Privacy Policy

Buck is a coin and banknote identifier. You take or import a photo, Buck tells you what the item is, shows an estimated market value or value range, and lets you keep a personal collection. We built Buck to do this with as little personal data as possible. Buck has no user accounts, runs no advertising or analytics SDKs, and does not sell your data or track you across other apps or websites.

This policy is written to be accurate to how Buck works today, including the optional auto-renewing subscription offered through Apple In-App Purchase, the AI service we use to identify items, the community finds feed, and the operational logging we run to keep recognition working. If we change what Buck collects, we update this policy and the effective date above before the change goes live.

1. Who we are and who controls your data

The data controller responsible for your personal data under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:

Emanuele Pio Totaro
Italy
Contact for privacy matters: privacy@getbuckapp.com

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another region with data protection authorities, you also have the right to contact your local supervisory authority (see Section 11, "Your rights").

2. A quick summary

• No account. You do not sign up, log in, or create a profile to use Buck.
• What leaves your device. The photo or photos you choose to scan are sent to our recognition backend so the item can be identified. Our backend passes the image to Google Gemini, an artificial intelligence (AI) service we use as a sub-processor, which returns the identity of the item only. We ask your explicit permission before the first image is sent to that AI service.
• Images are not kept in the recognition pipeline. Our recognition backend processes your image to return a result and does not keep a database of users or build a profile of you. A copy of scanned images appears in our private operational quality logs only if you turn on diagnostic sharing; those logs are readable only by the developer and you can ask us to delete them (see Sections 3.4, 5, and 8).
• Sharing a find is optional. If you opt in to the community feed, the cropped photo of an item you scan is shown to other Buck users and served from a public web address. This is off unless you turn it on (Section 3.8).
• Local storage only. Your collection and app data are stored on your device using Apple's standard on-device storage (UserDefaults). They are not uploaded to us.
• No selling, no tracking. We do not sell your personal data. We do not use it for cross-app or cross-site advertising. Buck does not show the App Tracking Transparency prompt because Buck does not track you.
• Apple handles payments. If you purchase a subscription, Apple processes the payment. We never see your full card number or billing details.

The rest of this policy gives the detail that Apple, the GDPR, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) expect.

3. What data we collect, and why

3.1 Camera images you capture

When you use the in-app scanner, the App accesses your device camera so you can photograph a coin or banknote. Buck requests camera permission through the standard iOS prompt before any camera access. The captured image is used to identify the item and to display an estimated value. See Section 5 for exactly how the image is processed and Section 6 for the third parties involved.

• Purpose: to identify the coin or banknote in the photo and show an estimated value or value range.
• Legal basis (GDPR): performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)). Scanning is the core function you ask Buck to perform.

3.2 Photos you submit from your photo library

Instead of using the camera, you can choose an existing photo using the iOS photo picker. The system photo picker hands Buck only the specific image you select. Buck does not get access to your wider photo library, and iOS does not require a photo library permission prompt for this. The selected image is then processed the same way as a camera capture (Section 5).

• Purpose: the same as camera images: identification and value estimation.
• Legal basis (GDPR): performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)).

3.3 Your collection and app preferences (stored on your device)

Buck saves your activity locally on your device using Apple's standard on-device storage. This currently includes a snapshot of the in-app finds feed and similar app state. This information stays on your device. It is not an account, it is not uploaded to our servers, and we cannot read it remotely. Deleting the App removes this local data (see Section 8).

• Purpose: to remember your collection and app state between sessions and let the App work offline.
• Legal basis (GDPR): performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)). This data is processed on your device, not by us.

3.4 Device, diagnostic, and usage information

Buck does not embed any third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, or crash-reporting software development kits (SDKs). We do run our own lightweight, first-party usage logging so we can see that the App works and improve it. This logging records app events (for example that the App was opened, that a scan was completed, or that the paywall was shown) together with basic technical context: your device model, iOS version, App version, device language, an approximate city-level location derived from the IP address of the request, and a random installation identifier that the App generates on first launch. This identifier is not your name, email, phone number, Apple ID, or advertising identifier, and it cannot be used to identify you across other companies' apps or websites. Scan images may be included in these operational logs so we can monitor and improve recognition quality; see Section 5 and Section 8.

