Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 15, 2026

In one sentence: ContactSentry does not collect, transmit, or store any personal data outside your devices, except in your own private iCloud if you turn on iCloud sync. There are no ContactSentry servers, accounts, tracking, or analytics.

1. Who we are

ContactSentry is an iPhone and iPad app that reads business cards and turns them into contacts, and that helps you clean up duplicates in your address book. This policy describes which data the app processes, where, and why. It applies to the ContactSentry app distributed through Apple's App Store.

Developer: VitalDefender Inc., 1231 Pacific Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6Z 0E2, Canada.

2. Data collected by the developer

None. The developer of ContactSentry does not receive, collect, or have access to any data you enter or generate in the app. The app does not communicate with any developer server, because none exist. There is no registration, login, or user profile. The app's privacy label on the App Store is "Data Not Collected".

3. Data processed on your device

To work, ContactSentry processes some data exclusively on your iPhone. This data never leaves the device unless you choose to export or share it, or turn on iCloud sync (see below).

Photos of business cards: taken with the camera, chosen from your Photo Library, or captured by the live scanner. They are cropped and analyzed on the device and stored in the app's archive together with the contact, using iOS data protection.
Recognized text: names, companies, roles, emails, phone numbers, websites, structured addresses, and QR code contents extracted from the photos. Recognition uses Apple's Vision framework, on the device.
Completion with Apple Intelligence: on compatible iPhones with Apple Intelligence turned on, the name, company, role, and tag fields may be completed by Apple's on-device system language model. ContactSentry sends no text to any external service.
Contacts you choose to save: contacts you create or edit are stored in the app's local archive. Only when you tap "Add to Contacts" and confirm are they also written to the iOS Contacts app.
Contacts you choose to clean up: the Contacts cleanup feature reads your address book on the device to find duplicates and empty contacts. Merges and deletions happen only after your explicit confirmation, and they edit the Contacts database on your device the same way the Contacts app would.
Tags and notes: any labels you assign to contacts, kept in the local archive.
Your own cards (My Card): the personal cards you create are stored in a local file protected by iOS data protection. The QR code is generated on the device and contains only the contact fields you filled in, as a standard vCard; notes, tags and location are never included. Whoever scans the QR receives that data directly from your screen or from a file you share; no server is involved and ContactSentry does not know when or by whom a QR is scanned.
Trial start date: a timestamp of when the 7-day trial began, stored in the iOS Keychain. If iCloud Keychain is enabled it follows your Apple ID, so deleting and reinstalling the app does not start a new trial. It is not a name, contact, or photo. The developer never receives it.

The app's archive lives in the app's own storage space on your iPhone and is protected by iOS data protection. If you have iCloud Backup or a Finder/iTunes backup enabled for the device, the archive may be included in that backup according to your Apple ID settings. That backup is managed by Apple and subject to Apple's terms, not ContactSentry's.

Optional iCloud sync. iCloud sync is off by default. If you turn it on in Settings, the archive (contacts, tags, notes, card photos) and your own cards are copied to the private iCloud database of your Apple Account through Apple's CloudKit and kept in sync on your iPhone, iPad and Mac signed in to the same account. This data is stored by Apple under your Apple Account and Apple's terms; the developer has no access to your private iCloud database and receives nothing. With Advanced Data Protection turned on for your Apple Account, it is end-to-end encrypted. Turning sync off stops syncing and keeps the data on the device; the copy in iCloud can be deleted in Settings › Apple Account › iCloud › Manage Storage.

4. Permissions and why we ask for them

ContactSentry asks iOS only for the permissions needed by the features you use. You can deny or revoke them at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security; the app keeps working for the parts that don't require them.

Permission	Why it's needed	What we don't do
Camera	To photograph cards with the guide and for the live scanner, including reading QR codes with a vCard.	No image is sent off the device.
Photos	To pick one or more card photos already in your library.	We access only the photos you select. We don't read the rest of your library.
Contacts	Read: to check whether a similar contact already exists before you save, and to find duplicates and empty contacts in Contacts cleanup. Write: only when you confirm an action — adding, merging, replacing, or deleting a contact.	We don't copy, export, or transmit your address book. All comparison happens on the device. Nothing is written without your confirmation.
Location	Only to place card addresses on a map, through Apple's MapKit, on the device. The location permission is used solely to center the map on where you are.	We don't record where you are. We don't build a location history. We don't share your location with anyone.
Face ID / Touch ID	Only for the optional app lock. iOS handles the biometric check; the app only learns whether it succeeded. Separately, leaving the app always covers the last screen so cards do not appear in the app switcher; that cover does not use biometrics.	We never see or store biometric data. iOS does not make it available to apps.

A note on MapKit: to display maps, geocode an address, suggest streets as you type, and optionally confirm a printed address, iOS may contact Apple's Maps services. Those lookups can be switched off in Settings › Privacy. That traffic is handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy and does not pass through ContactSentry's developer.

5. Purchases

The free plan, the ContactSentry Pro Yearly subscription, and the ContactSentry Pro Lifetime one-time purchase are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store and your Apple ID. The developer receives no payment data, does not see your name or email address, and cannot link a purchase to a person. This is why ContactSentry needs no account: purchase status is verified through StoreKit, on the device.

6. No third-party SDKs, no analytics

ContactSentry includes no third-party SDKs, advertising libraries, analytics tools, external crash reporters, or tracking pixels. The app does not use the advertising identifier (IDFA) and does not request tracking permission, because it tracks nothing.

Apple may collect anonymous diagnostic data about the app if you have opted in under Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements. That collection is managed by Apple, not by ContactSentry.

7. Sharing your data

We share data with no one, because we hold none. The only ways data leaves the app are the ones you start yourself: adding a contact to your address book, exporting a VCF file, or sharing a contact through the iOS share sheet. In those cases the data goes exactly where you send it.

8. Retention and deletion

Data stays in the app's archive until you delete it. You can delete individual contacts in the app, or uninstall ContactSentry, which removes the whole archive from the device. There is nothing to erase on ContactSentry servers, because there are none. If you used iCloud sync, deleting a contact removes it from every synced device, and the remaining iCloud copy can be deleted from your Apple Account's iCloud storage settings. Contacts you added to, merged in, or deleted from your iOS address book are governed by the Contacts app and your iCloud settings from then on.

9. Children

ContactSentry is a work tool and is not directed at children under 16. Because we collect no data, we do not knowingly collect data from children. If a parent or guardian believes a child has used the app, deleting the contacts or uninstalling the app from the device is sufficient.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, data protection laws (such as the GDPR in the EU or the CCPA in California) give you rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, and objection. Because all data is on your device and under your direct control, you can exercise them yourself: view and edit contacts in the app, export them as VCF, delete them. The developer holds no copies to provide or erase. You can still write to us at the address below with any question, and you have the right to contact your local data protection authority.

11. Changes to this policy

If the app changes in a way that matters for privacy, we will update this page and the date at the top, and note the change in the App Store release notes. Previous versions are available on request.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy: hello@contactsentry.app.