the Google Play version of the TV app you can also choose "Continue with Google", described in section 3.1.

3.4 IP address and approximate location

To show you the nearest servers and your current connection status, our account API works out an approximate location (country or city) from the IP address a request arrives from. The location is worked out at the moment the request is served and is not stored.

Like most online services, our account API keeps security logs of the requests it receives — the time, the IP address the request came from, and which API function was called. We use them to stop abuse and fix faults, and we delete them after 14 days. They cover requests the app makes to our account service only — signing in, loading the server list, checking your subscription. They never include traffic you send through the VPN tunnel, and our VPN servers do not record the IP address you connect to them from.

The app requests no location permissions at all. It does not use GPS, Wi-Fi scanning or Bluetooth to locate you.

3.5 Payment and subscription information

We never see or store your card number, bank details or billing address. The store you bought through collects and processes your payment method.

Google Play version. Subscriptions are sold through Google Play Billing. From Google we receive and store the purchase token, the product ID of the plan, the application ID, the order or transaction identifier, and the plan's start and expiry dates. We use these to verify the purchase with the Google Play Developer API, activate your entitlement, restore a purchase on a new device, and keep tax and accounting records.

Amazon Appstore version. Subscriptions are sold through Amazon In-App Purchasing. From Amazon we receive and store your Amazon Appstore user ID (an identifier Amazon issues for this app, not your Amazon account email or login), the receipt ID, the product SKU of the plan, and the plan's start and expiry dates. When you start a purchase, the app tells our server which plan you chose and links your Amazon Appstore user ID to your LightningVPN account, so the purchase can be credited to you even if the app closes before it finishes. We verify each receipt with Amazon's Receipt Verification Service, then activate your entitlement, restore it on other devices, and keep tax and accounting records.

A plan bought in one store works on every device signed in to your account, but it can only be managed or cancelled in the store it was bought from (see section 8).

On the Google Play version, analytics events about purchases record the plan, billing period, price, currency and store, with the transaction identifier masked (section 3.8).

3.6 Support communications

If you contact us:

In-app live chat is provided by Zoho SalesIQ. When you open a chat we pass your account email and account ID to Zoho so the agent knows who they are helping. Your chat transcript is stored by Zoho on our behalf.
Email support — we hold the contents of your message and your email address.
Diagnostic logs stay on your device. The app keeps a local connection log to help debug tunnel problems. It is never uploaded automatically; nothing leaves your device unless you choose to share or copy a log and pick where it goes. Logs contain connection events, protocol errors, server names and local network details, so please review a log before sending it.

3.7 Diagnostics, analytics and notifications

The app uses the following Google Firebase services. Which ones are present depends on the version you have:

Firebase Crashlytics (both versions) — crash and non-fatal error reports, including the stack trace, app version, Android or Fire OS version, device model, locale, and whether the device was rooted or low on memory. Used only to fix crashes.
Firebase Analytics (Google Play version only) — aggregate product analytics, limited to the app and feature usage events listed in full in section 3.8. Firebase Analytics also generates an app instance ID, a resettable pseudonymous identifier. The Amazon Appstore version does not include Firebase Analytics and records none of these events.
Firebase Cloud Messaging — a push token for your installation, so we can send service notifications such as expiry reminders and security notices. It works only on devices with Google Play Services, so Fire TV and Fire tablets do not receive these notifications.
Firebase Authentication (Google Play version only) — used for Google sign-in and phone-number verification, and for issuing the identity token we exchange for your session.
Firebase Remote Config (Google Play version only) — lets us switch app features such as update and review prompts on or off without a new release. It uses a Firebase installation ID and receives no account information.

The Google Play version also uses Google Play's in-app updates (to offer a newer version) and in-app review (to occasionally ask for a rating after a few successful connections). Google handles both; we do not receive your rating or review. The Amazon Appstore version has neither.

Crash reporting, and on the Google Play version analytics, are on by default. If you would rather they were not collected for your account, email [email protected] and we will turn them off. Uninstalling the app ends all collection. See section 8 for your rights.

3.8 The analytics events we record (Google Play version only)

For transparency, this is the complete list. Every event carries the platform (Android phone or Android TV), app version, build type and account state (guest, logged out, logged in, premium).

App — app opened, and how it was launched (icon, notification, deep link or shortcut).
Sign-in — sign-in screen viewed, sign-in attempted, sign-in succeeded or failed, and the method used (email or Google). Failures record an error category — network, invalid credentials, server or unknown — never your password or the code you entered.
VPN connection — connect tapped, connection started, connected, connect failed, disconnect tapped, disconnected. These record the protocol (WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP or automatic), whether multi-hop was on, the stage a failure occurred at, and the reason for a disconnect (user, network, error or system).
Servers — server list viewed, server selected, and whether it was an entry or exit server.
Subscriptions — paywall viewed, plan selected, purchase started, purchase succeeded or failed, with the plan, billing period, price, currency and store.
Account-level properties — your tier (guest, free, premium), your selected protocol, and whether the kill switch is on.

None of these events contain a website, domain, IP address, DNS query or anything else describing what you did through the tunnel. "Connected with WireGuard" is the level of detail we hold.

4. What we do not collect

To be explicit, the LightningVPN service does not log, store or share:

the websites, apps, services or IP addresses you connect to through the VPN;
your DNS queries or their answers;
the contents, size or timing of your VPN traffic;
VPN session start and end times, session durations, or per-session bandwidth;
the IP address you connect to our VPN servers from;
your contacts, calendar, photos, files, SMS messages, call logs, camera or microphone;
your precise or background location;
any advertising identifier, including the Google Advertising ID and the Amazon Advertising ID. The app contains no advertising SDKs and shows no ads.

We do not build advertising profiles, we do not take part in ad networks, and we do not sell or rent personal information to anyone.

5. Information that stays on your device

Some features need data that is read and stored on your device only. It is never sent to us:

Split tunnelling. To let you choose which apps bypass the tunnel, the app reads the list of launchable apps installed on your device, using Android's QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission. Your selections are stored in the app's private storage and used to configure the tunnel. We never receive the list of apps you have installed.
Custom DNS and anti-tracker settings — your chosen resolvers and filtering preferences.
Favourite servers, protocol choice, theme and app settings.
Your session token and VPN credentials, held in encrypted storage (EncryptedSharedPreferences, hardware-backed where the device supports it).
Connection logs — see section 3.6.

Two behaviours are worth calling out because they touch sensitive areas:

Clipboard. On the verification-code screen only, and only while that screen is open, the app checks whether your clipboard holds a recently copied six-digit code so it can fill the field for you. The clipboard is not read anywhere else in the app, the check is discarded immediately, and nothing from your clipboard is ever sent to us.
SMS verification codes (Google Play version, phone sign-in only). Google Play Services may pick the code out of the verification SMS and hand it to the app. The app holds no SMS permission and cannot read any other message.

6. Why we process your information, and our legal basis

For users in the UK, EU and EEA, Article 6 GDPR requires a legal basis for each use of personal data. Ours are:

Creating and authenticating your account, and providing the VPN — performance of a contract.
Processing your subscription with Google Play or Amazon, and restoring purchases — performance of a contract.
Enforcing the device limit included in your plan, including TV pairing — performance of a contract.
Service-critical email and push notifications (expiry, security, account changes) — performance of a contract.
Responding to your support requests — performance of a contract; legitimate interests.
Crash reporting and app analytics — legitimate interests in keeping the app stable and usable, balanced against your privacy by excluding all traffic data.
Security logs, and preventing fraud, abuse and payment chargebacks — legitimate interests; legal obligation.
Tax, accounting and statutory records — legal obligation.
Marketing email, where we send it — consent, which you may withdraw at any time.

7. Who we share information with

We share only with the service providers we need to run the service, and only what they need. Each is bound by contract to process the data on our instructions.

Google LLC — Firebase and Google Play Services. Crashlytics and Cloud Messaging (both versions); Firebase Authentication, Analytics and Remote Config, and Play Services (Google Play version). Receives your account identifier, crash diagnostics, push token, device model and operating system, and on the Google Play version analytics events. Used for sign-in, crash reporting and push notifications, and on the Google Play version for analytics, in-app updates and review prompts.
Google LLC — Google Play Billing (Google Play version). Your payment details go directly to Google; we receive the purchase record. Used to sell and verify subscriptions.
Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates — Amazon In-App Purchasing (Amazon Appstore version). Your payment details go directly to Amazon; we receive the purchase record and send receipt IDs back to Amazon to verify them. Used to sell and verify subscriptions.
Zoho Corporation — SalesIQ. Receives your email, account ID and chat messages, only when you open a chat. Used for live support chat.
Cloud hosting and data-centre providers. They host the servers our API and VPN network run on, and do not receive your account information for their own use.
A transactional email provider. Receives your email address and the message contents, to send verification codes and service email.

