Privacy policy

The short version

• Your photos and videos never leave your iPhone. Zap doesn’t upload, copy or back them up, and it has nowhere to keep them.
• To run your account we keep a small amount of information: your Sign in with Apple details, counts of how much you’ve swiped, your streak, your Zap+ purchase and your notification settings.
• A setting called “Help improve Zap” sends us anonymous usage counts. It is switched on when you install Zap. You can turn it off at any time in Account, then Preferences.
• There are no ads in Zap. We don’t sell your information, and we don’t track you across other companies’ apps or websites.
• You can delete your account in the app whenever you like.

Who we are

Zap is run by Cain Mackenzie-Yapa, the developer shown as the seller of Zap on the App Store. We are the “controller” of your personal information. That means we decide how it is used and we are responsible for it under UK and EU data protection law (the UK GDPR, the EU GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

Questions about privacy go to privacy@usezap.app.

Your photos stay on your iPhone

Zap asks iOS for access to your photo library so it can show you one photo at a time. It reads your library on your iPhone, using Apple’s own tools.

Nothing about your photos is sent anywhere. Not the pictures, the thumbnails, the file names, the dates, the locations or the faces. Zap has no code that uploads a photo and no server that could receive one.

The list of photos you’ve already swiped, bookmarked or put in the bin is kept on your iPhone only. So is your day-by-day activity history, and your settings.

If you choose Select Photos instead of Full Access, Zap asks for full access before it starts, because sorting a library means seeing all of it.

If you tap Share on a photo, iOS’s own share sheet sends it to the app you pick. What happens to it there is up to that app.

How deleting works

Zap never deletes anything by itself. When you empty the bin, Zap asks iOS to delete those photos, and iOS shows you its own confirmation. If you say no, nothing is deleted.

If you say yes, iOS moves them to Recently Deleted in Photos, where they stay for 30 days and you can restore them. If you use iCloud Photos, they stay in iCloud for that time too. Zap can’t delete them permanently, can’t empty Recently Deleted, and can’t reach into that album at all. Apple gives apps no way to do that.

What we collect, and why

Some information does leave your iPhone, because Zap has accounts and a subscription. This is the complete list. For each part we say why we need it and the legal reason (the “lawful basis”) that lets us use it.

Your account

Zap uses Sign in with Apple. When you sign in, Apple gives us an identifier for your account and the name and email address you choose to share. If you choose Hide My Email, Apple gives us a private relay address instead of your real one.

With your account we keep an internal account ID, that email address, your name and username if you shared them, whether Apple says the address is verified, and when the account was created and last changed.

Why: to create your account and keep your allowance, streak, referrals and Zap+ with you, even on a new phone. Lawful basis: we need it to provide Zap to you (contract).

Your swipes, streak and allowance

We keep numbers, never which photos: how many photos you’ve swiped, how many you kept and binned each month, the total size of what you’ve binned, when you last swiped, how much of today’s allowance you’ve used, and your streak. We also keep a yearly summary (photos reviewed, kept and binned, space reclaimed, days active and your busiest month) so your year survives a new phone.

We keep your time zone (for example Europe/London) and when reminders should be sent, so your allowance resets at 7am your time and reminders arrive at a sensible hour.

Why: to run the free allowance, the streak and your totals. Lawful basis: contract.

Zap+ and your purchases

Apple takes the payment. We never see your card, your billing address or your Apple Account password.

When you buy, the app sends Apple’s receipt to our server, which checks it with Apple. We keep whether you have Zap+, which plan, when it renews or ends, whether it is set to renew, and Apple’s ID for the original purchase, so one purchase can’t be claimed by two accounts.

We also keep a record of each purchase event Apple tells us about: the plan, the price and currency, your App Store country, the dates, any offer, and whether it was shared through Family Sharing.

Why: to give you what you paid for, deal with refunds, prevent fraud, and understand how Zap is doing as a business. Lawful basis: contract, and our legitimate interests in preventing fraud and running Zap.

