Privacy Policy for Sc4nR
Effective Date: November 22, 2025 · Last Updated: August 20, 2026
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how 合同会社KyotoTech (KyotoTech LLC) ("KyotoTech", "we", "our") handles information in connection with our iOS application Sc4nR ("the App").
Sc4nR is designed with privacy as a core principle. Everything you scan stays on your device, and the App never transmits it on its own. We do not collect, receive, or have access to any of your personal information. The App contains no networking code at all — it has no technical means of contacting a server. The only time data leaves your device is when you deliberately choose to share or export it.
2. Information Collection and Use
2.1 What We Don't Collect
Sc4nR does not:
- Collect any personal information
- Transmit data to external servers
- Use analytics or tracking tools
- Create user accounts or profiles
- Sync data to the cloud
- Share your information automatically with anyone
- Display advertisements
- Collect crash reports or diagnostics
- Monitor your app usage
- Access your photo library, contacts, microphone, or location
2.2 Local Data Storage
All data created within Sc4nR is stored exclusively on your device:
- Scan History: the content of the codes, tags, and text you scan, together with the code type, a timestamp, your favorite marking, and technical metadata. Stored in a single file inside the App's private container.
- App Settings: your language preference and whether you have completed the tutorial.
- Temporary Data: the live camera image, held in memory only while a scanner screen is open. Camera frames are never written to storage.
Please note that the content you scan may itself contain personal information — a QR code can hold a contact card, a Wi-Fi password, or a personal link. Sc4nR stores that content on your device exactly as it was scanned so you can find it again later. It remains under your control at all times.
This data is protected by iOS's built-in security features, including encryption while your device is locked.
2.3 User-Initiated Sharing and Export
Sc4nR lets you get your data out of the App in three ways. All of them are entirely user-initiated — nothing is ever shared automatically:
- Share a single scan through Apple's standard share sheet.
- Export selected scans, or your whole history, as a CSV, JSON, or plain text file.
- Copy the content of a scan to the system clipboard.
No servers are involved. We operate no servers and never receive, store, or have access to what you share. Once you pick a destination, that channel is governed by Apple's and that service's own privacy policies. If you never use the sharing, export, or copy features, no data ever leaves your device.
3. Camera Access
3.1 How We Use the Camera
Sc4nR requires camera access to scan QR codes and barcodes, to recognize text ("Live Text"), and to display a live preview so you can aim the camera.
3.2 On-Device Processing Only
All image processing happens entirely on your device, using Apple's AVFoundation and Vision frameworks:
- Camera frames are analyzed in device memory and then discarded.
- No photos or videos are ever taken, saved, or stored — not to your photo library, and not inside the App.
- Only the result of a scan — the decoded content or the recognized text — is written to your scan history.
- No image data is transmitted anywhere, because the App transmits nothing at all.
3.3 Controlling Camera Access
You can change camera permission at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera. Without camera access, the QR/barcode and Live Text scanners cannot function. Your existing scan history, the NFC scanner, and all export features remain fully available.
4. NFC Access
4.1 What We Read
Sc4nR uses Apple's Core NFC framework to read NFC tags and cards that you deliberately hold against your device. For each tag, the App reads its identifier (UID) and the tag technology — MiFare, ISO 7816, ISO 15693, or FeliCa — along with attributes such as chip family, manufacturer code, serial number, system code, or historical bytes.
Where a tag carries a stored message in the openly readable NDEF format — typically a web address, a piece of text, or a contact detail — the App reads that message as well. This is the information the tag was written to carry and that any NFC reader, including the one built into iOS, will read when the tag is presented. It is stored in your local scan history and stays on your device.
4.2 Writing to Tags
Sc4nR can also write a web address or a piece of text to a writable NFC tag. This is entirely under your control:
- You supply the content. Nothing is written unless you type it in yourself. The App never generates content and never writes anything of its own — no identifiers, no timestamps, no data about you or your device.
