PhotoView

Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 22, 2026

Detlev Voss ("we", "us", "our") operates the PhotoView application for iPhone, iPad and Mac (the "App"). This page informs you about our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use the App.

PhotoView is a viewer for the photos and videos in your Photo Library. It does not import, upload or back up your media, and it does not run any server that receives your data. It changes your library only when you ask it to — Delete, Add to album, Remove from album, Favorite, or creating an album or folder — and those changes are written straight into Apple's Photos system, where the Photos app shows them too. On the Mac the App can additionally show files and folders you open yourself. Everything you see in the App lives in Apple's Photos system or in the files you chose — never on our infrastructure.

1. Access to Your Photos, Videos & Files

1.1 Photo Library Permission

When you first open a view that needs access to your library, the operating system asks you to grant the App permission to use the Photos framework. The App can work with either Full Access or Limited Access; with Limited Access only the assets you selected are visible and albums appear empty. You can change this at any time in iOS Settings → PhotoView → Photos, or on a Mac in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos.

Photo and video data is accessed on-device through Apple's PhotoKit framework only when the App is open and you are viewing an asset. Original files are downloaded from iCloud on demand by the operating system itself; the App does not make its own network requests for your media.

The App writes to your library only for the actions you trigger yourself: deleting items, adding them to or removing them from your own albums, marking them as favorites, and creating an album or folder. Deletions go through the system's own confirmation, and deleted items land in the "Recently Deleted" album of the Photos app. iOS and macOS do not allow third-party apps to write to shared iCloud albums, so the App cannot change those at all.

1.2 Metadata Overlay

The App reads the technical metadata that is already embedded in your files (EXIF, IPTC, TIFF, GPS, XMP packets and maker notes), and what Apple's PhotoKit exposes (such as Live Photo identifiers or auxiliary-data flags for depth, HDR gain maps and portrait mattes). For a file you opened yourself on the Mac, it additionally reads an XMP sidecar file lying next to it, if there is one, and Finder attributes such as tags, comment and dates. This metadata is displayed on screen only; it is neither transmitted off your device by the App nor written back into the original media file.

1.3 Files You Open Yourself (Mac)

The Mac app can also show media that is not in your Photo Library: files and folders you pick in File → Open, and files you drag in from the Finder. macOS grants the App access to exactly those items and to nothing else. So that they reopen after a restart, the App stores a security-scoped bookmark for each one, together with the ten most recently opened items ("Open Recent"), inside its own private container on your Mac. Removing an entry, or "Clear Menu", deletes that reference while the file stays where it is; "Delete" on such a file moves the file itself to the Trash. None of this information leaves your Mac.

1.4 Map Display

If the photo contains GPS coordinates, you can open the location on a map. The App uses Apple's MapKit framework for this; the coordinates are handed to MapKit on-device and map tiles are fetched from Apple's servers under Apple's privacy policy. No location data is sent to us. The App never asks for your device's own location and does not use location services.

1.5 AirPlay, External Displays and Slideshows

On iPhone and iPad you can mirror the currently displayed photo, Live Photo or video — and a running slideshow with its transitions — to an AirPlay-compatible receiver or a connected external display. Only the media appears there, never the toolbar or the metadata. The transmission is handled by the operating system and goes directly from your device to the receiver; the App does not record, store or route this stream through any third-party service. The Mac app plays its slideshow in a window of its own and does not drive an AirPlay receiver.

1.6 Sharing and Export

Sharing an item opens the system share sheet; on the Mac you can additionally drag an item to the Finder or another app, copy it, or open it in Quick Look. For this the App may write a temporary copy of the original into its own cache folder, where it stays on your device under the system's management. Where a shared file goes afterwards is entirely your choice and is subject to the terms of whichever app or service you picked. We never receive it.

2. Data Stored by the App

2.1 User Preferences

The App stores your preferences locally on your device using Apple's UserDefaults mechanism:

By default these preferences stay on your device, leaving it only through Apple's standard backup mechanisms (iCloud Backup, or an encrypted Finder or Time Machine backup), which are under your own control. If you turn on Sync settings (see 2.2), they are additionally synced across your own devices.

