Privacy

Privacy Policy

What Archive knows about you, and what it never will.

Last updated September 18, 2026

Archive is a photo and video editor for iPhone. This policy explains what information the app handles, what little of it ever leaves your device, and the choices you have. The short version: your photos stay on your phone, with one exception you choose each time (the Effects tool, described below), and we don't collect what we don't need.

Your photos and videos

Everything you edit in Archive is processed on your device. Presets, adjustments, retouching, text, borders, collages and the camera all run on your phone; those photos and videos are never uploaded to us or to anyone else, and we cannot see them. The one exception is the Effects tool, which you opt into explicitly and which is described in its own section below. Archive asks for access to your photo library only so you can pick media to edit and save your results back to your camera roll. You can limit or revoke this access at any time in iOS Settings, and the app keeps working with whatever access you choose to give it.

Effects

Some effects in Archive are generated by an image model that runs on a server, not on your phone; the app marks them and they use credits. Nothing is sent until you tap the button to make an effect, and the first time you do, the app shows you what this section says and asks you to agree. You can decline, and everything else in Archive keeps working. You can withdraw your agreement at any time under Settings › Privacy in the app; the app will ask again before the next effect.

What is sent. A reduced copy of the one photo you are editing, smaller than the original, with all metadata removed, including location, date and camera information. Your edits are not sent; the effect is made from the photo and combined with your edits on your phone afterwards. No other photo, and nothing else on your phone, is sent.

Who receives it. The copy travels through our own server, which does not store it, to a third-party image-generation service and its model provider, acting as our processor. Under that provider's terms for paid use, your photo and the result are not used to train or improve its models; it may keep a log of requests for a limited period solely to detect abuse of its service. We will tell you who the provider is if you ask us at the address below.

Where it is processed. The provider processes requests in the countries where it or its agents maintain facilities, which may include countries outside the EU/EEA, including the United States. This is a transfer of your photo outside the EU/EEA, which is why we ask for your explicit consent before the first one. By agreeing in the app, you consent to that transfer.

How long we keep it. Our server never stores your photo. The generated result is held on our server only until your phone downloads it, which normally takes seconds; the app then asks the server to delete it, and any result not collected (for example because the app was closed) is deleted automatically after one hour. After that, the effect exists only on your phone, in your library, like any other edit.

What we record. To run the feature and account for the credits it uses, our server keeps a record of each generation: a random identifier for your installation, which effect was requested, the dimensions and size of the copy sent, whether it succeeded or failed and why, the time it took, and your app version. It does not keep the image, and the record is not linked to your name, email or Apple ID, none of which Archive has.

Credits. Effects use credits, which come with a subscription or can be bought as packs through the App Store. Our server keeps a ledger of credits granted, used and refunded against the same random identifier, so that your balance is correct and a failed effect is not charged. Purchases themselves are handled by Apple and our subscription provider as described under "Purchases and subscriptions".

Deleting this data. Email us at the address below with the Support ID shown in the app's Help Center or in its support email footer, and we will delete your generation records, your credit ledger and the identifier that ties them together. Doing so forfeits any credits on the balance; purchase records held by Apple and our subscription provider are kept as described under "Purchases and subscriptions". Reinstalling the app creates a new identifier; restoring purchases links it to your App Store subscription and brings any remaining balance back, unless you asked us to delete the old records first.

The camera and microphone

Archive has its own camera, so you can shoot straight into your library with a preset already applied. It runs only while the camera screen is open. What it sees is processed on your device exactly like everything else you edit: the photos and clips you shoot are saved to your library, and they are never uploaded to us or to anyone else (unless you later choose to apply an Effect to one of them, which is covered above).

The microphone is optional, and it is used for one thing: recording sound while you shoot video. Archive does not ask for it until the first time you open video mode, it is never used while you take photos, and it is never used to listen in the background. If you say no, video still records normally and the clips are simply silent. You can change your mind later, and nothing you have already shot is affected.

You can grant or revoke either at any time in iOS Settings. Archive's own settings show what the app currently holds, under Permissions, and take you there.

No account, no personal data

Archive has no accounts and no sign-in. We do not collect, store, sell, rent, or share your name, email address, contacts, or location. We do not show ads, we do not use advertising SDKs, and we do not track you across other apps or websites, so Archive never asks for permission to track you. We do use two analytics and crash-reporting tools to keep the app working and to see which features get used; they are described under "Crash reports and app usage" below, they receive no personal information, and you can switch them off in the app. The Effects tool uses a random identifier created for your installation, described in its own section above; it is not linked to who you are.

Purchases and subscriptions

Optional subscriptions are billed by Apple through your App Store account, under Apple's own terms and privacy policy. We never receive your payment details.

