Privacy Policy
How Carat handles your data
The short version. No account and no email. Photographs you submit are sent to our servers to identify the piece and are kept with your result until you delete it. Identification uses Google Gemini through our own backend; Google does not receive your identity. Your collection lives on your phone. We never sell data.
1. Who we are
Yaysoft LTD (“we”, “us”) operates Carat: Jewelry & Diamond ID (“Carat”). We are the data controller for the processing described here. Contact: yayapps+carat@gmail.com.
2. What we collect
- Photographs you take or choose for identification, including hallmark close-ups.
- Optional context you type about a piece (up to 500 characters).
- An anonymous identifier created by Firebase Authentication on first launch. It is not linked to your name, email or phone number.
- Subscription status from RevenueCat and Apple (product, renewal and expiry dates, country of purchase). We never see your payment details.
- Usage events (for example “scan started”, “result viewed”, “paywall shown”), your app version, platform, language and an approximate country derived from your IP address.
- Crash and error reports via Sentry, with no photographs, notes or free text attached.
- Support messages you send us, with the email address and any photo you include.
3. Why we process it
- To identify and value the piece you photographed (performance of the contract).
- To provide the “Ask the gemologist” conversation about a piece you identified.
- To verify your subscription and deliver what you paid for.
- To measure whether the app works and where it fails (legitimate interest), including conversion funnels.
- To answer support requests.
4. Your photographs
Photographs are uploaded to our backend on Cloudflare Workers and stored in Cloudflare R2 (EU jurisdiction) and mirrored to Firebase Cloud Storage and Firestore (EU region) so your result can be restored on your device. They are analysed by Google Gemini via Cloudflare AI Gateway; the request contains the photograph and the context you typed, not your identity. Photographs and results are deleted when you delete the piece from your Vault, and in any case when you ask us to delete your data.
5. Processors
- Cloudflare, Inc. — hosting, storage, AI Gateway (logs prompts and responses for reliability; no photographs are retained in the gateway log).
- Google LLC — Firebase Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Storage, Remote Config, Analytics; Gemini API for identification.
- RevenueCat, Inc. — subscription management.
- Apple Inc. — App Store purchases and receipts.
- Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) — crash and error reporting.
6. Where data is stored
Backend data is stored in the European Union where the provider allows a region choice (Cloudflare R2 EU, Firebase europe-west). Some processors, including Google Gemini, RevenueCat and Sentry, process data in the United States under standard contractual clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.
7. Retention
Identification results and photographs: until you delete the piece or request deletion. Usage events and error logs: up to 24 months. Support messages: up to 24 months after the last reply. Subscription records: as long as required for accounting.
8. What stays on your device
The Vault — your identified pieces, their photographs, values and notes — is stored on your iPhone. It is not synchronised to any account and is lost if you delete the app, unless the server copy described in section 4 can restore it.
9. No sale of data, no advertising profiles
We do not sell personal data and do not share it with advertisers. If you allow App Tracking Transparency, Apple Search Ads attribution is collected by RevenueCat to measure which advertisement brought you to Carat; it never changes what the app does.
10. Children
Carat is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data.
11. Your rights
Under the GDPR and UK GDPR you can ask for access, correction, deletion, restriction or portability of your data and object to processing based on legitimate interest. California residents have equivalent rights under the CCPA. Because identity is anonymous, we can act on requests only if you send us the anonymous user ID shown in Settings. Email yayapps+carat@gmail.com; we answer within 30 days. You may also complain to your supervisory authority (in the UK, the ICO).
12. Deleting your data
Delete a piece in the Vault to remove its photographs and result from our servers. To delete everything tied to your anonymous ID, email us the ID from Settings; we confirm within 30 days.
13. Security
All traffic is encrypted in transit. Backend access is limited to signed requests from the app and to us. AI provider requests are authenticated per request and never carry your identifier.
14. Changes
We will post changes here with a new date. Material changes are announced in the app.
15. Not an appraisal
Values and grades produced by Carat are AI estimates and are not a certified appraisal or a laboratory grading report. See the Terms of Use.
Questions: yayapps+carat@gmail.com