Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 2026

Shutterbug is a photo app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, made by Jake Zien. This policy explains what happens to your information when you use it. The short version: Shutterbug doesn’t collect anything, and your photos never leave your devices.

What Shutterbug collects

Nothing. Shutterbug has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind. It doesn’t use third-party services that collect data about you. No information about you or your photos is ever sent to me or to anyone else.

Your photos

Shutterbug asks for access to your Apple Photos library so it can display your photos and find similar shots. All of that processing happens on your device. Shutterbug never uploads, copies, or shares your photos.

Shutterbug changes your library in only two ways, and only when you ask it to. Favorites you mark in Shutterbug are saved as Favorites in Apple Photos. Emptying Shutterbug’s trash deletes the photos in it: photos you trash stay in your library until you tap Empty Trash, and after that they move to Recently Deleted in the Photos app, where you can recover them for 30 days.

iCloud sync

To keep Shutterbug in sync across your devices, it stores some metadata in your personal iCloud account: which photos you’ve trashed, details read from your photos’ metadata (like when each was taken and the camera settings used), the image analysis data Shutterbug uses to find similar shots, and your app settings. None of this includes your photos themselves. It lives in your own private iCloud storage, and I can’t see or access it. Apple’s handling of iCloud data is covered by Apple’s Privacy Policy.

Crash reports

If you’ve chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device’s settings, Apple may send me anonymous crash reports. These help me fix bugs, and they don’t include your photos or identify you. You can turn this off anytime in Settings under Privacy & Security, then Analytics & Improvements.

Children

Shutterbug doesn’t collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy ever changes, I’ll update it here and change the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email support@shutterbug.photos.