To unlock what you've purchased and restore it if you reinstall or switch devices, Archive uses a subscription infrastructure provider acting as a processor on our behalf. It receives a randomly generated identifier created for your installation, your purchase history for this app, and basic technical information needed to validate transactions (such as app version and device platform). This identifier is not linked to your name or email (Archive has neither), and this data is used only to make your purchase work. It is retained for as long as needed to honour your purchase and meet legal record-keeping requirements.

Credit packs for the Effects tool are one-time purchases billed the same way. When you buy one, our subscription provider tells our server, which adds the credits to your balance against the same identifier. Credits you buy do not expire; credits included with a subscription are granted each billing period and do not carry over. If you ask Apple for a refund, Apple may ask us whether the purchase was used; our subscription provider answers on our behalf with purchase and usage information (such as how many credits were granted and used, and how long you have had the app), which Apple uses to decide. A refunded pack's remaining credits are removed from your balance.

Crash reports and app usage

Archive sends anonymous crash reports and a small number of usage events, so we can fix what breaks and see which parts of the app people actually use. This is on by default and you can turn it off at any time: open Settings inside the app and switch off "Share diagnostics". Both tools stop immediately.

Two providers process this for us, both acting as processors on our instructions and both storing the data in the European Union. One handles crash reports and performance timings: the error and where in the app it happened, plus how long actions like opening a photo or exporting take. The other handles usage events, a short and fixed list: importing photos, applying a preset, saving an edit, starting a collage, completing an export, and whether a subscription screen was shown or a purchase completed. We will tell you who they are if you ask us at the address below.

Both receive your device model, iOS version, app version, and a randomly generated identifier created for your installation. That identifier is not your name, your email, your Apple ID, or an advertising identifier, none of which Archive has. It is not sold or given to anyone outside the processors named here, and not used to recognise you in any other app. Deleting and reinstalling Archive creates a new one.

Our subscription provider also holds this same identifier, so that a subscription event that happens with the app closed (a renewal, a cancellation, an expiry) reaches the usage-events tool as part of the same installation rather than as an unrelated one. Nothing else passes between the two, and neither of them learns anything about you that this policy has not already described.

What they never receive: your photos or videos, or any part of them; thumbnails; file names or paths; any text you add to a photo; your album names; your location. We have switched off session recording and automatic screen capture in both tools, and we have switched off the location lookup that these tools would otherwise perform from your IP address, so we do not collect even the country you are in. For the Effects tool they receive only that an effect was started, finished or failed, and which effect; never the photo.

Separately, if you have enabled "Share With App Developers" in iOS Settings (an Apple feature that is off unless you turn it on), Apple may provide us with anonymized crash and performance reports. These contain no personal information and no content from your photos or videos. You can turn this off at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.

Emails you send us

If you contact support, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to tell us, plus a short diagnostic footer the app offers to include (device model, iOS version, app version, and the same random purchase identifier described above, so we can look up your subscription if you ask us to). We use this only to answer you, and we don't add you to any mailing list.

Data retention and deletion

Your edits, presets, and library live on your device and are deleted when you delete the app. The purchase records held by our subscription provider, and the Effects records and credit ledger held by our server, can be deleted on request: email us at the address below, include the Support ID shown in the app's Help Center or in its support email footer, and we will delete the associated data except where transaction records must be kept for legal reasons. Note that deleting these records may prevent restoring your purchase later and forfeits any Effects credits.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of data held about you, and to object to or restrict its processing. Because we hold almost nothing, exercising these rights is usually as simple as the deletion process above, or switching off "Share diagnostics" in the app's Settings, which stops crash reports and usage events at once. Whatever your request, email us and we will handle it. If you are in the EU/EEA and believe we have not handled your data properly, you can lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. We do not sell personal information, and never have, so there is nothing to opt out of.

Children

Archive is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included. If you believe a child has sent us personal information (for example by emailing support), contact us and we will delete it.

Security

Everything that travels (purchase validation, and the photo copy and result for the Effects tool) is encrypted in transit. Effects requests are authenticated with a token that lives only on your phone. No system can guarantee absolute security, but our best protection is structural: data that is never collected cannot leak, and the one image that is sent is deleted as soon as it has done its job.

International transfers

Crash reports and usage events are stored in the European Union. Purchase data is processed on servers that may be located outside the EU, including in the United States, under appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. Our providers are US-incorporated companies, so data stored in the EU may still be accessible to them under the same safeguards.

The Effects tool is different, and is the reason it asks for your consent: the photo copy is processed by a provider that may do so outside the EU/EEA, including in the United States, and that transfer relies on your explicit consent, given in the app before the first effect. You can withdraw it at any time under Settings › Privacy in the app, and nothing is sent unless you tap the button.

Changes

If Archive's data practices ever change, this policy will be updated here before the change takes effect, with the date above revised.

Contact

Archive Found
Questions about privacy? Contact us at support@archivefound.com.