Privacy Policy
PhotoLife (“we” or “us”) cares about your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect when you use the PhotoLife app and website, why we collect it, how we protect it, and what rights you have. It is written to meet the notice requirements of Article 8 of Taiwan’s Personal Data Protection Act (the “PDPA”). If the Chinese and English versions differ, the Chinese version prevails.
1. Who We Are
PhotoLife is run by Ping-Kai Liang, an independent developer. If you have any questions about your personal data, email support@photolife.app.
2. Why We Collect Data
- To provide the app: creating your account and signing you in, storing and syncing your records, and restoring your data on other devices.
- To send service emails: account confirmations, password resets and other necessary notices (we never send advertising emails).
- To improve the service: learning which features people use and where they get stuck, so we can fix problems and improve the design.
- To provide support: answering the questions and requests you send us.
3. What We Collect
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Account | Your email and password (our authentication provider stores the password as an irreversible hash, so we can’t see your actual password). If you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account ID and email, plus the name and profile picture URL that Google provides. If you sign in with Apple, we receive your Apple account ID and email (or Apple’s relay address if you choose to hide your email). Guest mode (“Continue as Guest”) creates an anonymous account with no email. |
| Settings | Your nickname, profile photo, language, chosen activities and custom activity names, and notification time settings. |
| Your content | Photos you upload, journals (Daily, Workout and Travel journals, and “Today in one line”), your Schedule plans, activity check-ins, Unplug records, doodles and stickers, your tree progress and collection, names you give your trees, and letters you write to yourself (one per season, opened at the end of the season). |
| Tree friends | Your tree friends list and when you became tree friends, invite codes you create, cheers between tree friends on activities (the sticker, any line you write, and when it was sent), and reports you file (the reported account, the reason, the reported message and the time). Before a cheer is sent, the system automatically checks it for inappropriate words or links. |
| Usage data | Usage data linked to your account: screens you view, features you use (for example, adding a photo, completing a tree, writing in your journal, or minutes unplugged) and when you use them, a random session code created each time you open the app, your device platform (iOS/Android), app version and language, and technical error messages when the app runs into a problem (used to fix bugs). It does not include your journal content, photos, email, advertising IDs or device IDs. |
| Refund details | Only if we need to refund you directly, we will ask for the account details where you want to receive the refund. We use them only for that refund. |
| Connection data | For account security and to prevent abuse, our providers log the IP address and device/browser information used when you sign in and connect. When you sign in, sign up, use guest mode or request a password reset in the app, the app uses Cloudflare Turnstile in the background to check that you’re a person and not an automated program. To do this, Cloudflare receives signals such as your IP address and browser and device characteristics (see Cloudflare’s Turnstile Privacy Addendum). Each time the app opens, it checks Expo’s servers for app updates. To do this, Expo receives your IP address, your phone’s operating system, the app version and a random code created when the app was installed (used to count users; it isn’t a device identifier and isn’t linked to your account). |
We don’t read your contacts, track your location, or use the location information stored in your photos. Only the photos you choose are uploaded. Reminders are scheduled on your phone, so their content doesn’t need to be sent to us.
So that the app can work offline, your records, data waiting to upload, and photos are stored temporarily on your phone. Signing out removes most of this stored data, but anything that hasn’t finished uploading and any unsaved journal drafts stay on that phone. Deleting the app removes everything stored on that phone, but not any iCloud or computer backups you have made.
This website loads fonts from Google Fonts, so when you visit, your browser sends requests to Google’s servers (Google’s Privacy Policy applies).
4. Period, Location, Recipients and Method of Use
- Period: From when you create your account until you delete it. After you delete your account, we delete your data, including from daily backups, within 30 days, unless the law requires us to keep it. Photos you delete in the app first go to “Recently Deleted” for 28 days. During that time you can restore them or delete them permanently right away. After 28 days, they are permanently deleted along with their daily backups, again within 30 days of the day you deleted them. If a guest account (“Continue as Guest”) is more than 7 days old, has no content (no photos, journals, check-ins, plans, Unplug records, letters, profile photo, etc.), and the app hasn’t been opened for 7 days, we delete the account and remove it from daily backups within 30 days. Guest accounts with content are kept until you delete them.
- Location: Your account data, records and photos are stored mainly on cloud servers in Tokyo, Japan (Supabase, which runs on Amazon Web Services). Daily backups are stored on Cloudflare R2 servers in the Asia-Pacific region, and the backup job runs on GitHub’s servers (your data only passes through while the job runs and is not kept there). Our email provider, Resend, stores its sending logs in the United States. The website, the support mailbox and the human check at sign-in are delivered and processed through Cloudflare’s global network, and support emails are stored with Google (Gmail). App updates are delivered through the global network of Expo, a US company. When you sign in with Apple or Google, that company’s servers handle the verification.
