SwipeClean: privacy and terms of use

SwipeClean helps you free space by reviewing your photos and videos one at a time. To do that it needs to read your gallery, and everything it reads stays on your phone: no photo, video, thumbnail, file name or location ever leaves it. What does leave the phone is usage statistics, crash reports, what Google's ad network needs to show ads, and, if you buy Premium, what Google Play needs to process the payment. This page says what each of those is.

I, Tiago Danin, am the developer and the controller of this data under the LGPD (Lei 13.709/2018). If you are in the EU, the GDPR gives you the same rights and I answer them the same way. Write to TiagoDanin@outlook.com about any of it.

Your photos and videos

The app asks Android for access to your photos and videos. On Android 14 and later you can share only some of them, and the app works with what you shared.

To group your gallery (large files, near duplicates, screenshots and, with Premium, blurry and dark photos), the app reads each file's size, date, resolution and folder, and looks at a 64 by 64 pixel grey copy of each photo. From that small copy it computes three numbers: a fingerprint used to find near duplicates, a sharpness score and a brightness score. This happens on the phone. The scan keeps only the three numbers and the file size, never the small copy. Like any gallery app, the thumbnails the app shows may stay in its own cache on the phone until you clear it or uninstall the app.

Deleting and moving only happen when you ask. A swipe to the left only marks a photo. It is deleted when you confirm on the "Para excluir" screen, and then Android shows its own confirmation. On Android 11 and later the files go to Android's trash, where the gallery app can restore them for the period Android keeps them. Moving a photo to an album changes the folder it is in, after Android asks you to allow it.

What stays on your phone

The list of photos you kept and the ones you marked for deletion (by Android's internal id, not by name), the number of decisions you made since you installed the app, whether the support screen at the 100th decision was already shown, the history of space freed (the date, the number of items and the bytes of each deletion), the scan results described above, whether you have Premium, and your appearance and language settings. They are kept in the app's own storage and are never uploaded to me or to any server. Uninstalling the app removes all of it.

What the app collects on its own

Usage statistics

Google Analytics for Firebase records events such as which screen is open, your answer to the gallery permission (full, partial or denied), starting, finishing or failing the scan, opening a review and the kind of group it shows, every hundredth decision, how many items you kept and marked in a review (in ranges), the options you use on a photo (view, details, similar, move, review later, open in the gallery app, share), the result of a move or a deletion with the number of items and bytes in ranges, opening and closing the Premium screen and where it was opened from, buying, cancelling or restoring Premium and whether the store answered, your answer to the ad consent form, whether an ad loaded or showed, changing the appearance or the language, and opening this policy or the terms. It also keeps a few traits of the installation: the gallery access level, whether you have Premium, whether ads may be requested, and your appearance and language. Counts and sizes are sent in ranges, never exactly, and no event ever carries a file name, a folder, a date of a photo or anything about what your photos show. The app does not create an account or send a user ID, so these events are tied to an app installation, not to a name. Analytics also sees your device model, operating system, app version and approximate location, and it may read the device's advertising ID.

Crash reports

Firebase Crashlytics receives a report when the app crashes or an error is caught: the error, the device model, the Android version and the state of the app at that moment. Reports never include your photos.

Ads

Nothing about ads happens before your 100th decision: no consent form, no ad request. After that, Google AdMob serves two kinds of ads, only between two photos and never over one. A banner inside a card marked "Publicidade" takes the place of the next photo every 25 decisions, starting at 125; you leave it with "Continuar" or a swipe. And a full-screen ad, which may be a video, after the 250th decision and then every 100 decisions. If an ad is not ready, it is skipped. To pick and measure ads, AdMob uses the advertising ID, your IP address, the device model and how you interact with the ad, and it may show ads based on your interests. Ads never receive your photos. With Premium, no ad appears.

Where the law asks for consent, such as in the EU and the UK, the app shows Google's consent form before any ad loads, and you can change your answer later in Ajustes, "Privacidade dos anúncios". You can also reset or delete the advertising ID in Android settings, under Privacy, Ads (on some phones, Google, Ads). Deleting it stops personalised ads on the whole device.

Premium purchase

Premium is a one-time purchase made through Google Play. Google Play handles the payment: I never see your card or your payment details. The app asks Google Play whether your Google account has bought Premium when you buy, when you tap "Restaurar compras" and quietly when the app starts, so a purchase made on another phone is picked up. Google shares with me, through the Play Console, the order information it gives every developer, such as the order number, date, country and amount.

Sharing and opening a photo

When you choose "Compartilhar", Android's share sheet receives that one file and sends it where you pick. When you choose "Abrir no álbum original", Android opens that file in your gallery app. The app sends the file nowhere else.

