Privacy Policy

Your photos and videos

When you tap the shutter, Backdrop renders the frame through the Look you picked and writes it to your device’s photo library. Backdrop also keeps a copy of your most recent captures on the device, in its own storage, so the Shelf inside the app can show them. That copy never leaves the phone. Deleting a capture from the Shelf removes Backdrop’s copy and leaves the one in your photo library alone; deleting the app removes every copy Backdrop kept.

Everything the camera does happens on the device. The Looks are rendered on the phone’s own graphics hardware, and the subject detection that helps the camera focus runs on-device too. No frame of what you point the camera at is transmitted anywhere.

If you bring in a photo or video from your library to run a Look over it, Backdrop receives only the item you pick, through Apple’s own picker. It is processed on the device and is not uploaded.

No account

Backdrop has no sign-in. It does not ask for your name, email address or any other way to identify you.

Your settings

Which Look you last used, and any adjustments you made to it, live on the device. They survive a relaunch. They do not survive deleting the app, and they are never uploaded.

Backdrop Premium

Backdrop Premium is an optional subscription bought through Apple. Apple handles the payment; Backdrop never sees your card or your Apple ID.

RevenueCat manages the subscription for us. When the app launches, and when you buy or restore a plan, it contacts RevenueCat with a random identifier for this install and your App Store purchase record, so the app knows whether the plan is active. That identifier is not your name, email or Apple ID, and RevenueCat receives none of those. It appears in the app’s Settings as the Support id, an anonymous purchase identifier you can quote to us if you need help with a plan; it is not tied to your name or email. RevenueCat’s own privacy policy is at revenuecat.com/privacy.

Usage analytics

Backdrop sends anonymous usage events, such as which Look a photo was taken with or that the plan page was opened, so we can improve the app. Each carries a random identifier for this install and basic technical details like the app and iOS version. They never include your photos, videos, name, email, Apple ID or advertising identifier, and are not linked to you. PostHog processes them for us on servers in the United States; its privacy policy is at posthog.com/privacy.

Third parties

RevenueCat, as above, for the subscription.

PostHog, as above, for anonymous usage analytics.

Apple may send us crash reports, if you have chosen to share diagnostics with developers in iOS Settings. These are aggregated by Apple and are not used to identify you.

There is no advertising, no ad profile and no third-party tracker in Backdrop, and nothing it collects is used to track you across other apps or websites.

Permissions Backdrop asks for

• Camera — the Looks run on the live camera. Without it the app has nothing to do.
• Microphone — only when you record a video, so the clip has sound. Nothing is recorded outside a recording.
• Photo library — to save what you shoot. Backdrop asks for add-only access: it can write new photos and videos to your library, and it cannot read the ones already there.

Each is asked for at the moment it is first needed, and each can be withdrawn in iOS Settings.

What Backdrop never does

• No background capture and no always-on microphone.
• No uploading of your photos or videos.
• No selling or renting of your information, ever.
• No advertising, no ad profiles, no third-party trackers.
• No feed, no followers, no audience.

Children

Backdrop is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a meaningful way, the date above changes with it. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact

Questions about your privacy? Write to hello@backdrop.wiki.