- You confirm before it happens. Writing starts only after you tap the write button and confirm the warning that existing content will be replaced.
- Writing is not reversible. Whatever was on the tag before is replaced.
- Sc4nR never permanently locks a tag. Some tags can be made read-only forever; the App offers no such option.
- Nothing is transmitted. What you write goes onto the tag in your hand and nowhere else.
4.3 What We Do Not Do
- Sc4nR does not modify a tag on its own. It writes only the content you entered, only after you confirmed, and never as a side effect of scanning.
- Sc4nR does not access protected or secured areas of a tag or card. It performs no authentication and sends no commands beyond reading and writing the openly accessible message, so the protected contents of payment cards, transit cards, and identity documents are not accessible to the App.
- Sc4nR cannot read or write a tag in the background. Access only occurs while you hold your device against a tag during a session that you started.
5. Data Security
Your data is protected by the iOS sandbox, which prevents other apps from accessing it, and by iOS encryption while your device is locked. The App never sends your data on its own; data leaves your device only if you explicitly share, export, or copy it. All scanning, decoding, and text recognition happens on your device.
Because we operate no servers and hold no copy of your data, we have no database that could be breached, no accounts whose credentials could be compromised, and no data to sell or hand over. This describes our side of the system. The security of your device itself remains governed by iOS and by your own device settings.
6. Third-Party Services
Sc4nR uses Apple frameworks only, all of which run locally on your device: AVFoundation for camera capture and code detection, Core NFC for reading and writing tags, Vision for on-device text recognition, and Core Image for regenerating a scanned code as an image.
The App contains no third-party SDKs of any kind — no analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting, no attribution. It offers no in-app purchases and no subscriptions.
A scan may contain a web address. If you choose to open it, your device hands the address to your browser or another app, and that app's own privacy policy applies from that point on. Sc4nR opens nothing automatically — a link is only followed when you tap it.
7. Your Rights and Control
You have full control over your data:
- View: your entire scan history is visible within the App, with search, filtering, and favorites.
- Delete: swipe to delete an individual scan, select several and delete them together, or delete your entire history at once from Settings.
- Export: take your history with you as a CSV, JSON, or plain text file at any time.
- Remove all: deleting the App removes all of its data permanently.
Because the App collects and transmits no personal data to us, there is no processing by us that would require your consent. Control over the data on your device stays entirely with you.
8. Children's Privacy
Sc4nR collects no data from any user, including children. The App contains no advertisements, no social features, no purchases, and no third-party content. It is suitable for use by children under the guidance of a parent or guardian.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to the App or to legal requirements. When we do, we will update the "Last Updated" date above and point out significant changes within the App.
10. International Users
Sc4nR is available worldwide. The App performs no international data transfers — it performs no data transfers at all. It is designed to respect the principles of the major privacy regimes, including APPI (Japan), GDPR (European Union), CCPA (California, USA), and PIPEDA (Canada).
11. European Economic Area (GDPR)
Sc4nR collects no personal data and sends none to us. We operate no servers, receive nothing from the App, and consequently hold no personal data about you. All processing takes place locally on your own device and under your sole control.
Because we neither receive nor process your personal data, we hold nothing that we could access, correct, export, or erase on your behalf. You retain direct control over everything the App stores on your device, and deleting the App removes that data permanently.
12. California Privacy Rights
For California residents under the CCPA: we collect no personal information, so there is none to know about or to delete; deleting the App removes all of its data from your device. We never sell or share personal information, and all users receive the same functionality.
13. Disclaimer
The App is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we are not liable for data loss, data corruption, or other issues arising from use of the App. Scanning and text recognition results are provided as assistance only and may be incomplete or inaccurate; they do not replace your own verification, particularly before acting on a scanned link or code. Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be excluded under the mandatory law applicable to you as a consumer.
14. Governing Law
This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of Japan, without regard to conflict of law principles.
15. Contact Information
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our practices, please contact us: