Privacy policy: Photo Gallery: Albums & Vault
This privacy policy applies to the Android app Photo Gallery: Albums & Vault (Google Play package name com.swipegallery.app, formerly published as "SGallery"). It explains which data the app processes, why, on what legal basis, and what rights you have.
In short:
- The app shows the photos and videos stored on your phone. Your pictures are not uploaded to us, and we don't run servers of our own for the app. You don't need to sign up.
- The app is free and funded by ads from Google AdMob. In the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent form asks you first whether personalised ads may be shown.
- For usage statistics the app uses Google Analytics for Firebase, and for update messages Firebase Cloud Messaging. In the EU/EEA/UK/CH statistics are only stored if you agree in the consent form.
- Purchases (Pro) are handled by Google Play. We never receive your payment details.
1. Controller
Tobias Marks
MarksFinanceGroup (sole proprietorship), brand "stillmeasure."
Sponheimer Str. 14
55595 Mandel
Germany
Email: contact@stillmeasure.com
Contact form: www.stillmeasure.com/contact/
We have not appointed a data protection officer because we are not legally required to (Section 38 German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), Art. 37 GDPR).
2. Your photos and videos stay on your phone
To show, sort, edit and delete your pictures, the app reads the photos and videos on your device through Android. All of this – albums, favorites, search, the cleaner overview, "similar photos" (compared by image content on the device), the editor, collages, GIFs and cutting out a subject – happens on your phone. Photos, videos and file names are not sent to us, to Google AdMob or to Firebase.
Permissions the app asks for:
| Permission | What for |
|---|---|
| Photos and videos (also "selected photos only" on Android 14 and later) | show, organize, edit and delete your media |
| Manage media | move files to the trash or vault and delete them without a separate Android confirmation each time |
Location in photos (ACCESS_MEDIA_LOCATION) |
read the place a photo was taken from its metadata, for place names in "Memories" (see section 4) |
| Camera | open the camera and record a short video for the GIF maker |
| Contacts (read and write) | only for "Set as contact photo": you choose a contact and the app saves the picture as their photo |
| Nearby devices, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, location up to Android 12 | only for sending photos directly to another phone (see section 4) |
| Show messages (Android 13 and later) | messages from the app (see section 6) |
| Biometrics | confirm a PIN change with biometric unlock (e.g. your face), handled entirely by Android |
| Internet | ads, statistics, update messages and downloading fonts |
You can refuse or withdraw any permission in your Android settings. The features that need it then don't work, everything else does.
3. What is stored on your device
The app keeps on your device: your albums, album covers and favorites, the trash list, settings, your vault PIN and the status of your purchases and of your privacy choice.
- Vault: Files you move into the vault are moved into the app's private storage, which other apps cannot access, and disappear from the normal gallery. The vault opens with your PIN. If you uninstall the app or clear its data, the files in the vault are deleted for good – move them back first.
- Trash: Deleted items go to the app's trash first and can be restored. If you turn it on, the trash empties itself after 30 days.
- Android backup: The app is excluded from Android's automatic backup, so this data is not copied to your Google Account.
Legal basis: storing this data is necessary for the features you use (Section 25(2) no. 2 German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG); Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
4. Features that use a connection
- Place names in "Memories": If a photo contains the place it was taken, the app turns the coordinates into a place name using Android's built-in location service (Geocoder). Depending on your device, this service sends the coordinates to the provider of your phone's system services (usually Google) and returns the name of the place. The result is stored on your device so that the same place is not looked up again. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our interest is showing understandable memories.
- Fonts for text in collages and the editor: When you pick a font, the app downloads it from Google Fonts (Google). Google receives your IP address and the font requested, nothing else. Downloaded fonts stay on your device.
- Cutting out a subject: The cut-out runs on your device with Google ML Kit. Google Play services may download the required model the first time; your photo is not uploaded.
- Sending photos to another phone: In the settings you can send photos directly to another phone nearby (Google Nearby Connections via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi). The files go directly from device to device, not through our servers. Older Android versions require the location permission for this; the app does not determine your location.
5. Ads with Google AdMob
Ads in the app are served by Google AdMob (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; Google LLC, USA). Google processes the data for advertising as an independent controller.
According to Google, the ads SDK processes your IP address (from which Google may estimate your approximate location), device and app identifiers (advertising ID if you consent, app set ID), interactions with ads, diagnostic data about the app and SDK, and technical details such as device type, Android version and language.
