1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how Aifinity Solutions Ltd. ("Aifinity Solutions", "we", "us" or "our"), a company registered in England and Wales, collects, uses, shares and protects information in connection with the mobile application Rock Identifier : Crysto — shown in some places within the application, and in exported reports, under the product name Crystara (the "App").
The App uses artificial intelligence to suggest an identification for rocks, minerals, crystals, gemstones and fossils from a photograph, and lets you save identified specimens to a personal collection.
For the purposes of the UK GDPR and the EU General Data Protection Regulation, Aifinity Solutions Ltd. is the data controller for the information described in this policy.
Three things are worth stating at the outset, because they shape everything that follows. The App has no accounts and no sign-in — we do not ask for your name, email address or phone number. We run no advertising, no analytics and no cross-app tracking: Google Analytics for Firebase is switched off in the App binary, and there is no advertising identifier, no crash-reporting SDK and no ad network in the product. And your photographs are never uploaded to servers we own.
This policy applies to the App and to these hosted pages. It does not apply to any third-party service you reach from the App, each of which has its own privacy policy. By using the App you agree to this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the App.
2. Information We Collect
Because there are no accounts, we collect far less than most applications. The categories below are exhaustive.
Photographs You Capture or Select
When you scan a specimen, you either photograph it with the in-app camera or choose an existing image using the iOS photo picker. That image is resized and compressed on your device and then transmitted to our AI provider for identification. Section 5 describes that process in full.
The App requests two permissions and no others. Camera — "Crystara uses the camera to photograph rocks and minerals for identification" — used only while the scan screen is open. Photos (add only) — "Crystara can save your scans and share cards to your photo library" — an add-only permission that lets the App write a share image into your library. It does not allow the App to read or browse your photo library. Choosing an image through the iOS photo picker requires no permission at all, and the App receives only the single image you pick.
A Device Identifier
The first time you open the App it generates a random identifier for your device, derived from Apple's per-vendor identifier, and stores it in the iOS Keychain. Because it is held in the Keychain, this identifier can persist even if you delete and reinstall the App.
This identifier is pseudonymous: it is not your name, email or Apple Account, and it is not shared with advertisers or data brokers. We use it, and only it, to recognise your device across sessions so that the free daily scan allowance and any subscription you purchase behave consistently. It is also the customer identifier we pass to our subscription provider. The App additionally signs in to Firebase anonymously, which produces a second internal identifier used solely to authorise scan-quota requests.
Device and Technical Information
The App records a technical profile of your device so we can support it, size our capacity and
deliver notifications. This comprises: device model (for example iPhone16,2), the device
name set in iOS Settings, operating system name and version, App version and build number,
platform, time zone, locale, country code, how the App was installed (App Store, TestFlight or
development build), your push notification token, and whether you have granted notification
permission.
Scan and Usage Information
To enforce the free tier fairly we record, against your device identifier, the number of scans performed, the current day's scan count, the calendar day that count belongs to, your subscription tier at the time of the scan, and timestamps for when the device was first and last seen. We do not record the contents of your scans, the identification results, or the images alongside this data.
Subscription Information
If you purchase a subscription, the transaction is carried out by Apple and administered for us by RevenueCat. We receive the resulting subscription state — product purchased, billing period type, store, purchase and expiry timestamps, whether the plan will renew, whether there is a billing problem, and whether the purchase was made in the sandbox or production environment. We never receive or store your payment card number, bank details or billing address. Those are handled entirely by Apple under Apple's own privacy policy.
Diagnostic Information
The App writes diagnostic messages to Apple's on-device unified logging system. These stay on your device and are not transmitted to us. They never contain your photograph, the image data, the AI prompt text, or the descriptive text the model returns. Our server-side scan-quota function records the fact that a scan was requested, along with the identifiers and subscription tier involved, so that we can investigate abuse and billing faults. It never receives your image.
Information We Never Collect
To be unambiguous, the App does not collect, request or transmit any of the following: your name, email address, postal address, phone number or date of birth; any account credentials, since there is no sign-up, no login and no password anywhere in the App; location data of any kind, as the App contains no location code and never asks for location permission; microphone or audio data, contacts, calendars, health data, or files outside the App; the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), which is why the App does not use Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework — it performs no tracking that would require it; advertising, marketing or behavioural profiles, as there is no ad network in the App; analytics of your in-app behaviour; or your browsing history and activity in other apps.
3. How We Use Your Information and Our Lawful Basis
The UK GDPR and the EU GDPR require us to identify a lawful basis for each use of personal data. We use the information described above only as follows.
- Your photograph — to generate the identification you asked for. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, since this is the service you requested.
- Your device identifier — to apply the free daily scan limit and to keep your subscription attached to your device. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, and our legitimate interests in preventing abuse of the free tier.
- Device and technical information — to support the devices and operating system versions in use, diagnose faults and plan capacity. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in operating and improving the App.
