Viewfinder for iPhone

Privacy Policy

Effective October 16, 2026

Viewfinder is a map of photo spots with the light, weather and tides for each. You can use all of it without an account. There is no advertising, we don't sell your data, and nothing in the app tracks you across other apps or websites.

What stays on your iPhone

• Your settings, and the photos and forecasts the app caches so they load quickly. Deleting the app clears them.
• If you don't sign in, your saved spots and the tips you write stay on your iPhone too.
• Your location, and the list of spots you've already been near for nearby alerts. Neither is ever sent to us.

Location

With your permission, Viewfinder uses your location while you use the app to show the photo spots near you and how far away each one is.

Nearby alerts are optional. If you turn them on, you allow location "Always", and iOS tells the app when you come within 100 yards of a photo spot you haven't been to, so it can show you a notification. That happens on your iPhone. Your location is not stored on or sent to our server, or to anyone else. You can turn nearby alerts off in the app's Settings, and location access in your iPhone's Settings.

Notifications

Nearby alerts are local notifications, created on your iPhone. Viewfinder does not use push notifications, so it doesn't send any notification token to a server.

If you sign in with Apple

Signing in is optional. It keeps your saved spots in sync across your devices and lets you share tips with other people. When you sign in, Apple gives Viewfinder an account ID and, if you choose to share it, your name. Viewfinder does not ask Apple for your email address.

While you're signed in, our server stores:

• Your account ID and your display name, plus any profile details you add.
• The spots you save.
• The tips you post, which anyone using Viewfinder can read, shown with your display name.
• The tips you like, the tips you report, and the people you block.

You can delete your account at any time in the app: Settings, then Delete account. That removes your profile, saved spots, tips, likes, reports and blocks from our server.

Spot statistics

To rank spots by how popular they are, the app adds one to a spot's view count when you open it (at most once a day for each spot) and updates its like count when you save or unsave it. These are running totals for each spot. No account ID, device ID or location is attached to them.

Services the app talks to

These services receive the ordinary technical details of any internet request, such as your IP address:

• Viewfinder's server, hosted by Supabase, for new spots, shared tips, spot statistics and, if you sign in, your account.
• Open-Meteo for weather, tide and visibility forecasts. The app sends the coordinates of the spot you're looking at, never your location or your identity.
• Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons, which host photographs taken by other photographers. The app loads those images, and looks up Commons photos near a spot, directly from them.
• Apple for the map and directions (Apple Maps), Sign in with Apple, and purchases, under Apple's privacy policy.

Viewfinder shares nothing with these services beyond what's needed to answer the request, and doesn't combine their data with anything about you.

Purchases

Viewfinder is free. Viewfinder Pro is an auto-renewing subscription sold through the App Store. Apple handles payment, and we never see your payment details. You can manage or cancel Pro in your Apple Account settings.

Children

Viewfinder doesn't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you think a child has made an account, email us and we'll delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about privacy in Viewfinder: [email protected].