Behind Your Wall Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2026-05-25 Last updated: 2026-08-12
This is a real policy, written in plain English, by the founder of Behind Your Wall. If anything here is unclear, email support@behindyourwall.com and we'll explain.
The short version
- Behind Your Wall stores your photos, voice notes, videos, and home address on your phone and in the cloud account you choose — your own Google Drive or your own iCloud. We never store your photos, audio, or video.
- We do not use analytics, ad networks, or tracking SDKs of any kind.
- On our own server (Google Firebase) we keep only a small record per home: who you are (your Google account email, or an anonymous identifier if you sign in with Apple), your AI credit balance and purchase history, your record of accepting our Terms, and a contact email if you chose to give us one. This is what makes the paid AI features work.
- When you use a paid AI action — labeling a wall — the photo you choose is sent to our server, which passes it straight to Google's Gemini AI and returns the result to you. If that photo has a voice note attached, the note is transcribed as part of the same request. We hold it all in memory only for the seconds that takes — it is never written to disk, never logged, and never kept.
- One thing goes to Google's Gemini AI directly from your phone, without passing through us: an automated content check on photos you import from your library. It is processed to return a verdict and is not retained by us.
- If you sign in with Apple and use Hide My Email, we never see your real address — only the private relay address Apple gives us.
- You can delete your server record from inside the app — Settings → Delete account. It also erases everything Behind Your Wall stored on your phone. Your photos in your own cloud are yours to keep or delete; we cannot reach them either way.
- We keep one thing after a deletion: your record of accepting the Terms, with your name and email stripped out of it. It is our proof that the safety warnings were shown and agreed to, and it no longer identifies you.
If you want the full legal version, keep reading.
1. Who we are
Behind Your Wall ("Behind Your Wall", "we", "us", "our") is an independent, founder-operated mobile app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. We are based in the United States.
Contact: support@behindyourwall.com
2. What this policy covers
This policy describes how the Behind Your Wall mobile app (iOS and Android, package com.byw.app) and the website at behindyourwall.com handle your information.
It does not cover Google Drive, Google Sign-In, RevenueCat, the Apple App Store, or Google Play — those services have their own policies, linked in Section 6.
3. What data we collect and where it lives
3.1 Stored only on your phone and in YOUR cloud account
The following data is stored on your device's local SQLite database and, if you turn on backup, synced to a Behind Your Wall folder inside your own cloud account — either Google Drive or iCloud, whichever you pick. On Google Drive we use the drive.file scope, which only grants Behind Your Wall access to files Behind Your Wall itself creates; it cannot see anything else in your Drive. On iCloud the files live in your own iCloud container and are visible to you in the Files app.
- Photos you capture
- Audio voice notes you record
- Video clips you capture
- Home address(es) you type in
- Room labels and notes you add
- GPS coordinates and timestamps embedded in photo metadata
- Pair relationships (which pre-drywall photo matches which finished-wall photo)
Behind Your Wall the company does not have access to this content. It lives on your device and in your Drive.
3.2 Stored on our own server (Google Firebase)
To run the paid AI features and to keep a record that you agreed to our Terms, we keep a small, per-home record in Google Firebase (Firestore), a server we operate:
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Who you are: your Google account email, or — if you sign in with Apple — an anonymous identifier plus whatever address Apple releases to us (a private relay address if you use Hide My Email) | Identifies your account so your credits and record follow you to a new phone |
| Your AI credit balance + purchase/spend history | So the metered AI features work and can't be reset by reinstalling |
| Your Terms-acceptance record: date, version, a one-way fingerprint of the exact text you agreed to, and the app version and platform you accepted on | Proof of agreement, for both of us, in case of a dispute |
| A contact email, only if you chose to enter one | So we can actually reply if you write to support — necessary because Apple sign-in may leave us with no usable address |
| Your home nickname, if you set one | So your homes are recognisable when you restore them on a new phone |
| Error reports, when something in the app fails: the error message and code, which home it happened on, your platform (iOS/Android) and the app version | So a failure on a real phone can be diagnosed and fixed. There is no third-party crash or analytics SDK in this app — these reports go only to our own Firestore, and they are deleted with your account |
We do not store your photos, audio, video, addresses, room labels, or notes on this server — those stay on your device and in your own cloud account. The one exception, described in 3.3, is that a photo you send for a paid AI action — together with its voice note, if it has one — passes through our server in memory on its way to Google; it is never written down.