- Scan and usage counts — to enforce quotas, control provider costs and detect automated abuse. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in the security and financial viability of the service.
- Subscription state — to unlock paid features, restore purchases and resolve billing issues. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, and compliance with legal obligations in respect of tax and accounting records.
- Your push notification token — to deliver notifications where you have permitted them. Lawful basis: consent, given through the iOS notification prompt and withdrawable at any time in iOS Settings.
We do not use your information to build a profile of you, to make automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects, or for any purpose incompatible with those listed above.
4. How We Share Your Information
We share information only with the service providers named below, only to the extent needed to run the App. We do not sell your information, we do not trade it, and we do not disclose it to advertisers or data brokers.
OpenRouter, and through it Google
OpenRouter is our AI identification provider, and it routes each request to a Google Gemini vision model. It receives the compressed photograph and the identification instructions. It does not receive your device identifier, any account identifier, or any other information that identifies you. See openrouter.ai/privacy and Google's Gemini API terms.
Google Firebase
We use Firebase for remote configuration, anonymous authentication, scan-quota enforcement and notification delivery. It receives your device identifier, your device and technical profile, your scan counts and your push notification token. It does not receive your photographs. See firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
Apple
Apple distributes the App, processes all purchases through the App Store and StoreKit, transports notifications, and — where you have iCloud enabled — synchronises your saved collection into the private database of your own iCloud account. Apple receives purchase and subscription data. Your collection is stored in your own iCloud account under Apple's privacy policy, and we cannot read it. See apple.com/legal/privacy.
RevenueCat
RevenueCat manages subscriptions, entitlement checks and purchase restoration on our behalf. It receives your device identifier as the customer identifier, together with the subscription receipt data provided by Apple. See revenuecat.com/privacy.
Legal and Corporate Disclosures
We may disclose information where we are legally required to do so — in response to valid legal process, to establish or defend legal claims, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our users, the public or ourselves. If Aifinity Solutions Ltd. is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction; we will make reasonable efforts to notify users through the App or these pages before any such transfer takes effect.
5. How Your Photographs Are Processed
This is the most important section of this policy, so we describe the process precisely.
First, on your device, the image is cropped, scaled down to a maximum of 1,280 pixels on its longest edge, and re-encoded as a compressed JPEG. Nothing larger is ever transmitted.
Second, in transmission, the compressed image is sent over an encrypted HTTPS connection directly from your device to OpenRouter, which routes it to a Google Gemini vision model. The request carries the image and the identification instructions, and nothing that identifies you or your device.
Third, in the response, the model returns a structured result — suggested name, category, confidence, description, hardness range, colours, composition, typical localities and any safety note — which is displayed to you.
Fourth, on our own infrastructure: the image never passes through it and is never stored on it. The App contains no capability to upload an image to storage we control. We do not keep copies of your photographs, and we do not use your photographs to train any model.
Fifth, on your device afterwards: if you choose to save the specimen to your collection, the image is stored in the App's local database, and synchronised to your private iCloud account if you have iCloud enabled. Section 7 explains how long that lasts and how to remove it.
Please note that once the image reaches OpenRouter and the underlying Google model, its handling is governed by their privacy terms, not ours. We ask you not to photograph people, documents, screens or anything else you would not want transmitted to a third-party AI service. Photograph the specimen, not its surroundings.
6. Data Security
We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the information we hold. All network traffic between the App, our infrastructure and our providers uses HTTPS/TLS encryption. Your device identifier is held in the iOS Keychain, which is encrypted by the operating system. Identification requests are made on a connection configured to write nothing to any cache on your device. Your photographs are never stored on our infrastructure, which removes the largest category of risk entirely. Your saved collection is protected by your device passcode and, where iCloud sync is enabled, by the security of your Apple Account. Access to our production systems is restricted to personnel who need it to operate the service.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a breach affecting your personal data, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office and any other relevant supervisory authority, and will notify you directly, where the law requires it and within the time limits the law sets.
7. Data Retention
We keep information only for as long as we need it.
- Photographs sent for identification are not retained by us at any point. Retention by our AI provider is governed by its own policy.
- Your saved collection is kept until you delete the specimen, delete the App, or remove the App's data from your iCloud account. It is under your control, not ours.
- Daily scan-quota records are automatically deleted approximately 48 hours after the day they relate to.
- Your device identifier, device profile and cumulative scan counts are retained while the App remains in use on your device, and are deleted on request as described in section 9.
- Subscription records are retained for the life of the subscription and afterwards for as long as required to handle renewals, restorations, disputes and refunds, and to meet tax and accounting obligations.
- Diagnostic logs on our infrastructure are retained on a short rolling window under Google Cloud's standard log retention, then discarded.
8. Your Data Rights and Choices
You can control notifications at any time in iOS Settings › Notifications › Crysto. Withdrawing that permission stops all notifications immediately and does not affect any other function of the App. You can delete any saved specimen from within the App at any time. Beyond those in-app controls, the rights below apply depending on where you live.