How you found Zap

When you first sign in, we record your App Store country, your language and time zone, the versions of Zap and iOS you’re using, and the day you first opened Zap. This is kept with your account.

If “Help improve Zap” is on, we also ask Apple whether you came to Zap from an Apple Search Ads campaign, and keep Apple’s answer: the campaign, ad group, keyword and ad, the country, and the date of the click. It tells us which ad worked, not who you are to Apple.

Why: to understand where people come from and which versions are in use. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests. The Apple Search Ads part only happens while “Help improve Zap” is on.

Help improve Zap (usage analytics)

Zap uses Google’s Firebase Analytics to see which parts of the app people use and where they get stuck. It is switched on when you install Zap. You can turn it off at any time in Account, then Preferences, then “Help improve Zap”. Collection stops straight away and stays off.

It records events from a fixed list: that the app was opened, which screen was shown, which part of your library you were in, how many photos were reviewed, that you bookmarked or undid something, shared a recap or read a help article. The size of your library is only ever recorded as a rough band, like “1,000 to 10,000”.

It never includes a photo, a thumbnail, a file name or a photo identifier, or your name, email address or account ID. We don’t link it to your account. Google’s advertising ID isn’t collected and ad personalisation is switched off.

Why: to make Zap better. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests. You can object at any time by turning the switch off.

Crash reports and performance

Zap uses Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Performance Monitoring to find out when it crashes or runs slowly. They send crash reports, technical details of errors, how long some internal tasks took, a rough band for the size of your library, your device model, your iOS and Zap versions, and an ID that Firebase creates for this installation.

They never include your photos, thumbnails, file names or photo identifiers. Details attached to an error pass through a filter that removes anything that looks like a photo identifier, file path or file name before it is sent. They are not linked to your account.

Why: to fix problems. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in keeping Zap working.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, Zap stores a push token with your account so that Apple and Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging can deliver reminders to your iPhone. We keep a log of each notification sent (which kind, and when) for 30 days so you don’t get the same one twice. Then it is deleted automatically.

Lawful basis: your consent, which you give when iOS asks. You can withdraw it at any time in your iPhone’s Settings, then Notifications, then Zap.

Referrals

If you share or use a referral code, we keep your own code, the code you used, and the link between the two accounts, so both of you get your swipes. People who joined with your code are shown to you by first name, and the person whose code you used may see yours.

When you use a code, we also keep a one-way fingerprint of your Apple sign-in (and of your email address, if Apple shared one), so the same person can’t use a code twice. It can’t be turned back into your Apple Account or your email address.

Lawful basis: contract (giving you the swipes), and our legitimate interests in preventing abuse.

Keeping the service secure

When the app talks to our server, it includes a short-lived token from Apple’s App Attest, checked by Google’s Firebase App Check. It proves the request comes from the real Zap app on a real iPhone. It carries no personal information. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in keeping Zap and your account safe.

When it opens, Zap also checks whether your version is still supported. Nothing about you is sent with that check.

If you email us

We see your email address and whatever you write, and use them to reply. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in helping you.

Kept on your iPhone only

A short note of your Zap+ status, when it renews, and today’s allowance and streak is kept in your iPhone’s Keychain, so Zap works offline. It stays on this phone, isn’t synced to iCloud, survives reinstalling the app, and is removed when you sign out of Zap or delete your account.

Who else handles your information

Zap relies on two companies:

• Apple: Sign in with Apple, App Store purchases and receipt checks, Apple Search Ads attribution (only while “Help improve Zap” is on), App Attest, and delivering notifications. Apple’s own privacy policy covers what Apple does: apple.com/legal/privacy/
• Google (Firebase and Google Cloud): sign-in (Firebase Authentication), our database (Cloud Firestore), our server code (Cloud Functions), notifications (Cloud Messaging), Crashlytics, Performance Monitoring, Analytics, App Check, and BigQuery, where we keep a copy of the analytics events. Google handles this for us under its data processing terms.

