1. What we process and why
A. Photos checked on your iPhone
Within the photo access you allow (all photos or only the photos you select), the app looks through your photo library on your iPhone only. Neither your photos nor the results are sent to the Studio, and the Studio cannot see them.
- Finding screenshots, documents, and graphics
- The app looks at each photo’s type (for example, whether it is a screenshot), its capture details, and a small downsized copy to find screenshots, photos of documents, and designed graphics, such as ads and invitations. What it finds is only suggested to you; the app moves only the photos you choose to Move. Favorites and videos are never suggested.
- Whether a person appears
- To keep family photos safe, the app checks only whether a person appears in a photo (a human figure or body outline) and avoids suggesting such photos as documents or graphics. It never works out who the person is and does not use face recognition. The result (whether a person was seen, plus a few scores for how much of a person or animal appears) is kept in the Clean Up history described below, but no faces or identities are kept, and the result never leaves your iPhone.
- Text in photos
- To tell whether a photo is a document, the app reads the text in it on your iPhone and keeps only the number of characters and lines. The text itself is discarded right away. It is never stored, searched, or sent.
- Duplicate photos
- When you use Clean Up Duplicates, the app compares details such as each photo’s size, format, edits, and caption, a fingerprint made from a small thumbnail, and, for photos that may match, a fingerprint of the file contents. It groups only copies that look identical. These fingerprints, the match results, and the number of photos and time taken for your last ten searches stay on your iPhone and are not included in backups or uploaded to iCloud. You choose which copies to delete, and your iPhone asks you again before deleting them.
- iCloud Photos
- If you use iCloud Photos and a photo’s original is not on your iPhone, your iPhone downloads it from Apple’s iCloud so the app can check or move it. iOS does this directly with Apple; nothing passes through the Studio.
B. Information kept on your iPhone and in your iCloud
The following information exists only on your iPhone or in your own iCloud. The Studio does not receive it and cannot see it.
- Photos in your library
- Photos you choose to Move, photos you send to Sideroll with the Share button, and photos you take with the Sideroll camera are saved as ordinary image files in category folders in Files › iCloud Drive › Sideroll. If iCloud Drive is off, they are saved in Files › On My iPhone › Sideroll. Photos moved from your photo library are copied as is (for edited photos, the edited version), so any details stored in them (such as the capture date and a location recorded by the Camera app) move with them. The Sideroll camera does not record location. When you straighten a photo, the original is kept in a hidden folder inside the same category folder.
- Clean Up History and Settings
- The list of photos you chose to Keep, the category you chose last for each kind of photo, your category order, your settings, the results of checking your photos (section 1-A), duplicate-photo records, year-album records (identifiers of the albums Sideroll created), straightening records (the corners you set and a fingerprint of each photo file), the list of photos you sent with the Share button (file name, file fingerprint, and category), and similar records are kept in storage on your iPhone that only the app, its widget, and its share extension use (an App Group). The app doesn’t upload them to iCloud itself (for iPhone backups, see section 2), and they are deleted along with the app.
- Photos waiting to be added
- If a photo you send to Sideroll with the Share button (up to 50 at a time) or take with the Sideroll camera can’t go into its folder right away, it waits in the app’s storage on your iPhone until you next open Sideroll. These photos exist only on your iPhone and are deleted if you delete the app before then.
- Photos taken without unlocking
- If Open Camera Without Unlocking is turned on in Settings, you can use the Sideroll camera on a locked iPhone. Those photos are kept briefly in storage that iOS provides for this camera on your iPhone, then go into your library when you unlock your iPhone and open Sideroll. They are deleted if you delete the app before then.
- Secret Vault
- Photos you put in the Secret Vault are locked (encrypted) file by file and kept in a hidden place in your iCloud Drive. They don’t appear in the Files app and remain even if you delete the app. The key is kept in your iPhone’s Keychain and in iCloud Keychain (if it is on). Like other Keychain items, it is also included in encrypted iPhone backups and carried over when you move to a new iPhone. The Studio never receives the key, so it cannot open your photos. The Recovery Key shown when you create the vault is a code you write down yourself. So that you can still open the vault on a new iPhone if the key doesn’t arrive, a copy of the key, locked with your Recovery Key, is kept with the vault. The Secret Vault is available only when iCloud Drive is on.
- Face ID and app lock
- When you open the app or the Secret Vault, iOS confirms it’s you with Face ID (or Touch ID or your iPhone passcode). Your iPhone does the check, and the app learns only whether it succeeded. No face data reaches the app or the Studio.
- Year albums in Photos
- When you use Sort into Albums by Year, the app creates albums such as “2026” in the Photos app and adds that year’s photos and videos based on their dates. It never moves or deletes photos, and undoing it removes the albums Sideroll created. If iCloud Photos is on, Apple syncs these albums to your other devices.
- Weekly Reminder
- If you turn on Weekly Reminder, your iPhone counts only the number of new screenshots in the background and shows a notification at most once a week. Weekly Reminder can be turned on only when notifications are allowed and Sideroll has Full Access to your photos. The notification is created on your iPhone; the app does not use server-sent push notifications.
- Widget and controls
- The Home Screen widget and the Sideroll Camera control in Control Center and on the Lock Screen only open the camera. They don’t show your photos or photo counts.
C. Information you send us
- Contact email
- Your email address, your name (if your mail app includes it), your message, and any screenshots or photos you attach are used to answer your inquiry and to investigate and fix problems. The app has no built-in email feature; we receive only what you send from your own mail app. Before attaching photos, please check that they show nothing you don’t want to share.
D. What Apple handles
The app does not communicate with any server run by the Studio. Its only outside communication is the following, which iOS carries out directly with Apple. Apple’s handling is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy.
- iCloud: iCloud Drive (which holds your Sideroll library and Secret Vault), iCloud Keychain (which holds the Secret Vault key), and the albums and photos in the Photos app are stored by Apple according to your iCloud settings and synced across devices signed in to the same Apple Account.
- App Store payments: Buy Me a Coffee is an optional tip (a consumable in-app purchase) that unlocks nothing. Payments are handled by Apple’s App Store. The app loads the coffee prices from the App Store and checks only the payment result Apple returns. The Studio does not receive payment information such as your name, payment method, or Apple Account.
4. Processors and international transfers
The Studio does not outsource the processing of personal information. However, because contact emails are received through Apple’s iCloud Mail, they are stored on Apple’s servers.
- Legal basis
- Article 28-8(1)(iii) of the Personal Information Protection Act of the Republic of Korea. The storage is needed to answer your inquiry and is disclosed in this policy.
- Countries
- The United States and other countries where Apple operates data centers
- Information transferred
- The email address, name, message content, and any attached screenshots or photos contained in your contact email
- When and how
- Transmitted over the network when you send a contact email
- Purpose
- Receiving and storing contact emails
- Retention
- The same as the contact email retention period in section 2
- How to opt out
- No transfer takes place if you do not contact us by email. This does not affect your use of the app.
iCloud and the App Store are services you use directly with Apple. They are not processing that the Studio has outsourced (see section 1-D).