Privacy Policy
Last updated 12 August 2026
PhotoCleaner is an iPhone app that helps you clear out your camera roll. This policy explains exactly what leaves your device and what does not. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
The short version. Your photos and videos never leave your iPhone. There is no account, no email address and no password. What we do collect is a small amount of anonymous usage information — counts, not content — and your subscription status, so the app knows whether you are on Pro.
Your photos stay on your device
Everything the app does to your library happens locally, through Apple's Photos framework: finding near-duplicates, spotting screenshots and clutter, measuring file sizes, and generating thumbnails. No photo, video, thumbnail, filename or piece of image data is ever uploaded, copied off the device, or transmitted to us or to anyone else.
There is no server-side image processing in PhotoCleaner, so there is nothing to upload to. The app is fully functional with no network connection at all.
What we do collect
The app signs in anonymously to our backend so that your subscription and usage counts can persist. This identity is a randomly generated identifier. It is not connected to your name, your email address, your Apple ID or your phone number, because we never ask for any of them.
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| An anonymous account identifier | So your subscription and progress survive across sessions |
| A device identifier (Apple's “identifier for vendor”), app version and platform | Support requests and understanding which versions are in use. It is not stable — it changes if you reinstall |
| Subscription status: plan, whether it is active, renewal date, and the App Store transaction identifier | To know whether to unlock Pro features, and to restore your purchase |
| Session counts: how many photos were reviewed and deleted, and how long a session lasted | Your clean score, and understanding whether the app is useful |
| Basic product analytics: which features are opened, and events such as a purchase completing | Deciding what to improve |
These are numbers and labels, never content. “You deleted 34 photos in a four-minute session” is the kind of thing we hold. Which photos they were, what was in them, or where they were taken is not something we can know.
What we never collect
- Photos, videos, thumbnails or any image data
- Location data, including photo location metadata
- Your name, email address, phone number or Apple ID
- Contacts, calendar, health data, or anything from other apps
- Your device's advertising identifier
What stays only on your iPhone
Some information never reaches our backend at all and is stored locally in the app: your per-photo decision history (which items you have already reviewed, so you are not shown them twice), your daily usage count, and your preferences. Deleting the app removes all of it.
Tracking and advertising
PhotoCleaner contains no advertising, no advertising SDKs and no third-party trackers. We do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not sell, rent or share your information with data brokers. The App Tracking Transparency prompt does not appear because there is nothing to ask you about.
Who processes data for us
- Supabase — hosts the database that stores the information described above. Our instance is located in Zurich, Switzerland.
- Apple — handles all payments and subscriptions. We never see your payment details; we only receive a transaction identifier and whether the subscription is active. Apple's own privacy policy governs their handling of your data.
That is the complete list. No analytics vendors, no crash reporting services, no marketing platforms.
How long we keep it
Usage and subscription records are kept while your anonymous identity exists. Because it is anonymous, we have no way to link it to you as a person, and we do not attempt to.
One thing worth knowing. Your anonymous session is stored in the iOS Keychain, which survives deleting the app. If you reinstall PhotoCleaner on the same device, you return as the same anonymous identity and your subscription is recognised again. Erasing the device, or a restore that excludes the Keychain, ends it permanently.
Permissions the app asks for
- Photo library access — required. Without it there is nothing to clean. The app needs write access because deleting a photo is a write. You can grant access to your whole library or to selected photos only; both work.
- Notifications — optional. Used only for the daily Memory Rewind reminder, if you turn it on. Declining costs you nothing else.
Children
PhotoCleaner is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Your rights
Under Swiss data protection law and the GDPR you may request access to, or deletion of, the information we hold. Write to support@photocleaner.ch and we will act on it.
To make a request actionable, include your Account ID. You will find it in the app under Settings → About; tap it to copy. It is the only identifier we hold, and without it there is often nothing in our records that can be matched to an email from you — a consequence of collecting so little, not an unwillingness to help.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes materially, the date at the top will change and the updated version will be published here before the change takes effect.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about anything the app does with your data: support@photocleaner.ch.