Privacy Policy — Tend Photos

Tend Photos is a Mac app built to help you clean up, enhance, and organize your iCloud Photos library. This policy explains what information the app collects (very little), how it uses your Photos library (locally only), and what you can expect when you use it. We've written this in plain language, not legalese, because we think you deserve to actually understand it.

1. What information is collected

Almost nothing.

Tend Photos does not collect your name, email address, location, or any personally identifying information. There are no user accounts, no sign-up forms, and no login. The app does not transmit any data to us or to any third-party server.

The only information Tend Photos stores is a local action history file — a JSON file saved on your Mac that records what actions have been taken within the app (scans run, deletions approved, enhancements saved). This file exists so you always have a record of what changed in your library. It lives on your Mac, under your control, and is never sent anywhere.

If you choose to join our launch waitlist on tendphotos.com, you give us your email address voluntarily. We use it for one purpose only — to email you when Tend Photos launches on the Mac App Store. We never sell or share it, and you can unsubscribe at any time. The waitlist is handled by Buttondown, our email provider; no third-party tracking pixels are used on the form.

2. How your Photos library access is used

Tend Photos requests access to your Photos library the first time you open the app. This access is required for the app to work — it uses Apple's PhotoKit framework to read your library, analyze photos for duplicates and quality, and make changes you explicitly approve.

Everything that happens with your Photos library stays on your device:

Photo analysis (duplicate detection, quality scoring, Smart Insights categorization) runs entirely on your Mac.
No photos, thumbnails, metadata, filenames, or any other library content is transmitted to any server.
Tend Photos does not share your Photos library data with any third party.
You can revoke Photos access at any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos.

3. Local data storage

Tend Photos stores one file locally on your Mac: an action history log in JSON format. This file records actions you have taken within the app — such as scans completed, duplicate groups reviewed, photos marked for deletion, deletions approved, and enhancements saved. It does not contain copies of your photos or any data from your Photos library beyond action records.

This file is stored in the app's local data container on your Mac. It is not backed up to iCloud by Tend Photos (though it may be included in a standard Time Machine backup of your Mac, like any other app data). You can review, export, or delete this file from within the app at any time.

4. In-app purchases

Tend PRO is available as a one-time in-app purchase through Apple's App Store. All payment processing is handled entirely by Apple. Tend Photos does not receive, store, or process any payment information — no credit card numbers, no billing addresses, nothing. Apple's App Store privacy policy governs all transactions.

5. Analytics

The app itself uses no analytics. Tend Photos does not track how you use the app, which features you use, or how often you open it.

The website (tendphotos.com) uses Plausible Analytics, a privacy-respecting, cookieless analytics tool. Plausible reports aggregate page-visit data only — it sets no cookies, collects no personal data, builds no user profiles, and does not track you across sites. Because it stores no personal information, there is nothing for us to sell or share, and no consent banner is required. This is the privacy-respecting analytics tool referenced in earlier versions of this policy; as promised, the policy was updated before the tool was enabled.

6. Children's privacy

Tend Photos is a general-purpose Mac utility app. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect any information from children. Because the app collects no personal information from anyone, this is straightforward: there is no data about children in our systems.

7. Changes to this policy

If we make meaningful changes to this privacy policy, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. For significant changes — for example, if we ever add any data collection — we will provide a more prominent notice. The current version of this policy is always available at tendphotos.com/privacy.

8. Contact

Questions about this policy or about how Tend Photos handles your data? Email us at [email protected]. We'll reply within 48 hours.