Privacy Policy

PrivaLens keeps your photos and metadata on your device.

Effective May 3, 2026 ยท Last updated May 4, 2026

For PrivaLens, a device privacy utility by Lav Chaudhary. This policy explains how PrivaLens handles photo access, metadata, purchases, and support.

Summary

PrivaLens does not collect, upload, sell, rent, or share your personal data. Your photos are processed locally on your device. PrivaLens does not send your photos, photo metadata, or cleaning history to any server.

Overview

PrivaLens is built to help you protect your privacy when sharing photos. The app lets you inspect and remove hidden photo metadata, such as GPS location, timestamps, device information, camera details, and other embedded fields, before you share a clean copy.

Information we collect

PrivaLens does not collect personal information from you. We do not collect:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your phone number
  • Your location
  • Your contacts
  • Your photos
  • Your photo metadata
  • Device identifiers
  • Advertising identifiers
  • Analytics data
  • Crash analytics through third-party services
  • Usage tracking data

Photo access and processing

PrivaLens only works with photos that you explicitly select through the Photo picker on iOS and the Photo Picker on Android, or share with PrivaLens through the system share sheet.

When you select or share a photo with PrivaLens, the app may read the photo file locally on your device to:

  • Display the photo preview
  • Inspect embedded metadata
  • Show detected metadata categories
  • Remove metadata from a clean copy
  • Let you share the cleaned copy

This processing happens on your device. Photos are not uploaded to PrivaLens, QOL Apps, or any third-party server.

Metadata handling

Photo files may contain embedded metadata such as:

  • GPS location
  • Date and time information
  • Device manufacturer and model
  • Camera and lens details
  • Software information
  • Author or creator fields
  • Captions, keywords, or copyright fields
  • Apple maker metadata
  • Other embedded image metadata

PrivaLens reads this metadata locally so it can show you what may be inside the selected photo. When you clean a photo, PrivaLens creates a new clean copy by re-rendering the image without the original metadata. PrivaLens does not store or transmit the metadata it reads from your photos.

Clean history

PrivaLens includes a local history feature so you can see recent cleaning activity. This history may include:

  • Date of cleaning
  • Number of photos cleaned
  • Number of metadata fields removed
  • Number of sensitive fields removed
  • Original and cleaned file sizes
  • Image format label
  • A small local thumbnail preview

Clean history is stored only on your device using local device storage. It is not sent to us or to any server. You can clear the history inside the app.

Share extension and share target

PrivaLens lets you clean photos directly from other apps such as Photos or Gallery, using the Share Extension on iOS and the share target on Android. When you use this feature:

  • The selected image files are loaded locally into PrivaLens.
  • Metadata is removed locally on your device.
  • Clean copies are offered back to you through the system share sheet.
  • On Android, cleaned copies are written to PrivaLens's private cache and exposed only via a scoped FileProvider URI to the receiving app.
  • The original photos are not modified.
  • No photo data is sent to PrivaLens, QOL Apps, or any third-party server.

After you choose another app from the system share sheet, that app's own privacy policy and data practices apply.

Third-party services

PrivaLens does not include third-party analytics, advertising SDKs, tracking SDKs, or cloud processing services. The app uses:

  • iOS: System frameworks provided by Apple, including Photos, ImageIO, and the system share sheet.
  • Android: Android system frameworks, including Photo Picker, system share sheet, and FileProvider, provided by Google, plus two open-source on-device libraries: androidx.exifinterface (Apache 2.0) and metadata-extractor by Drew Noakes (Apache 2.0). Both run entirely on-device and perform no network calls.

Internet and network use

PrivaLens does not require an internet connection for its core photo metadata inspection and cleaning features. The app does not upload photos or metadata to a remote server. The Android build of PrivaLens does not request the INTERNET permission at all, so the operating system does not give the app the ability to make network requests.

Permissions

PrivaLens requests the minimum permissions required for its features:

  • Photo access (iOS): "Selected Photos" / "All Photos" via the system Photos framework, only for photos you explicitly pick or share with PrivaLens.
  • Photo Picker (Android): system-managed, per-selection. PrivaLens does not request the broad READ_MEDIA_IMAGES or legacy READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions.
  • No internet permission on Android.
  • No advertising ID on Android. No IDFA access on iOS.
  • No location, contacts, microphone, or camera permissions on either platform.

Data sharing

We do not sell, rent, trade, or share personal data because PrivaLens does not collect personal data. Cleaned photos are shared only when you choose to share them through the system share sheet. The destination app or service you choose is responsible for its own handling of the content you send to it.

Data retention

Because PrivaLens does not collect data on our servers, we do not retain your photos, metadata, or personal information. Local clean history remains on your device until you clear it or uninstall the app.

Children's privacy

PrivaLens does not knowingly collect personal information from children or from any other users.

Security

PrivaLens is designed to reduce privacy risk by keeping photo processing on your device. Since we do not collect or store your photos or metadata on servers, there is no server-side photo database for us to protect or expose. No method of electronic storage or software processing can be guaranteed to be perfect, but PrivaLens is intentionally built to avoid unnecessary collection and transmission of sensitive photo information.

Your choices

You control which photos you select or share with PrivaLens. You can:

  • Choose not to select a photo
  • Cancel sharing from the system share sheet
  • Clear local clean history inside PrivaLens
  • Delete the app to remove its local app data from your device

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy if PrivaLens changes or if legal, operational, or App Store requirements change. If we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above.