Privacy policy
for Flickbop.

1. Scope

This notice describes the processing of personal data in the Flickbop iPhone app. Flickbop helps you review and organise your Apple Photos library. You do not need a separate Flickbop account. Photos and videos are not uploaded to a server operated by us.

Visiting durka.app and using its contact options are also covered by the website privacy notice. Opening a support or privacy link in the app visits the website; your photo decisions are not passed to it.

2. Controller and contact

Thomas Durka Sole proprietor Stresemannallee 1 30173 Hannover Germany Email: app@durka.digital

Thomas Durka handles privacy questions and requests to exercise your rights directly. Please mention Flickbop and explain your request without sending passwords or access codes.

3. Photos, videos and albums

Flickbop uses Apple’s PhotoKit interface within the photo library access you grant. To display, sort and organise content, it processes accessible photos and videos, local photo identifiers, capture dates, image dimensions, media types, video duration and flags such as favourite, screenshot or burst photo. It also reads accessible albums and their names.

You can limit or withdraw Photos access in iOS Settings. With limited access, only the photos you allow are available. Without Photos access, the corresponding features cannot work. Other optional features, such as status backup, are not required for Photos access.

If a photo or video is only in iCloud Photos, Apple may download it to your device for display or playback. Your Apple Account and iCloud Photos settings also apply. Flickbop does not send your originals to its own photo server for this purpose.

Moving an item to Trash first marks it only in Flickbop’s Trash. An intentional deletion action and Apple’s system confirmation are required to delete it from the photo library. Albums and favourites are changed at your request. If you use iCloud Photos, Apple may sync these changes, including deletions, to your other devices.

4. App status and local storage

Your decisions, timestamps, photo identifiers, daily progress, daily allowance and open photos are stored on your device. This lets you continue a round, undo decisions and view your history.

Status files are encrypted with AES-GCM. The iOS Keychain manages the device-bound key. Preferences such as reminders and appearance are also stored in the app’s device settings. Protected status files are excluded from ordinary device backup; the optional feature in section 6 provides a separate status backup.

5. Photo comparison on your device

To find similar photos, Flickbop calculates image features and quality values locally using Apple’s Vision technology. For suitable, unchanged still images, it may also read locally available original data and calculate a checksum for comparison. This analysis does not request downloads of missing originals.

To resume an analysis, Flickbop stores photo identifiers, image features, visual comparison values, sharpness values, original-data checksums, byte counts and analysis progress in an encrypted local file. This file contains no stored photo originals, is excluded from device backup and is not part of the CloudKit status backup.

No image content is sent to an external AI service. Suggestions support your choice; the app does not make deletion decisions for you.

6. Optional iCloud backup and restore

You explicitly enable automatic backups. Flickbop then writes your app status to the private CloudKit database of your personal iCloud account. This includes decisions, Trash marks, daily progress, allowance, open photo stacks and associated identifiers, timestamps and media details. It also includes technical backup and installation information and the key material needed for restoration. Photo files, video files and filenames are not included in this status backup.

The payload is encrypted before transfer. Restoration key material is stored in encrypted CloudKit fields. The private database cannot be viewed in the developer portal. Apple’s further protections depend, among other things, on your iCloud security settings; this feature does not promise that only you can decrypt the stored data in every circumstance.

To detect an iCloud account change, Flickbop stores a locally derived value from the account identifier returned by CloudKit. The app does not receive your Apple password.

An existing backup is restored at your confirmed request and merged with readable local data. Newer local decisions are preserved. The merged status is then saved back to iCloud once. Your automatic-backup setting stays unchanged: if it was off, it remains off. Restored Trash marks never trigger automatic photo deletion.

This feature backs up status; it is not continuous synchronisation between devices. New backups need an available iCloud account, internet access and an open app. Turning backups off leaves the last successful backup in place. The separate delete-backup action removes its status content. A technical block marker without photo identifiers, decisions or the previous key remains, so another installation cannot silently recreate the deleted backup.

7. Reminders and widget

At your request, a daily reminder is scheduled locally through iOS. It contains a general invitation to review photos, not a photo file, and appears at the time you choose. You can disable it in Flickbop and in iOS notification settings. We do not operate a push server for it.

For the Today widget, Flickbop creates a separate encrypted local data set with daily information, time zone, photo count and progress. Small photo previews are added only after you explicitly enable them. They are newly generated from locally available images and contain neither the original file nor its metadata.

The app and widget share protected device storage for this purpose. The complete decision history and its key are not shared with the widget. The widget file is excluded from device backup.

8. Pro purchases and subscriptions

Apple processes purchases and subscriptions through your Apple Account. On the device, Flickbop checks Apple-signed purchase records, in particular the product, validity, expiry and revocation, to unlock Pro features. We do not operate our own billing server for this. The app does not provide us with credit card details.

Apple provides development teams with purchase, subscription and, where applicable, usage reports. These reports are separate from an analytics SDK within Flickbop. Apple’s notices explain its processing, your choices and retention by Apple.

