Privacy Policy

Optaxis · Last updated: June 30, 2026

Overview

Optaxis is the official app for medium format, large format, technical-camera, 135 flagship and film photographers. It offers professional calculators (Scheimpflug, DOF, FOV, hyperfocal, star trail, Milky Way, timelapse, print size, shift correction, focal-length conversion, ND, reciprocity), the AR composition viewfinder, lens database, equipment archive & comparison, gallery & collections (reviewed before publishing), hashtag aggregation, photo challenges, likes, comments and following photographers, photo-spot sharing (reviewed before publishing), shooting plans & logs (with cloud sync), map place layers (spots, dealers, labs, studios) with city-level weather, brand verification, four-language tutorial articles & news, four-language translation, email registration / sign-in (Supabase Auth) and Sign in with Apple, and password recovery — with a 4-language UI. We respect your privacy and this policy describes how we collect, use, and protect your information.

Information We Collect

• Location (optional): used for city-level weather queries (no precise coordinates collected). Disable any time in system settings.
• Username & avatar (optional): stored locally on your device and, when you sign in, on our server so other users can see them next to your posts and profile.
• Email address: when you register or sign in with email, your address is stored by our authentication provider (Supabase Auth) to identify your account, secure sign-in, and enable password recovery. If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple may provide a private relay address instead.
• Equipment data: bodies, lenses, backs, filters, kits and film inventory you add are stored locally (SwiftData) for offline use, and synced to our server (Supabase tables user_equipment / user_kits / user_film_rolls) for cross-device consistency and reinstall recovery.
• Posts & interactions (optional): photos, descriptions, shooting city, focal-length info, likes and comments are stored on the server and, once a post passes review, visible to others.
• Post edit history (optional): when you edit a published post, the change history (photos, captions, descriptions, city, gear) is stored for moderation and version tracking.
• EXIF metadata: when you upload photos to galleries or photo spots, the App auto-extracts camera, focal length, aperture, shutter, ISO and other shooting parameters. Stored alongside the post and may be visible to others.
• Follows (optional): the photographers you follow and your follower list are stored on the server. Other users can see counts and mutual-follow status. New posts from photographers you follow may trigger push notifications.
• Multi-image posts (optional): each additional image’s URL, sort order, aspect ratio and per-image shooting parameters are stored on the server.
• Camera permission (optional): the AR composition viewfinder requires camera access — used only when you actively open it, never in the background.
• Subscription credential: if you are a Pro subscriber, the App generates a QR code containing your user ID, plan, transaction ID and HMAC signature for presentation to dealers.
• Photo challenges (optional): submitted works and voting records are stored on the server.
• Galleries & portfolios (optional): portfolios you create, collected works and appreciation votes are stored on the server.
• Photo spots (optional): spot name, coordinates and description you submit are stored on the server and, once reviewed, visible to other users.
• Verification (optional): if you apply for brand verification (ALPA, Cinema Lens, Leica, Hasselblad, Fuji, Large-Format Film), submitted serial numbers/models and credential photos are stored and visible to admins only. Approved badges become public.
• Tutorial articles (optional): articles or reviews you submit are stored on the server and visible to others.
• Shooting plans (cloud + local, optional): title, location, date, time of day, notes, priority, linked log, and reference cover are cloud-synced across your devices, with local offline cache retained. Reference covers (≤1024 pt / ~150 KB) are stored on our OSS (path plan-covers/), visible only to you.
• Shooting logs (local + cloud, optional): gear, exposure, weather, notes are stored locally (SwiftData) and cloud-synced via our server. With Film Mode enabled, the log adds film-specific fields (stock, roll, holder, metering method, reciprocity comp, push-pull processing, developer). Attached photos are uploaded full-size to OSS (path shooting-logs/), visible only to you.
• Daily inspiration (read-only, optional): Daily Inspiration in the Discover tab is admin-curated and stored on Supabase. Inspiration items, source post links and push delivery records are public. Viewing inspiration uploads no personal data; opt-in push delivers new entries to your device.
• Device sensors (optional): the AR viewfinder uses compass and gyroscope data locally for azimuth overlays — not uploaded to the server.
• Language preference: the App supports a 4-language UI (Simplified Chinese, English, Traditional Chinese, Japanese). Your language preference is stored locally.
• Device identifier: we use IDFV (identifier for vendor) to identify users; we do not use IDFA (Apple advertising identifier).
• Usage analytics (pseudonymized): in-app activity — screens viewed, features used, sign-up / subscription milestones — is collected to understand how the app is used and improve it. Your account ID is hashed before sending; no email, name or content is included. Processed by PostHog (United States) — see Third-Party Services.
• Reports & blocks (optional): when you report content or users, reason and description plus the reported content identifier are stored on Supabase for moderation. Block relationships are stored so blocked users’ content stops appearing.

