Privacy policy: Glyph

This privacy policy applies to the iOS app Glyph. The controller is Samuel Mellert; address and contact details are in the legal notice.

Glyph itself does not connect to the internet. The app loads no previews or icons, and codes are analyzed on your device only.

Only when you explicitly tap it does Glyph hand an address to another app: a link from a code (after you confirm) to your browser, the tracking number and postcode of a parcel label to dhl.de, a book, periodical or product number to Open Library, the ISSN Portal or Open Food Facts, coordinates to Apple Maps. Phone numbers, emails and text messages open as drafts in the respective app. Your browser or the other app then sends these requests directly to the provider, whose privacy policy applies.

If you allow camera access, Glyph uses the camera only to recognize codes. The images are analyzed on the device and neither stored nor transferred.

You choose photos to scan in the iOS photo picker; Glyph only receives the selected picture, analyzes it on the device and does not store it. Glyph only writes to your photo library when you save a code you created; iOS asks for permission to add photos for that.

Glyph stores the last 100 scanned codes with their full content, the time, the type of code and whether it was scanned with the camera or from a photo. Depending on the code, this can include personal data such as Wi-Fi passwords, contact details or bank details. Codes with 2FA keys are never stored, nor are codes you create yourself or any images.

The history is stored on your device only, encrypted with iOS data protection: it cannot be read while the iPhone is locked. Like other app data, it is part of your device or iCloud backup. You can delete single entries or the whole history and turn off storing it in the app’s settings; it is removed when you delete the app.

When you join a Wi-Fi network, Glyph hands the credentials from the code to iOS, which asks you and stores the network in the system. You add contacts and events from codes in the iOS dialogs; Glyph has no access to your address book or calendar. If you pick a contact for a contact code, Glyph only receives that one contact.

Glyph does not read the clipboard. What you copy, Glyph puts on the iOS clipboard; through Universal Clipboard it can reach your other Apple devices. Passwords and other hidden values stay on this device and are removed from the clipboard after two minutes.

Glyph has no user account and no server of its own, contains no advertising and no analytics or tracking tools, and transfers no data to me or to third parties.

The app is distributed through Apple’s App Store; test versions through TestFlight. Apple itself is responsible for downloads, purchases and updates, and Apple’s privacy policy applies.

If you have agreed in your iPhone’s settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple provides me with aggregated usage statistics and crash reports. They contain nothing that would allow me to identify you. If you take part in a TestFlight test, I see the name and email address you were invited with and the feedback you send through TestFlight.

Apple’s privacy policy

Your rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability and objection, and your right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, are described in the privacy section of the legal notice. For questions about privacy, an email to mail@samuel-mellert.de is enough.