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to. Because we do not keep VPN activity logs, VPN connection times or the IP address you connect to our VPN from, we cannot produce them in response to a legal request — there is nothing to hand over. What we can be compelled to produce is limited to account records: an email address, subscription status, store purchase records, registered devices, and API security logs from the last 14 days. We will challenge requests that appear overbroad or unlawful and, where the law allows, we will tell you about a request that affects you.

If our business is ever sold or merged, your information may transfer to the acquirer, who will remain bound by this policy or give you notice before changing it.

8. Your rights and choices

Everyone

Delete your account. In the app, go to Account → Delete Account, or ask us at [email protected]. This removes your account record, device registrations and support identifiers. Deletion is permanent and ends your access immediately.
Cancel your subscription in the store you bought it from. Deleting your account does not cancel billing:
- Google Play: Play Store app → profile icon → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions.
- Amazon Appstore: on amazon.com, Your Account → Your Memberships & Subscriptions, or in the Amazon Appstore app under Subscriptions.
Sign out individual devices, including TVs, from your device list.
Turn off notifications in your Android or Fire OS system settings.
Ask us anything about your data at [email protected].

UK, EU and EEA (GDPR)

You have the right to access your data, correct inaccurate data, erase it, restrict or object to processing (including processing based on our legitimate interests), receive your data in a portable format, and withdraw consent where you gave it. You will not be charged and we will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.

We respond within one month, extendable by two further months for complex requests; we will tell you if we need the extension. You may also complain to your national data protection authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). We would rather you came to us first.

California (CCPA and CPRA)

California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to delete it; to correct it; to opt out of its sale or sharing for cross-context behavioural advertising; to limit the use of sensitive personal information; and to be free from discrimination for exercising these rights.

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of; we honour Global Privacy Control signals on our website regardless. In the preceding 12 months we collected the categories described in section 3 — identifiers, commercial information, and internet activity limited to in-app events and API security logs — for the business purposes in section 6. We draw no inferences about you. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16.

To exercise a right, email [email protected] from the address on your account, or use in-app account deletion. You may use an authorised agent; we may ask for proof of their authority and for enough information to verify your identity against your account.

9. How long we keep information

VPN activity, DNS queries, VPN connection times and the IP address you connect to our VPN from — never written.
API security logs (request time, source IP address, API function called) — 14 days, then deleted.
TV pairing codes — until used or expired, a matter of minutes.
Account record (email, plan, entitlements) — while your account is open, then deleted or anonymised within 30 days of account deletion.
Device registrations — until you remove the device or delete your account.
Purchase and billing records (Google Play and Amazon) — 7 years, as tax and accounting law requires, then deleted.
Support chat and email — 24 months from the close of your request.
Crash reports — up to 90 days, Firebase Crashlytics' default.
Analytics events (Google Play version) — 14 months, then deleted automatically by Firebase Analytics.
Backups — purged on our normal backup rotation, within 90 days.

10. Security

All traffic between the app and our API uses TLS, and the app disables unencrypted HTTP entirely. The app also signs its requests to our API.
VPN tunnels use WireGuard or OpenVPN, both modern, widely audited, open-source protocols. Tunnel encryption keys are generated on your device, and the private key never leaves it.
Credentials and session tokens on your device are held in encrypted storage, backed by the Android Keystore where the device supports it.
The app opts out of Android cloud backup, so your session data is not copied into a cloud backup of your device.
Store purchases are verified with Google or Amazon on our server before any entitlement is granted.
Passwords are stored only as salted hashes, and access to production systems is restricted to staff who need it.

No system is perfectly secure. If we ever suffer a breach affecting your personal data, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours where the law requires it, and notify you without undue delay where the breach is likely to put you at risk.

11. Children

LightningVPN is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us their information, write to [email protected] and we will delete it.

12. International transfers

We operate servers in many countries, and our providers Google, Amazon and Zoho operate globally, so your account information may be processed outside your own country, including in the United States. Where we transfer personal data out of the UK, EU or EEA, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or an adequacy decision covering the destination. You may request a copy of the safeguards we use.

The VPN server you connect through does not receive your account information. It carries your encrypted traffic and nothing else.

13. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change. The "last updated" date at the top always shows the current version. If a change materially affects your rights or expands what we collect, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect and, where the law requires consent, ask for it. Continuing to use LightningVPN after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact us

VPN Lightning LLC
30 N Gould St Ste 41275
Sheridan, WY 82801
United States
Phone: +1 307-387-2099

Email: [email protected]
Web: vpnlightning.com