Privacy Policy — The Quiet Archive

Last updated: 20 August 2026

The Quiet Archive is a food journal published by Smarty Bytes Innovation Inc. It has no accounts, no sign-in, no advertising, and no analytics or tracking SDKs. Most of what the app does happens entirely on your device. This policy describes precisely what does not — because that is the part worth reading.

Summary

What is stored on your device

The following is written to the app's private storage area on your phone and is not transmitted to us:

• Meal entries — name, description, category, calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, and the timestamp you recorded or edited.
• Meal photos, if photo saving is enabled in Settings.
• Your settings — whether to keep photos, your late-meal hour, and your chosen insight lens.

Deleting the app removes all of it. You can also erase everything at any time from Settings → Delete All Data. Because there is no cloud backup, an export is the only way to preserve your archive — Settings → Export All Data writes a JSON file and hands it to your device's share sheet. Where it goes from there is entirely your choice.

What leaves your device

Photo analysis. When you photograph a meal and ask for an estimate, that single image is sent over HTTPS to an analysis service we operate on Google Cloud Run. That service sends the image to Google Gemini (model gemini-3.5-flash-lite, via the Google Generative Language API) to identify the food and estimate portion size.

What happens to the image:

• It is held only in a bounded, in-memory cache on the service, keyed by a SHA-256 hash, so that an identical photo sent twice is not analysed twice.
• It is never written to disk and never written to a database. The cache is lost whenever the service restarts.
• It is not used to train any model, and it is not used for profiling or advertising.
• No other entry from your journal is included in the request.

Google's handling of data sent to the Gemini API is governed by Google's own terms, available at https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms.

Barcode scans and food searches. When you scan a barcode or search for a food by name, the barcode number or the search text is sent to Open Food Facts (https://world.openfoodfacts.org), an open non-commercial food database, and may also be matched against USDA FoodData Central (https://fdc.nal.usda.gov). No photo, no account identifier, and no other entry from your journal is included. Open Food Facts receives your device's IP address as part of any ordinary internet request; their policy is at https://world.openfoodfacts.org/privacy.

Subscription state. Purchases are processed by Apple through the App Store on iOS, and by Google through Google Play billing on Android. We never see your payment details. We use RevenueCat to tell the app whether a subscription is active. RevenueCat assigns a random, pseudonymous identifier to your installation; it is not your name, your email, your Apple ID, or your Google Account. RevenueCat's policy is at https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy.

That pseudonymous identifier is also sent to our analysis service as a rate-limiting key, so that usage limits follow the installation rather than the network. If it is unavailable, the service falls back to your IP address for the same purpose.

Server logs and retention

We want to be specific here rather than reassuring.

Our analysis service writes operational logs to Google Cloud Logging, which retains them for approximately 30 days by default and then deletes them. Those logs can include:

• the food name Gemini returned for a photo, and the search terms you typed;
• the pseudonymous RevenueCat identifier or IP address used for rate limiting;
• timing and error information.

They do not include the photo itself, your journal entries, your timestamps, or anything else stored on your device. We have no account system, so these logs cannot be assembled into a profile of a named person.

What we do not do

• No advertising, and no advertising identifier is requested or used.
• No analytics, attribution, or crash-reporting SDK.
• No tracking across apps or websites, and no data is shared with data brokers.
• No sale of personal information.
• No user accounts, so no password or email address is ever collected.

Permissions

• Camera — used only while the capture screen is open, to photograph a meal or scan a barcode. The app does not record audio and does not use the camera in the background.
• Photos — requested only if you choose to attach an existing image to an entry.

Both can be declined. The app remains usable through manual entry and food search.

Children

The Quiet Archive is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Your choices

• Turn off photo saving in Settings, and photos are never written to storage.
• Use barcode, search, or manual entry only, and no image ever leaves your device.
• Export your archive at any time.
• Delete everything at any time from Settings, or by deleting the app.

Because we hold no account and no journal data, a deletion request to us has nothing to act on — deletion is entirely in your hands, on your device. For questions about the short-lived operational logs described above, contact us at the address below.

Health disclaimer

Nutrition figures shown in the app are estimates, drawn from public food databases or from automated photo suggestions that you confirm. They are informational only and are not medical advice. The Quiet Archive does not diagnose, treat, prevent, or monitor any disease or condition. Consult a qualified professional for dietary or medical decisions.

Changes

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this address and the date at the top will be revised.

Contact

Smarty Bytes Innovation Inc. — support@smartybytes.ca

For Terms of Use, see https://smartybytes.ca/quietarchive-terms.