Privacy Policy

Last updated October 25, 2026

CleanMyMedia is a photo organizer: desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux, phone apps, and the website and web app at cleanmymedia.com. It is operated by Eduardo Benavidez, California, USA ("we", "us"). Questions: [email protected].

The short version: the free desktop app works with no account and uploads nothing. If you create an account, we hold your email address and whatever photos you choose to back up — encrypted, used only to show you your own library. No ads, no tracking cookies, no selling or renting of your data, and no AI training on your photos.

What we collect

If you use the desktop app without an account

Nothing. Organizing, de-duplicating, date fixing, face grouping and search all run on your computer. The app contains no analytics or telemetry.

If you create an account

• Email address — the only identity information we ask for. There is no password; you sign in with one-time codes we email you.
• Account records — when the account was created, its plan status, how much storage it uses, and sign-in sessions (stored as hashed tokens, with the time they were created and last used, and whether they are from the web or an app).
• Billing identifiers — if you subscribe, payment is handled by Stripe. We store only Stripe's customer and subscription IDs and the date your plan is paid through. Your card number, name and billing address are collected by Stripe, not by us.

Photos and videos you back up

• The files you choose to upload, stored encrypted at rest with a key unique to your account.
• Information that comes with those files: original filenames, capture date and time, camera make and model, and GPS location when the photo contains it. We use it only to sort and display your library.
• Albums you create, and any share links you make. A share link's access code is stored only as a hash.
• People names you type into the web app, and your merge or hide choices.

Optional features — off unless you turn them on

• Allow People sync: faces are detected and grouped on your computer. If you turn this on, only the position of each face in a photo and an anonymous group number are uploaded — never face images or face "embeddings" (the numbers used to match faces).
• Allow search sync: search-by-description works on your computer. If you turn this on, one numeric summary per photo is uploaded, encrypted with your account key, so the web app can search too. Words you type into web search are processed to run the search and are not stored.

Everyone who visits the website

• Page analytics on the home and help pages (and this page) through Cloudflare Web Analytics: aggregate visit counts, with no cookies and no cross-site tracking. The web app itself has none.
• Download counts: when an installer is downloaded we record the time, the platform and the browser's user-agent string — no IP address, and nothing linked to an account.
• IP addresses are used briefly, in memory, to rate-limit sign-in and sign-up and to block abuse. They appear in server and network logs, which our hosting providers keep for a short time for security and operations.

Cookies

We set cookies only for things you do: when you sign in to the web app, a session cookie that keeps you signed in and a security cookie that protects your actions; and when you open a shared album that has an access code, a cookie that remembers you entered it. No advertising, analytics or tracking cookies.

Why we use it

• To run the service you signed up for: sign you in, store your backup, show and search your library on your devices, and share the albums you choose to share.
• To send account emails — sign-in codes, trial and billing notices, and notices about your data. We do not send marketing email.
• To manage your subscription and prevent fraud and abuse.
• To understand, in aggregate, how many people visit the site and download the apps.

We do not use your information for advertising or profiling, and we do not sell it or share it for advertising. We do not look at your photos, and they are never used to train AI models.

Who processes it for us

We share data only with the service providers needed to run CleanMyMedia, each under its own privacy terms:

• Fly.io — runs our servers and account databases.
• Cloudflare — website delivery, encrypted file storage (R2) and page analytics.
• Stripe — payments and subscription billing.
• Resend — sends our emails (your email address and the message).
• Apple — distributes the iPhone app through TestFlight under Apple's own privacy terms.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it.

Security

Every account has its own database and its own encryption key, and stored files are encrypted at rest, so the storage provider sees only ciphertext. To be precise, it is not end-to-end encrypted: our server holds the keys so it can show your library in a browser. If you want no server involvement at all, use the desktop app without an account. More detail is on the help page.

How long we keep it

• Your account and backup are kept while your account is open.
• If a free trial ends without a subscription, the account's photos and library data are deleted after a short grace period; we email before that happens. Your email address stays on file so you can come back, until you delete the account.
• When you delete your account, your photos, library data and email address are deleted. We keep a one-way hash of the email address and the Stripe IDs, to finish cancelling billing and to recognize the address if you sign up again.
• Sign-in codes expire after 15 minutes, and sessions after 7 days without use. Download counts and aggregate analytics do not identify you and may be kept indefinitely.

Your choices and rights

• Access and export: download anything you backed up, any time, with the app.
• Delete: delete your account and cloud data yourself from the account deletion page, or delete individual items in the web app.
• Turn sync off: People sync and search sync can be switched off any time in the desktop app's account menu.
• For anything else — including requests under the California Consumer Privacy Act, GDPR or similar laws — email [email protected]. We do not sell or share personal information as those laws define it.

Children

CleanMyMedia is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use data you have already given us, we will email account holders before it takes effect.