Privacy Policy

What this app does

Stone Shelf is a rock and mineral field guide for iPhone. You can photograph a stone to receive an AI-assisted identification, browse educational guides, and save finds to a personal collection on your device.

Anonymous usage analytics

To understand how the app is used and where to improve it, Stone Shelf collects a small amount of anonymous product-usage data through PostHog, our analytics provider. This is limited to coarse interaction events such as opening the app, starting or completing a scan, reaching your daily scan limit, saving or verifying a find, viewing a catalog entry, opening a Discover guide, viewing the subscription offer, and whether a purchase or restore flow completed.

This data is anonymous and contains no personal information. In particular, it never includes your photos, the specific stone or mineral you identified, your saved collection notes, or your location — identification results are only ever recorded as a coarse confidence level (low, medium, or high) and a general stone family (for example "quartz" or "agate"), never the exact name or your photo. We do not create user profiles, do not use advertising identifiers, and do not track you across other apps or websites.

Analytics is on by default but entirely optional. You can turn it off at any time under Settings → Privacy → Share anonymous analytics, and no usage data is sent while it is off.

Data we collect

We do not require an account. Beyond the anonymous analytics above, we do not use advertising frameworks or third-party crash reporters in the app.

When you use Scan, the app sends your photo (and optional location hint from photo metadata) to our identification API at stone-shelf-api.vercel.app. The image is processed to return an identification result and is not stored long-term by Ampliora for profiling or marketing.

A random device identifier is stored locally in the iOS Keychain and sent with API requests for daily scan limits, abuse prevention, and subscription activation. It is not linked to your name, Apple ID, or other personal identity. Our server also processes your network IP address for security and abuse prevention. A one-way hashed daily attempt counter is retained only until the next quota reset; the raw IP address is not written to that counter or application logs.

Data stored on your device

Stone Shelf stores the following data locally in your device's app container:

• Saved specimen records (name, category, notes, location, date)
• Photos you attach to your collection
• Field notes and verification test results
• A self-generated anonymous device ID in the iOS Keychain for API rate limiting and subscription activation

Collection data stays on your device unless you delete the app or remove individual finds. We cannot access your saved collection.

Location

If a photo includes GPS metadata, Stone Shelf may derive a coarse place name (for example, city and country) to attach as a field note. Live device location is not tracked. Reverse geocoding uses Apple's on-device services.

Backups

If iCloud Backup is enabled, Apple may include your app data in your encrypted device backup. This is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. We have no access to your iCloud backup.

In-app purchases

Stone Shelf offers optional auto-renewable Stone Shelf Pro monthly and annual subscriptions that remove the daily identification limit. Purchases and billing are processed by Apple through the App Store. We do not receive or store your payment-card details. Apple's handling of payment data is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

To activate and restore Pro access securely, the app sends our server the anonymous device identifier, product identifier, and StoreKit transaction identifier. Our server verifies the purchase with Apple and retains the transaction linkage, subscription status, and expiration needed to provide and protect your entitlement. Apple does not provide us with your payment details, Apple Account email, or name. You can manage or cancel a subscription in Apple's subscription settings.

Children's privacy

Stone Shelf is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

If we update this policy, the new version will be posted at this URL with an updated effective date.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach us at support@ampliora.cc or visit the Support page.