Does MemeScanr upload my photos?
No. MemeScanr runs entirely on your iPhone.
No photo, video, or thumbnail is ever uploaded to any server. There is no MemeScanr server at all. Afia Labs, the developer, doesn't operate a backend that could receive your images even in theory. Your gallery stays on your device. Always.
How can you be sure?
MemeScanr is inspectable in three ways:
- Apple's Privacy Label — on the App Store listing. You can see exactly what data categories the app declares. MemeScanr declares zero data linked to you.
- On-device network monitoring — if you're technical, run an HTTPS proxy like Charles or Proxyman. You'll see only Firebase Analytics pings (no image payloads) and App Store receipt validation (no image payloads).
- Airplane mode test — turn on airplane mode, run a full scan. Everything still works. Try doing that with a cloud-based cleaner.
What about iCloud?
MemeScanr reads photos through iOS's PhotoKit API. If those photos happen to be stored in iCloud Photos (because Apple syncs them), iOS handles the fetch — MemeScanr doesn't touch iCloud directly. MemeScanr itself does not use iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, CloudKit, or any iCloud-backed database.
What data does MemeScanr collect?
MemeScanr collects two types of anonymized data:
- Crash reports via Firebase Crashlytics. When the app crashes, a stack trace is sent to help us fix bugs. No photo data is ever in a crash report.
- Usage analytics via Firebase Analytics. We know things like "scan completed" or "user tapped nuke the junk" — but never what was scanned or deleted. No file names, no EXIF, no image content. Can be disabled in Settings → Privacy.
That's it. No email address. No phone number. No location. No photo metadata leaves your device.
Can MemeScanr read my photos in the background?
Only during an active scan that you started. When you tap "scan my gallery" and then background the app, iOS gives MemeScanr a limited window (30 seconds to 5 minutes) to finish or checkpoint the scan. After that, photo access stops completely until you open the app again.