ThriftLensPrivacy
Last updated 23 August 2026
The short version. ThriftLens has no accounts and no tracking. Your scans, photos and profit records stay on your own device. A photo is sent away only at the moment it is priced, and it is not kept afterwards. Nothing is sold, shared or used for advertising.
What stays on your device
Everything you build up in ThriftLens is stored locally, in the app’s own storage on your phone or in your browser’s storage on the web:
- Photo thumbnails of the things you scan
- Valuations, notes and item history
- What you paid, what you sold for, and the resulting profit records
None of this is uploaded, and we cannot see it. It is not backed up to us, it does not follow you between devices or browsers, and deleting the app or clearing your browser data deletes it permanently. There is a Clear all data control in the app’s settings.
What is sent, and when
Photos
When ThriftLens prices a photo using its online service, that single photo is sent to our server, passed to our AI provider to be identified, and the result is returned to you. The photo is held in memory for the length of that request and is not written to disk, logged or retained by us afterwards.
Our AI provider for this is Anthropic, whose API does not train models on data submitted through it. If ThriftLens is running without its online service configured, photos are priced entirely on your device and no photo leaves it at all.
Questions you ask the in-app expert
The text of your question and the current conversation are sent the same way, for the same purpose, and are likewise not retained by us afterwards. Please don’t put personal details in them.
Your IP address
Our server briefly uses your IP address to limit how many requests any one device can make, so the service isn’t abused. It is held in memory only, for minutes, and is never written to a database or linked to your scans.
What we never do
- No accounts, sign-ups or passwords
- No analytics or usage tracking of any kind
- No advertising and no advertising identifiers
- No selling or sharing of data with anyone
- No cookies used to identify or follow you
Camera and photo library
The app asks for camera access so you can photograph an item, and for photo library access if you would rather choose a picture you already have. Both are used only for the photo you actively select or capture. ThriftLens does not browse, scan or read your photo library, and you can refuse or withdraw either permission in iOS Settings without losing the rest of the app.
Children
ThriftLens is a tool for people reselling goods and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
Your rights
Because we hold no personal data about you, there is no account to access, export or delete. Your data is in your hands: clearing the app’s data removes all of it. If you are in the UK, EU or California and want to ask about any of this, write to us.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what is sent or stored, the date at the top will change and the new version will be published here before it takes effect.