Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective date: November 1, 2026

Camera Carbon works on your device. Your gear, saved photographs and settings matches stay on your iPhone. We only hold data on our servers when you join the community, send a catalog request or, buy Camera Carbon Pro.

This policy explains what the Camera Carbon app (the “App”) collects, why, who processes it and how to delete it. The App is operated by Daniel Self (“we”, “us”). Questions: [email protected].

1. Summary
2. What stays on your device
3. Community account and sign-in
4. What other people can see
5. Photos you post
6. Reports, blocks and moderation
7. Catalog requests
8. Purchases (Camera Carbon Pro)
9. Photographer search and library images
10. Service providers
11. Retention and account deletion
12. Your choices and rights
13. Children
14. Changes and contact

1. Summary

• No advertising, no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs, and no tracking across other companies’ apps or websites.
• We don’t sell or share your personal information for advertising.
• Settings matches are calculated on your device. Your gear list and saved matches are never uploaded.
• The community is optional. If you join, your profile, posts and comments are public, and photos are stripped of location and other EXIF metadata before upload.
• You can delete your community account, with your posts, comments and photos, from inside the App.

2. What stays on your device

The following is stored only in the App’s storage on your iPhone. We don’t receive it:

• the cameras, lenses and kits you add, including any you enter by hand;
• photographs and photographers you save, recently explored items, and saved settings matches;
• a log of which photographs you matched and when, used only to count the free plan’s monthly matches on the device;
• your shoot setup (film, accessories, editing app) and App settings such as units, haptics and reduced motion.

Matching a photograph to your gear runs entirely on the device. Because this data is not synced, it is not restored on a new phone unless your device backup restores it. You can erase it at any time in System → Erase all local data, or by deleting the App.

The App also keeps a cache of community posts and profiles you have viewed, and a copy of the members you blocked and the content you reported, so it stays hidden on this device.

3. Community account and sign-in

You can browse the community without an account. To post, comment, like or follow, you sign in with either:

• Email. You enter your email address and we send you a one-time sign-in code. We store your email address with your account and use it only to sign you in and, if needed, to contact you about your account.
• Sign in with Apple. Apple shares a user identifier with us and, if you allow it, your name and an email address (which may be an Apple private relay address). We also keep a token from Apple so that, when you delete your account, we can tell Apple to remove Camera Carbon’s access to your Apple ID. Apple’s privacy policy applies to your Apple ID.
• Sign in with Google (Android). Google shares a user identifier, your name, email address and profile picture address with us; we store the identifier and email address with your account. Google’s privacy policy applies to your Google account.

A sign-in session token is stored on your device so you stay signed in. When you create a profile we store what you enter:

• handle and display name;
• bio (optional);
• Instagram and TikTok usernames (optional);
• a list of up to eight pieces of current gear (optional);
• the date you joined and the date you accepted the community guidelines;
• a random number used to draw your generated avatar (the App does not use profile photos).

We also store your activity in the community: your posts, comments, likes, the members you follow, the members you block, the reports you file, and, for editors, which posts they featured.

Like any online service, our database and storage provider records technical request data (such as IP address, time and the request made) in server logs used for security, abuse prevention and troubleshooting.

4. What other people can see

The community is public. Anyone using the App, signed in or not, can see:

• your profile: handle, display name, bio, Instagram and TikTok usernames, current gear and join date;
• your posts: the photo, title, caption, genres, the capture details you entered (such as camera, lens, film, aperture, shutter speed and ISO), scene notes, tips, editing notes and techniques, and the post date;
• your comments, and the like and comment counts on your posts.

Posted photos are stored in a public storage location, so anyone with a photo’s web address can open it. Only you can see which posts you liked, which members you follow, who you blocked and what you reported. Your email address is never shown to other members.

5. Photos you post

• The App only reads the photo you choose in the photo picker. It does not use the camera and does not browse your library.
• To pre-fill your post, the App reads the photo’s camera settings from its EXIF data on the device (camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO). It does not read the location.
• Before upload, the App re-encodes the photo as a JPEG of at most 2048 pixels on the long edge. This removes the file’s EXIF metadata, including GPS location. Only the camera settings you confirm are kept, as fields on the post.
• Uploaded photos, with their title and caption, are automatically screened by OpenAI’s moderation service for sexual content, graphic violence and self-harm before anyone else can see them. A post that fails screening stays private to you and its photo is deleted. OpenAI does not use this data to train its models.

6. Reports, blocks and moderation

To keep the community safe we process:

• Text screening. Handles, names, bios, gear, titles, captions, tips and comments are checked against a list of prohibited words when you save them, both in the App and on our server.
• Rate limits. We count how many posts, comments, reports and requests your account made recently to stop spam.
• Reports. A report stores who filed it, what was reported (a post, comment or member), the reason and the time. Content reported by three different people is hidden automatically until we review it. We review reports and may remove content or accounts.
• Blocks. A block stores who blocked whom. Blocking also removes any follows between the two accounts. Blocked members’ posts and comments are hidden from you.

7. Catalog requests

When you ask us to add a missing camera, lens, photograph or photographer, we store the kind of request, the name, any details and links you enter, the time, and your account identifier if you are signed in (requests can also be sent without an account). Requests are researched against public sources such as manufacturer pages and museum records, partly with automated research tools, and we record whether we added the item and why. Please don’t put personal information in a request. Requests you sent while signed in are deleted with your account.

8. Purchases (Camera Carbon Pro)

Camera Carbon Pro is sold as an auto-renewing subscription through Apple’s App Store on iPhone and Google Play on Android. Apple or Google processes the payment; we never receive your card details. We use RevenueCat to check and manage subscriptions. RevenueCat receives an anonymous App user identifier, your purchase and subscription status and transaction records from the store, and basic device and App information (such as App version, OS version and country/storefront). If you are signed in to the community, we may link your subscription to your account so Pro works when you sign in.

9. Photographer search and library images

• Wikidata. When you search for a photographer the App doesn’t know yet (three or more characters), the search text is sent to Wikidata, run by the Wikimedia Foundation, to find matching photographers. No account information is sent. The Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy applies to that request.
• Library images. Reference photographs and portraits may load from the archives that host them, such as Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Like any web request, those servers receive your IP address and basic device information. Small previews of copyrighted photographs load the same way, straight from the website that publishes them (a photographer’s, gallery’s or museum’s), whose own privacy policy applies to that request.
• Preview removal requests. When you tap “Request removal”, we store which photograph it was, the time, and your account identifier if you’re signed in. Which photographs have been removed is public to the App; who asked is not.
• Links. Links that open outside the App (for example Wikipedia, image search, Instagram or TikTok) are governed by those sites’ own policies.

10. Service providers

We use these providers to run the App. They process data on our behalf and only for these purposes:

Our servers are located in the United States (Amazon Web Services, us-east-1, Northern Virginia). If you use the App from another country, your data is transferred there and to our providers’ locations, with the safeguards those providers offer. We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect people’s safety, or as part of a sale or transfer of the App.

11. Retention and account deletion

We keep your account and community content until you delete it or we remove it for breaking the Terms of Use.

Delete your account in the App: System → Delete community account. This deletes your sign-in account, profile, posts, the photos in them, comments, likes, follows, blocks and the catalog requests you sent while signed in. Deleting a single post also deletes its photo.

• Reports you filed are kept for the moderation record, but no longer linked to you. Reports about your content may be kept for the same reason.
• Copies in our providers’ backups and logs are removed on their normal schedule.
• Data stored only on your device stays there until you erase it or delete the App.
• If you can’t reach the App, email us and we will delete your account.
• Deleting your account does not cancel a Pro subscription; cancel that in your Apple ID settings.

12. Your choices and rights

You can edit your profile and delete posts and comments in the App at any time. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal data, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to complain to your data protection authority. Email us to make a request; we may need to confirm it comes from your account.

Where laws such as the GDPR apply, we process community data to provide the service you asked for, and for our legitimate interest in keeping the community safe and free of spam (screening, rate limits, reports and moderation).

13. Children

The App is not directed at children under 13, and you must be at least 13 (or the minimum age required in your country) to create a community account. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

14. Changes and contact

We will update this policy when the App changes and revise the effective date above. For significant changes we will let you know in the App. Contact: Daniel Self, [email protected].