Privacy Policy
The short version
- There are no accounts. We never ask for your name, email address or phone number.
- Your inventory (items, photos, receipts, places, quantities, values and notes) is stored on your device and, if you use iCloud, in your own private iCloud database run by Apple. We cannot see it.
- AI scans are optional. When you use one, that single image is sent through our server to Google’s Gemini API to be read. Our server does not log or store the image or the result.
- We collect first-party usage analytics tied to a random install ID, never to your identity or your inventory. You can switch it off in Settings → Privacy.
- No advertising SDKs, no cross-app tracking, and we never sell or share your personal information.
1. Who we are
Stowbook is made by Caner Gulay, an individual developer (“we”, “us”). We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy, which covers the Stowbook app for iPhone and iPad (including its widgets and Siri and Shortcuts actions), its server at stowbook.derivedlabs.com, and this website.
Contact: support@derivedlabs.com.
2. What stays on your device and in your iCloud
Stowbook is built so that your inventory is yours. The following are stored in the app’s private storage on your iPhone or iPad and are never sent to us:
- Inventories, places and the labels you print for them.
- Items and everything about them: names, photos, receipts, quantities and their history, prices, costs and values, barcodes, SKUs and serial numbers, brands, models, conditions, tags, notes, purchase and warranty dates and custom fields.
- Reports and CSV files you create, and your settings.
iCloud. If iCloud is turned on for Stowbook on your device, Apple syncs this data between the devices signed in to your Apple Account, using your private iCloud database. That storage is provided by Apple under Apple’s terms and privacy policy; it is not accessible to us. You can turn iCloud sync off for Stowbook in iOS Settings. Like other app data, your inventory may also be included in your device backups.
On-device features. Barcode and QR scanning, text recognition, image category suggestions and, on supported devices, Apple’s on-device language model for structuring text and natural-language search all run on your device. Their input and output are not sent to us. Low-stock reminders are local notifications scheduled on your device; we do not use push notifications. Widgets read a summary written to the app’s own storage on your device. When you use Siri, Apple processes your request under its own privacy policy.
When you share or export something, such as a PDF report, a CSV file, a restock list or labels, it goes wherever you choose to send it.
3. What reaches our server
The app talks to our own server for a few things: registering the install, checking app configuration, AI scans and usage analytics. Each request carries a random install ID created by the app (kept in your device’s Keychain so it survives reinstalling), a signed install token, and the app version. Your IP address is necessarily visible to the server as part of any internet connection.
Install registration and fraud prevention (Apple DeviceCheck)
On first launch the app asks Apple’s DeviceCheck service for a one-time device token and sends it with the install ID to our server, which checks it with Apple to confirm the request comes from a genuine Apple device. Apple does not give us any identifier of you or your device. We then issue an install token, valid for 30 days and renewed automatically, and keep an install record: the install ID, when it was created and last seen, the app version, whether the DeviceCheck check passed, and how many free AI scans have been used.
App configuration
The app asks the server for current settings, such as the minimum supported app version and whether AI scans are available. This request contains no inventory data.
When you contact us
If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write, including any install ID, screenshots or files you attach. Email to support@derivedlabs.com is routed by Cloudflare to our mailbox provider.
Server logs and rate limiting
Our web server keeps standard access logs (IP address, time, requested path, response status and user agent) for security and troubleshooting. They never contain images, item text or values. IP addresses are also used briefly in memory for rate limiting.
4. AI scans
AI photo, AI shelf and receipt scans are optional and part of Stowbook Pro, with a few free scans to try. Before your first AI scan the app asks for your consent, which you can withdraw in Settings.
When you start a scan, the app sends our server one image (a JPEG reduced to at most 1600 pixels on its longest side), the scan mode, your language and your inventory’s currency. Our server forwards them to Google’s Gemini API, which returns a draft (for example an item’s name, brand, model, category, condition and an estimated value range, or the lines of a receipt) that our server passes back to the app. The image is held in memory only for as long as the request takes. Our server does not log or store the image or the result. It only counts the scans used by your install, for free-scan allowances, fair use and rate limiting, and checks whether the install has Pro (section 6).
We use Gemini as a paid API customer. Under Google’s terms for paid services, Google does not use your images or results to train or improve its models, and may keep them for a limited period solely to detect abuse and meet legal obligations. Don’t scan images that contain information you don’t want processed this way, such as people’s faces, documents with personal data, or card numbers on a receipt.
AI output is a draft. It is shown to you to check and edit, and nothing is saved until you confirm it. No decision about you is made from it.
5. Usage analytics (first-party, with an off switch)
The app records how it is used so we can find where people get stuck and what to improve: event names such as “item created” or “report exported”, the time, a session ID and sequence number, the app version, the iOS version, your language setting, whether the device is an iPhone or iPad, and a few short properties drawn from fixed lists, such as which scan mode was used or a count rounded to a range. These events are sent to our own server with your install ID.
Analytics never contain your inventory: no item or place names, photos, text you type, barcodes, serial numbers, prices or values. No third-party analytics service is involved. Switch it off any time in Settings → Privacy; after that no events are sent.
6. Purchases
Stowbook Pro is sold and billed by Apple through the App Store. We never see your name, Apple Account or payment details. RevenueCat, our subscription service provider, receives your install ID (as its anonymous app user ID), your App Store purchase and subscription records, and basic technical data such as device model, OS and app version, country and IP address, to validate purchases and tell the app whether Pro is active. When you start an AI scan, our server asks RevenueCat whether your install has Pro; a “yes” is remembered for up to 10 minutes.
