Privacy policy

Estate Triage is built to need as little of your information as possible. This policy explains, in plain language, what the app collects, what happens to your photos, and what we never do. It is written to be read, not skimmed — it is short because our data practices are short.

1. Who we are

Estate Triage is developed by an independent developer based in the USA ("we," "us"). Contact: privacy@estate-triage.com.

2. What the app does with your photos

When you photograph an item, the app sends that single photo over an encrypted connection to our server, which forwards it to our artificial-intelligence provider, Anthropic (the maker of Claude), to identify the item and produce an estimated value range and guidance.

• We do not store your photos on our servers. The photo is processed to produce the identification and is not written to any storage we operate.
• Our AI provider processes your photo to provide the service. Anthropic processes the image under its commercial terms as our service provider. Under those terms, API inputs are not used to train Anthropic's models. Anthropic may retain API data for a limited period for safety and abuse-prevention purposes under its own policies before deletion.
• A small thumbnail stays on your phone as part of your inventory. It never leaves your device except as described in Section 4 (exports you create yourself).
• Do not photograph things you would not want analyzed. The app is designed for household objects. Please avoid capturing people, documents with personal information, or anything sensitive in the frame.

3. What we collect (and what we do not)

We collect

• An anonymous device identifier. When you first use the app, it generates random identifiers that let our server track your remaining identification balance. They are random values — they are not your name, email, phone number, Apple ID, or advertising ID, and we cannot identify you from them.
• Purchase records from Apple. When you buy an Estate Pack or top-up, Apple sends our server a signed confirmation so we can credit your balance. It contains transaction identifiers — not your name, email, or payment details. Apple processes your payment entirely; see Apple's privacy policy for how Apple handles it.
• Usage counts. How many identifications your device has used and purchased, so the balance shown in the app is correct.
• Basic operational logs. Our infrastructure provider (Cloudflare) and our server keep short-lived technical logs — timestamps, request outcomes, response times, approximate image file size, and network information such as IP addresses — used only to operate, secure, and debug the service. Log entries do not include your photos or their content.

We do not collect

• No account, name, email, or phone number (the app has no sign-up).
• No location data.
• No contacts, calendar, or other phone data.
• No advertising identifiers.
• No analytics or behavioral tracking of any kind. There is no third-party analytics SDK in the app.

4. Your inventory stays yours

Your Lot Book — item names, values, rooms, notes, thumbnails — is stored on your device. We keep no copy. If you export a PDF or CSV, that file is created on your phone and goes only where you send it. If you delete the app, your inventory is deleted with it (we cannot recover it, because we never had it).

5. Who we share information with

We share information only with the service providers required to run the app, and only what each needs:

• Anthropic — receives photos for identification, as described in Section 2.
• Apple — processes all payments and provides the App Store and TestFlight infrastructure under Apple's own terms.
• Cloudflare — hosts our server and network infrastructure; processes network traffic and operational logs.

We do not sell your information. We do not share it for advertising. We have no data to hand to data brokers, and we do not work with any. We may disclose information if legally required (for example, a valid legal order), and if the business is ever sold or transferred, the limited data above would transfer with it under this policy's protections.

6. How long we keep things

• Photos: not stored by us (see Section 2 for provider processing).
• Balance and purchase records: kept while needed to honor your purchases and for bookkeeping, tax, and fraud-prevention purposes.
• Operational logs: short-lived and routinely deleted.

7. Security

Connections between the app, our servers, and our providers are encrypted (HTTPS/TLS). Purchase confirmations are cryptographically verified before any balance is credited. Server credentials are held in an encrypted secrets store. No system is perfectly secure, but we have deliberately minimized what exists to protect: the most sensitive thing in this system — your photos and inventory — is designed to stay on your phone.

8. Children

Estate Triage is not directed to children and is intended for adults managing household property. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 (or the higher age your region requires). The app collects no age information because it collects no personal profile at all.

9. Your rights

Because the app holds no account and no profile of you, most privacy rights exercise themselves: there is no marketing to opt out of, no profile to correct, and deleting the app deletes your inventory.

Depending on where you live (including California and other U.S. states with privacy laws), you may have rights to access, delete, or ask questions about personal information. Given our design, the personal information we could locate is limited to purchase-linked records and operational logs. To exercise any right or ask anything, email privacy@estate-triage.com and we will respond within the time your state's law requires. We do not "sell" or "share" personal information as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act, and we do not use sensitive personal information beyond providing the service you asked for.

10. TestFlight beta

If you use Estate Triage through Apple's TestFlight, Apple provides us basic beta information under Apple's TestFlight terms (for example, whether the app crashed, and feedback you choose to send, which may include screenshots you attach). Beta purchases are simulated by Apple and not charged. Everything else in this policy applies to beta versions.

11. Changes to this policy

If our practices change, we will update this policy, change the date at the top, and — for material changes — say so plainly in the app or on estate-triage.com before the change takes effect. We will never change the fundamentals quietly: if we ever began retaining photos or adding analytics, that would be announced, not buried.

12. Contact

privacy@estate-triage.com — read and answered by a person.

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See also the terms of service, which is also a draft under review.