2.2 Optional iCloud Settings Sync

PhotoView does not create or use a CloudKit container of its own, and it never uploads your photos, videos or their metadata. The only data the App itself places in iCloud is your own app preferences — and, apart from the trial status described in 2.3, only if you explicitly turn on Sync settings in Settings → General. The opt-in is per device: enabling it on your iPhone does not enable it on your iPad or Mac. When enabled, the preferences listed above — sort order, overlay size, position, font, background and colour, appearance, Live Photo playback, map style, the slideshow options and which metadata fields are shown — are stored in your private iCloud Key-Value Store (Apple's NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore) so they stay consistent across your devices. This data lives in your personal iCloud account under Apple's privacy policy and is never sent to us. Your one-time Pro unlock, the app language, the thumbnail size and the state of the review prompt are not synced. The synchronisation of your photos and videos themselves is performed separately by Apple's Photos system; PhotoView only reads what that system already holds on your device. You can turn this sync off again at any time in Settings.

2.3 Trial Status in iCloud

The free 7-day Pro trial is one per Apple ID. So that reinstalling the App does not hand out a second trial, its start date, end date and whether you declined it are mirrored into the same private iCloud Key-Value Store, independently of the Sync settings switch. These three values are all that is stored there for this purpose; they contain no personal data, they remain in your own iCloud account, and they are never sent to us.

2.4 Backup & Restore File

Settings → General → Backup & Restore exports your settings and field choices as a single JSON file through the share sheet, and imports one back again. The file holds preferences only — no photos, no metadata, no purchase information — and where you keep it is your decision.

2.5 No Account, No Server

The App does not require any registration or sign-in. We operate no server, database or logging infrastructure that receives data from the App.

3. Purchases and the Free Trial

The App offers a single one-time "PhotoView Pro" unlock. It enables the professional metadata groups — Description, Location, IPTC, DNG, XMP, IPTC Extension, Canon and Nikon, plus Finder attributes on the Mac — and the map link that opens a photo's location. Everything else, including browsing, viewing, favorites, multi-select organisation and slideshows, is free. Before buying you can try every Pro feature free for 7 days: no card, no auto-renew, one trial per Apple ID (see 2.3). Once you own Pro, an optional tip jar with three consumable tiers appears in Settings; it unlocks nothing further.

All purchases are processed by Apple through StoreKit; payment is handled by Apple under their terms and privacy policy. Because PhotoView is a Universal Purchase, buying on one platform unlocks it on the other. We receive only the anonymised purchase information necessary to verify the entitlement (for example, a transaction receipt); we do not receive your name, email address, billing address or payment method.

4. Notifications

If you start the free trial, the App offers to remind you one day before it ends. Only then does it ask for notification permission, and you can decline — the trial runs either way. The reminder is a single local notification, scheduled on your device by the App and delivered by the operating system; nothing passes through a server, and we receive no notification data. You can revoke the permission at any time in the system settings for PhotoView.

5. Data We Do Not Collect

6. If You Write to Support

The contact entry in the Help screen, and the feedback offer in the "are you enjoying PhotoView" prompt, open a pre-filled message to support@advoss.de in your own mail app. The pre-filled text names the app version, build number, platform, system version and device model so a bug report arrives with the details we would otherwise have to ask for — nothing else, and nothing is sent until you send it. If you do write to us, we receive your message along with whatever your mail account discloses (usually your email address and name) and keep it only for as long as answering your request requires.

7. Third-Party Services

The App relies solely on Apple platform services: PhotoKit / PhotosUI for reading and, on your instruction, changing your photo library, MapKit for the map view, AVKit for video playback, AirPlay for external-display mirroring, UserNotifications for the trial reminder, Quick Look and the Finder integration on the Mac, and StoreKit for in-app purchases and the review prompt. Each of these is provided by Apple and governed by Apple's privacy policy. The App is distributed exclusively through the Apple App Store and the Mac App Store.

8. Data Storage and Security

Your photos, videos and their metadata are stored by Apple's Photos system on your device and, if you have enabled it, in your iCloud Photo Library. The App's own preferences, its temporary export copies and the bookmarks for files you opened on the Mac are stored by the operating system in the App's private sandbox. Security of all of this data is provided by Apple's device encryption and iCloud security mechanisms. We never receive or access this data.

9. Children's Privacy

The App does not knowingly collect personal information from children. Because the App does not transmit any personal data to us, it is safe for users of all ages. The App does, however, read from your Photo Library and can delete items from it: parents and guardians are encouraged to consider this before granting the Photos permission on a device used by a child.

10. Your Rights Under GDPR

Since all App data (preferences and the trial dates) stays within Apple's ecosystem — on your device and, where described above, in your own private iCloud account — and we have no access to your preferences, photos, videos or metadata, the following applies:

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

12. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
support@advoss.de