Lighten - Privacy Policy

Last Updated: August 15, 2026

Lighten is a photo cleaner that runs entirely on your iPhone and iPad. This policy describes what the app does with your data. It is short, because the app does very little with it.

The short version

• We collect nothing. Lighten's App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected", and that is literal.
• Your photos never leave your device. Lighten has no server. There is nothing to upload to.
• There are no accounts, no sign-in, no email capture, and no analytics or advertising SDKs of any kind.
• Nothing is ever deleted without you reviewing it first, and deletion always goes through Apple's own confirmation.

Your photos

To do its job, Lighten asks for access to your photo library. With that access it:

• Reads photo and video metadata — dates, dimensions, file sizes, media types — to group your library by month and to find candidates for each scan.
• Reads image data on your device to detect duplicates, near-identical shots, and out-of-focus photos.

All of this happens locally, on your device. Your photos, videos, and the information derived from them are never transmitted anywhere. The app contains no networking code for sending your content, and no server exists to receive it.

You can grant limited access and pick only some photos. Lighten works fully in that mode and will not nag you to change it.

iCloud photos

If your library uses iCloud's "Optimize iPhone Storage", some of your originals live in iCloud rather than on your device.

Lighten never downloads them. Network access is disabled on every path the app uses to read photos. Photos that are not stored locally are simply skipped, and the app tells you how many were skipped rather than pretending it examined them.

Deletion

Lighten never deletes anything on its own.

Every removal is a batch you have reviewed and confirmed, performed through Apple's Photos framework, which always shows its own system confirmation dialog. Deleted items go to Recently Deleted in the Photos app, where they remain recoverable for 30 days.

Purchases

Lighten offers a one-time purchase that unlocks the smart scans. Purchases are processed entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never see, receive, or store your payment details, and we do not receive any personally identifying information about you as a purchaser.

Apple's handling of that transaction is covered by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Analytics, tracking and advertising

There are none. No analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no attribution or advertising framework, no tracking of any kind. Lighten does not use the Advertising Identifier and does not ask for tracking permission, because it has nothing to track you with.

Data stored on your device

Lighten keeps some working data locally so it does not have to redo expensive work:

• Which photos you have already reviewed, and which are waiting to be cleaned
• Scan results and progress checkpoints
• Cached file sizes and a record of what has been cleaned recently

This never leaves your device and is removed when you delete the app.

Children

Lighten is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone, including children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the "Last Updated" date above will change with it. Because we collect nothing, we do not expect substantive changes.

Contact

Questions about this policy: lighten [at] zebel.ai