Legal
Privacy policy for the apps
For the PhotoAlbumsMesh apps on Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac and Linux. Last changed 19 October 2026.
This is the policy of the apps. The website has its own: privacy policy of the website. For a short, plain description of who can see what, read privacy and security.
Privacy in one minute
- In Free and Sync Anywhere your photos go from your phones to your own computer. They do not come to us. We do not receive them, we cannot see them, and we cannot get them back for you. With Cloud, a sealed copy of your photos is stored with us. We cannot open it. The keys stay with your family. The only photos we can see are those in an album you share (section 4A.3).
- No advertising, no tracking, no analytics, no crash reports. We do not sell data, ever. Free and Sync Anywhere need no account. Cloud needs one (section 4A.1).
- In this version the apps send nothing to us. We run no server for them.
- The recovery key is yours alone. If you lose it and every family computer, nobody, we included, can restore your family.
- You can ask us what we hold. Because we hold almost nothing, the answer is short (section 7).
1. Who is responsible
1.1 The apps send nothing to us, so the only data we can receive is what you choose to send us yourself: a diagnostics text (section 5) or your e-mail address if you join the early-access list on the website. For that data the one who decides what is done with it (the controller) is Volodymyr Usov, Tampa, Florida, USA. Contact for privacy questions: [email protected].
1.2 For the photos, videos, names, places and other data on your family's devices, your family decides what is stored and for what. In Free and Sync Anywhere these never reach us, so we do not control them. The law on data protection may treat the maker of an app as responsible for the "means" it provides; we therefore describe in this policy exactly what the means do. If your family turns on Cloud, a copy of what you choose is stored with us. For that copy we act on your family's behalf: we store it, we do not read the backup (it is sealed with keys we do not hold), and we use it for nothing else. Section 4A says exactly what we hold.
2. What is on your devices
All of this stays on your family's own devices. We never receive it.
| Data | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Photos and videos (with the date and the place stored inside them) | Phones; copied to your family computer's disk in ordinary folders | Backup, trip albums, globe |
| Photos the junk filter left out | Stay on the phone | You can review and keep them |
| Names you type (family name, person names, device names), album names and edits, places you set by hand | The family record on each family computer and device | Folders, albums, showing whose photo is whose |
| A small index of your photos (fingerprints, sizes, dates, places) | Each computer, in the hidden .pam folder | Not storing a photo twice, albums |
| Secret keys of each device | The phone's or computer's protected key storage; on Linux, and for now on Mac, in a file only your user can read | Devices recognise each other by keys, not by passwords |
| The app's own log files (7 days; 10 MB on a computer, 2 MB on a phone) | Each device's app folder, never in the photo folder | Finding errors. A line holds times, counts, error codes, device numbers shortened to 8 characters, and local network addresses. It holds no file names, person names, places or photo content |
| The family recovery key | Not kept. The computer shows the words once, and forgets them after you check your copy | Taking over your family on a new computer |
Photos on your computer are ordinary files; the apps do not encrypt them on the disk. Use disk encryption on your computer if you want that. The connection between your devices is always encrypted.
3. Permissions the apps ask for, and what they do with them
| Permission | What the app does with it |
|---|---|
| Photos and videos (Android: "all photos and videos"; iPhone: Photos) | Reads every photo and video, so that it can copy them to your computer and keep doing so for new photos. The app changes and deletes nothing on the phone. |
| Place stored in photos (Android) | Reads the place stored in each photo. The computer app uses it for trip albums and the globe. The place stays in the copy; it is not sent to us. |
| Camera | Only while the scan screen is open, to read the square code on your computer. It takes no photos. |
| Local network | Finds your family computer on your Wi-Fi. The app talks only to computers of your own family. |
| Notifications | Shows how far the backup is, and tells you when something stops it. No ads and no news. |
| Run in the background | Lets a backup finish while the screen is off. |
Other devices on the same Wi-Fi can see that a computer running PhotoAlbumsMesh is there, its role, and its network addresses (the computer announces itself to the home network). The tags in that announcement change every day and do not hold the family number, a device number, or any name.
The junk filter runs on your phone, with an image-recognition model stored inside the app. It needs no network and sends nothing anywhere.
4. The website and the early-access list
The website has no cookies and no analytics. If you join the early-access list on the website, we keep your e-mail address and a few facts for the release e-mails. The privacy policy of the website says what and for how long.
4A. What Cloud stores, and for how long
Cloud is planned and is not available yet. This section says in advance what it will store.
4A.1 The account. Cloud uses a sign-in with Google, Apple or e-mail. We hold the sign-in identifier that Google or Apple gives us (Apple may hide your e-mail address), or the e-mail address you type, and the link between that account and your family.
4A.2 The sealed backup. Your computer seals each photo and video before it leaves it. We store the sealed files. We cannot open them, because the keys are held only by your family's devices and your recovery key. What we do see: the size of each sealed file, when it arrived, and how many there are. We do not see file names, albums, people, places or the picture itself. If you lose your recovery key and every family computer, we cannot restore your photos.
