Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 9, 2026

Short version: Latent Photos processes your photos entirely on your device. We do not collect, store, transmit, or sell your photos or any personal information. There are no accounts and no servers of ours. The only place anything is kept outside your device is your own iCloud, which we cannot read.

What we collect

Nothing, unless you write to us. Latent Photos does not collect personal data. We do not require an account, we do not use analytics or advertising SDKs, and we do not track you across apps or websites. What the app keeps in your own iCloud (see below) is stored for you by Apple, under your Apple Account; it never reaches us. If you send us a problem report or an email, we receive what you send (see Problem reports).

How your photos are used

To find near-duplicates and apply tags, the app reads your photo library on your device, with your permission. All of this processing, including the on-device machine learning used to recognize and compare images, happens locally on your iPhone. Your photos and the tags you create stay in your own photo library. They are never uploaded to us or to any third party.

Network access

The app has no servers and makes no analytics or tracking requests. It talks to two Apple services on your behalf, both under Apple's privacy policy, not ours: iCloud Photos, when iOS downloads one of your photos because the full-resolution original is not yet on your device; and iCloud, where the app keeps your review marks (see below). Photo data itself is never sent anywhere by the app.

Your tags

By default, Latent Photos saves your tags as albums in your Apple Photos library, so you can filter and combine them to find photos. If you use iCloud Photos, those albums sync across your devices through Apple's iCloud, the same way your photos already do, under Apple's privacy policy, not ours. We run no servers and never receive your tags or photos. In tag-only mode, tags are not written to your Photos library. If you export photos, the copies are created on your device and go only where you choose to send them.

Your review marks and tags in iCloud

Which photos you have marked as reviewed, which photos you have deleted with the app, when you did each, any resets you make, and how your tags look (each tag's name, colour, cover photo, place in the order and whether it is folded) are kept in your own iCloud account, in the app's private CloudKit database, so they follow you to your other devices and survive a reinstall. Photos are referred to by the identifiers Apple Photos gives them, and each of your devices by a random code. This data is stored under your Apple Account, encrypted, and is not accessible to us: we have no key, no dashboard and no way to read it. It never includes your photos. You can turn this off at any time in the app's Settings ("Sync with iCloud"); with it off, all of this stays on your device. You can delete it from iCloud in your device's iCloud storage settings.

Problem reports

Latent Photos keeps a short record of its own slowdowns and errors on your device for two weeks, so that if something goes wrong you can tell us what happened. Nothing in it leaves your device on its own. If you choose Settings → Report a problem, the app shows you the report and opens an email to us with it attached (or the share sheet, where Mail isn't set up); it is sent only if you send it. The report holds the app and iOS versions, the device model, the level of Photos access you gave, photo counts, indexing progress, free storage, and the slowdowns or errors of the last two weeks. It never holds your photos, places, or the names of files, folders, tags, servers or accounts. We use a report only to answer you and fix the problem, and we never share it.

Permissions

Latent Photos requests access to your photo library solely to provide its features. You can review or revoke this permission at any time in the iOS Settings app under Privacy & Security → Photos. If you turn on the app lock, iOS checks your Face ID, Touch ID or passcode itself and tells the app only whether it matched.

Children's privacy

The app is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and revise the date above. Material changes will be reflected in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@latentsnap.com.