Privacy Policy

What CoverUp processes, what it does not, and who else is involved.

The short version. Your photos and videos never leave your device. They are stored encrypted, locally. There is no user account, no server operated by the developer, and no transmission of your content to anyone.

However: the app displays ads through Google AdMob. That advertising SDK processes device data and becomes active when the app launches. See Advertising. If you would rather not have that, the one-time CoverUp Pro purchase removes advertising permanently.

1. Controller

The controller under the GDPR is the person named in the Imprint. Contact: post@ortlepp.de

2. What happens on your device

CoverUp stores photos and videos in an encrypted area inside the app's own directory on your iPhone. Encryption uses AES-256-GCM; the key is held in your device's iOS Keychain and is bound to that device.

The developer has no access at any point to this content, to your PINs, or to your backup password. There is no technical means to do so — not as a promise, but because there is no server for anything to be sent to.

The following stays strictly local:

Photos, videos and album names in the vault (encrypted)
Contents of the decoy gallery (unencrypted, because it is meant to look like an ordinary gallery)
PINs (as a PBKDF2 hash in the Keychain; the PIN itself is never stored)
App settings such as language, lock timeout and panic-mode options

3. Photo library access

The app asks for access to your photo library so you can import photos and videos into the vault. Access is used for that import and nothing else. Your library is not analysed, indexed or transmitted. You can revoke the permission at any time in iOS Settings; content you have already imported is unaffected.

4. Advertising (Google AdMob)

The free version displays banner ads through Google AdMob. The AdMob SDK is part of the app and is initialised at launch. In doing so it processes data that the developer neither collects nor can inspect, in particular:

Device advertising identifiers
IP address, device type, operating system version and approximate region
Interactions with the ads shown

Google is responsible for this processing. For information on how Google uses data from partner apps, see policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and the Google Privacy Policy.

The developer receives only aggregated, non-personal billing data from Google, such as the number of impressions.

Removing ads: the one-time CoverUp Pro purchase removes advertising entirely and the AdMob banner is no longer shown.

5. iCloud backup (optional)

You can create a backup of your vault. The backup is encrypted on your device with a password you choose, before it leaves the device. Only then can it be stored:

as a file through the iOS Files app, in a location of your choosing, or
in your personal iCloud, if you switch that option on.

In both cases what is stored is encrypted data, unreadable to anyone else. iCloud storage uses your own iCloud account with Apple, and Apple's privacy policy applies. The developer has no access to that storage and no knowledge of whether you use the feature.

Without your backup password, a backup cannot be decrypted by anyone — not by the developer and not by Apple.

6. Purchases

CoverUp Pro is a one-time in-app purchase handled through the App Store. Payment is processed entirely by Apple. The developer receives no payment details, no address and no name — only aggregated sales reports from Apple.

7. No analytics, no tracking

CoverUp contains no analytics, statistics or crash-reporting tools. No usage profiles are built and no events are reported to the developer. The developer does not learn whether, how often or how you use the app.

8. This website

This website sets no cookies, embeds no third-party fonts, scripts or content, and uses no analytics. There are no forms and no sign-in.

The site is served through Cloudflare. As with any web server, Cloudflare processes technically necessary connection data (including your IP address) in order to deliver the page and defend against attacks. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure operation). Cloudflare's information: cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.

9. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection. You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.

In practice: the developer holds no personal data about you. A request for access or erasure can therefore only relate to what you send by email yourself. For data processed by Google (advertising) or Apple (purchases, iCloud), please contact those companies directly, as the developer has no access there.

10. Children

CoverUp is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from children.

11. Changes

This policy is updated when the app changes. The current version is always on this page; the date of the last change is shown below.

12. Contact

Privacy questions: post@ortlepp.de