LayerYear Privacy Policy
LayerYear is an app for revisiting your photos and personal notes by date. You use it without creating a LayerYear account.
Where your records are stored
The notes, moods, tags and replies you write, along with their timestamps, photo links, location records and weather records, are stored on your device. When iCloud is available, the same records sync to your own iCloud private database, so they continue on your other devices signed in to the same Apple Account.
BAMSEM does not operate a server that holds these records and cannot access the records in your iCloud. The sync itself is handled by Apple's iCloud, and Apple's privacy policy applies to it.
Photos
If you allow photo access, the app reads the photos and videos you have granted access to, along with their capture dates and any location stored in them, to show them by date and to summarise the places you have visited.
- Photo and video originals are never uploaded anywhere. The app stores only an identifier that points to each photo.
- Those identifiers, capture times and coordinates taken from photos become part of the app's records and may sync to your iCloud.
- If you use iCloud Photos, displaying a photo may cause Apple to download the original to your device.
- When you create and save a timeline video, the app adds that video to your photo library. If you undo immediately after saving, the app deletes it.
Location
If you allow location access, the app uses your current location in your records. If you choose "Always" on iPhone, the app also collects location as you move while the app is not open, to fill in your place history. To save battery it checks after a minimum distance of movement and does not record repeatedly while you stay in one place.
Collected coordinates are stored on your device at full precision and are included in iCloud sync. Determining which country or city a coordinate belongs to happens on your device using boundary data bundled with the app; no coordinates are sent anywhere for that.
You can change these permissions in your device settings at any time. You can write notes without granting photo or location access.
What leaves your device
LayerYear contains no advertising or analytics tools and uses no third-party SDKs. The app communicates only with the following Apple services.
| Service | What is sent | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Weather (WeatherKit) | Coordinates of the location being looked up | Showing that day's weather |
| Apple Maps (MapKit) | Information needed to display the map | Showing the day map and route |
| iCloud (CloudKit) | The app records described above | Syncing between your own devices |
| Photos (PhotoKit) | — | Downloading iCloud Photos originals |
Apple's privacy policy applies to each of these services.
Retention and deletion
Records are kept until you delete them.
- Individual records can be deleted in the app.
- Your entire location history can be deleted at once from Settings.
- Photo originals are managed by your device's photo library, not by the app — manage them in the Photos app.
- Records synced to iCloud can be managed in Settings → Apple Account → iCloud on your device.
Deleting the app does not immediately remove everything already stored in your iCloud.
Children
LayerYear is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from children.
Contact and changes
For privacy questions, write to [email protected]. We use what you send only as far as needed to answer you, and do not retain it once the matter is resolved. You do not need to send your journal entries, detailed location history, or your whole photo library when contacting us.
If this policy changes, we will update the content and the effective date on this page.