Privacy policy
What this website and the Car Boot Scanner app do with data, written from how the software is actually built.
Draft. Highlighted items are facts still to be confirmed before publication. This policy will take effect when the app is released.
- Who we are
- This website
- The app
- Photos and the AI provider
- What our server keeps
- What stays on your phone
- Subscriptions
- Analytics
- Service providers
- Retention and deletion
- Your rights
- Children
- Changes
Who we are
Kettle Lane Studio is an independent iOS app studio in the United Kingdom. [Legal entity to be confirmed. Company incorporation is in progress; the registered name, company number and registered office address will be stated here once Companies House confirms them. Until then the operator is the studio's founder as a sole trader.]
We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. Contact: [support email address to be confirmed].
This website
This website is static. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads no third-party scripts or fonts. The typeface is served from this site. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes your IP address and request details to deliver the pages and protect against abuse, and may keep short-term technical logs for that purpose. [Confirm hosting provider at launch: Cloudflare Pages is the plan.]
The Car Boot Scanner app
The app does not ask you to create an account and does not ask for your name, email address or phone number. On first launch it generates a random install identifier, stored in your device Keychain. That identifier is sent with requests to our server so that we can count free scans and check whether a subscription is active. It is not linked to your Apple ID or any other identity we hold.
To stop the free scan allowance being abused by faked identifiers, the app may use Apple's App Attest service to prove that requests come from a genuine copy of the app on a real device. App Attest does not tell us who you are.
The app asks for camera access only when you first tap the camera, and for permission to add to your photo library only when you choose to save a share card. It never reads your photo library in the background. Choosing an existing photo uses Apple's picker, which hands the app only the photos you select.
Photos and the AI provider
When you scan an item, the app resizes each photo (up to three per item), removes location and camera metadata, and sends the images over an encrypted connection to our server. Our server forwards the images, together with a short instruction to identify the item for the UK market, to our AI provider, Anthropic, which runs the Claude model through its API. The provider returns a description of the item and a rough price range. Your install identifier and any other identifying data are never sent to the AI provider.
We do not store your photos on our server. They are held in memory only for the duration of the request and are never written to logs. [Confirm Anthropic's current API data retention period and no-training commitment under its commercial terms at the time of launch, and state it here.]
Please avoid photographing people, documents or anything personal. Photograph the item you want identified.
What our server keeps
Our server runs on Cloudflare Workers. Against your install identifier it stores:
- a count of free scans used, so the three free scans can be enforced;
- a short-lived cached note of whether your subscription is active, refreshed from our subscription provider and kept for about ten minutes;
- rate-limit counters to prevent abuse.
Operational logs record timings, token counts, error codes and request metadata such as IP address and app version, so that we can run the service and investigate problems. Logs never contain image data or scan results. [Confirm log retention period once the Cloudflare logging configuration is chosen.]
Your scan results (item names, estimates, notes) are returned to your phone and are not kept on our server.
What stays on your phone
Your scan history, including the photos you took, item names, estimate ranges, anything you entered such as "I paid £2" and notes, favourites and share cards you exported, is stored on your device in the app's own storage. It is not uploaded to us. It is included in your normal iPhone backup if you have backups enabled, under Apple's terms.
If you turn on the optional trial reminder, the app schedules a local notification on your device. No notification data leaves your phone.
The "Check sold prices on eBay" button opens eBay UK in Safari. The app does not read or store anything from that page. eBay's own privacy policy applies to that visit.
Subscriptions
Payments are taken by Apple through the App Store. We never see your card details. We use RevenueCat to manage subscription entitlements: it receives your anonymous install identifier and purchase receipt data from Apple, and tells our app and server whether a subscription is active. RevenueCat does not receive your photos or scan results.
Analytics
The app records anonymous usage events, such as "a scan was completed" or "the paywall was shown", using TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service that does not collect personal data and hashes identifiers before they leave the device. We use this to understand which features are used and where the app fails. There is no advertising, no advertising identifier and no tracking across other apps or websites.
Service providers
| Provider | Purpose | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Hosting this website and running our server | IP address, request metadata, install identifier, scan counters |
| Anthropic | Item identification and estimate (AI model) | Resized photos with metadata removed, no identifiers |
| Apple | App distribution, payments, App Attest | Per Apple's terms; we receive subscription status only |
| RevenueCat | Subscription management | Install identifier, purchase receipts |
| TelemetryDeck | Anonymous usage analytics | Hashed identifier, event names, app and iOS version |
Some of these providers process data outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States. Where that happens we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, or the UK's adequacy regulations, as applicable to each provider. [Confirm the transfer mechanism named in each provider's current data processing terms.]
Retention and deletion
- Photos: not retained by us. Processed for the request only.
- Server records for your install: kept while you use the app. Deleted when you choose "Delete all my data" in Settings, which removes your data from your phone and sends a deletion request to our server. [Confirm the retention period for inactive installs, for example deletion after 24 months without a request.]
- Subscription records: held by Apple and RevenueCat under their own policies for as long as needed for billing, refunds and legal obligations.
- Operational logs: [retention period to be confirmed].
- Analytics: anonymous, held in aggregate by TelemetryDeck.
Deleting the app from your phone removes your local history and photos. It does not by itself send a deletion request to our server, so use "Delete all my data" first if you want server records removed.
Legal bases
Under UK GDPR we process data to provide the service you asked for (performance of a contract), for our legitimate interests in running, securing and improving the service and preventing abuse of the free allowance, and, for optional features such as the trial reminder, with your consent given through iOS permissions.
Your rights
You have the right to access, correct, delete and restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to data portability where it applies. Because we hold almost nothing against an identity, most requests are best handled by the in-app deletion tool. For anything else, email [support email address to be confirmed]. Include your install identifier from the app's Settings screen so that we can find your records, as we have no other way to identify you.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. [Confirm the intended App Store age rating before publication.]
Changes to this policy
We will update this page when the app or its providers change. The date at the top shows the latest version. Material changes will be mentioned in the app's "What's new" notes.