Who else receives it

The app has no server of its own. What it sends goes to Google:

• Google AdMob receives what it needs to show ads and to record your consent choice, as described above.
• Google Play processes the Premium payment and tells the app whether you own Premium.
• Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics receive the statistics and crash reports.

Their terms: Firebase privacy, How Google uses information from apps that use its services, Google Play terms and Google Privacy Policy.

I do not sell your data or hand it to a data broker. I would only disclose it if a Brazilian court or authority legally required it.

Why it is used

Reading the gallery is the service you asked for: without it the app cannot show or clean your photos. The ads and Premium pay for the app. The ads rely on your consent where the law requires it, and otherwise on my legitimate interest and on the choices you make in Android's ad settings. Purchase data is used to deliver the Premium you paid for, which is the performance of that contract. The statistics and crash reports are used to find bugs and improve the app, on the basis of my legitimate interest in keeping it working.

Where it is stored

Your photos and the scan results stay on your phone. The statistics, crash reports and ad and purchase data are stored by Google on its servers, which may be outside Brazil, including in the United States. Google applies the safeguards described in its data processing terms to those transfers.

How long it is kept

On the phone, until you uninstall the app. Analytics statistics and crash reports are kept for the retention period configured in Firebase, then Google deletes them. AdMob and Google Play keep their data under Google's own policies.

Your rights

Because there is no account, nothing on my side links data to you by name. You can still ask me what exists, ask for deletion, or object to processing at TiagoDanin@outlook.com, and I answer within 15 days, the period the LGPD sets. You can remove the app's access to your photos at any time in Android settings. Resetting the advertising ID and uninstalling the app cut the link between new data and your device. You may also complain to the ANPD, Brazil's data protection authority.

Security

Traffic to Google's services is encrypted. No system is completely secure, but your photos are never on a server to begin with.

Children

SwipeClean is a tool for adults managing their own phone and is not directed at children. I do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child's data reached the app, write to me.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. A change that affects what is collected or who receives it is described in the Google Play release notes of the version that brings it.

Contact

Tiago Danin, TiagoDanin@outlook.com.

These terms apply to anyone who installs or uses SwipeClean. By using the app you accept them. If you do not, uninstall it; nothing else is needed.

Who provides the app

Tiago Danin, a private individual in Brazil, who develops and publishes SwipeClean on Google Play. "I" and "me" below mean him. "You" means the person using the app.

What SwipeClean is

A tool to free space on your phone and tidy its gallery: you review photos and videos one at a time, keep them or mark them for deletion, move them into albums, and delete what you marked after reviewing it. It works on your phone's own gallery and needs your permission to read it.

Your decisions and your files

Every deletion and every move is your decision. A swipe only marks a photo; nothing is deleted until you confirm on the "Para excluir" screen and Android confirms again. On Android 11 and later deleted items go to Android's trash, where the gallery app can restore them for the period Android keeps them; on older versions, and once Android empties its trash, a deletion is permanent. The groups the app suggests (large files, near duplicates, screenshots, blurry and dark photos) are estimates computed on the phone, and they can include a photo that matters to you. Look before you confirm. Keep a backup of what you cannot lose.

Price

SwipeClean is free to download and use. After your 100th decision it may show ads between two photos, never over one, as described in the privacy policy.

Premium is a one-time purchase sold through Google Play, with the price shown by Google Play before you pay. It is not a subscription. It removes the ads and adds blurry and dark photo detection and the detailed history of space freed. It is tied to the Google account that bought it: on another phone with the same account, "Restaurar compras" in the app turns it back on. Payment, receipts and refunds follow Google Play's terms and refund policy, without prejudice to your rights under the Código de Defesa do Consumidor.

What you agree not to do

Do not copy, resell or redistribute the app, modify it, or get around its purchases, ads or security.

What you may do with it

I give you a personal, free, non-exclusive and revocable licence to use SwipeClean on your devices. The name, the icon, the design and the code remain mine. Your photos remain yours; the app claims no right over them.

Availability

I work on SwipeClean in my own time. Features may change, be removed or stop working, and the app may be discontinued. What you bought keeps working for as long as the app is available.

Liability

SwipeClean is provided as it is. To the extent Brazilian law allows, I am not liable for losses caused by the phone, the network, Android or Google's services, or for a file you chose to delete or move. Nothing here removes a right that the law gives you and that a contract cannot take away, such as those in the Código de Defesa do Consumidor.

Privacy

What the app reads and collects is described in the privacy policy on this same page.

Changes

I may update these terms. The date at the top changes when I do, and a change that affects you is described in the Google Play release notes of the version that brings it. Continuing to use SwipeClean after that means you accept the new version.

Law

Brazilian law governs these terms. Anything an email cannot settle goes to the courts of Belém, Pará, without prejudice to your right as a consumer to sue where you live.

Contact

Tiago Danin, TiagoDanin@outlook.com.