7. How and why we use data
| Purpose | Data | Legal basis (GDPR / UK GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Reading an image you choose to scan with AI | The image, scan mode, language, currency | Your consent, and providing the feature you asked for |
| Free-scan allowance, fair use, Pro check, rate limits | Install ID, usage counters, Pro status | Performing our agreement with you |
| Preventing fraud and abuse, security | DeviceCheck result, install record, IP address, server logs | Our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and affordable |
| Improving the app | Usage analytics | Our legitimate interest in improving the app; you can object with the off switch |
| Answering you | Your email and message | Our legitimate interest in providing support, or steps at your request |
| Legal compliance | Any of the above, as required | Legal obligation |
We do not use your information for advertising, we do not build profiles of you, and we make no decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.
8. Service providers
We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We use these providers, each only to run the service:
- Google (Gemini API): reads the images you choose to scan with AI.
- Apple: App Store distribution and payments, DeviceCheck, iCloud sync of your inventory, and Siri.
- RevenueCat: subscription validation.
- Hetzner Online: hosts our server and database in Finland, in the European Union.
- Cloudflare: domain name service and routing of support email.
We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights, safety or property of users or others, or as part of a transfer of the app to a successor who agrees to honor this policy.
9. Where data is processed
Our server and database are in Finland, in the European Union. Google, Apple, RevenueCat and Cloudflare may process data in the United States and other countries. Where data protection law requires it, these transfers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK addendum and Swiss amendments) or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, as offered by each provider. If you are outside the European Union, your data is transferred to the EU, whose data protection law the UK and Switzerland recognize as adequate.
10. How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Images and results of AI scans | Not stored by us; held in memory only during the request. Google may keep them for a limited period for abuse monitoring under its terms. |
| Monthly AI scan counters | 13 months |
| Pro status answers from RevenueCat | Up to 10 minutes |
| Usage analytics events | 400 days |
| Install records (including the free-scan count) | Deleted after 400 days without activity |
| Server access logs | Up to 14 days |
| Support emails | As long as needed to help you, then deleted within 24 months |
| Your inventory on your devices and in your iCloud | Until you delete it, the app, or the app’s iCloud data |
11. Security
All traffic between the app and our server is encrypted with TLS, and requests are authenticated with a signed install token. Our server stores no inventory, images or account credentials, which keeps what could ever be exposed small. Access to the server is restricted to the developer. No system is perfectly secure, so we also rely on keeping as little as possible. Your on-device data is protected by your device’s passcode and encryption, and your iCloud data by Apple’s security; keep your device locked and your Apple Account protected with two-factor authentication.
12. iPhone and iPad permissions
- Camera: to scan barcodes, QR labels and text, and to take item and receipt photos. Images stay on your device unless you start an AI scan.
- Photos: to pick existing images, only those you select.
- Notifications: for local low-stock reminders.
- Siri and Shortcuts: only if you use them.
Each permission is optional and can be changed in iOS Settings. Stowbook does not use your location, contacts, microphone or the advertising identifier.
13. Children
Stowbook is a tool for businesses and households and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (in the United States) or under 16 (in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom), or under the age of digital consent where they live. If you believe a child has used the app’s server features, contact us and we will delete the related data.
14. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have rights over your personal information. We honor the following for everyone where we reasonably can.
European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland
Under the GDPR, the UK GDPR and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection you can ask for access to, correction or erasure of your personal data, restriction of or objection to its processing (including processing based on legitimate interests), and data portability. Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting earlier processing. You can complain to your local data protection authority, such as the UK Information Commissioner’s Office or the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).
California and other US states
Under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, and similar state laws, you can ask to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose, and ask us to delete or correct it. In the past 12 months we collected identifiers (install ID, IP address), commercial information (subscription status), internet or other electronic network activity (app usage events) and, only when you start an AI scan, the image you submit, all for the purposes in section 7. We do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. You may use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof of authorization.
Canada
Under PIPEDA and applicable provincial laws you can ask to access and correct your personal information and to withdraw consent, and you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your provincial commissioner.
Australia
Under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles you can ask to access and correct your personal information. Personal information may be disclosed to the overseas providers listed in section 8, in the countries described in section 9. If you are unhappy with our response to a complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
New Zealand
Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask to access and correct your personal information, and you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Brazil
Under the LGPD you can ask for confirmation that we process your data, access, correction, anonymization, blocking or deletion of unnecessary or excessive data, portability, information about the entities we share data with and about the consequences of refusing consent, and revocation of consent. You can petition the Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados (ANPD). Our contact for data protection matters is support@derivedlabs.com.
Elsewhere
If the law where you live gives you other rights over your personal information, contact us and we will honor them.
15. How to exercise your rights
Email support@derivedlabs.com. Because there are no accounts, we cannot find any data by your name or email. Include your install ID, shown in the app under Settings → Privacy (tap it to copy), so we can find the install record, counters and analytics linked to it. We will respond within 30 days, or sooner where the law requires, and may ask you to confirm the request from the device.
You control the rest directly: delete items, places or an inventory in the app; delete the app to remove what is stored on the device; and remove Stowbook’s iCloud data in iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage. Turning off analytics stops new events. To cancel a subscription, use your Apple Account subscription settings; RevenueCat and Apple keep purchase records under their own policies.
16. This website
stowbook.derivedlabs.com uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party scripts or fonts. Our web server keeps the access logs described in section 3.
17. Changes and contact
If we change this policy, we will update the effective date above and, for material changes, tell you in the app before they apply. If a change would mean collecting your inventory or using data in a new way, we will ask for your consent first.
Questions or requests: Caner Gulay, support@derivedlabs.com.