Privacy Policy
for the Spacebroom app and the website fairapps.at · Last updated: October 2026
This is a translation of the German privacy policy. If the two versions differ, the German version applies.
1. Controller
The controller within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is Ali Bondok, Vienna, Austria, email: kontakt@fairapps.at (hereinafter “operator”). Spacebroom and this website are a private, non-commercial offering without any income. For all data protection matters, a message to this address is all it takes.
2. Principle: your photos stay on your iPhone
(1) Spacebroom works without an account and without a server of its own. The app analyzes your photos and videos exclusively on your iPhone. The operator has no access to them and receives nothing from them.
(2) The app contains no program code that sends data over the internet. It contains no analytics or statistics services, no tracking, no advertising and no software components from other providers (so-called SDKs). Your device’s advertising identifier (IDFA) is not used. The app does not analyze what is stored only in iCloud; it does not compare it, or compares it only roughly, and does not shrink it. Only for viewing can your iPhone download such a photo or video from Apple’s iCloud when needed (section 3(7)).
(3) Data only leaves your device if you trigger or set this yourself: when you open a web page from the app (help, privacy policy, legal notice; your browser then loads the page, section 6), when you send an email (section 4), or when your iPhone downloads a photo or video from iCloud for viewing according to your setting (section 3(7)). In that case, iOS requests the version from Apple; the operator receives nothing. In addition, the app’s data is included in your device’s backups if you have turned backups on (paragraph 4).
(4) Backups. If you have turned on iCloud Backup or a backup on your computer, the data of Spacebroom is included in it, as with other apps. This is governed by Apple and your device settings; for iCloud, Apple’s privacy policy applies. The operator has no access to your backups.
(5) You don’t have to provide any information about yourself. The app works fully without it.
3. Features of the app
(1) Access to photos. On first launch, Spacebroom asks for access to your photos and videos. You can allow full access or only selected photos, and change this at any time on your iPhone in Settings > Apps > Spacebroom > Photos. Without access, the app can’t do anything. Before you have allowed access, the app does not retrieve any photos.
(2) Analysis on the device. Spacebroom reads the capture date, size, dimensions, type (photo, video, Live Photo, screenshot, burst), favorite status and, if available, the location where it was taken, as well as the albums (only with full access). The location is only grouped on the device and never converted into a place name, because that would require sending data over the internet. From small thumbnails, the app calculates a fingerprint, sharpness and brightness, and uses Apple functions (Vision) on the device for this: rating how good a photo looks, comparing images, faces and open eyes, and text recognition to find photos of documents. Recognized text is only counted and discarded immediately, never stored.
(3) Cache. So that the search is fast the next time you open the app, it stores results in the app’s storage on your device: the list of your photos with sizes, measurements and fingerprints, the results for each area, your “Keep” choices, the Spacebroom bin, the “Deleted with Spacebroom” statistic and a few small settings. You can delete the cache in “About Spacebroom”. If you delete the app, iOS removes all of its data from your device.
(4) Available storage. The app reads how much storage is available on the iPhone, to display it and, before saving a shrunk copy, to check whether there is enough space.
(5) Deleting. Spacebroom never deletes directly. Whatever you sort out goes into the app’s bin first; nothing changes in Photos. Only when you tap “Delete in Photos” in the bin and confirm your iPhone’s prompt does the app delete in Photos. There, deleted items stay in the “Recently Deleted” album for up to 30 days. With iCloud Photos, they are deleted on all your devices; with a Shared Library, for everyone who shares it.
(6) Shrinking. When shrinking, the app saves a smaller copy as a new photo or video in your library, with the date, location and favorite status of the original, and only then puts the original into the bin. Everything happens on your device.