3.3 Sent to other companies' servers
| Data | Where it goes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The photo you choose for a paid AI action — labeling a wall | Our server, then Google (Gemini AI / Vertex) | To analyze what's behind the wall and return the labels. It passes through our server in memory so the credit can be charged securely; it is never written to disk or logged by us, and not retained by us afterwards. Google's handling is governed by its own terms. |
| A voice note attached to a photo you send for a paid AI action | Our server, then Google (Gemini AI / Vertex) | To turn speech into the written note attached to that photo. It travels with the photo in the same request, in memory only; not retained by us. |
| Photos you import from your library | Google (Gemini AI / Firebase AI Logic), direct from your phone | An automated content check to block explicit or non-construction images (see Terms §2a). Processed to return a verdict; not retained. |
| Your purchase receipt (anonymous device-level token) | Apple / Google Play | To process payment |
| Purchase receipt, entitlement state, and your account identifier — which for a Google sign-in is your account email | RevenueCat | To verify purchases across devices, unlock paid features, and tie a purchase to the right account so your credits survive a new phone |
| OAuth token (only if you sign in with Google) | To authorize uploads to your own Drive |
Apart from what is listed above, we do not send your photos, addresses, or notes anywhere. The rest of your record never leaves your device and your own cloud account.
3.4 Data we explicitly do NOT collect
- Usage analytics (no Mixpanel, Amplitude, Firebase Analytics, Sentry, etc.)
- Advertising identifiers (IDFA, GAID)
- Device fingerprints
- IP addresses (beyond what's in standard server logs at our static-site host, which auto-rotate within 7 days)
- Browsing history
- Contacts
- SMS, call logs, calendar
- Anything from other apps
4. Permissions we request and why
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Camera | To take photos and video of your walls |
| Microphone | To record voice notes |
| Photo library | To import existing photos you've already taken |
| Location (when in use) | To tag photos with the address you're capturing at |
| Internet | To sync to your Drive and verify your purchase |
Each permission is requested only when first used, with an in-app explanation. You can revoke any of them in your phone's settings — the app degrades gracefully.
5. Legal basis (GDPR)
For users in the European Union, United Kingdom, and other GDPR-aligned jurisdictions, our legal bases for processing are:
- Consent — you choose to install the app, grant permissions, sign in with Google or Apple, and use the AI features that send content to Google.
- Contract — to deliver the one-time per-home license and the AI credits you purchased.
- Legitimate interest — to verify your purchase isn't fraudulent, via RevenueCat's anonymous receipt validation.
We do not rely on consent banners because we do not run analytics or advertising trackers.
6. Third parties
The only third parties involved in Behind Your Wall, ever:
- Apple Inc. — App Store distribution, iOS in-app purchase, Sign in with Apple (optional), and iCloud storage (optional, in YOUR account). Policy: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
- Google LLC — Play Store distribution, Google Sign-In (optional), Google Drive storage (optional, in YOUR account), and the Gemini AI that produces the wall labels, the marked-up image and the transcriptions. Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
- RevenueCat, Inc. — purchase verification and entitlement management. They receive your purchase receipt and the identifier we use for your account, which for a Google sign-in is your account email; for an Apple sign-in it is an anonymous identifier. Without it a purchase cannot be reconnected to you on a new phone. They do not receive your photos or any other content. Policy: https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy
We do not, and will not without an explicit opt-in update to this policy:
- Sell your data
- Share your data with advertisers
- Use your photos to train AI models
- Hand your data to data brokers
- Run analytics or A/B tests against your usage
7. Your rights
7.1 GDPR (EU/UK)
You have the right to:
- Access your data — most of it is already in your hand: open the Behind Your Wall app and the
Behind Your Wallfolder in your own cloud account. For the small server record described in 3.2, email us. - Export your data — same answer. Your photos are sitting in your own cloud in standard JPEG/MP4/WAV formats. Download anytime.
- Delete your data — open Settings → Delete account in the app. That erases the server record described in 3.2 (account identifier, credit balance, purchase and spend history, contact email) and everything Behind Your Wall stored on your phone, immediately and without waiting on us. Two consequences worth knowing before you tap it: deleting also removes the record that you paid, so your purchase and remaining credits cannot be restored on this or any other device; and your photos in your own Google Drive or iCloud are not deleted, because we have no access to them — delete the
Behind Your Wallfolder there yourself if you want them gone.
