Refoto: Scan & Restore Photos — Privacy Policy
Refoto scans printed photographs with your camera and restores them — correcting the lighting they were photographed in, the colour cast old prints acquire, faded contrast, dust and scratches. All of that happens on your phone.
Your photographs never leave this phone. They are never uploaded, never sent to a server, and never used to train anything. There is no account to create and nothing to sign in to.
Refoto can also send anonymous statistics about how the app is used — never about what is in your pictures. That is off until you are asked and say yes, and you can change your mind at any time.
What stays on your device
Every photograph you scan or import, every restored copy, and every setting is stored in Refoto's private app storage on your phone. Nothing else can read it, and it is excluded from cloud backup and device transfer, so your scans do not travel to anyone's server — including ours — even by accident.
Uninstalling Refoto deletes all of it. Deleting a photograph inside the app removes both the scan and the restored copy immediately.
Why Android says Refoto has network access
Android lists Refoto as having full network access, and we would rather explain that than have you wonder about it.
Two components use the network, and neither can see a photograph. Google Play’s billing library verifies the one-time purchase that unlocks unlimited full-size saving; it talks to Google Play, not to us. And, if you have agreed to it, Google Analytics for Firebase sends the usage counts described in the next section.
Refoto has no server of its own. There is nowhere for a photograph to be sent, even by mistake.
Anonymous usage statistics, if you allow them
Refoto is made by one person. The only way to know which parts are worth improving is to count how they are used, so after you have scanned your first print the app asks — once — whether it may send anonymous usage statistics. Until you answer, and if you answer no, it sends nothing at all. You can change the answer whenever you like using the privacy button at the top of the library screen.
If you say yes, what is sent is counts and categories, through Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics:
- How many printed photographs a scan found, and how many you kept.
- Whether a restored photograph was saved or shared, and at what size.
- Which screens were opened, and whether you adjusted the restoration sliders.
- Errors and crashes, with the technical details needed to fix them.
What is never sent: your photographs, any part of a photograph, thumbnails, file names, titles you type, or anything that identifies you. There is no advertising in Refoto and no advertising identifier is collected — the app removes that permission from the build deliberately.
If you would like the statistics associated with your installation deleted, email support@nextlayertechnology.net.
Permissions, and what each is for
- Camera — to photograph your prints. The camera is only active while the scanning screen is open.
- Photos you choose to import — Refoto uses Android's photo picker, which hands the app only the specific images you select. Refoto cannot browse your photo library.
- Saving to your photo library — on Android 9 and older this needs a storage permission; on Android 10 and newer it needs none. It is used only when you tap Save to photos.
- Billing — to sell and restore the one-time unlock through Google Play.
Purchases
The unlock is a one-time purchase handled entirely by Google Play. We never see your name, email address, or payment details — Google confirms to the app that a purchase exists, and nothing more. There is no subscription, so there is nothing to renew and nothing to cancel.
Children
Refoto is rated for general audiences and is not directed at children. It collects no personal data from anyone, of any age, and the optional usage statistics described above contain nothing that identifies a person.
Changes
Version 1.0.1 added the optional usage statistics described above. That is the promise this page made in its first version being kept: anything that leaves your device is described here in advance, and the app asks you first. We would rather ship a smaller app than a quieter policy.
Contact
Questions about this policy: support@nextlayertechnology.net