9. Apple as a service provider and international processing

CloudKit is a service of Apple Inc., One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, California 95014, USA, and affiliated Apple companies. Attachment 4, section 3.6 of Apple’s published Developer Program terms governs processing of personal data stored through CloudKit on our behalf. It includes provisions on confidentiality, instructions and assistance under Article 28 GDPR. For transfers from the EEA, it describes an adequate level of protection or contractual safeguards. The terms and their provisions for requesting safeguards are linked below.

For Apple’s own processing of data from people in the EEA, its privacy policy identifies Apple Distribution International Limited in Ireland as the controller. Apple’s account, iCloud and App Store processing is also governed by its notices. Apple describes processing in the United States and the use of standard contractual clauses. We do not promise that all Apple data is stored exclusively in Germany or the EU.

10. Diagnostics and TestFlight

Flickbop contains no advertising or user-analytics SDK. Technical system diagnostics and reports provided by Apple are separate. Local error logs may include technical error types and codes.

If you use the app through TestFlight, Apple automatically collects usage and crash information and provides us with corresponding test information. This may include the device, operating system, app version, sessions, crashes and, depending on the invitation, name and email address. Voluntary feedback and screenshots may contain further content. Automatic TestFlight collection cannot be disabled by a switch in Flickbop.

We use available diagnostic information to investigate errors and improve the app. Please do not include unnecessary private photos or credentials in feedback or screenshots. Reports within Apple’s services follow Apple’s retention rules. If we separately save personal reports for a specific investigation, retention is limited to that purpose; those copies are deleted when no longer necessary, unless a legal obligation or specific legal claim requires otherwise.

11. Contact and support

You can contact us through the Flickbop support page or by email at app@durka.digital. The support page shows the available contact method. A message is transmitted only when you send it. We use your sender address, message and any attachments you voluntarily include to handle your request. The app version, device and a description of the problem are helpful; private photos or credentials are generally not required.

We use mailbox.org, operated by Heinlein Hosting GmbH in Germany, for email. Thomas Durka handles messages in the mailbox and Apple Mail. No external support or ticketing system is used. The website privacy notice explains this shared contact method, recipients and retention in more detail.

The need to retain support correspondence is reviewed at least monthly. Ordinary completed support requests are deleted when no longer needed for the matter. This includes messages, attachments, local copies and Trash. Legal retention obligations or specific legal claims may require individual messages to be stored longer; this does not apply to every support message by default.

12. Purposes and legal bases

Where we are responsible for the processing, we provide the app features and Pro services you request to perform our user agreement under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Processing is limited to what is necessary for the relevant service. This also applies to status backup, restoration, widget previews or reminders you expressly request. These additional features are optional; you can use the other available app features without them.

We handle contract-related support requests under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Other requests and necessary technical error analysis rely on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interests are answering your request and operating the app safely and reliably. We retain legally required records under Article 6(1)(c) GDPR.

Storing and accessing information on your device for a technically necessary function you expressly request is based on section 25(2), number 2 of the German TDDDG. Where a separate operation requires consent, section 25(1) applies. A technical iOS permission is not general data-protection consent for other purposes. The described access is not used for advertising or tracking across apps.

13. Retention and deletion

You manage photo originals in Apple Photos. Deleting Flickbop does not delete those originals. App decisions and progress remain stored locally so you can continue later and view your history. There is no general automatic deletion after a fixed number of days. When new review decisions are recorded, allowance history is trimmed to the most recent 60 calendar days; this is not a deletion period for photo decisions or statistics.

Photo comparison retains analysis progress so it can resume. Restarting an analysis replaces that state. If you explicitly confirm recovery of unreadable local status data, Flickbop also keeps a protected local copy of the unreadable previous data as a safeguard.

Fully deleting the app can remove local app files. Merely offloading it is different. An iCloud backup must be deleted separately. Uninstalling does not delete Apple’s purchase history or Keychain data managed separately by iOS. For deletion requests beyond the available features, contact the person identified in section 2.

Apple’s rules apply to technical copies, logs and retention at Apple. Immediate removal of every system copy is not promised. The purpose-based deletion criteria in sections 10 and 11 apply to support and separately saved diagnostic information.

14. Your rights and changes to this notice

Subject to the applicable legal conditions, you can request access, correction, deletion, restriction of processing and data portability. Where processing relies on consent, you can withdraw it for the future. Where processing relies on legitimate interests, you can object on grounds relating to your particular situation. Contact app@durka.digital.

We cannot centrally inspect data held only on your device or in your private iCloud database. When you contact us, we can explain the available local and Apple-related options. Reasonable identity verification may be needed to protect the people concerned.

You can complain to a competent data protection authority, in particular where you usually live, work or where the alleged infringement occurred. The competent authority for the provider in Hannover is the State Commissioner for Data Protection of Lower Saxony, Germany.

Flickbop does not make solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Photo-comparison suggestions support your own choice. We update this notice when features, service providers or actual processing change. A change to the text alone does not replace any newly required consent.