Your information stays yours.

Who this policy is from

Nordbox is a small studio in Beirut, Lebanon. We design, build and publish the apps this policy covers — every app on the App Store under the Nordbox name, for iPhone, iPad and Mac. If you have any question about your privacy, you can write to a person here: hello@nordbox.co.

What we collect

From the app, nothing. Our apps are built so that what you open, edit, make and save stays on your device. It is not sent to us, and we have no way to see it.

Most of our apps have no sign-in at all. Where one asks you to sign in, it uses Sign in with Apple: there is no password to make, and no account on our side. Apple confirms it is you and passes the app your name, and both stay on your device — we never receive either. We never ask for your email address or your phone number in order to use an app. On the App Store, Apple shows this on each app's page as Data Not Collected. If an app ever needs something different, its App Store page will say so, and so will the app.

Where your information is kept

• On your device. This is where your work lives while you use the app. If you delete the app, what it kept on the device goes with it; anything it kept in your iCloud stays there until you delete it.
• Wherever you save it. When you save or export something — to your photo library, a folder, or another app — it goes where you chose, and it is yours to keep or delete.
• In your own iCloud, where an app syncs between your devices. That is your Apple storage, under your Apple Account, and it is private to you. We cannot open it, and we are never sent a copy.

Your photos, videos and files

Many of our apps work on pictures, videos, sound and documents. This is how they treat them.

• An app only opens what you give it. On iPhone and iPad you can let it see only the photos you pick, rather than your whole library. On a Mac, it can only open the files you drop in or choose.
• Some apps only ask to add to your library. That lets them save a finished result, without being able to see anything else in it.
• Your originals are left alone. When an app changes a photo or a file, it saves a new copy — unless it clearly asks you first.
• Some apps read the hidden details inside a file — where a photo was taken, which camera or app made it, notes that other software wrote into it. They read these to show them to you, or to remove the ones you choose. That reading happens on your device, and nothing it finds is sent to us.
• A file can point to the internet. Some files, like a vector drawing, can link to a picture stored online. If you open one of those, your device may fetch that picture to show the file — the same way a web browser would. The app does not send your file anywhere to do this.

Artificial intelligence in our apps

Some of our apps use artificial intelligence to do their job — bringing back detail in a photo, removing something and filling in what was behind it, cutting out a background, or working out what kind of picture it is looking at.

• It runs on your device. The AI is built into the app and uses your device's own chip. Your photos and files are not sent to a server to be processed — not ours, and not anyone else's.
• It does not learn from you. What you open is not used to train it, and it is not used to train anything else.
• It works without the internet. Because nothing is sent anywhere, nothing needs to be.

Face data

Some of our apps offer face retouching — smoothing skin, brightening eyes, gently reshaping a face. To put those edits in the right place, the app uses Apple's on-device Vision framework to find where the faces are in the photo you are editing: the outline of each face, and the position of the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth and jawline.

• It is used for one thing only: placing your edits on the right part of the photo.
• It never leaves your device. It is processed entirely on your device, and is never sent to us, to Apple, or to any third party.
• It is not stored. It is kept in your device's memory only while the photo is open, and is discarded when you close the photo or quit the app. It is not saved in your projects, in iCloud, or anywhere else — it is simply found again the next time you open the photo. Your projects remember the edits you chose, such as how much smoothing, but never the face itself.
• It does not identify anyone. Our apps do not recognise or identify people, do not create face templates or face prints, do not compare one face with another, and do not use face data for signing in, advertising, analytics or any other purpose.

The same is true of the outlines of hair and bodies that body tools use: found on your device while the photo is open, used only to place your edits, and never saved or sent.

The few things that do leave your device

There are four, and none of them is us watching you.

1. Payments

Some of our apps are free to download and ask for a payment to unlock more — either once, or as a subscription. Either way, Apple handles the payment. Apple tells us how many people bought, and from which countries — never who they are. We never see your card, your address or your Apple Account. When an app checks what you have bought, or restores a purchase, it asks Apple, not us. Apple's own privacy policy covers that part.

2. Places, and the weather

Some apps let you add a place to what you save, or put the place you are in — or the weather there — onto a picture. This only happens when you ask for it.

• Searching for a place goes to Apple. What you type is sent to Apple's map service to find matching places, the same way the Maps app does it.
• Your location is optional. If you allow it, nearby places are listed first, and a picture can show where you are. Say no and you can simply type the name of a place instead.
• The weather needs your position. To get it, the app sends two numbers — the latitude and longitude — to a weather service, which sends back the temperature and the conditions. Nothing else goes with them: no photo, no name, no account, nothing that says who you are. Like any website you visit, the weather service can see the internet address the request came from.

Once the detail is on your picture, it stays as it was. The app does not keep checking where you are.

3. Crash reports, through Apple

When an app crashes, Apple can send us a report so we can fix it. Apple only does this if you agreed to share analytics with Apple, and the reports come to us grouped together, without your name attached. You can turn this off at any time. On iPhone and iPad: Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Analytics & Improvements. On a Mac: System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Analytics & Improvements.

4. When you write to us

If you use the form on our support page, we receive what you fill in: your name, your email address, your phone number and its country, which app, which device and platform, the app's version, and what you tell us. Some apps can also make a diagnostics file — a list of what the app did, never your photos or your words — which you can choose to send us with a bug report. If you message us on WhatsApp, we see your number, your WhatsApp name and your messages — WhatsApp's own privacy policy covers how WhatsApp handles them.

We use it to answer you and to fix the problem you reported. Nothing else — it does not go on a mailing list, and it is not shared with anyone. It reaches us by email and is kept in a private inbox that only we can open. The companies that host that inbox and deliver that email store it for us, and are not allowed to use it for anything of their own. We keep it while it is useful, and delete it when you ask.

What we never do

• We do not sell your information. Not to anyone, at any price.
• We do not upload your photos, videos or files to be processed.
• We do not show advertising, or put advertising trackers in our apps.
• We do not follow you across other apps and websites.
• We do not build a profile of you or your habits.
• We do not recognise or identify anyone from their face.
• We do not use what you open in our apps to train artificial intelligence.

Permissions an app may ask for

An app can only reach your photos, files, camera, microphone, location or notifications if you allow it, and iOS and macOS ask you first. We ask only when a feature you are using needs it, and the question explains why: the microphone while you record a voice note, the camera while you take a photo, your location to put nearby places first, notifications for a reminder you set yourself. We never send marketing notifications.

Saying no is always allowed, and the rest of the app keeps working. You can change your mind later: in Settings on iPhone and iPad, or in System Settings on a Mac, under Privacy & Security.

If an app needs a server

Some apps cannot work without one — an app that syncs a shop's orders, for example. When one of ours does, the app tells you clearly, inside the app, before it sends anything. Then this is true:

• We send only what the feature needs, and nothing more.
• It travels encrypted, and is stored encrypted.
• Only the people who keep the app running can reach it, and only to keep it running.
• You can ask for a copy of it, or ask us to delete it, and we will.

Children

Our apps are not aimed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect anything from them. If you believe a child has sent us information, write to us and we will delete it.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold about you, ask for a copy of it, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to hello@nordbox.co and we will reply within 30 days — usually within one.

Most of the time the honest answer will be that we hold nothing, because the app never sent us anything in the first place.

Changes to this policy

If we change how an app handles your information, we change this page first, and the date at the top changes with it. If the change is a big one, the app will tell you when you next open it.

Contact

Email hello@nordbox.co, or message us on WhatsApp. For anything that is not about privacy, the support page is the quicker route.