Additional Rights for UK, EEA and Swiss Residents (UK GDPR and GDPR)
If you are in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, you have the right of access, to obtain confirmation of whether we process your data and a copy of it; the right to rectification of inaccurate data and completion of incomplete data; the right to erasure, sometimes called the right to be forgotten, where one of the grounds in Article 17 applies; the right to restriction of processing in the circumstances set out in Article 18; the right to data portability, to receive the data you provided in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible; the right to object at any time to processing based on our legitimate interests, on grounds relating to your particular situation; and the right to withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on it, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In the United Kingdom this is the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk; in the EEA it is the authority in your country of residence. We would appreciate the chance to address your concern first.
We do not carry out automated decision-making, including profiling, that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
Additional Rights for California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act gives you the right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources, our purposes and the categories of third parties to whom it is disclosed — sections 2, 3 and 4 of this policy provide that disclosure in full; the right to delete personal information we hold about you, subject to the statutory exceptions; the right to correct inaccurate personal information; the right to opt out of sale or sharing; the right to limit the use of sensitive personal information, though we collect none as that term is defined by the CPRA, so there is nothing to limit; and the right to non-discrimination — we will not deny you service, charge a different price or provide a lesser quality of service because you exercised any of these rights, and we offer no financial incentives in exchange for personal information.
We do not sell your personal information, and we have not sold personal information in the preceding twelve months. We do not share your personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we have not done so in the preceding twelve months. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.
Under the CCPA's categories, the information we collect consists of identifiers, in the form of a pseudonymous device identifier; commercial information, in the form of subscription and purchase records; internet or other electronic network activity information, limited to scan counts within the App; geolocation data limited to a country code derived from device settings, as we collect no GPS or precise location; and visual information, in the form of the photograph you submit for identification, which is transmitted for processing and not retained by us. You may exercise these rights, or use an authorised agent to do so on your behalf, through the route in section 9.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
The App is not a web browser and does not respond to browser-based Do Not Track signals. It performs no tracking across apps or websites, so there is no tracking for such a signal to disable. These hosted pages set no cookies, load no third-party scripts, fonts or analytics, and perform no visitor tracking of any kind. Because we do not sell or share personal information, a Global Privacy Control signal requires no action from us.
9. How to Delete Your Data
Because the App has no accounts, there is no login for us to authenticate you against. There are three routes, and the first two are entirely under your control.
Delete individual specimens. Open your collection and delete any specimen. This removes it, and its photograph, from your device and from your iCloud mirror.
Delete everything held locally. Delete the App from your device. To also remove the iCloud copy of your collection, go to iOS Settings › [your name] › iCloud › Manage Account Storage, select the App and delete its data.
Ask us to delete the records we hold. Email info@aifinitysolutions.com with the subject line "Data deletion request". Please send the message from the device you use the App on, and tell us your device model and the approximate date you installed the App, so that we can locate the right records. We will delete your device profile, your usage records and the pseudonymous identifier tied to them.
We will acknowledge your request promptly and respond substantively within 30 days. That period may be extended by a further two months for complex requests under the UK GDPR and GDPR, or by a further 45 days under the CCPA, and we will tell you if that happens. There is no charge, unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. Where we cannot verify a request to a reasonable degree of certainty, we may be unable to act on it.
Please note that we may need to retain certain records after deletion where the law requires it, in particular subscription and tax records, and that we cannot delete data held in your own iCloud account, since we have no access to it.
10. International Data Transfers
Aifinity Solutions Ltd. is established in the United Kingdom. Our infrastructure and several of our providers operate in the United States, so the information described in this policy is transferred to and processed there, and in other countries where our providers operate. These countries may have data protection laws that differ from those in your own.
Where we transfer personal data out of the United Kingdom we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, as appropriate. Where we transfer personal data out of the EEA or Switzerland we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. These safeguards are incorporated into our agreements with our providers. You may request further information about them using the contact details in section 13.
11. Children's Privacy
The App is not directed to children. It is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, in accordance with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. In the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, where processing relies on consent, the App is not intended for anyone under the age of 16 without the consent of a holder of parental responsibility.
If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at info@aifinitysolutions.com and we will delete it promptly. Parents and guardians can also restrict downloads and in-app purchases using Screen Time on iOS.
12. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this policy to reflect changes in the App, in our providers, or in the law. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. If the changes are material — for example a new category of information, a new recipient, or a materially different purpose — we will give prominent notice within the App before the changes take effect, and where the law requires it we will seek your consent. Your continued use of the App after an update takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. We recommend reviewing this page periodically. Previous versions are available on request.
13. Contact Us
For any question about this policy, or to exercise any right described in it, contact Aifinity Solutions Ltd. by email at info@aifinitysolutions.com. Please mention "Rock Identifier : Crysto" in your message so that we can route it correctly.
If you are in the United Kingdom or the EEA and you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office or to your local data protection supervisory authority.