The App is designed around one principle: your trip photos and memories are not taken off your device. In this policy, “personal information” means personal information as defined in the Act on the Protection of Personal Information of Japan.
Our Approach (Privacy First)
Photo analysis (reading the capture date and location), itinerary building, and card / reel generation all happen entirely on your device. Your photos are never uploaded to our servers — the App has no server of its own. No account registration is required.
Only two kinds of data ever leave your device: (1) anonymous usage data for improving the App (Section 5), and (2) coordinates sent to Apple’s Maps service to resolve place names and generate map images (Section 4). Both are described in detail below.
Information Stored Only on Your Device
The following information is stored on your device (in the App’s local database and folders) and is not sent to us or to any third party.
- Downscaled working copies and thumbnails of the photos you pick (used to build cards and reels)
- Capture dates and location coordinates read from your photos (EXIF data)
- Place names (automatically resolved or edited by you)
- Trip titles and your edits, such as templates and route-line colors
- App settings such as the free-export counter
Photo Library Access (a Design with No Read Permission)
The App does not use photo library read permission. It receives only the photos you select in the iOS photo picker, and it cannot access any other photos in your library.
Only when you save a finished card or reel does the App use the “add to photo library” permission (add-only). This permission cannot be used to read photos in your library.
Sharing simply hands the generated card image or reel video to the standard iOS share sheet, and you choose the destination on the spot. The App has no destination it sends anything to automatically.
Location Data
The App does not access your device’s current location (and never asks for location services permission). It uses only the capture-location coordinates recorded in the photos you pick (EXIF data).
To convert those coordinates into place names (geocoding) and to generate the map images shown on your cards, the coordinates read from your photos are sent to Apple’s Maps service (Apple Maps). This is a standard iOS mechanism, handled under Apple’s privacy policy. Coordinates are never sent to our servers.
Information We Collect (Usage Analytics)
To improve the App, we collect anonymous usage data through Firebase Analytics (Google LLC). We collect only behavioral facts — never the contents of your trips.
5.1 What we collect
- Feature-usage events (e.g., imported photos / exported a card or reel / switched templates / viewed the paywall / completed, failed, or restored a purchase)
- Metadata attached to those events (counts such as the number of photos or visited spots, template type, free vs. paid, and the like)
- General usage statistics collected by Firebase by default, such as app launches, sessions, device model, OS version, and app version
- An anonymous identifier generated automatically by Firebase (such as an app instance ID) to aggregate the data above. It is not linked to your name or email address, and it is not the advertising identifier (IDFA).
5.2 What we do not collect
- Trip titles, place names, or capture-location coordinates
- Your photos or the cards and reels you generate
In-App Purchases and Subscriptions
The App is free to download and use. On the free plan you can keep up to three trip projects and export up to three times per month. Unlimited projects, unlimited exports, and all templates are available with the paid plan “MapFrame Pro” (monthly, yearly with a 7-day free trial, or one-time lifetime purchase).
- Payment details: Purchases are processed through Apple’s App Store. Payment information such as credit card numbers is managed by Apple and never reaches us.
- Subscription status: To manage and verify plan status (active / inactive), plan type (monthly / yearly / lifetime), and trial state, we use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc.). RevenueCat receives purchase and subscription status together with an anonymous in-app identifier. No contact details such as your name or email address are shared.
- Purchase events: The facts of purchase flows — started, completed, failed, restored — are also recorded as anonymous events in the usage analytics described in Section 5 (Firebase Analytics), and may include price and currency.
What the App Does Not Collect or Use
The App does not use any of the following.
- Ads, advertising SDKs, or advertising identifiers such as the IDFA
- Your device’s current location (location services)
- Contacts, microphone, or camera
- Account registration (email address, password, or social sign-in)
- Push notifications (the App never asks for notification permission)
Third-Party Services We Use
We use the following external services only to the extent necessary to provide and improve the App.
- Firebase Analytics (Google LLC): anonymous usage analytics
- RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc.): subscription status management
- Apple (App Store / Apple Maps): app distribution and payment processing, place-name resolution, and map image generation
International Data Transfers
Some of the external services above operate servers outside Japan (such as in the United States). Usage data and subscription status may therefore be processed and stored outside Japan; we handle such data appropriately in accordance with applicable laws.
Security
Keeping your photos and trip records on your device is itself the strongest security measure. The analytics data we do send off-device contains no content, is anonymized, and is transmitted over encrypted connections. In the unlikely event of a leak or similar incident involving information we handle, we will investigate the facts and causes, work to prevent recurrence, and take any measures required by law.
Retention and Deletion
Data on your device is kept for as long as you use the App. You can delete it at any time by deleting individual projects or by uninstalling the App (uninstalling erases the on-device data, including the working copies of your photos).
The usage analytics data we collect is retained only as long as needed for its purpose, and is deleted or anonymized appropriately when no longer needed.
Your Rights
You may request disclosure, correction, suspension of use, or deletion of information we handle. On-device data can be deleted through the App itself, and subscriptions can be managed or cancelled from your device’s Settings (Apple ID subscriptions). For any other requests or questions, please contact us using the details below. After verifying your identity, we will respond as promptly as the law allows.
Children’s Privacy
The App is not designed to collect personal information from any specific age group. No account is required, and photos and trip records stay on the device. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children.
Changes to This Policy
We may revise this policy in response to changes in law or in the service. If there are material changes, we will announce them on this page or on our website.
Contact
Kagoshima-shi, Kagoshima 892-0823, Japan