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Privacy Policy

Photos and generated thoughts never leave your device. We collect only anonymous, opt-out usage statistics to improve the app.

Last updated: May 2026

The One-Sentence Summary

Pet Thoughts never transmits your photos, generated thoughts, or personal data to any third party. The only thing the app sends off-device is a small set of anonymous, aggregate usage signals — which you can disable at any time from the About screen.

Who We Are

Pet Thoughts is developed by Macintology, an independent iOS developer. Questions about this policy can be sent to support@macintology.org.

What Data the App Processes

When you use Pet Thoughts, the app processes the following data — all entirely on your device:

  • Photos you select or capture: Analyzed on-device using Apple's Vision framework to detect animals, poses, and scene composition. Photos are held in memory only for the current session and are never stored persistently or transmitted.
  • AI-generated text: Produced on-device by Apple's Foundation Models framework (Apple Intelligence). The generated "pet thoughts" exist only in the current session and are discarded when you leave the screen or close the app.
  • Share cards you create: Rendered locally on your device. Only shared when you explicitly use the iOS share sheet — we do not receive a copy.

What Data We Do Not Collect

We do not collect, and have no access to:

  • Your name, email address, or any account information
  • Your photos or any image data
  • The text of any generated pet thought
  • Advertising IDs or cross-app tracking identifiers
  • Precise location data

Anonymous Usage Statistics

To understand which features are useful and which need work, Pet Thoughts sends a small number of anonymous, aggregate events to TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service. These events are limited to:

  • App sessions: a signal indicating the app was opened.
  • Thought generation: which tone you chose (e.g. "dramatic", "hungry") and which AI tier produced the result.
  • Share actions: when you open the share sheet, save to Photos, or copy a card, including the tone and aspect ratio.

Each event carries no personal data and no content — never the thought text, never the photo, never information about who or what is in the photo. TelemetryDeck generates an anonymized per-install identifier by hashing the iOS vendor ID with a rotating salt; this identifier cannot be linked back to you or used to track you across other apps. TelemetryDeck does not collect or retain your IP address. Some standard technical metadata (device model, iOS version, app version, language) is attached to each event by the SDK to help us understand device coverage.

You can disable this entirely. Open the app's About screen and turn off "Anonymous Analytics" — no further events will be sent. We also re-prompt all users with a clear disclosure the first time you launch a version that changes what we collect.

For TelemetryDeck's own practices, see TelemetryDeck's privacy policy.

How the AI Works — No Third-Party AI Services

Pet Thoughts uses Apple's on-device Foundation Models framework (part of Apple Intelligence, available on iOS 26+). This is Apple's built-in, on-device large language model that runs entirely on your iPhone's Neural Engine.

No photo, text, or any other data is sent to any third-party AI service. There is no OpenAI, no Google, no cloud AI, and no external API involved. The entire AI pipeline — from photo analysis to thought generation — runs locally on your device.

We do not operate any servers that receive your data. The app has no backend, no API endpoints, and no network calls for AI processing.

When Apple Intelligence is unavailable on a device, the app falls back to a built-in template engine and pre-written phrase bank — both of which also run entirely on-device with no network access required.

Apple's Foundation Models framework is a system-level iOS feature governed by Apple's own privacy policy. We do not control or have access to any data processed by Apple's on-device AI systems.

Photo Library Access

If you choose to select a photo from your library, Pet Thoughts uses iOS's built-in photo picker (PhotosPicker), which gives the app access only to the specific photo you select — not your entire library. This is enforced by iOS at the system level.

If you use the in-app camera, the photo is used only within the current session. It is not saved to your library unless you explicitly export or save it.

Sharing and Export

When you use the Share or Save to Photos feature, the share card image is created entirely on your device. It is shared via the standard iOS share sheet, which you control. We do not receive a copy of anything you share.

Third-Party Services and SDKs

Pet Thoughts integrates one third-party SDK: TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service used to receive the anonymous usage signals described above. TelemetryDeck does not receive any personal data, photo content, or generated text — only the small set of events listed in the "Anonymous Usage Statistics" section.

The app integrates no advertising SDKs, no third-party AI services, no crash-reporting SDKs, and no cross-app tracking frameworks. All other code uses Apple's first-party iOS frameworks (SwiftUI, Vision, Foundation Models, PhotosUI).

Apple Platform Services

As an iOS app distributed through the App Store, certain Apple platform services may process data according to Apple's own policies:

  • Crash reports and diagnostics: If you have opted in to share diagnostics with Apple (via Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements), Apple may collect crash logs and performance data. This is an iOS system feature controlled by you and governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. We can view anonymized crash reports through App Store Connect to improve app stability, but these do not contain personal data.

Data Retention and Deletion

Pet Thoughts does not store personal data persistently. Photos and generated content exist only in memory during the current session.

Uninstalling the app removes all local app data from your device. Because we have no servers and collect no data remotely, there is nothing to request deletion of.

Your Rights

Because Pet Thoughts does not collect or store personal data on any server, there is no personal data for us to access, correct, delete, or port. You can delete all local app data at any time by uninstalling the app. If you have questions about your data, contact us at support@macintology.org.

Changes to This Policy

If we ever change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where required, notify users via an app update. We will never retroactively expand data collection without clear disclosure and user consent.

Contact

Questions, concerns, or requests related to privacy: support@macintology.org