Naturely Privacy Policy
Last updated: November 1, 2026
Naturely is an app for sharing photos of nature. You upload a photo, an AI gives it a score and a short critique, and other people rank photos by voting between pairs. This policy explains what we collect, why, who helps us run the app, and what you can do about it.
"Naturely", "we" and "us" mean Optivane LLC, a North Carolina company in the United States. Questions go to privacy@naturely.app.
The short version
- We collect your email address, the photos you upload, and what you do in the app (votes, reports, blocks).
- We never store your location. We remove all hidden data (EXIF) from your photos before we keep them. We only keep a region if you type one in yourself, like "Scottish Highlands".
- Your photos are sent to Google's AI and image-safety services to be scored and checked.
- There are no ads in Naturely today, and we don't sell your data. We've built ads and a one-time purchase to remove them, but neither is on. "Ads and purchases" below says what changes if they start, and we'll tell you in the app first.
- You can delete your account at any time, and that deletes your photos too.
What we collect
Your account
- Your email address. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we get the email address and account ID those services share with us. Apple lets you hide your real address.
- The display name you choose and the date you accepted the community guidelines.
- Technical sign-in records: when you signed in and the IP address the request came from. Our hosting provider keeps these for security.
Your photos
The photo itself, stored in three sizes. The largest is 2048 pixels on its long edge.
The caption, category and region you add. Region is optional, and it's whatever you type in. We don't look up or store coordinates.
A short summary of the photo's camera details, read on your phone before we remove all hidden data (EXIF) from the image:
- whether it was taken in the app
- the camera make and model
- when it was taken
- the editing software used
- whether the photo had location data. Only a yes or no, never the location itself.
- any content credentials (C2PA) the photo carries
We use this to tell your own photos apart from downloads and screenshots.
A short fingerprint of the image (a "perceptual hash"). It lets us spot the same photo uploaded twice. It can't be turned back into the image.
The AI's score, sub-scores and critique, and the result of the automatic safety check.
A daily record of each ranked photo's rating and vote count. Only you can see it, and it's how we show you how your photo moved this week.
What you do in the app
- Each vote: which two photos you saw and which one you picked. Voting is anonymous to other people. We record your votes so you never see the same pair twice, and so we can find coordinated voting.
- Your reports (the reason, plus an optional note of up to 500 characters) and the people you block.
- Your challenge entries.
- Your notification settings and the notifications we've sent you.
Your device
- If you allow notifications, we keep a push token so we can send them. A push token is an address for your phone's notification service.
- If the app crashes or hits an error, it sends a crash report: the error, the app version, and your phone model and operating system. We don't collect performance tracking or session recordings.
What we don't collect: your precise location, your contacts, or any other photos on your phone. While ads are off, we don't collect any advertising ID either.
How we use it
| Use | What it uses | Why we're allowed to (if GDPR applies to you) |
|---|---|---|
| Running your account and signing you in | email, sign-in records | to provide the service you asked for |
| Scoring and critiquing your photos | the photo, its category | to provide the service |
| Showing photos in the feed, rankings and challenges | photo, display name, caption, region, score | to provide the service |
| Voting and rankings | votes, photos | to provide the service |
| Keeping Naturely safe and fair: the safety check, spotting duplicates and downloaded photos, handling reports and blocks, and moderation | photo, safety result, camera summary, fingerprint, reports, blocks, votes | our legitimate interest in a safe, honest community, and our legal obligations |
| Notifications about your own photos (score ready, ranking milestones, weekly recap, challenge results) | push token, notification settings | to provide the service. You can switch each type off in Settings. |
| Fixing crashes | crash reports | our legitimate interest in an app that works |
| Showing you how your photos' ratings move | daily rating records | to provide the service |
We don't use your data for advertising today, and we don't sell it.
Ads and purchases
Naturely shows no ads and sells nothing today. We've built both, and they're switched off. This section says what will apply if we turn them on. We'll tell you in the app before we do.