- What survives, and why. Your Terms acceptance is retained with every identifying field removed — your account identifier, contact email, and any email address you gave us are erased from it, leaving only which version of the Terms was accepted, when, and against which home identifier. We rely on GDPR Art. 17(3)(e) (processing necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims): this record is our proof that the safety warnings in section 3 of the Terms were shown and agreed to before any work on a wall. It cannot be searched back to you.
- Rectify inaccurate data — edit it in-app.
- Object to processing — stop using the app.
- Complain to a supervisory authority.
To request anything you can't do yourself (e.g., we delete the RevenueCat anonymous purchase record), email support@behindyourwall.com and we will respond within 30 days.
7.2 CCPA / CPRA (California)
California residents have the same access, deletion, and portability rights described above. We do not sell or share personal information as defined by the CCPA. We have no "Do Not Sell My Information" link because there is nothing to opt out of.
If you'd like written confirmation, email support@behindyourwall.com with the subject line "CCPA Request."
7.3 Other jurisdictions
If your local law (e.g., LGPD in Brazil, PIPEDA in Canada, Privacy Act in Australia, POPIA in South Africa) grants you similar rights, you may exercise them by emailing support@behindyourwall.com.
8. Children's privacy
Behind Your Wall is not directed to children under 13 (or 16 in the EU), and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has used Behind Your Wall, contact us and we will help delete any associated data — at most their account email, credit balance, Terms-acceptance record, and purchase receipt.
The only personal information we collect at all is the account identifier described in 3.2 and, if you give one, a contact email.
9. Data security
- All data leaving your phone uses HTTPS / TLS 1.2 or higher.
- Google Drive content is encrypted at rest and in transit by Google.
- Our server record (email, credits, Terms acceptance) lives in Google Firebase, encrypted at rest and in transit, and access-controlled so only your account can read its own record.
- RevenueCat purchase receipts are encrypted at rest and in transit by RevenueCat.
- On-device data is stored in your phone's standard app sandbox, which iOS and Android encrypt by default when you have a passcode set.
The most sensitive data — your photos and videos — lives on your device and in your own cloud account. We never store it, so we cannot lose it. The single photo that passes through our server for an AI action exists only in memory for the length of that request.
10. Data retention
- On-device data: retained until you delete it in-app or uninstall the app.
- Cloud backup data (Google Drive or iCloud): retained until you delete it from your own account.
- Our server record (email, credits, purchase and spend history): retained while your home record is active so your credits and proof of purchase persist across devices. You can delete it yourself at any time in Settings → Delete account; deleting it also ends your ability to restore your credits and your purchase on any device.
- Your Terms acceptance: retained after account deletion, de-identified — see 7.1. We keep the version, the hash of the text, the date, and the home identifier; we erase every field naming you. Retained indefinitely, because a claim about work done on a wall can arrive years later, which is the only reason the record exists.
- RevenueCat purchase record: retained as long as your per-home license is active. You may request deletion, which will also end your ability to restore your purchase on a new device.
11. International transfers
If you live outside the United States, your purchase receipt may transit through RevenueCat's US-based servers and Apple / Google's global infrastructure. We rely on those providers' Standard Contractual Clauses and adequacy decisions for compliance.
Your backed-up photos, videos and voice notes go from your phone directly to your own cloud account and never touch our servers.
The one exception is a paid AI action: that photo, and its voice note if it has one, passes through our server, hosted in the United States, on its way to Google. We hold it in memory for the seconds the request takes and never write it to disk, never log it, and never keep it. Declining the paid AI features avoids this entirely — everything else in the app works without them.
One thing still goes to Google straight from your phone, without passing through us, and is worth naming plainly: an automated content check runs on any photo you import from your library. It is not retained by us. Photos you take with the in-app camera and never send for an AI action are not covered by either — they go only to your own cloud account.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change anything material, we will: 1. Update the "Last updated" date at the top. 2. Post the new version at https://behindyourwall.com/privacy. 3. Show an in-app notice on next launch if the change affects what data is collected.
We will never silently change the policy to start collecting new categories of data.
13. Contact
Questions, complaints, requests, or general curiosity: support@behindyourwall.com
We respond, personally, usually within a few days.