Poofora Privacy Policy

Effective date: 2026-10-29

Poofora is published by Poofora, Georgia. This policy explains how Poofora handles your data. The short version: the app does not collect your data. We have no servers.

What we collect

The app collects nothing. Poofora has no accounts. It has no analytics service, no ads and no tracking, and it keeps no usage statistics. It does not send your photos, videos or contacts anywhere. The only personal data that we receive is what you choose to send us yourself, for example when you write to support@poofora.com or send a problem report. See "Support messages, our website and your rights".

Network use

Poofora does not connect to any server that we run. Two things in the app can use the network, and Apple handles both.

• Purchases. The App Store takes the payment and handles your subscriptions and purchases, including sharing a Family Premium subscription through Apple Family Sharing. From Apple, Poofora only learns whether a purchase is active, which plan it is, and whether a family member shared it with you. We never see your payment details, and we have no account for you.
• iCloud originals. If a photo or video is only in iCloud, Apple's Photos framework may download it when you open a large preview or swipe through photos. Compressing videos, converting Live Photos and making smaller copies of screenshots never download anything: items that are only in iCloud are skipped.

When you open the Privacy Policy, the Terms of Use or Support from Poofora, your browser loads our website at poofora.com. Like any website, it may keep standard server logs. Poofora does not add anything to the link.

Photos

Poofora asks for read and write access to your photo library.

• It reads your photos and videos on your device to find duplicates, similar shots, screenshots and large videos. The analysis uses Apple's Vision framework on your device. For videos it looks at a few frames. It looks at faces and eyes in photos only to judge sharpness and blinks, and does not identify anyone.
• It also reads the date and place where each photo was taken to count your photos per country in "Where I've been". The place is matched against a map that is built into Poofora. No map service is used and no place leaves your device.
• If you tap "Read my screenshots", it reads the text, labels and barcode types in your screenshots on your device. It never keeps what a barcode says.
• When you ask, it saves smaller copies of videos, still photos from Live Photos and smaller copies of screenshots to your library. It never changes or deletes the original. The original is only added to your list to review.
• It keeps an album called "Poofora: to delete" with the photos you marked. The album is created when you mark your first photo. You can turn this off in Settings. If you turn it off, Poofora stops updating the album. The album stays until you delete it in Photos.
• It deletes photos only after you review them and confirm. Deleted photos go to Recently Deleted. You can recover them there for up to 30 days.

Contacts

Poofora reads your contacts only in the Contacts screen, after you allow access. If you share only some contacts with Poofora, it finds duplicates among those only. It uses them to find duplicates. A merge needs your confirmation and removes the extra copies from Contacts. Apple does not let apps read or change notes, so the notes of a removed contact are lost.

Before a merge, Poofora saves a backup of the original contacts as a .vcf file. The app saves the file in its Documents folder, so you can see it in the Files app. The file is included in the backups of your iPhone. It is never uploaded by Poofora. Poofora does not delete backups automatically. You can delete them yourself in the Files app. If you choose to share a backup, you decide where it goes. You can restore a backup in Poofora, which adds the contacts back. The backup file is not encrypted by Poofora.

Notifications

Poofora can send optional local notifications: tips about your own library, a weekly summary and occasional Poofora Premium offers. Nothing is sent until you allow notifications in iOS. Poofora asks in one place: a step during first setup, or the notifications switch in Settings. If you say "Not now", the app works fully without them. In Settings you can switch off "Tips and reminders" and "Premium offers" separately, or switch off all notifications with the master switch. Poofora sends up to 2 a week, with no sound and no badge. The notifications are scheduled on your device, contain no personal data, counts or prices, and nothing is sent to any server. To plan them, Poofora stores a few things on your device, listed under "What is stored on your device". If you turn notifications off in Poofora Settings or in iOS Settings, all pending notifications are cancelled.

Widgets, Siri and background work

Poofora offers widgets and Siri shortcuts. They read only the numbers described below, and they open Poofora on a screen. They cannot delete or change anything. With Poofora Premium you can allow Poofora to refresh its results in the background while your iPhone is charging. This work happens on your device, uses no network and never deletes, changes or uploads anything.

Rating and support mail

After a successful cleanup, Poofora may ask iOS to show Apple's own review dialog. Apple decides whether it appears, and Poofora does not see your answer. If you tap Contact support in Settings, Poofora opens a mail draft that you can read and change. The draft contains only the app version, the iOS version and the device model. If you use Report a problem or Report a translation problem in Settings, the draft also contains the app language and the text that you type into the form. Nothing is sent unless you send it from your mail app.

Support messages, our website and your rights

Poofora, Georgia, is responsible for the personal data that we receive when you write to us or open our website. If you write to us, we receive your email address, your message and anything you attach. We use it to answer you and to fix problems in Poofora. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in giving support and, if your message is about a purchase, performing our contract with you and meeting legal duties. We do not sell this data, use it for advertising or profile you. We keep a message only as long as we need it to deal with your request and to meet legal duties, then we delete it. Our email and website providers process this data for us and may do so in other countries. We have no account, profile or other data about you that we could look up, because the app keeps everything on your device.

If you live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or another place with similar laws, you can ask us for access to the data that we hold about you, and for its correction, deletion, restriction or transfer, and you can object to our use of it. You can also complain to your data protection authority. Write to support@poofora.com. We usually answer within 30 days.

