Privacy Policy
Loupe is made by Superluminal LLC. The short version: Loupe collects nothing. We have no servers that receive your data, no accounts, no ads and no tracking. This page explains what the app does, where your data lives, and the choices you have.
What Loupe does
Loupe keeps the photo albums you choose on your Apple Watch, with an iPhone companion. The iPhone app reads your photo library, with your permission, and prepares each photo. The Apple Watch app keeps them, so you can look at them with no iPhone nearby.
Data we do not collect
Loupe has no accounts, ads, tracking, analytics of its own or third-party code. We never receive your photos, videos, albums, photo details such as dates, favorites or locations, your contacts, your location, your device identifiers or your purchase history. We do not sell or share personal information, because we do not have any.
Data that stays on your devices and in your iCloud
Loupe moves photos and videos from the albums you pick to your Apple Watch in two ways: directly between your iPhone and your Apple Watch, and through your own private iCloud whenever it can. A photo keeps its details, such as its date and location, inside the file, and the file goes only to your own devices, your own iCloud, and anyone you choose to share it with.
Your private iCloud. Loupe uses CloudKit, Apple’s iCloud service for apps. The iPhone puts copies of photos in a private database that belongs to your Apple Account, inside Loupe’s iCloud container. A private database can be read only through your Apple Account, and Superluminal cannot read it. The copies and their details are encrypted and are deleted once your Apple Watch has them. A copy that your Apple Watch has not collected is cleaned up after 48 hours by default. Copies use at most about 1 GB of your iCloud storage. Your album list (titles, photo IDs, dates and favorites) also stays there, so your Apple Watch can show it.
One public setting. Loupe also reads one public record from Loupe’s iCloud container. It holds a single number: how many hours a copy may wait in your iCloud before it is cleaned up (between 1 hour and 14 days). Reading it sends nothing about you, and it works with no iCloud account.
If iCloud is off or full, photos go directly from your iPhone to your Apple Watch instead, and Loupe still works.
Apple services the app uses
- Photos. Loupe asks for access to your photo library. You choose what it can see in Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos.
- iCloud and CloudKit, as described above. Apple provides and runs them under Apple’s Privacy Policy. iCloud gives us only service statistics and logs, with nothing personal in them.
- The App Store and StoreKit, for Loupe Premium. It is a one-time purchase of $4.99 made through the App Store. Apple takes the payment and handles refunds. We receive no payment details and nothing that says who bought it. Loupe checks on your device that Premium is yours.
- Apple’s crash and usage reports. If you turn on Share with App Developers in your iPhone’s Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements, Apple may give us anonymous crash and usage reports about Loupe. Loupe adds nothing to them, and they say nothing about who you are. You can turn them off at any time.
Your passcode and the Hidden Album
You can lock Loupe with a passcode and keep photos and videos in the Hidden Album. Your passcode is kept on your iPhone and Apple Watch as a scrambled check value, never as the code itself. Hidden Album photos and videos are kept in Loupe on your iPhone and Apple Watch, and move only through your own iCloud or directly between your devices. Nothing about your passcode or the Hidden Album reaches us.
Diagnostics log
Diagnostics is a switch in Loupe’s Settings, and it is off until you turn it on. While it is on, Loupe keeps a log of syncing on your iPhone and on your Apple Watch, to help with support. The log lists what happened and when: the sync steps, counts and any errors. Photo IDs in it are scrambled, and details such as album titles are left out. It holds no photos and no videos.
The log stays on your device. It leaves your device only if you tap Share Log. That puts the iPhone log, the Apple Watch log and a short note with the Loupe and iOS versions into one zip file and opens the share sheet, and you choose where it goes, for example Mail. If you send it to us, we use it only to look into the problem you reported. Loupe never sends it by itself. The log is limited in size, and turning Diagnostics off stops Loupe from adding to it.
Children
Loupe is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included. Loupe collects nothing from anyone.
Your rights and choices
- Delete the app. Deleting Loupe from your iPhone removes its data there. Deleting it from your Apple Watch removes the photos it kept there. Your photos in the Photos app are not touched.
- Delete what Loupe keeps in iCloud. On your iPhone, open Settings → your name → iCloud → Storage → Loupe → Delete Data from iCloud. The wording can differ a little between versions of iOS.
- Choose what Loupe can see, in Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos, and turn off sharing of analytics with developers as described above.
- Privacy laws. Because Superluminal does not collect or store personal information through Loupe, there is nothing for us to access, correct, delete, port or restrict. Laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation give people rights over personal data that a business holds. We hold none from Loupe, we do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use it for tracking or profiling. The data in your iCloud is yours and is managed by Apple under your Apple Account. If you think we hold something about you, write to us and we will check and answer.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we will post the new version here with a new date.
Contact
Questions about this policy: loupe@gosuperluminal.com
Superluminal LLC, 82 Wendell Ave Ste 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201, United States