Film Barcode

Your films and photos as color barcodes, for iPhone, iPad and Mac

Privacy Policy

Effective: September 2026. Supersedes the July 2026 policy; what changed is at the end.

Film Barcode has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no trackers. We run no servers, and we cannot see your barcodes, your photos or your videos.

From version 2.5 the app can sync your gallery through your own iCloud account, if you turn that on. That is the only way anything ever leaves your device. It stays off until you choose it, and what it syncs to is your own private iCloud storage, which we cannot read.

• Videos you select are read on your device for their colors. A video is never modified, and is never uploaded anywhere, even with sync on.
• Photos you select are read on your device for their palette. From version 2.5 the app keeps a copy of the photo alongside the barcode it made, so a poster made later does not have to ask you for the photo again. That copy lives in the app's private storage, and travels only if you turn on iCloud sync. Before 2.5 the app kept only a small thumbnail.
• Generated barcodes are stored in the app's private storage, along with small companion files (a video's sampled colors, or a photo's palette) that exist so a barcode can be reshaped later. They leave your device only when you share them, save them to your photo library, or turn on iCloud sync.
• Photo library access: the app asks for add-only permission, used solely to save an image to your library when you ask it to. It cannot read your photo library. Choosing a video or a photo uses Apple's system picker, which hands the app only the item you picked.

iCloud sync

Sync is off until you turn it on, in Settings under Film Barcode on iPhone and iPad, and in Film Barcode › Settings on the Mac.

When it is on, your barcodes are stored in a private CloudKit database inside your own iCloud account. This is the same mechanism Apple provides to any app that syncs your data to your own iCloud. We have no server, no database, and no access to that content. Apple's handling of iCloud data is covered by Apple's own privacy policy.

What travels, for each barcode:

• its title, the date it was made, its size and settings;
• the color data the barcode was drawn from;
• a copy of its source photo, or, for a video, a still frame from it, so your other devices can show the barcode and make posters from it;
• and a record of deletions, so a barcode you delete on one device disappears on the others.

What never travels: your original video.

Turning sync off stops anything further from being sent. Barcodes already on your devices stay where they are, and the copy in your iCloud stays until you delete it.

Sharing

A barcode can be shared as a picture, or as a Film Barcode file that someone else with the app can open. That file carries the color data needed to redraw the barcode, its title and settings, and its photo or still. It deliberately carries nothing that identifies you or your device: no file paths, no photo library identifiers, and no name of the sender. A barcode is shared only when you ask, and it goes only where you send it.

On iPhone and iPad you can also send Film Barcode files to the app from the Files app, several at once. They are copied into a folder shared between the app and its share extension, on your device, and the app imports and clears that folder the next time you open it. No network is involved.

Feedback and ratings

Send Feedback opens a pre-addressed message in your own mail app. The app does not send it, and puts nothing in the message except the app version and device model, which you can delete before sending. Rating the app opens the App Store.

Data collection

None by us. The app contains no third-party SDKs and no trackers, and it makes no network requests of its own. With sync on, it talks only to Apple's iCloud, on your behalf and into your own account.

What changed in this version

The July 2026 policy said the app used “no network services of any kind” and made “no network requests”. That was true then and is not true now: version 2.5 added optional iCloud sync. That policy also described only videos, and said nothing about the copy of a photo the app now keeps, which is what lets posters stop asking for it. Both are stated above rather than left for you to discover.

If a future version changes these practices, this policy will be updated and the change noted in the App Store release notes and in this section.

Support

Found a bug, or have an idea for Film Barcode? Get in touch:

• Email: rnathkdev1@gmail.com
• Or leave a review with feedback on the App Store page