Shelf Artic — Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 2026
Shelf Artic works like a field notebook you carry into the cold: it keeps to itself. There is no sign-up, no profile, no advertising, and no hidden log of what you tap. This page explains the one exception — the Scout photo scanner — and everything else you might want to know.
1. What stays on your device
Topics you read, lessons you complete, quiz rounds, daily goals, and your saved Scout sightings (photos, reports, and chats) are stored only in the app's own space on your iPad or iPhone. None of it is uploaded in the background, synced to a cloud, or visible to us.
2. What leaves your device
Scout, the in-app penguin field guide, can identify what's in a photo. To do that, the photo you choose is transmitted to servers operated by OpenAI, where a vision model produces the report you see. If you continue the conversation about a sighting, the questions you type — together with Scout's short summary of that sighting — are sent the same way so the reply can be written. Asking Scout for a round of fresh polar facts sends that request the same way too. (The built-in "fact of the drift" ships inside the app and needs no connection.)
This happens only when you press the scan, send, or fetch button, never automatically. Before the first use of each feature, the app shows a plain-language notice describing this exchange, and nothing is sent until you agree to it. What is never sent: your learning progress, your name, your location, or any photo you did not explicitly choose.
OpenAI processes this data as a service provider to generate the response. You can read how OpenAI handles API data at https://openai.com/policies.
3. Camera and photo library
The camera is opened only when you choose to photograph something for Scout, and the photo library is read only for the single picture you pick. The app never scans or uploads your library.
4. Deleting your data
Remove a sighting inside the app and its photo file, report, and chat are deleted with it. You can wipe your learning progress from Settings at any time. Deleting the app removes everything it ever stored.
5. No accounts, no tracking
There is no login. The app contains no advertising SDKs, no third-party analytics, and no behavioural tracking, and we never sell information about you — the app gathers none.
6. Children
Shelf Artic is a general-audience education app and is not directed at children under 13. The Scout scanner requires accepting the data notice described above.
7. Changes to this policy
If a future update changes how data is handled, this policy and the in-app notice will be updated before the change takes effect.
8. Contact
Questions about this policy: tuffsh475@gmail.com