We don’t sell your information. We don’t share it with advertisers or data brokers, and Zap has no advertising or marketing tools in it.

Where your information is processed

Your account record and our server code are in Google’s data centres in the European Union (Belgium and the Netherlands). Analytics, crash reports and performance data are processed by Google, which may handle them in the United States and other countries. Apple processes its parts wherever it runs its services.

When information leaves the UK or the EU, it is protected by the safeguards the law requires, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the UK and the EU, or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK extension, which Google relies on.

How long we keep it

• Your account, counts, streak, referral links and push token: until you delete your account.
• Notification log: 30 days.
• Usage analytics: Google Analytics keeps event data for 14 months. We also keep a copy of the raw analytics events in Google BigQuery, with no set expiry. Neither is linked to your account.
• Crash and performance reports: kept by Google on its own schedule, which we don’t control.
• Purchase records: kept after you delete your account, with the link to you removed, so we can deal with refunds and fraud. We don’t delete them on a schedule.
• Referral fingerprint: kept after you delete your account, so a code can’t be used again by making a new account.
• Anonymous totals: kept. They can’t identify anyone (see below).
• Emails to us: kept for 2 years, then deleted.

When you delete your account

In the app, tap the … button at the top of the deck to open Account, then Help & feedback, then Delete account at the bottom, under Danger zone. This deletes your account record, your counts and yearly summary, your push token, your referral links and your sign-in straight away. It doesn’t touch a single photo.

Three things are kept:

• Anonymous totals. A snapshot with no identifier of any kind: the month the account was created and the month it was deleted, how many photos it reviewed, how much it binned, how many friends it referred, and whether it ever subscribed. These numbers are added to running totals and can’t be traced back to you.
• Purchase records. If you ever bought Zap+, the record is kept because Apple may ask us about refunds, and so one purchase can’t be claimed by two accounts. It holds Apple’s transaction ID, the plan, price, currency, App Store country and dates. Not your name, email address or card. It is no longer linked to you.
• The referral fingerprint, if you ever used a referral code, as described above.

Deleting your account does not cancel a Zap+ subscription. Cancel it with Apple first, in your iPhone’s Settings.

If you’ve already deleted the app, email hello@usezap.app and we’ll delete your account for you.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• see the information we hold about you;
• have it corrected if it’s wrong;
• have it deleted (you can also do this yourself in the app);
• get a copy of it in a format you can reuse;
• object to us using it for our legitimate interests, including analytics (the quickest way is the “Help improve Zap” switch);
• ask us to limit how we use it;
• withdraw any consent you’ve given, such as for notifications.

To use any of these rights, email privacy@usezap.app. It’s free. We may ask you to confirm the account is yours before we act, and we’ll reply within one month, as the law requires.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ If you live in the EU, you can complain to the data protection authority in your country.

Your controls

• Photo access: change or remove it at any time in your iPhone’s Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Photos, then Zap. Removing it stops Zap working but changes nothing in your library.
• Notifications: Settings, then Notifications, then Zap.
• Usage analytics: in Zap, Account, then Preferences, then “Help improve Zap”.
• Your subscription: Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions. Apple runs that screen, so it can’t be cancelled inside Zap.

Tracking and ads

Zap doesn’t track you. It has no ads and no advertising tools, doesn’t collect advertising IDs, and never combines your information with other companies’ data for advertising. That’s why iOS never asks you whether Zap may track you.

Children

Zap isn’t designed for or aimed at children. If you think a child has made a Zap account, email us and we’ll delete it.

This website

usezap.app sets no cookies and runs no analytics or tracking scripts. Like any website, our web host may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses and the pages requested, to keep the site running and secure.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll change the date at the top. If a change matters, we’ll tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

Email privacy@usezap.app.