Culprit · Privacy
Culprit Privacy Policy
Effective date: 28 October 2026
Contact: jadenkylemike@gmail.com
Culprit ("we", "us") is an iOS app for adults. It helps you find the skincare product that lines up with your breakouts. This policy explains what data we handle, why, who processes it, and the choices you have.
The short version
- Your photos are sent to Google Gemini. Your morning selfies are sent to Google Gemini (Google LLC) to analyse your skin, and photos of product labels are sent to Google Gemini to read the ingredients. We never store either kind of photo on our servers.
- 18+ only. A date-of-birth check runs before any data is collected. We keep only the yes/no result, never your date of birth.
- Face photos are sent for counting only after you agree.
- Each morning check sends 3 photos of your face to Google Gemini (Google LLC), our AI processor, to count spots by zone.
- Our servers keep the counts and their positions on a face map, never the photo.
- Your photos are saved on your phone.
- You're in control.
- Withdraw consent in Settings: deletes your photos and every count made from them.
- Delete account: deletes everything, immediately and permanently.
- No ads, no tracking, no selling. We don't use advertising or cross-app tracking SDKs, and we don't sell or share personal data.
Data we collect
| Data | When | Why | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face photos (3 per check) | Each morning check, only after consent | Count new spots by zone | Sent to Google Gemini for processing; not stored on our servers; saved on your phone |
| Spot counts, lesion positions (face-map coordinates), photo-quality measures | Each check | Your daily counts, reports and pause tests | Our database |
| "Makeup on" days and rejected photos | Each check | Recorded as missing days (never as zero) | Our database |
| Product label photos | When you photograph a label | Read the ingredient list | Sent to Google Gemini once; not stored on our servers; saved on your phone. Offline, the label is read on your phone instead. |
| Products you add (name, ingredient list, dates you started or stopped them, zones where you apply them) | When you add a product | Ingredient flags, suspect ranking, Skin Watch | Our database |
| Skin type and breakout zones | Onboarding | Personalise flags and counts | Our database |
| Age-gate result (18+ yes/no) | Onboarding | Eligibility | Your phone and our database |
| Apple Health: sleep and steps (optional) | If you allow it | Line up short nights with breakouts | Read-only; summarised on your phone into daily totals before upload |
| City-level location (optional, rounded to about 11 km) | If you allow it | Humidity and UV for your city | Our database (rounded coordinates only) |
| Account info: email or Apple/Google sign-in ID, name if Apple shares it | If you sign in | Keep your data across devices | Our database |
| Purchases (subscription status, Apple transaction ID) | If you subscribe | Unlock Pro | Our database; payment is handled by Apple |
| Case Chat messages (your questions and Culprit's replies; the last 30 are kept) | When you use Case Chat | Answer questions about your own case | Our database. Each question is sent to Google Gemini together with a summary of your case (skin type, shelf, recent spot counts, suspects, pause status) — never photos. "Clear chat" deletes them; withdrawing face-data consent or deleting your account also deletes them. |
| App usage events (screens viewed, check-ins, paywall views, shares) | While you use the app | Improve the app; first-party only | Our database |
| Device ID (per install) | First launch | Prevent self-referral abuse | Our database |
We do not collect: your date of birth, precise location, contacts, advertising identifiers or browsing history.
Processors (service providers)
- Google Gemini API (Google LLC):
- counts spots on your face photos;
- reads the ingredient list from a photo of a product label you take (the label photo is sent once, not stored by us), and turns label text into ingredient names;
- suggests a product's usual ingredients when you add it by name only (always shown as "not from your label");
- writes report text;
- answers Case Chat questions from a summary of your case (no photos).
- We use the paid API tier, under which Google does not use your data to train its models. Google keeps prompts, the context we send and its outputs for 55 days, only for abuse monitoring and required legal or regulatory disclosures, and does not use them to train its models; only authorised Google staff can review them (source: Gemini API abuse monitoring, last updated 9 June 2026, checked 18 October 2026).
- Apple Inc. — payments (App Store subscriptions), Sign in with Apple, WeatherKit (weather for rounded coordinates) and push delivery.
- Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.) — crash and error reports, if enabled: device model, OS version, app version, the screen and the error, identified by your account ID only. Request bodies (photos, chat text), cookies and authorization headers are removed before sending.
- PostHog (PostHog Inc., EU cloud) — product analytics, if enabled: a fixed list of in-app events (for example "paywall viewed", "check-in completed") with short codes only, identified by a random install ID. Never photos, Health data, chat text or product names.
- Vercel, Inc. — hosts the Culprit backend (API).
- Neon, Inc. — runs our PostgreSQL database (counts, shelf, reports, Case Chat history; never photos).
Refund requests (optional)
Off unless you turn it on (Settings → Share usage if I ask Apple for a refund). If you then ask Apple for a refund, Apple may ask us how much you used Culprit. We answer with:
- your number of check-ins;
- whether a report was delivered;
- how long you've had your account, in broad ranges.
Your rights and choices
- Withdraw face-data consent: Settings → Withdraw consent and delete face data. This deletes your check-ins, lesion data, reports, pause tests and Case Chat history from our servers, and the photos on your phone.
- Clear your chat: Case Chat → Clear.
- Delete your account: Settings → Delete account. This deletes everything we hold about you. It works for accounts that never signed in, too.
- Turn off optional data: Health, location and reminders can be switched off in Settings or in iOS Settings at any time.
- Data export or correction: email us.
- EU/UK (GDPR) and California (CCPA/CPRA):
- You have rights of access, correction, deletion and portability, and the right to object.
- Our legal bases are your consent (face photos, Health, location) and the performance of our contract with you (the app's features).
- Face photos are processed only with your explicit consent.
- We don't "sell" or "share" personal information as the CCPA defines it.
Children
Culprit is for adults (18+). We block under-18s at the age check and do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.
Not medical advice
Culprit gives cosmetic, informational estimates from your own data. It is not a medical device, does not diagnose or treat any condition, and is not a substitute for a dermatologist. See a dermatologist for deep, painful or scarring breakouts.
Changes
We'll update this page and the effective date when the policy changes, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.