Your choice (EU, EEA, UK, Switzerland): On first launch the app shows Google's consent form (User Messaging Platform, IAB TCF). With your consent, Google may store and read information on your device and show personalised ads. Without consent you can use the app as usual; Google then only shows non-personalised or limited ads and uses the data only to deliver the ad and to detect fraud. You can change your choice at any time in the app under Settings → Privacy options.
Legal bases: consent for storing and reading information on your device and for personalised ads (Section 25(1) TDDDG, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); for limited ads and fraud prevention our legitimate interest in offering the app for free (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
More from Google: How Google uses information from apps · Google Privacy Policy
6. Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Cloud Messaging
Statistics: The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC, as our processor) to see how the app is used, e.g. how many people get through the first steps or where a purchase fails. Processed are: events such as "app opened", "permission answered" or "purchase started" with numbers and fixed short codes only, a random app instance ID, device model, Android version, app version, language and approximate region. No file names, paths, image content or contacts are sent. In the EU/EEA/UK/CH statistics are only stored if you agreed to storage, measurement and statistics in the consent form; otherwise Analytics stores nothing. Analytics data is never used for advertising.
Update messages: The app registers with Firebase Cloud Messaging so that we can send a message to all users, e.g. about a new version. For this Firebase creates a random device token; the message contains no personal data. The app can also show its own messages, e.g. about memories; these are created on your device. You can turn off messages in your Android settings.
Legal bases: consent for statistics (Section 25(1) TDDDG, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR; outside the EU our legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); for update messages our legitimate interest in informing users about new versions (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
7. Purchases via Google Play
Pro is available as a one-time purchase or as a subscription. Purchases are handled entirely by Google Play (Google Play Billing); Google's terms and privacy policy apply to the payment.
- We never receive payment details (no card number, no bank account, no billing address).
- The app asks Google Play which purchases belong to your Google Account and unlocks them on your device, using the purchase token and product ID.
- In our developer console we see order information from Google (e.g. order number, product, date, price, country, status). We use it to handle requests and to meet tax obligations.
Legal bases: performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; statutory retention, Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR.
8. Other Google Play features
- Ratings and updates: The app can show Google Play's rating dialog and point out available updates. We do not learn whether or how you rate.
- Statistics and crash reports in the Play Console: Google gives us aggregated statistics and crash reports from users who let Android share diagnostic data with Google. They contain technical details, no name and no email address (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
- Sharing: If you share a photo, Android's share menu opens. You decide what you share and with whom; we receive nothing.
9. Contacting us
If you write to us, we process your message, your email address and anything else you tell us. Please do not send us private photos unless they are needed for your request. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (questions about a purchase), otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
10. Recipients and transfers to the USA
Recipients are Google (Google Ireland Limited; Google LLC) as an independent controller for ads, Google Play and the location service, and as our processor for Firebase; our email provider Hostinger International Ltd. (Cyprus) for support messages; tax advisers and authorities where required by law. We do not sell personal data.
Google may transfer data to the USA. Google LLC is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, for which there is an adequacy decision of the European Commission (Art. 45 GDPR); Google also uses the Commission's standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR). More: policies.google.com/privacy/frameworks
11. How long data is kept
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Albums, settings, vault, trash on your device | until you delete them, clear the app data or uninstall the app |
| Analytics data (Firebase) | at most 14 months, then deleted automatically |
| Advertising data at Google | according to Google's retention periods |
| Order information from Google Play | until the end of the statutory retention period (up to 10 years) |
| Support messages | until your request is resolved, at the latest 3 years after the end of the year of the last message |
12. Children
The app is not directed at children. We do not ask for your age.
13. Your rights and deletion requests
You have the right to access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20), to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21) and to withdraw consent with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR), for ads and statistics in the app under Settings → Privacy options.
Deletion: Everything stored on your device is removed when you clear the app data or uninstall the app. To have statistics data deleted, write to contact@stillmeasure.com. Because the app has no user accounts we usually cannot identify you; we will tell you which details we need to find your data. We reply within one month.
Right to lodge a complaint: You can complain to a data protection supervisory authority, e.g. where you live, or to the authority responsible for us: Der Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Rheinland-Pfalz, Hintere Bleiche 34, 55116 Mainz, Germany, www.datenschutz.rlp.de
14. Changes
We update this policy when the app or the law changes. The current version is always available at www.stillmeasure.com/apps/tools/photo-gallery-vault/privacy/. The German version is here. Back to the app: Photo Gallery: Albums & Vault.