This policy is about the 35mm.org app for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch (“the app”). The app has no account and no tracking, and collects nothing about you. Almost everything it knows stays on your device. This page says exactly what that means.
The short version
- No account, no sign-in, no advertising, no analytics and no third-party tools in the app.
- Your rolls, chemistry, recipes and notes stay on your devices, or in your own iCloud if you turn sync on. We never receive them.
- The app asks 35mm.org for catalogue updates. Nothing about you is in that request.
- A “How did it come out?” report is sent only if you tap Send, and it is anonymous.
- We never store IP addresses.
Who we are
The app is made by the people who run 35mm.org. A contact address for questions about your data will be published here.
What stays on your device
The app keeps on your phone: the film and development catalogue (a copy of 35mm.org’s reference); your rolls with film, camera, lens, dates and how they were developed and came out; your chemistry and how much of it is used; your recipes, favourites, shopping list and settings; and your progress in the lessons. None of it is sent to us.
If you tap “Add where I am” on a roll, the app asks the phone for your approximate position once, rounds it to about a kilometre and keeps it with that roll. It never follows your location and never reads it in the background.
The pictures the camera sees when you scan a film box or meter the light are processed on the device and are never saved or sent.
Widgets, the Lock Screen timer and the Apple Watch app share your recipes and the running timer between your own devices; that stays between them.
To delete your data, delete a roll, a bottle or a recipe in the app, or delete the app: everything on the device goes with it. If iCloud sync is on, deleting a record also deletes it from your iCloud.
iCloud sync (optional)
If you turn on sync, your rolls and chemistry are copied between your devices through your own iCloud account, in the app’s private iCloud storage. Apple runs iCloud under its own privacy policy. The data is yours alone: we have no access to it, and we do not see your Apple ID.
What the app sends to 35mm.org
Catalogue updates
From time to time, when there is a connection, the app asks 35mm.org whether the catalogue has changed. The request carries only the version of the catalogue the phone already has, and 35mm.org answers with the new catalogue or with “nothing new”. The app adds no account, no identifier and no information about you to it. Like any connection to a website, it shows our server your IP address and the standard headers every app sends, so that the answer can find its way back; we do not store them.
“How did it come out?” reports (optional)
After a development the app can ask how the roll came out: good, thin or dense. Nothing is sent unless you tap Send; if there is no signal, the report waits on the phone and is sent later. A report contains:
- the film and developer, the dilution, the speed, the temperature, the format and the kind of process, and the time you used and the published time;
- your answer (good, thin or dense), and the note if you wrote one;
- the app’s version, your phone’s language, and a random number the phone makes for that report so that a resend is not counted twice.
From the connection we keep only the country and the city it came from, worked out when the report arrives from information our network provider adds to the request, or from a location database on our own server. Your IP address is used to answer that question and then dropped; it is never stored and never sent to another company. A report has no name, no email address and no account, and it is not linked to you or your device.
Reports are read by the people who keep the times right, to weigh them against the published time. They are never shown on the site by themselves. Please do not put anything personal in the note. Because a report is anonymous, we can only find and delete yours if you tell us the film, the developer and roughly when you sent it.
Links and QR codes
If you share a recipe, the app makes a link to 35mm.org (or a QR code for it); the recipe is in the link, not on our server. Opening such a link in a browser is an ordinary visit to the website, described in the website’s privacy notice, where visits are counted without any IP address or account. Pages the app opens from a lesson or a fact (the makers’ datasheets, for example) belong to those sites.
Newsletter (only if you subscribe on the website)
The app itself has no newsletter and never asks for your email address. If you subscribe on the 35mm.org website, we keep your address to send the newsletter until you unsubscribe, as the website’s privacy notice describes.
Permissions
The app asks for a permission only when you use the feature that needs it, and works without any of them.
- Camera — to read the label of a film box or can and find the film in the catalogue, and to measure the light for the light meter. Pictures stay on the device and are never kept or sent.
- Bluetooth — only to read the bath temperature from a Bluetooth thermometer you pair in Settings. The app connects to nothing else.
- Notifications — so the timer can tell you when a bath is over while the phone is locked. They are made by the phone itself; 35mm.org does not send you notifications.
- Location (while using the app) — only when you tap “Add where I am” on a roll, as described above. Approximate is enough, and the position is rounded further before it is kept.
- iCloud — only if you turn sync on.
The app does not use the microphone. Spoken cues are said by the phone’s own voice; the app does not listen. You can change any permission at any time in the iPhone’s Settings.
Children
The app has no account, no advertising and no tracking, and it collects no personal information, so it can be used by anyone interested in photography, children included. The optional report asks for no personal information. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone.
Who else sees it
Nobody receives your data from the app. The few requests it makes go to 35mm.org, which is hosted by a hosting company and sits behind a network provider that handles the requests on our behalf. We do not sell data, share it for advertising, or use it to track you across apps or websites.
Your rights
Because the app keeps your data on your device and we hold nothing that identifies you, there is little for us to show, correct or delete — the only thing is an anonymous report, which we can look for if you give us its details. You may ask us anything about this; we answer within a month, free of charge. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the data protection authority in the country where you live or work.
Changes
When we change this policy we change the date at the top. If the app starts to send anything more than is described here, this page will say so before that version is released.
See also the privacy notice of the 35mm.org website and the app support page.