These operational logs are delivered through our backend to a private, access-restricted channel and internal analytics store that only the developer can read. They are used solely to operate, debug, and improve the Service. They are never used for advertising, never sold, and never shared with data brokers.

Scan images in operational logs are optional and off by default. Including a copy of your scan photo in these quality logs happens only if you turn on diagnostic sharing in the App. Event logs without images (for example "a scan completed", "the paywall was shown") run without images so we can tell whether the App is working at all.

When the App contacts our recognition backend, the connection also necessarily involves basic technical information that is part of any internet request, such as your device's IP address and a standard request timestamp. We use this to operate the Service securely, including rate limiting and abuse prevention, so that the recognition endpoint stays available and is not misused. We do not use it to build an advertising profile.

If you have enabled Apple's optional sharing of app analytics and diagnostics at the iOS level, Apple may provide us with aggregated, non-identifying crash and usage statistics through App Store Connect. This is controlled by you in your device Settings and is governed by Apple's privacy policy.

• Purpose: to keep the Service running, secure, and reliable.
• Legal basis (GDPR): legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in operating, securing, and protecting the Service against abuse.

3.5 Subscription and purchase status

Buck offers an optional auto-renewing subscription with a free trial. The purchase is made through Apple's In-App Purchase system. Apple processes the transaction and your payment. We do not receive or store your credit card number, your full billing address, or other payment card details.

Through Apple's StoreKit framework, the App can learn whether you currently hold an active subscription or trial, so it can unlock the corresponding features. If we later keep a record of subscription status on our servers to deliver features across your devices, that record will be limited to subscription state and will not include your payment card data.

• Purpose: to unlock and manage subscription features you have paid for.
• Legal basis (GDPR): performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)).

3.6 Messages you send us for support

If you email us (for example at support@getbuckapp.com or privacy@getbuckapp.com), we receive your email address and whatever you choose to put in your message, so we can reply and help you. We do not require you to contact us, and you control what you include.

• Purpose: to respond to your questions, support requests, and rights requests.
• Legal basis (GDPR): legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in providing support, and compliance with a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) when handling a data rights request.

3.7 Anonymous installation identifier and App Attest

On first launch the App generates a random installation identifier and stores it on your device. It is a random value. It is not your name, email address, phone number, Apple Account, or Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA), and it is not shared with advertisers, data brokers, or any other company for their own purposes. It is the key that joins the operational logs (Section 3.4), the subscription records held by RevenueCat (Section 3.5), and any community finds you share (Section 3.8), so that we can support you, honour your subscription, and answer a deletion request. Because it persists on your device and joins those records together, we treat it as personal data and describe it as such throughout this policy. Deleting and reinstalling the App generates a new identifier.

Buck also uses Apple App Attest (part of Apple's DeviceCheck framework) to confirm that a request to our backend comes from a genuine, unmodified copy of the App. App Attest produces a cryptographic assertion generated by Apple hardware. It does not identify you, and it is used only to protect the recognition endpoint from abuse.

• Purpose: to operate and support the Service, honour subscriptions, and prevent abuse of our recognition endpoint.
• Legal basis (GDPR): performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)) for subscription entitlement, and legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in operating and securing the Service.

3.8 Community finds you choose to share

Buck includes an optional community finds feed showing coins and banknotes that other people have identified. If you turn this feature on, then each time you complete a scan the App submits to our backend: the cropped photo of the coin or banknote, its name, the estimated value shown, a randomly assigned display handle, your installation identifier, and an approximate city-level location derived from the IP address of the request. That entry may then be shown to other Buck users inside the App, and the cropped photo is served from a public web address that is not guessable but is not password-protected either.

This means the photo you scan can be seen by other people. Only share scans of items you are happy to make public, and keep faces, documents, addresses, screens, and anything else private out of the frame. Sharing is off unless you turn it on, you can turn it off at any time in Settings, and you can ask us to delete anything you have shared by writing to privacy@getbuckapp.com. We do not attach your name to a shared find, because we do not have it.

