Privacy Policy

Version 2.2Last updated: 16 September 2026

Overview

Cat Cam ("the App") helps you photograph your cat when it looks at the camera. The App is built around a simple principle: it does not collect data. Everything the App produces while you use it — including the live camera preview, the photos it captures, and the locations inside them — is processed and stored only on your own iPhone. None of it is ever uploaded, and the developer cannot access, view, or obtain any photo, location, or usage record from your device.

This version adds one optional paid feature, the Cat Trail map. Unlocking it means the App talks to Apple's servers to check that purchase — see "Purchases" below. That is the App's only network communication for its own functionality, it carries no photo, location, or usage data, and it does not change anything above.

This Policy describes the actual behaviour of the current version (2.2) of the App. If a future version changes how data is handled, the "Changes to This Policy" section below applies.

Permissions the App Uses

• Camera: used to show the live preview and to analyze, on-device, whether your cat is facing the camera. The feed is only used for real-time display and on-device analysis; it is never recorded as video or uploaded. A still photo is only created when a capture is triggered.
• Photo Library (Read and Write): used to save captured photos into the Photos app, and to read them back so they can appear as the corner thumbnail and inside the App's own album view. For any purpose, the App only ever accesses the Cat Cam album it created itself — it never reads, scans, or enumerates anything else in your library. Tapping the corner thumbnail opens that in-app album, which shows your Cat Cam photos and, on its map tab, where they were taken.
• Location (While Using): used to record where a photo was taken, and to show your own position on the map when you ask for it. See "Photo Location" below.

What the Current Version Does Not Collect

Version 2.2 of the App does not include any of the following:

• User accounts, registration, or sign-in
• Analytics, usage-tracking, or crash-reporting SDKs
• Advertising or ad tracking
• Cloud sync or backup
• Microphone recording, contacts, or other permissions
• Any network connection that sends your photos, locations, or usage anywhere — the purchase check described under "Purchases" is the App's only network communication, and it carries none of that

The App contains no third-party SDKs. Communication between your device and Apple — App Store downloads, the in-app purchase check, or iCloud Photos sync that you enabled yourself — is governed by Apple's services and policies and is not data processing by this App.

Photos You Capture

All photos are stored locally in your iPhone's own Photos app, fully under your control — viewing, sharing, and deleting all happen through the system Photos app or the App's own album view, which reads from it. At no point can the developer access any of it.

There is one exception, and it exists only if you granted the App limited photo access (you picked specific photos rather than allowing the whole library). In that state the system will not give the App back a photo it just took unless that photo is in your selection, so the album would show gaps. To avoid that, the App keeps its own copy of those photos inside its private app storage, purely so it can display them to you. Those copies stay on your iPhone, are visible to no other app, and are never uploaded. A copy is deleted when you delete that photo in the App, when you delete the App itself, and automatically as soon as the photo becomes readable from your library again — because you added it to your selection, or switched the App to full access. With full photo access granted, no such copy is ever made.

Photo Location

If you've granted this App location access in system settings, the App records where a photo was taken while you're using the camera, and writes that location into the photo's EXIF data and the system Photo Library's asset properties, so you can later browse your photos by location in the Photos app. Like the photos themselves, this location data stays entirely on your iPhone — the App never transmits it to any server, the developer cannot access it, and no third party is involved.

Location recording follows the system location permission directly: granted means recorded, not granted means not recorded. The App does not currently have its own in-app switch to turn location recording off separately — if you want to stop recording locations, go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services and turn off location access for this App; photos taken afterward will have no location attached.

If you leave Precise Location off for the App, it still records an approximate, city-scale coordinate rather than none at all, so your photos can still be roughly placed on a map.

The App's own map tab displays those recorded locations, drawn on Apple Maps. Reading a map means your device asks Apple for map imagery, exactly as the system Maps app does; that is Apple's service under Apple's policies, and the App sends Apple no photo and no photo location of yours. Any name you give a place is typed by you and stored on your device only — the App never looks a place up online. If you switch on the map's "follow my location" control, the App uses your current position and compass heading to keep the map centred on you, for as long as that control is on and you are on the map screen; that too stays on your device.

Purchases

The App is free. One optional feature — the Cat Trail map — is unlocked by a one-time in-app purchase. Apple processes that purchase: you pay Apple, and your payment details never reach the App or the developer, who never sees your name, card, or Apple ID.

To know whether the feature is unlocked — at launch, and when you tap Restore Purchase — the App asks the App Store whether this device's Apple ID owns that one product, using Apple's StoreKit framework. That exchange is only about that purchase. It sends no photo, no location, no usage record, and nothing that identifies you to the developer. What comes back is stored nowhere but in the App's own record of "unlocked or not". Apple's own handling of the transaction is covered by Apple's privacy policy, and the developer receives only Apple's aggregate sales reports, which name no buyer.

Your Rights

Because the App collects, receives, and stores no personal data belonging to you, the developer holds nothing to access, correct, export, or delete, and so cannot action such a request on your behalf. Your control over everything the App produces is direct: the photos and any location inside them live in your own Photos app, where you can view, export, or delete them at any time, and deleting the App ends all of its processing.

Children's Privacy

The App is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to This Policy

The developer may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the App or to applicable law. Each update raises the version number at the top of this page and states a new effective date, and takes effect when it is published here.

If a change would materially alter how the App collects or handles personal data — for example by adding Sign in with Apple, cloud backup, or a subscription service — you will be told about it prominently inside the App, and any consent required by law will be obtained before that collection begins. Until you choose to use such a feature, the "does not collect data" description above continues to apply to you.

Section 10 of the Terms of Use permits the developer to change the Terms without prior notification. That right does not extend to a material change in how personal data is collected under this Policy, which is always notified as described in the paragraph above.

Contact

If you have questions about this policy, you can reach the developer at support.xtify@gmail.com.