Spare is developed by Peter Durlacher. For privacy questions, contact peter@peterdurlacher.com.
The short version
- Spare has no servers. The developer never receives your photos, your cloud passwords or your keys.
- Your photos go directly from your iPhone to the cloud accounts you connect.
- Spare uses no analytics, advertising or tracking, and doesn't sell or share data.
What Spare reads on your iPhone
With your permission, Spare reads your photo library so it can back up photos and videos, show them in the app, and put them back when you restore them. It also reads which photos are favorites and which albums they're in, so a restored photo comes back where it was.
Where your photos and their details go
When you back up, Spare uploads to the cloud accounts you connect, for example Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Koofr or a server you name. It uploads:
- each photo and video as its original file, including details stored in the file, such as the date and the place it was taken;
- small index files that let Spare recognize your backups on a new iPhone, and a list of which backed-up photos are favorites or in albums.
If you turn on encryption (a “vault”), these files are encrypted on your iPhone before upload, with a password only you know. The cloud provider stores them but can't read their contents or names. Nobody, including the developer, can recover a vault password.
What you store with a provider is governed by that provider's own terms and privacy policy.
Signing in to cloud accounts
For Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive you sign in on the provider's own page; Spare never receives your password. The provider gives the app an access token, which is kept on your iPhone. Spare asks the provider which account you signed in to (its account ID and email address) and keeps them on your iPhone, so it can show which account each cloud is and avoid connecting the same account twice. Keys and app passwords you enter for other storage are kept on your iPhone. Saved connections are encrypted, with the encryption key in your iPhone's Keychain. None of this is sent to the developer.
Google user data
For Google Drive, Spare asks only for access to files it creates itself (the drive.file permission). It uses that access to upload, list, download and delete your backups, and the account details above to label the cloud in the app. It does not transfer this data to anyone, use it for advertising, or use it for any purpose other than providing Spare's backup features.
Spare's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Processing on your iPhone
- Search tags for your photos are generated on your iPhone with Apple's on-device frameworks, and are stored only on your iPhone.
- Spotlight search entries for your photos are kept on your iPhone.
- Reminders, if you turn them on, are notifications scheduled on your iPhone.
- Diagnostic logs stay in your iPhone's system log. Personal details in them are hidden unless you choose to share a log with the developer.
Data the developer collects
None. Spare doesn't send the developer anything. If you email for support, the developer sees what you choose to send and uses it only to help you.
Deleting your data
- Removing a cloud in Spare deletes its saved connection from your iPhone. Your backups stay in that cloud until you delete them there.
- Deleting the app removes everything it keeps on your iPhone.
- You can revoke Spare's access at any time in your Google, Dropbox or Microsoft account settings.
Children
Spare isn't directed at children under 14.
Changes
This page and its date will be updated if this policy changes, and significant changes will be noted in the app. See also the Spare Terms of Use.