• Purpose: to show a community feed of real finds to people who have opted in to it.
• Legal basis (GDPR): consent (Article 6(1)(a)). You may withdraw consent at any time, which stops future sharing; ask us and we will also remove past entries.

3.9 Screenshots you take inside the App

If you enable diagnostic sharing, then when you take an iOS screenshot while Buck is in the foreground, the App renders a copy of the Buck screen you were looking at and sends it to our private operational log channel (Section 3.4), together with your device model, iOS version, and App version. This helps us see exactly what a confusing or broken screen looked like. It captures only Buck's own interface, never other apps and never your wider screen or photo library. It is off unless you turn it on, you can turn it off at any time in Settings, and it never runs without your permission.

• Purpose: to diagnose visual and layout problems reported by users.
• Legal basis (GDPR): consent (Article 6(1)(a)).

4. What we do not collect

To be clear, Buck does not:

• require an account, username, password, or social login;
• collect your name, postal address, date of birth, or government ID;
• access your contacts, microphone, calendar, health data, or precise location;
• use GPS or Core Location (any "near you" content in the App that is not yet backed by real location data is illustrative, not based on your location);
• include advertising, analytics, attribution, or third-party tracking SDKs;
• show the App Tracking Transparency prompt, because Buck does not track you;
• sell or rent your personal data to anyone.

5. How your images are processed

This is the most important section, so we describe it step by step.

1. You capture a photo with the camera or pick one from your library.
2. The App sends the image to our recognition backend over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. The image is transmitted so it can be identified.
3. Our recognition backend forwards the image to Google Gemini, an AI service we use as a sub-processor, using a server-side key. Your device never holds or sends that key, and the App does not talk to Google directly.
4. Google Gemini returns identification details about the item, such as country, denomination, year, mint mark, variety, name, and a confidence indicator. Buck uses only the identity. Any value or grade produced by the AI model is discarded; Buck does not rely on the AI for value.
5. The App displays the result to you.

Retention of images on our side. Our recognition backend is a stateless proxy for the identification step: it does not keep a database of users and does not retain the image in the recognition pipeline after the request has been served. Separately, a copy of the scanned image may be recorded in our private operational logs (Section 3.4) so we can monitor and improve recognition quality. These logs are access-restricted to the developer, are never used for advertising, and you can ask us to delete them at any time by writing to privacy@getbuckapp.com.

Estimated value. Buck's value figures are estimates intended to help hobbyists, not a professional appraisal, an authentication, a grading, or financial or investment advice. Actual value depends on condition, grade, authenticity, demand, and the specific buyer. The value pipeline that draws on real market sales data is being rolled out; until it is fully live for a given item, the App will tell you honestly that a value is being checked or is not yet available rather than present a made-up figure.

6. Third parties and sub-processors

Buck shares data with a small, fixed set of service providers who act on our instructions. We do not sell your data to any of them or to anyone else.

About the AI sub-processor. Your photos are shared with a third-party artificial intelligence service, Google Gemini, in order to identify what is in them. The App tells you this in plain language and asks for your explicit permission before the first image is ever sent. If you decline, no image leaves your device and scanning is unavailable; you can change your mind at any time in Settings. Google processes the image as our sub-processor solely to return an identification result. We do not permit your images to be used to target advertising to you. Google's handling of data submitted through its AI services is governed by Google's own terms and privacy documentation.

About the community feed. If you opt in to sharing your finds (Section 3.8), the cropped photo of the item is also published to other Buck users through the in-app community feed and served from a public web address. This is separate from, and additional to, the AI identification step above, and it is off unless you turn it on.

7. How we share data (and how we do not)

• We do not sell your personal data. We have not sold and do not sell personal data, and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California law.
• No advertising or tracking. We do not disclose your data to advertising networks or data brokers.
• Service providers only. We disclose data only to the sub-processors listed in Section 6, only to operate the Service, and only under terms that require them to protect it.
• Legal and safety. We may disclose information if required by law, legal process, or a valid government request, or where necessary to protect the rights, safety, security, or property of Buck, our users, or the public.
• Business transfers. If Buck is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.

