Privacy Policy

What we don't do

• We do not have user accounts, sign-ups, or authentication.
• Nothing in the app is sent to a server that we run. The images and maps in the app come from third parties, listed under Network access.
• We do not include analytics, telemetry, advertising, or attribution SDKs.
• We do not share or sell any information about you.
• We do not track you across apps or websites.

Data stored on your device only

The following data is stored locally on your iPhone, in the app's private container. The app does not send it to us or to any third party; the one copy beyond your iPhone is your device's own iCloud Backup, described below:

• Seen / favorite history — which paintings you've marked as seen or favorited, with timestamps.
• Visit history — automatic clusters of your sightings into museum visits.
• App preferences — UI settings such as sort order or filter selections.

This data is stored using Apple's SwiftData framework. Seen has no sync of its own. Because the data lives in the app's container on your iPhone, it is included in your device's iCloud Backup if you have iCloud Backup turned on. That backup is made and held by Apple under your Apple account; we cannot see it. You can delete all data at any time by deleting the app.

Network access

The app talks to the network in the following ways, and no others. The app itself sends nothing to a server run by us.

• Painting images. As you browse, the app downloads painting images directly from public image servers: Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org, whose file links redirect to upload.wikimedia.org), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (images.metmuseum.org), the Cleveland Museum of Art (openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org), the Art Institute of Chicago (www.artic.edu) and the Smithsonian (ids.si.edu). These servers see your IP address and the address of the image you asked for, as any web server does. The requests carry no account, advertising or device identifier; they identify the app with a User-Agent of the form Seen/1.0 and our support address, as Wikimedia asks. Apple's standard URLSession is used; no third-party HTTP client is bundled.
• Maps. The museum map, the location map on a museum page and the Insights art map (including the map image on its share card) use Apple Maps. Your device asks Apple for the map tiles of the area shown, under Apple's own privacy policy. If a map is centered on you, that area shows Apple roughly where you are. Seen does not send your location to anyone.
• Purchases. Buying or restoring Seen Pro talks to the App Store, which is Apple (see Purchases).
• Links you open. Links such as View on Wikipedia, View at a museum, Source, the credits and the Privacy and Support links open a website in an in-app browser or in Safari, only when you tap them. That site sees your visit like any website; sites other than seenart.app have their own privacy policies.

Without a network connection you can still mark paintings and browse your history; images that are not yet cached on your device will not load until you are online.

Location

If you tap Near me or the locate button on the museum map, iOS will request a one-time When In Use location permission. Your location is used only on-device, only at that moment, to sort the museum list by distance or center the map on you. Seen never stores or logs it, never sends it to anyone and never associates it with any account. (When a map is centered on you, Apple Maps loads the tiles for that area; see Network access.) If you decline the permission, the app continues to work — only those two features are unavailable.

Purchases

Seen Pro is a one-time purchase made through Apple's In-App Purchase (StoreKit). Apple processes the payment and can restore it on your other devices with the same Apple Account. Seen never sees or stores your payment details or your Apple Account, and we run no server to verify purchases.

Photos

If you tap Save Image on a share card, iOS asks for permission to add to your photo library. Seen can only add that image; it cannot read or browse your photos.

Notifications

The optional Sunday digest is a local notification scheduled on your iPhone from your own history. It is off until you switch it on in Settings and allow notifications in iOS. No push server is involved and nothing is sent to us.

Data collection summary

In App Store terms, the App Privacy answer for Seen is Data Not Collected.

Children's privacy

Seen is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect any data from anyone, including children under 13. Because we collect nothing, no special handling under COPPA / GDPR-K applies. The age rating shown on the App Store listing is the authoritative one.

International users

We collect nothing and run no servers, so we transfer no personal data ourselves. Your device's requests to image servers, Apple Maps and the App Store go straight from your device to those providers, wherever they operate, and include your IP address. The app is the same local-first app whether you use it in the EU, US, UK, or anywhere else.

Changes to this policy

This policy applies to version 1.0. If a future version changes how your data is handled, this page will be updated and its effective date at the top will change.

Who we are and how to reach us

Seen is developed and published by PIXOVO LLC, the controller for this policy.

Questions about this policy: hello@seenart.app

This policy is published in plain language to be readable, not as a legal document. The summary section is the authoritative statement of what the app does and does not do.