Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective 19 June 2026 · Last updated 19 June 2026

Phosview is built local-first. Your photos, and everything Phosview works out about them, live on your Mac, not on our servers. That includes quality scores, faces, captions, the search index, and your keep or reject decisions. This policy explains the narrow set of information we do handle, when (and only when) anything leaves your machine, and the choices you control.

1Who we are

Phosview is a product of Eternos Strategy LLC (“Eternos”, “we”, “us”, “our”), the data controller for the limited personal information described here. You can reach us at privacy@phosview.app.

2Scope

This policy covers the Phosview macOS application (the “app”), this website (phosview.app), and the optional online services the app can connect to: licensing and activation, beta key requests, bug reports, gallery publishing, and (only if you turn it on) a cloud AI pass. It does not cover third-party products you use alongside Phosview, such as the Mac App Store, Setapp, or Ollama, which have their own privacy policies.

3What stays on your Mac

The core of Phosview runs entirely on your computer. The following never leave your Mac as part of normal use:

This data is stored in a local sidecar database inside your library folder and in the app's cache. You can delete it at any time by removing the library or the cache; the cache is fully rebuildable from your originals.

4What we collect

We collect only what these features require:

Licensing & activation

To activate and validate your license, the app sends your license key, a machine-bound activation token, and basic technical context (app build and macOS version) to our activation service. This lets a key work on your Macs (up to the allowed number) and lets us prevent abuse. Legal basis: performance of our agreement with you and our legitimate interest in protecting the software.

Email (beta & support)

If you request a beta key, recover a lost key, join a waitlist, or contact support, we process your email address and any message you send. We use it to issue or recover keys and to reply. Our beta forms use a CAPTCHA to deter automated abuse.

Bug reports (you choose to send)

If you submit a bug report from within the app, we receive your description, an optional email for follow-up, and, only if you leave the boxes checked, a diagnostic snapshot and a recent activity log. These are scrubbed of personal information: no photos or photo content, no captions, and file paths are redacted (your account name and volume names are removed). The log is size-capped, and you can see exactly what's included before sending. Nothing diagnostic is sent unless you submit a report.

Website

Our website is served by Google Firebase Hosting, which keeps standard server logs (such as IP address and user agent) for security and reliability. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

Payments

Purchases are handled by Apple (Mac App Store), Setapp, or Stripe (for the optional publishing subscription). We do not receive or store your full payment card details; the payment processor does. We may receive confirmation that a purchase or subscription is active.

5When data leaves your Mac

Photo content only leaves your machine in cases you initiate:

Outside of these, the app does not transmit your photos, captions, faces, or library contents anywhere.

6Apple Photos & iCloud

If you point Phosview at your Apple Photos / iCloud library, it uses Apple's PhotoKit on your Mac, with the permission you grant in macOS, to read and import photos locally. Phosview never deletes an iCloud photo on its own: at most it can collect duplicates into an album for you to review, or ask Photos to delete them, which always goes through Apple's own confirmation, with items recoverable in Recently Deleted. Nothing from Apple Photos is uploaded to us.

7What we never do

8Service providers

We share the limited data above only with providers that process it on our behalf to deliver these features:

The local AI option, Ollama, runs on your own Mac and sends nothing to us or to its developers as part of Phosview's use.

9Retention

We keep account and licensing records for as long as your license is active and as needed for legal and accounting purposes. Beta-program email is kept for the duration of the beta and a reasonable period after. Bug reports are kept only as long as useful to diagnose and fix issues. Published galleries remain hosted until you unpublish them or your publishing subscription ends. On-device data is retained on your Mac until you delete it.

10Security

Connections between the app, this website, and our services use encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS). License activation is bound to your device, and diagnostic logs are scrubbed before they can be sent. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures appropriate to the limited data we handle.

11Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the EU/UK GDPR or the California CCPA/CPRA), you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent (such as turning off the cloud AI option). Because most of your data lives only on your Mac, you can already exercise much of this directly in the app. For information we hold, such as your licensing record or beta email, contact privacy@phosview.app and we will respond within the time required by applicable law. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

12International transfers

We and our service providers are based in, or process data in, the United States and other countries. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses) for transfers of personal information across borders.

13Children

Phosview is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

14Changes

We may update this policy as the product evolves. We will revise the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, provide a more prominent notice. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.

15Contact

Questions about privacy? Email privacy@phosview.app. For general support, support@phosview.app.

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