8. Data retention

• Images: not retained by our recognition backend after a request is served. See Section 6 regarding the AI sub-processor's own handling. Copies of scanned images kept in our private operational quality logs (Section 3.4) are periodically purged and are deleted on request at any time.
• Operational usage logs: app event logs and the random installation identifier are kept only as long as needed to operate and improve the Service, and are deleted or anonymized on request.
• On-device data (your collection and preferences): kept on your device until you delete it within the App or delete the App. We do not hold a copy.
• Technical and security logs: any request metadata used for security and rate limiting is kept only for as long as needed for those purposes and then deleted or aggregated.
• Support messages: kept for as long as needed to handle your request and to keep a reasonable record of support history, then deleted.
• Subscription status: if we store subscription state, it is kept only while needed to provide the subscription and to meet legal, tax, and accounting obligations.

9. Security

We protect data with measures appropriate to its sensitivity, including:

• encrypted transport: communication between the App and our backend uses HTTPS;
• a server-side AI key that is never shipped in the App, so it cannot be extracted from your device;
• a stateless recognition backend that does not build a store of your images;
• rate limiting and abuse prevention to protect the Service.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your information and to limit what we collect in the first place.

10. Children's privacy

Buck is rated for general audiences (Apple age rating 4+) and contains age-appropriate content about coins, banknotes, and collecting. The App is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13, or under the minimum age of digital consent in your country (which can be up to 16 in parts of the EEA). If you believe a child has provided us personal data, contact us at privacy@getbuckapp.com and we will delete it.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights:

• Access: ask what personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: ask us to correct inaccurate data.
• Deletion: ask us to delete your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
• Portability: ask for a copy of data you provided in a portable format.
• Restriction and objection: ask us to limit or stop certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests.
• Withdraw consent: where we rely on consent, withdraw it at any time.
• Non-discrimination (California): you will not be treated differently for exercising your privacy rights, and the value of the Service to you will not change because you exercised them.

Because Buck has no account and does not store your images or build a profile of you, much of your data simply never leaves your device, and there is usually no server-side personal profile for us to retrieve. Most of your information lives in the App on your phone and is under your direct control.

How to exercise your rights and delete your data

• Local data: to delete your collection and app data, delete it within the App where the option is provided, or delete the App from your device. This removes the data stored locally on your phone.
• Server-side and support requests: to make any access, deletion, or other rights request, email privacy@getbuckapp.com. We will respond within the time required by applicable law (for example, generally within one month under the GDPR). We may need to verify your request, for example by asking you to confirm it from the same email address you used to contact us.
• Subscription: if you subscribe, you manage and cancel your subscription through your Apple ID in the iOS Settings or App Store. To request deletion of any subscription record we may hold, contact privacy@getbuckapp.com.
• Anonymous device identity (planned): if and when this feature ships, the App will provide an in-app way to delete the data associated with it, and you can also contact privacy@getbuckapp.com.

If we ever introduce an account, we will also provide an in-app way to delete that account and its associated data directly from within the App, as Apple requires.

12. International data transfers

We are based in, and operate the Service from, Italy, and our sub-processors (including Google and Apple) may process data in the United States and other countries. If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, this means your information may be transferred outside your home region to countries that may not provide the same level of data protection.

Where we make such transfers, we rely on appropriate safeguards required by law, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, and, where applicable, providers' approved data transfer frameworks. You can contact us at privacy@getbuckapp.com for more information about these safeguards.

13. Cookies and our website

The Buck App does not use cookies. If our website at getbuckapp.com uses cookies or similar technologies (for example, for basic site functionality or aggregate visit statistics), that use will be described on the website itself. This policy covers the App and the recognition Service.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example when a planned feature such as the anonymous device identity goes live, or when we add a new sub-processor. When we make a material change, we will update the "Effective date" at the top and, where appropriate, notify you within the App. Your continued use of Buck after an update means you accept the revised policy.

15. Contact us

Questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy:

• Privacy: privacy@getbuckapp.com
• General support: support@getbuckapp.com
• Data controller: Emanuele Pio Totaro, Italy

We will do our best to resolve any concern you raise. If you are in the EEA or the UK and are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.