Privacy Policy

1. Information we do not collect

The app creates no account. It never asks for your name, e-mail address or phone number, and there is no sign-in step.

We operate no server that receives data from the app. The app contains no advertising, tracking or analytics SDK, so no advertising identifier and no usage statistics are gathered.

The app does not communicate with any server of ours. Photo analysis happens on the device; how Apple services and the inquiry e-mails you send us are handled is described in the articles below.

• No account and no sign-in
• No server operated by us
• Zero advertising, tracking or analytics SDKs
• Nothing sends your photos or the analysis results to us

2. Information processed only on your device

The app analyses photos on the device with Apple’s Vision framework: it groups bursts and look-alikes and suggests the one to keep by looking at composition, exposure, sharpness, faces and closed eyes. The feature data used for that analysis and its results never leave the device.

Your cleanup history, such as how many photos you cleaned and how much space you freed, and your settings, such as protected albums and the weekly reminder, are stored in UserDefaults on the device.

The start of your trial, the record of the one-time trial extension and whether you bought the app while it was a paid app are stored in the device keychain. These values are used only to decide whether the app is unlocked, and they never leave the device.

When you clean a folder or an external drive — USB, SD card, Files or Finder — the analysis also happens on the device, and the files are read and written directly in the location you chose.

3. Photo library and folder access

On iPhone and iPad the app needs access to your photo library. It asks for read and write access together, because it groups similar shots, deletes the photos you select, and writes metadata such as geotags.

On Mac the app uses your photo library and, in addition, only the folders and external drives you pick yourself in Finder. It cannot open a location you have not chosen.

If you decline a permission, only the matching feature stops working; the app does not gather photos or files by any other route.

The app does not use the camera, the microphone or your contacts, and it never asks for tracking permission.

4. Location and geotagging

The app has no location permission. It contains no feature that reads the device’s current position, so no location prompt ever appears.

Geotagging writes coordinates that you chose — by tapping the map or searching for a place — to your own photos. On iPhone and iPad you can set the location of photos in your photo library; JPG, HEIC, TIFF and PNG files are written in place; for RAW files, including DNG, the app creates an .xmp sidecar with the same name and, when a paired JPG exists, writes that file as well.

Showing the map and searching for a place use Apple’s map service. Your map search text and the coordinates you pick are sent to Apple to search for places and look up the address. We do not receive this information.

The coordinates stay inside your own photos and are never sent to us.

5. Notifications

The weekly cleanup reminder is off by default. The app asks the system for notification permission only when you switch the reminder on, and if you decline the permission the setting turns itself back off.

Reminders are scheduled and shown on the device. No notification content reaches us and we never send you a message. This feature is available on iPhone and iPad only.

6. Siri and Shortcuts

The app registers actions such as “start photo cleanup” with Siri and the Shortcuts app. Those actions open a screen in the app on your device; they do not send photos or results anywhere.

Any voice processing that happens while you use Siri is governed by Apple’s policies. This feature is available on iPhone and iPad only.

7. Payment

The purchase of “Culpix Pro” is handled by Apple through the App Store and StoreKit. We never receive and cannot see your payment details, including your card number.

The app decides whether it is unlocked using only the purchase and trial state it can verify on the device. Cancellations and refunds are handled by Apple.

8. iCloud Photos

If you use iCloud Photos, Apple may download originals from your own iCloud account when the app needs them. That exchange happens between you and Apple, and we are not part of it.

With iCloud Photos on, photos you delete in the app are also removed from the other devices signed in to the same account.

9. Retention

The retention of inquiry e-mails is described in article 14 and that of TestFlight beta information in article 15. We hold no other information about you.

On iPhone and iPad, the cleanup history and settings stored on the device are removed when you delete the app. The start of your trial, the record of the one-time trial extension and the cached paid-app status may stay in the keychain after the app is deleted, so that a trial is not granted over and over. These values are used only to decide whether the app is unlocked and are never sent to us.

Photos deleted from the photo library go to the system “Recently Deleted” album and can be restored for 30 days; files in folders and on external drives are moved to the system Trash.

Exported XMP files and photos you copied or moved stay in your own storage and are not managed by us.

10. Third parties

The app bundles no third-party SDK. It uses no advertising network, no analytics tool and no crash reporting service.

The only third party involved is Apple. App Store payment, the photo library, Vision analysis, notifications, and the map and place search all run through the operating system and Apple’s services.

We do not share or sell your information to anyone. How inquiry e-mails are entrusted to processors and transferred abroad is described in article 14.

11. Your rights and security

The only personal data we hold are inquiry e-mails (article 14) and TestFlight beta information (article 15); you can ask for access to or deletion of your inquiry e-mails at the e-mail address in article 14. On iPhone and iPad, the app data left on the device is removed when you delete the app, except the keychain values described in article 9.

App data is stored inside the app sandbox and the keychain provided by iOS and macOS. Keeping your device locked and your operating system up to date is the most effective way to protect your photos.

12. Children

The app does not ask for an age, and apart from inquiry e-mails (article 14) and TestFlight beta information (article 15) no personal information is collected from any user, so information about children is neither gathered nor stored separately.

Purchases are made through an Apple Account; Family Sharing and Ask to Buy follow Apple’s settings and policies.

13. Changes to this policy

When this policy changes we publish the new text and its effective date on this page.

14. Business information and contact

For questions about privacy, please write to the e-mail address below. We reply in Korean and English.

We receive the information below only when you send us a message through “Report a Bug” in the app or to the e-mail address below. The app does not send mail on your behalf; you send it yourself from the mail screen.

• What we receive: your e-mail address, what you write or attach, and the lines pre-filled in the body of a “Report a Bug” e-mail. On iPhone and iPad these are the app version, OS version and device type (iPhone or iPad) from Settings, or the app version and build number from the purchase screen; on Mac they are the app version and macOS version. You can delete the pre-filled lines before you send.
• Purpose: used only to answer you and to find and fix problems; never shared with third parties or used for advertising or marketing.
• Retention and deletion: e-mails are kept in the e-mail service we use (Gmail) and copied into our internal inquiry-handling list so we can prepare a reply. We delete the e-mail and the list entry one year after your inquiry is resolved, and without delay if you ask.
• Processors and transfer abroad: inquiry e-mails are stored on servers of Google LLC (USA, Gmail), and we may use Anthropic PBC (USA, Claude) as an AI tool that helps draft replies, so the content of your inquiry is processed on its servers while we prepare a reply. The information transferred is the information listed above; it is sent over the network when you send the e-mail and while we prepare the reply, and it is kept for the period above. Contacts: policies.google.com/privacy · anthropic.com/legal/privacy. If you do not want this transfer, do not send an inquiry e-mail; we then cannot reply to you by e-mail.

15. TestFlight beta testing

The Culpix beta is distributed through a public link on Apple’s TestFlight. When you join the beta, Apple provides us with the information it collects through TestFlight: install and session counts, crash logs, the device model and a device identifier, OS version and device language, and the screenshots and comments testers send themselves (including the device state at the time of sending, such as carrier, time zone, connection type, battery level and available storage). If you joined through a public link, your name and e-mail address are not shown to us.

Apple Inc. (USA) processes this information under the TestFlight terms and provides it to us through App Store Connect. We use it only to find and fix problems and improve the app, and we do not share it with third parties. Apple sets the retention period (one year for beta feedback; crash logs and usage data until the bugs are resolved).

Your participation ends when you delete the beta app or stop testing in the TestFlight app.