Ads
- Ads would be cards marked "Sponsored" in the feed, served by Google AdMob. There would be none on the voting screen.
- Ads and purchases never affect a score, which photos are paired, or a ranking.
- When ads are on, Google's software in the app collects your phone's advertising ID, your IP address, details about your device, and how you interact with ads. Google uses this to deliver and measure ads and, if you allow it, to personalize them. Google handles this data under its own privacy policy.
- Where the law requires it, we ask for your choice first, and show no ads if that choice doesn't allow them.
- We don't give advertisers your email address, your photos or your votes.
- You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings.
Remove ads
- This would be a one-time purchase through Google Play that turns ads off for your account. It does nothing else.
- Google Play handles your payment. We never see your card details.
- RevenueCat manages the purchase for us. It receives a random ID for your account (not your email address), your purchase record, your IP address and basic details about your device.
- We don't keep a record of the purchase in our own database.
If you allow personalized ads, some US state laws, including California's, may treat that as "sharing" your data, and give you the right to opt out. You can opt out by turning off personalized ads when we ask, or by emailing privacy@naturely.app.
Who sees your photos
- Everyone using Naturely can see your visible photos with your display name, caption, region and score.
- While someone is voting, they see your photo without your name or score.
- People who haven't signed in yet may see a visible photo of yours behind the welcome screen, without your name or score.
- Moderators can see reported photos, the report details, and the camera summary.
- Photos still being checked, or rejected by the check, are visible only to you.
Service providers we use
These companies process data for us, for running Naturely.
Supabase: database, file storage, sign-in and server code. Data is stored in the United States (Ohio).
Google:
- the Gemini API scores and critiques your photo
- Cloud Vision SafeSearch checks your photo for explicit or violent content
Both receive the photo itself. We use Google's paid service, under terms that don't let Google use your photos to improve its products.
Expo, plus Apple and Google: delivery of push notifications.
Sentry: crash reports.
SMTP2GO: sends your sign-in emails.
Microsoft 365: our email, including messages you send to support.
Apple and Google: sign-in, if you choose them.
Google AdMob and RevenueCat: ads and the remove-ads purchase, only if we turn them on (see "Ads and purchases"). Google makes its own decisions about some ad data, under its own policy.
Some of these providers process data outside your country, including in the United States. Where the law requires it, we rely on their standard contractual safeguards.
We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect people's safety.
How long we keep it
- Your account and photos: until you delete them.
- When you delete your account, we delete your profile, photos and image files, scores, rating records, votes, reports, blocks, challenge entries, notifications and push tokens.
- Records of moderation decisions are kept, but no longer linked to you.
- Sign-in records: kept in Supabase's logs for up to 7 days.
- Crash reports: kept by Sentry for 30 days.
- Deleted photos: when you delete a photo, we keep a short record of it for 30 days: its fingerprint and when it was uploaded, never the image. It stops the same photo being uploaded again to get a new score, and it counts toward the daily upload limit. After 30 days it's erased.
- Purchases, if we turn them on: RevenueCat and Google Play keep purchase records so your purchase can be restored and because tax and consumer laws require it. Deleting your Naturely account doesn't erase what they must keep.
- Backups: deleted data may stay in our hosting provider's backups for up to 7 days before being overwritten.
Your choices and rights
- Delete a photo: open it and choose ⋯ → Delete photo. For a photo that didn't make it into the feed, tap it on your Profile. This is immediate and can't be undone.
- Delete your account: Profile → Settings → Delete account. This is immediate and can't be undone.
- Turn off notifications: for each type in Settings, or for the whole app in your phone's settings.
- Ask us: email privacy@naturely.app to get a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, or object to how we use it. Depending on where you live, you may have more rights under laws like the GDPR or California's CCPA. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. We'll answer within 30 days.
Children
Naturely is only for people aged 16 or older. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we'll delete it.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Optivane LLC · North Carolina, United States · privacy@naturely.app