BRIDGE PHOTO – Privacy Policy
The short version
- BRIDGE PHOTO collects no personal data. It has no account, no analytics, no crash reporting and no advertising.
- The app never connects to the internet. On Android it has no internet permission, so it cannot send or receive data. On iOS it asks for the camera when you open the scanner, and for add-only access to Photos only if you choose "Save to Photos".
- Your scans stay in the app's private storage on your phone. They leave the phone only when you share or export them.
- Scanning and text recognition run on your phone: on Android inside Google ML Kit (part of Google Play services), on iOS inside Apple's VisionKit and Vision frameworks (part of iOS).
1. Who publishes BRIDGE PHOTO
BRIDGE PHOTO is published by the developer shown on Google Play as BRIDGE PHOTO, an individual developer with a personal Google Play developer account. The app is free, with no ads and no in-app purchases.
Questions about this policy: bridgephoto.vwn@gmail.com.
2. What data BRIDGE PHOTO collects
Nothing. The app has no sign-in, no user account and no server. It does not collect your name, email address, phone number, location, contacts, device identifiers or usage data. It contains no analytics, crash-reporting or advertising code.
The app does not use the internet. On Android its manifest declares no INTERNET permission, so the operating system does not let it open a network connection. On iOS there is no such permission to declare; the app simply has no networking features and makes no network connections. Nothing you scan, type or recognise is sent to us or to anyone else by the app.
We, the developer, learn nothing about you from your use of the app. The only things we can see are what the app stores show every developer: aggregate install statistics, public reviews you choose to write, and crash reports from people who have chosen in their Android or iOS settings to share diagnostics with Google or Apple. If you install a test version through Apple's TestFlight, Apple's TestFlight terms apply and Apple may pass crash logs and any feedback you send to us. All of that information comes from Google or Apple and is covered by their privacy policies.
3. Permissions and prompts
Android
BRIDGE PHOTO for Android has no internet permission, so it cannot send or receive data. The only permission in the app is ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, which a Google library adds; it only lets an app ask whether the phone is online and cannot move data. When you install the app, Android will not ask you to grant anything.
- Camera: the scanning screen is provided by Google Play services (see section 5), which operates the camera and hands the finished page images to the app. The app itself has no camera permission.
- Photos and files: importing a photo or a PDF goes through the scanner's own gallery option or Android's file picker. Exporting and sharing go through Android's own system dialogs (the save dialog or the share sheet). These need no app permission, and the app only ever sees the files you pick.
- Internet: not declared. The app cannot make network calls.
iPhone and iPad
iOS asks you before an app may use certain things. BRIDGE PHOTO triggers only two prompts, and only when you use the matching feature:
- Camera: when you open the scanner for the first time, iOS asks whether the app may use the camera. The camera is used only to capture your pages, on the device. If you refuse, you cannot scan, but everything else still works.
- Add to Photos: only if you choose "Save to Photos", iOS asks whether the app may add images to your photo library. This is add-only access: the app cannot read, browse or change the photos already in your library. If you have iCloud Photos switched on, iOS may then sync the saved image to your iCloud; that is Apple's service, under Apple's privacy policy.
Importing a PDF uses the iOS file picker, and sharing or saving to Files uses the iOS share sheet and file dialogs. These need no permission. The app never asks for your location, contacts, microphone, tracking permission or anything else.
4. Where your scans are stored
Scans, page images, recognised text and the PDFs the app builds are stored in the app's private storage on your phone. Other apps cannot read that folder. The app keeps no cloud copy.
Android: Android backup is switched off for this app, so your scans are not copied to Google's backup service. This also means that uninstalling the app deletes all of its scans. Export or share anything you want to keep before you uninstall.
iOS: uninstalling the app also deletes its scans. The app does not upload your scans anywhere itself. If your iPhone is set to back up to iCloud or to a computer, iOS decides what app data goes into that backup according to your settings; that backup is Apple's service, under Apple's privacy policy.
Deleting a document or a page inside the app removes it from the phone. Copies you have already exported, shared or saved to Photos live outside the app and are not affected.
5. On-device processing
Android: Google Play services and ML Kit
On Android, BRIDGE PHOTO uses two Google components that are delivered as part of Google Play services and run on your phone:
- Google ML Kit Document Scanner provides the camera screen: autofocus, automatic capture, edge detection, corner adjustment, colour / greyscale / black-and-white filters, stain and finger removal, multi-page capture and import from the gallery.
- Google ML Kit Text Recognition recognises the text on your pages (Latin and Devanagari scripts in version 1.0) so that PDFs can be searched and text can be copied.
Both process your pages on the device. The first time they are needed, Google Play services downloads the scanner and text-recognition models to your phone, once. That download is made by Google Play services, not by BRIDGE PHOTO, which has no network access.
Google publishes what its ML Kit components report back to Google. At the time of writing, Google's ML Kit Android data disclosure says that ML Kit collects, for diagnostics and usage analytics: device information (such as manufacturer, model and OS version), the package name and version of the app using it, per-installation identifiers that Google says are not intended to identify a user or a device, and technical details such as image format and resolution, input and output sizes, timings and error codes. Google says this data is encrypted in transit and is not passed to third parties. Your images and your recognised text are not listed among that data. We never receive any of it. It goes to Google, under the Google Privacy Policy. Google Play services is Google's software, and we do not control it.
Because of this design, BRIDGE PHOTO for Android needs Google Play services. It does not work on Android phones that do not have it (for example Huawei phones without Google Mobile Services).
iPhone and iPad: Apple VisionKit and Vision
On iOS, BRIDGE PHOTO uses two Apple frameworks that are part of iOS itself and run on your device:
- VisionKit's document camera provides the scanning screen: autofocus, automatic capture, edge detection, perspective correction, and colour / greyscale / black-and-white output.
- The Vision framework recognises the text on your pages. The languages it can read depend on your iOS version; English is supported on every version the app runs on. Hindi and Nepali recognition are available on Android only in version 1.0.
No third-party SDK is involved on iOS, and the app itself sends nothing anywhere. These frameworks are Apple's software, covered by Apple's privacy policy.
6. Sharing and exporting
Nothing leaves your phone unless you choose to share, export or save it. When you share a scan or its text to WhatsApp, email or another app, that app receives the file and handles it under its own privacy policy. When you export to a folder, the file is written where you chose. When you save to Photos on iOS, the image goes into your photo library. We do not see, receive or log what you share, export or save.
7. Children
BRIDGE PHOTO is a general-purpose tool. It is not designed for or marketed to children, and it has no age-specific features. Because the app collects no data from anyone, it collects no data from children either. If you have a concern, write to bridgephoto.vwn@gmail.com.
8. Security
Your scans are protected by your phone: its screen lock and device encryption. The app has no server and keeps no copy of your data, so there is no server for anyone to break into. Keep your phone updated and locked, and think before you share sensitive documents.
9. Your rights
Because we hold no data about you, there is nothing for us to access, correct, export or delete on your behalf. You are in full control on your phone: delete scans inside the app, or uninstall the app to remove everything it stored. For anything Google Play services, iOS, TestFlight or the app stores collect, use Google's and Apple's tools and policies linked above.
10. Changes to this policy
If the app ever changes in a way that affects your privacy, for example if a future version needs a new permission, we will update this page first, change the effective date at the top, and describe the change in the app's release notes. The current version of this policy is always the one published at this address.
11. Contact
Email: bridgephoto.vwn@gmail.com
Developer: shown on Google Play as BRIDGE PHOTO (personal Google Play developer account)