4A.3 Shared albums. When you share an album, the photos in it become readable by our service for as long as it is shared, so that a web browser can show them. You choose either "anyone with the link" or "only these people" (signed in with Google or Apple). The app warns you before the first share. Photos that are not in a shared album stay sealed. When you stop sharing, we delete the readable copy and the link stops working. A person who got the link may have saved the photos; we cannot undo that. We can see and remove a shared album if the law or our terms require it (see the terms of use).
4A.4 Converted copies. For a RAW photo, the computer makes a converted JPEG copy for the web. It is stored like the photo it comes from (sealed, or readable if it is in a shared album). Your original RAW file stays on your computers.
4A.5 How long. While your plan lasts. If you cancel, your cloud copy stays readable to you for 90 days, with reminders, and then we delete it. Your photos on your own computers are not touched at any time.
4A.6 Where. The storage provider and the region will be named here before Cloud starts.
4A.7 Who helps us. The companies that store data or send e-mail for Cloud will be named here before Cloud starts. They may handle the sealed files and the account data only to do that work for us.
5. Support and diagnostics
The apps have a "Send diagnostics" (computer and Android) or "Details for support" (iPhone) page. It shows you the text first. It holds the app version, the system, the role of the device, and the newest lines of the app's own log (section 2). A phone's report also holds the name you gave your family, the phone's model and its system version.
Nothing is sent by itself. If you send it to us, by e-mail or the share button, we use it only to find the error, and we delete the e-mail after the error is fixed or after 12 months, whichever is earlier. Do not send it if you do not want us to see the device numbers, the local network addresses and (from a phone) the family name in it.
6. Why we may use data, and the law
If the law of your country asks for a legal reason (for example in the EU and the UK), ours is our interest in fixing errors you send us (legitimate interest). We do not ask for your consent for anything in this policy, because we do not use data for advertising, profiles or sale. For Cloud, the reason is the contract: we store and show what you asked us to store and show. A shared album is your choice, and it is part of the contract.
We do not sell personal data, we do not share it for advertising, we do not make profiles, and we make no decision about you by automatic means.
7. Your rights, and how to use them when we hold almost nothing
7.1 Depending on where you live, you may ask to see the data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to limit or object to its use, to take it with you, and to complain to a data protection authority (in the EU, the authority of your country; in the UK, the Information Commissioner; in the United States, your state attorney general or the Federal Trade Commission).
7.2 In Free and Sync Anywhere we hold no name and no e-mail address, except what you sent us yourself (section 4 and section 5). With Cloud we hold the sign-in identifier or e-mail address of the account; write to us from that address. To use a right, write to [email protected]. If we cannot find you, we say so, and we do not ask for more personal data just to look.
7.3 Photos on your family's devices. In Free and Sync Anywhere we do not hold them. With Cloud we hold a sealed copy that we cannot open, and the readable copy of a shared album; a person in a shared photo may ask us to take the album down. For the photos on the devices themselves, we cannot access, correct or delete them. Ask the person who owns the family computer. If you are in a family and want your photos removed from the computer, ask its owner: removing a phone from a family does not remove photos already copied.
7.3A Delete my cloud copy. This deletes the sealed files, the readable shared copies and the account link at once. The 90 days in section 4A.5 apply only after a cancelled plan.
7.4 We answer within 30 days, free of charge.
8. Children
PhotoAlbumsMesh is for the adults who look after a family's photos. You must be 18 or older to use it. A family may install the app on a child's phone to back it up; a parent or guardian then sets it up and is responsible.
We do not knowingly collect data from children. In Free and Sync Anywhere we receive no photos and no names. A family that uses Cloud may store photos of children in the sealed backup, which we cannot see, and in a shared album, which we can. The parent or guardian who sets it up is responsible. If you think a child's data reached us, write to us and we will delete it.
9. Security
- Photos travel between your devices encrypted with keys that only your devices hold.
- Each device has its own key. Pairing needs a code shown on the family computer, valid for 10 minutes, and both screens show the same 4 numbers.
- In Free and Sync Anywhere we hold no photos, no names and no recovery key, so a break-in at our side cannot expose them. With Cloud, a break-in could expose the sealed files, which cannot be opened without your keys, and the readable copies of shared albums, the account data and the plan records.
- Nothing is secure for ever. Keep your devices updated and locked.
10. Changes
We change this policy when the product or the law changes. The date at the top shows the last change. A later, paid version will be able to send photos through a relay of ours when a phone cannot reach the computer directly. Those photos will be encrypted on the phone and readable only on your computer. Before that version comes out, this policy will say so, and say what the relay sees. If a change lets us receive more data than before, we tell you in the app before it applies and do not use the new data until you have seen it.
11. Contact
Volodymyr Usov, Tampa, Florida, USA. [email protected]