(7) Viewing photos and videos from iCloud. If you use “Optimize iPhone Storage”, your iPhone keeps only a small version of many photos. When the app shows you such a photo or video in large view, or you play it, your iPhone can download the full version from Apple’s iCloud, only for viewing and only if your setting under “About Spacebroom” > “Load Photos from iCloud” allows it: “Automatically”, “Wi-Fi Only” or “Only on Tap”. This download runs through the photo functions of iOS directly between your iPhone and your iCloud account at Apple; Apple’s privacy policy applies. The operator is not involved, receives neither the photos nor any information about them, and has no access. While you swipe, the app already loads the next two photos in advance, that is, before you look at them (not with “Only on Tap”, not in Low Data Mode, and with “Wi-Fi Only” only on Wi-Fi). This can use mobile data. For a video, your tap on play is enough to start the download, also on mobile data and in Low Data Mode (with “Wi-Fi Only”, on mobile data only after “Load Anyway”); on mobile data, the app asks for a smaller version of the video. Searching, comparing and shrinking still work only with what is stored on the iPhone. To know whether the iPhone is on Wi-Fi or mobile data (and whether Low Data Mode is on), the app only reads the connection status; no data is sent in the process.
(8) Legal basis. Insofar as these features involve any processing by the operator at all, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (providing the app features you use).
4. Feedback and contact by email
(1) Under “Feedback & Ideas” you write a message. The app then opens a prepared email to kontakt@fairapps.at (in version 1.0 to fairapps@gmx.at) in your mail app. The text contains your message and, below it, the app version, the iOS version and the device type (e.g. “iPhone”). You see the email before sending it, can change or discard it, and send it yourself from your own email account. The app itself sends nothing.
(2) With your email, the operator receives your sender email address, the name set in your email account if there is one, and everything you write or attach yourself. The same applies if you write directly to kontakt@fairapps.at.
(3) The purpose is to read and answer your message and to improve the app. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in answering inquiries and developing the app further). Sending a message is voluntary; the app works without it too.
(4) The mailbox kontakt@fairapps.at is kept with iCloud Mail, a service of Apple (for Europe Apple Distribution International Ltd., Hollyhill Industrial Estate, Hollyhill, Cork, Ireland), the former mailbox fairapps@gmx.at with the email provider GMX; your email is stored there.
(5) Storage period. Emails are deleted as soon as your inquiry has been dealt with, at the latest after 12 months.
5. App Store
(1) You get Spacebroom through Apple’s App Store. Apple itself is responsible for downloads, updates, ratings and your Apple Account; Apple’s privacy policy applies.
(2) From Apple, the operator receives aggregated figures, such as how often the app was downloaded, but no information about who downloaded it. If you have allowed sharing with app developers in your iOS settings (Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements), Apple may also provide the operator with crash reports and usage statistics. You can turn this off there at any time.
6. This website
(1) The website fairapps.at is run on Firebase Hosting, a service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. The links in the app under “About Spacebroom” also open this website in your browser.
(2) When you open a page, Google processes technically necessary data, in particular your IP address, the time of access, the page accessed and information about your browser, and records it in server logs. The purpose is to deliver the page and keep its operation secure. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a working and secure website). The operator does not use this data for statistics and does not create profiles.
(3) The website sets no cookies, uses no analytics or statistics services and no tracking, and does not embed any content, fonts or scripts from other providers.
(4) In doing so, Google acts as a processor for the operator under Art. 28 GDPR; the Firebase data processing terms apply. A transfer to Google LLC in the United States cannot be ruled out. Google LLC is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework; the transfer is safeguarded by the European Commission’s adequacy decision on it, and in addition the standard contractual clauses under Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR apply.
7. No disclosure
The operator does not sell any data and does not pass it on to third parties. Data is only transferred to authorities if there is a legal obligation to do so (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).
8. No automated decision-making
Automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR does not take place. The app’s suggestions (such as “Exact Copy”) only concern your photos, are created on your device and are never carried out without your confirmation.
9. Your rights
(1) You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21). An informal message to kontakt@fairapps.at is enough.
(2) What is stored in the app is only on your device. The operator has no access to it and therefore can neither view it nor delete it for you; you manage and delete it yourself (section 3(3)).
(3) You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in Austria with the Data Protection Authority (Datenschutzbehörde), Barichgasse 40-42, 1030 Vienna, dsb@dsb.gv.at, www.dsb.gv.at.
10. Changes to this policy
This policy will be updated when the app, the website or the legal situation changes, for example when a new feature processes data differently. The current version is always available on this page; the app links to it under “About Spacebroom”.