How We Use Information

• Provide city-level weather queries (location data).
• Display equipment users choose to make public.
• Provide post publishing, browsing, liking and commenting.
• Provide follow/follower social graph and mutual-follow indicators.
• Auto-extract and display photo EXIF parameters.
• Generate subscription credential QR for dealer presentation.
• Provide photo challenge submission and voting.
• Provide gallery appreciation and portfolio management.
• Provide photo-spot sharing (reviewed before publishing).
• Provide brand verification review (ALPA, Cinema Lens, Leica, Hasselblad, Fuji, Large-Format Film).
• Provide tutorial article publishing and reviews.
• Provide shooting plans and logs.
• Compute astronomical azimuth in the AR viewfinder (local processing).
• Translate post titles, descriptions and articles for multilingual display.
• Process reports, review violations, maintain community safety.
• Maintain user block lists and filter blocked users’ content.
• Accelerate image delivery via CDN.
• Display the UI in your preferred language.
• Sync equipment across signed-in devices via our server (Supabase).

Where Data Lives

• On-device: preferences, language, cache; equipment archive (SwiftData) for offline use, also synced to our server (see below).
• Equipment sync: bodies, lenses, backs, filters, kits and film inventory sync to Supabase (Seoul, South Korea region — tables user_equipment / user_kits / user_film_rolls) for cross-device consistency and reinstall recovery. We do not use Apple iCloud / CloudKit for equipment sync.
• Server: structured data (posts, likes, comments, follows, EXIF, photo spots, shooting logs and plans) lives on Supabase (Seoul, South Korea). Photos and originals live on Alibaba Cloud International OSS (Singapore, bucket alpa-photos-sg).

User-Generated Content

Posts, comments, galleries and photo spots you publish are public. Posts and photo spots are reviewed before they appear publicly, and any content may be reported and taken down. Please note:

• Do not include sensitive personal info in posts or comments.
• You can delete your posts and comments at any time.
• Post authors can delete any comment under their work.
• Photos and EXIF you attach to posts and photo spots are visible to others once published.
• Use in-app reporting to flag content; we review reports and remove violations.
• Content review is carried out by our human moderation team. We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects on you based solely on automated processing.
• We reserve the right to remove violating content.

Information Sharing

We do not sell or rent your personal information. Apart from the service providers listed in the Third-Party Services section below (who process data on our behalf under our instructions), we share information only in these cases:

• Posts, galleries, photo spots and interaction content (comments, likes) you publish.
• Subscription credentials you voluntarily present (QR contains user ID, plan, etc.).
• As required by laws and regulations.