What is stored on your device

• Your decisions: the list of marked photos, the photos you kept, and which copy replaces which original. This is the file decisions.json.
• A scan cache with image fingerprints, sharpness and face-quality scores, and file checksums used to find exact copies. This is the file scan-cache.plist.
• If you tap "Read my screenshots": a search index with the text recognised in your screenshots, labels, the types of barcodes found (never what they say), and your last eight searches. Screenshot text can include private information such as codes, addresses or account details. It stays on your device and is not included in device backups. You can erase it in the Screenshot Brain screen.
• A list of country codes with photo counts and years for "Where I've been". It holds no coordinates.
• A list of what you converted or queued for compression, so nothing is converted twice.
• A deletion log with the date, the number of items and the size of each deletion. It keeps the last 200 entries. The week summary, the streak and the picture you can share are calculated from it. The picture contains numbers only and no photos. It is shared only if you tap Share.
• Statistics: the total number and size of deleted items. The free-space measurement: free space and the number of items deleted between two dates.
• The free allowance record: how much of your welcome allowance you have used, how many free deletions you have used today and the date of that day, and a few time values that let Poofora notice when the clock of the iPhone was changed. It is stored in two places, the iOS Keychain and Poofora's preferences. See "Free allowance" below.
• Offer timing: two dates, when a Premium offer was last shown to you and when you last closed one, so that offers do not follow each other. It holds nothing else.
• Your plan: a copy of the last purchase status that Apple reported (which plan, whether a family member shared it with you, and when it ends), so that Poofora can open Premium quickly and offline. Two dates that decide when the Lifetime card is shown. The dates when Poofora last asked iOS to show the rating dialog.
• Contacts history: the date, type and number of contacts of each merge or restore. It keeps the last 200 entries and contains no names.
• Settings: the album switch and the album ID, the notification switches (all notifications, "Tips and reminders", "Premium offers") and the day and time, the background switch, the Screenshot Brain switch, and which photos count as important (favourites, albums, kept).
• For notifications: your install date, when you last opened Poofora, last scanned and last used up the free allowance, when you last tapped a notification, which features you have opened, the IDs and dates of recently delivered notifications and Premium offers, and which notifications are scheduled. It holds no photos, names, places or text.
• Numbers shared with the widgets and Siri: for each category of the last scan, how many groups and how many bytes, your streak, the items cleaned today, and whether Poofora Premium is active. Poofora and its widgets share them through an App Group, which is a storage area on your device. They include no photos, names or text.

All of this stays on your device. We cannot see it. Some of these files are part of your iPhone backup if you back up with iCloud or a computer. The search index, your recent searches and the scan cache are not. "Clear scan cache" in Settings clears the scan cache, the search index and the country counts. It does not reset the free allowance.

Free allowance

Free allowance. The free plan includes a one-time welcome allowance of permanent deletions, and after that a number of free deletions every day. To remember how much you have used, Poofora keeps one small record in two places on your iPhone: the iOS Keychain and Poofora's preferences on the device. It holds numbers and dates only: how much of the welcome allowance is used, today's count with its date, and time values that let Poofora notice a changed clock. It holds no photos, names or personal data, and Poofora never sends it anywhere. When Poofora starts, it combines the two copies and keeps the stricter values.

• The Keychain item is marked "this device only". It is not synced to iCloud Keychain, and a backup does not copy it to another iPhone. The preferences copy is part of your iPhone backup.
• Deleting the app removes the preferences copy. iOS may keep the Keychain item, so reinstalling the app may or may not bring back your free deletions. We do not promise either way.
• The record lives only on your device, with no account or server behind it, so it is not tamper-proof. It can also be lost or reset, for example when you erase the iPhone or when iOS removes the Keychain item.

Usage statistics. Poofora keeps no usage statistics. It does not count how often you open the app, which screens you see or whether you buy. Earlier test versions kept a few local counters; this version deletes them when it starts.

How to clear it. "Clear scan cache" does not clear the free allowance record. Deleting the app removes the preferences copy. The Keychain copy can only be removed by erasing the iPhone (Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Erase All Content and Settings). Poofora has no button for it, and iOS has no setting to delete the Keychain items of a single app.

iCloud and your Apple settings

Poofora does not use iCloud itself. The App Group is a local storage area, not iCloud. If you use iCloud Photos or iCloud Contacts, Apple may sync changes that Poofora makes to your other devices. These changes include saved copies, the album, deleted photos and merged contacts. Your Apple settings control this.

Deleting your data

To remove the contact backups, delete the files in the Files app under Poofora. Poofora never deletes them for you. To remove the scan cache, the search index and the country counts, tap "Clear scan cache" in Settings. To erase the screenshot text and your recent searches, use the Screenshot Brain screen. To stop notifications, turn them off in Poofora Settings or in iOS Settings. This cancels all pending notifications. To remove what Poofora stored, delete the app. This also removes the counters stored for notifications and the contact backups in the app's Documents folder. One exception: the free allowance record that Poofora keeps in the iOS Keychain may stay on the iPhone after you delete the app. It holds only numbers and dates, no personal data, and erasing the iPhone removes it (see "Free allowance"). If you copied a backup to iCloud Drive or elsewhere, delete that copy as well. Saved copies and the "Poofora: to delete" album stay in Photos until you delete them there.

Children

Poofora is not directed to children. The app collects no data from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The new version will have a new effective date.

Contact

Questions? Write to support@poofora.com.