- Recipients: Other users can’t see your photos, journals or records, and we never make them public. The only exception is tree friends: people you invite yourself, where you both agree to be tree friends (up to 5). Your tree friends can see your nickname, profile photo, day count, how many trees you’ve grown, the photos and dates on your current tree, any tree names you’ve chosen to share by turning on “Let tree friends see this name”, and the names of the activities you completed today (you can turn off “Let tree friends see what I did today” in Tree Friends). They can’t see your journals, schedule, letters to yourself, completed trees or any other records. A cheer that a tree friend sends on your activity can be seen only by the two of you. You can remove a tree friend at any time, and they will no longer be able to see your tree. We look at your data only in the situations described in Section 6, and only as much as we need to. We do not sell or rent your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers. To provide the service, we use the following providers to process data on our behalf:
- Supabase: account authentication, database and photo storage.
- Resend: sending account confirmation and password reset emails.
- Cloudflare: website hosting and anonymous traffic statistics (no cookies and no tracking of individuals), the human check when you sign in or sign up (Turnstile), forwarding support emails, and storing daily backups (R2; backups are kept for up to 30 days).
- GitHub: running the automatic daily backup job.
- Expo: delivering app updates (EAS Update).
- Apple and Google: verifying your identity when you choose to sign in with them.
- Google (Gmail): receiving support emails.
- Method: Your data is stored and processed electronically and used only for the purposes listed in this policy.
5. Payments
Once memberships become available, payments will be handled by the Apple App Store or Google Play, and we may use RevenueCat, a subscription management service, to check your subscription status. We only receive status information, such as whether your subscription is active. We never receive your credit card or payment account details.
6. How We Protect Your Data
- Every record in our database has access rules, so other users can’t read or change your data, except for what tree friends can see (see Section 4).
- Photos are kept in private storage and can only be displayed through unique, time-limited links.
- All data sent between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS), and our providers also encrypt the data they store.
This is not end-to-end encryption: as the operator of the service, we can technically access the database, photos and backups. We don’t normally look at your content. We access it only when you ask us for help, when we handle a report involving a tree friend, when we restore a backup or fix a system failure, or when the law requires it. Even then, we look only at the parts we need for that task.
If you back up your iPhone to iCloud or a computer, those backups may include data the app stores on your phone, such as journals and photos. They are kept in your iCloud account or on your computer, do not pass through us, and are subject to Apple’s terms.
If a personal data breach ever happens, we will find the cause as quickly as possible, take steps to fix it, and notify affected users and the authorities as required by law.
7. Your Rights
Under Article 3 of the PDPA, you have the right to:
- Ask about or review your personal data
- Request a copy of it
- Ask us to add to or correct it
- Ask us to stop collecting, processing or using it
- Ask us to delete it
To make a request, email support@photolife.app from the email address you registered with. After we verify your identity, we will decide within 15 days whether to grant a request to ask about, review or copy your data, and we will handle a request to add to, correct, stop using or delete your data within 30 days. If necessary, we may extend either deadline once (by up to 15 days or 30 days, respectively), and we will tell you the reason in writing (by email) before we do. To delete your account, see how to delete your account.
8. If You Don’t Provide Data
You can choose not to give us an email and try the app in guest mode (“Continue as Guest”), but a guest account’s data can’t be recovered after you sign out. If you don’t add content such as photos or journals, the features that rely on them won’t work, but the rest of the app will.
9. Children’s Privacy
PhotoLife is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you find out that a child has given us data without consent, contact us and we will delete it. Minors should get their legal guardian’s consent before buying a subscription.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy when the service or the law changes. When we do, we will update the effective date on this page and notify you through an in-app announcement and by email (if we have yours). Guest accounts without an email will be notified through an in-app announcement (the same as Section 18 of our Terms of Use).
11. Contact Us
Email: support@photolife.app
12. Additional Information for Users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the following also applies to you under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) and related local laws:
- Data controller: Ping-Kai Liang. See Section 11 for contact details.
- Legal basis: We provide the account, photo, journal, sync and tree friend features to perform our service agreement with you. We rely on our legitimate interests to maintain security, prevent abuse, fix bugs and improve the service. You agree to permissions such as notifications and photo library access on your phone, and you can turn them off at any time. If the law requires us to keep certain data, we keep it to meet that legal obligation.
- International transfers: Your data is transferred outside Europe for storage and processing, including to Taiwan, Japan, the United States and the other locations listed in Section 4. Where applicable, we rely on adequacy decisions or on safeguards such as the standard contractual clauses in our providers’ data processing terms.
- Your rights: You can ask to access, correct or delete your data, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive a portable copy of it. You can also withdraw your consent. To make a request, email support@photolife.app, and we will reply within one month. If a request is complex, we may take longer and will tell you why first. For users in these regions, this deadline takes priority over Section 7. You can delete your account directly in the app as well.
- Complaints: You can file a complaint with the data protection authority where you live.
- Automated decisions: We do not make automated decisions that have legal effects on you, and we do not profile you for advertising.
- Age: If the law where you live sets a higher age than 13 for giving your own consent, you need consent from a parent or guardian to use PhotoLife.