Third-Party Services

• Apple WeatherKit: real-time and 10-day forecast for map weather, spot details and shoot-plan weather cards. WeatherKit attribution follows Apple’s requirements (legal-attribution).
• Apple MapKit: map services.
• Apple Push Notification service (APNs): system pushes (likes, comments, follows, daily inspiration). Only device tokens and notification payloads are sent — no private data.
• Supabase (Seoul, South Korea): structured data — posts, likes, comments, follows, photo spots, shooting logs/plans. Provides Auth and PostgREST.
• Cloudflare CDN: image delivery acceleration (cdn.dakaolaapp.com). Collects no additional user data.
• Alibaba Cloud International OSS (Singapore, bucket alpa-photos-sg): photo and file storage for posts, avatars, log/plan attachments.
• Vercel: hosts our serverless API functions that route requests for app features. Request data is processed transiently to serve responses; your content is not retained by Vercel.
• Translation service (Alibaba Cloud International DashScope, Singapore): auto-translates post titles, descriptions and articles for multilingual display — proxied via our Vercel Functions. Submitted text is used solely to generate the translation and not for model training. This is the only purpose for which we use DashScope.
• Sentry (crash & error monitoring): stack traces, device model, iOS version, App version, and a pseudonymous account identifier (your account UUID). No IP addresses, screenshots, or view hierarchies. Email support@optaxis.app to request deletion of related Sentry events.
• PostHog (product analytics, United States): receives pseudonymized in-app usage events (screens viewed, features used, sign-up / subscription milestones) so we can understand product usage and improve the app. Your account ID is hashed before it is sent; we never send your email, name, or content. Data is hosted in the United States.
• Apple StoreKit 2 / Apple Server Notifications V2: subscription purchases, renewals and refunds are handled by StoreKit 2 and asynchronously relayed to our servers. We store only the fields required (plan type, original transaction ID, expiry, status); we never access Apple payment credentials or card details.

These services have their own privacy policies — please review them.

Data Security

We take reasonable technical measures including HTTPS encryption and Supabase Row Level Security (RLS). However, no method of internet transmission is 100% secure.

Children’s Privacy

The App is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your Rights

• Disable location permissions in system settings any time.
• Delete local equipment data any time.
• Delete posts and comments any time.
• Unfollow other photographers any time.
• Disable camera permissions in system settings any time.
• Switch UI language any time.
• Contact us to request deletion of all data related to you.

Data Retention & Account Deletion

We retain personal data only as long as needed to provide the service or as required by law. Content you create (posts, comments, logs, equipment) is kept until you delete it or delete your account. When you delete your account (in-app or by emailing support@optaxis.app), we permanently delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, except where longer retention is legally required (e.g., transaction records for tax/audit); residual copies in rolling encrypted backups are purged within 30 days. De-identified, aggregated data that can no longer identify you may be retained.

EEA / UK Users (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the GDPR applies. The data controller is Optaxis (see Contact below). We process your data on these legal bases: performance of our contract with you (providing the app and account), your consent (optional features such as location and push notifications — withdrawable any time), our legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention, and service improvement), and legal obligations. You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent. You may also lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. To exercise these rights, email support@optaxis.app. Some data is processed on servers in South Korea, Singapore, the United States and other regions; such international transfers rely on appropriate safeguards (e.g., Standard Contractual Clauses).

California Users (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, the CCPA/CPRA gives you the right to know what personal information we collect and how it is used, to request access to or deletion of that information, to correct inaccurate information, and to be free from discrimination for exercising these rights. We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not use sensitive personal information for purposes beyond providing the service. To exercise your rights, email support@optaxis.app; we will verify your request via your account email.

Mainland China Users (PIPL)

If you are in mainland China, the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) applies. We process your personal information based on your consent and the necessity of providing the service; for optional features (location, push) we obtain separate consent, which you can withdraw at any time in Settings. You have the right to access, copy, correct, and delete your personal information, to request an explanation of our processing rules, and to deactivate your account. Some data is stored or processed outside mainland China (e.g., Supabase in South Korea, and OSS in Singapore); where cross-border transfer of personal information is involved, we will provide the required notice and obtain your separate consent, and adopt measures consistent with PIPL. To exercise your rights, email support@optaxis.app.

Policy Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Updates will be posted on this page with a revised “Last updated” date. Please review periodically.

Contact Us

Questions about this policy:

Email: support@optaxis.app

Operating entity: this app is currently operated by XIAO MIN NI as an individual developer; it will be updated to the registered company name and address once company registration is complete.