Last updated 27 July 2026. Applies to Atlas for iPhone.
Atlas collects nothing about you. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising and no third-party tracking. Your photos are read on your iPhone and stay on it. The only information that leaves the device is a set of map coordinates, sent to Apple so they can be turned into a place name, and a short list of which achievements you have earned, saved to your own iCloud account.
What Atlas reads
With your permission, Atlas reads your photo library. For each photo it looks at two things:
- the date and time it was taken
- the location coordinates saved inside it, if there are any
That is all. The photographs themselves are only ever displayed on your screen. They are not copied, uploaded, or sent anywhere. Photos with no location are ignored.
You can grant access to your whole library or to a selection of photos. If you choose a selection, Atlas only ever sees those, and you can change the selection at any time from inside the app.
What leaves your device
Coordinates, to Apple
To turn coordinates into a name like “Lisbon, Portugal”, Atlas asks Apple’s geocoding service. That request contains a coordinate and nothing else: no photograph, no name, no identifier, and nothing that ties it to you. Coordinates are rounded onto a grid roughly two kilometres across before being sent, and the answers are cached on your device, so the same area is only asked about once. This service is operated by Apple and is covered by Apple’s privacy policy.
Earned stamps, to your iCloud
Atlas records which stamps you have earned and when, so that they follow you to a new phone and are not lost if you delete old photos. This is a short list of identifiers and dates, around one kilobyte. It is saved to your own iCloud account using Apple’s key-value storage, encrypted by Apple in transit and at rest.
We have no access to it. It is not sent to us or to anyone else, and it is not stored on any server we control, because we do not run one. If iCloud is switched off, this stays on your device and the app works exactly the same.
What stays on your device
Everything else, including the place names Atlas has looked up, your bookmarks and notes, the cover photos you have chosen, and your appearance preference. All of it is removed when you delete the app.
What we collect
Nothing. We do not operate a server, we have no account system, and Atlas contains no analytics, crash reporting, advertising, or third-party software development kits of any kind. We cannot see how you use the app, where you have been, or that you have installed it.
Because nothing is collected, there is nothing for us to sell, share, or hand over. There is no data of yours for us to lose.
| Data | Where it goes | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Your photographs | Nowhere. Read and displayed on device | You |
| Photo dates | Nowhere. Read on device | You |
| Photo coordinates | Rounded, sent to Apple for naming | You, Apple |
| Place names | Cached on device | You |
| Notes, bookmarks, covers | Stored on device | You |
| Earned stamps | Your own iCloud account | You |
| Anything else | Not collected | Nobody |
Sharing
Share cards are drawn on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere until you pick a destination yourself. If you send a card to another app, such as Instagram or Messages, that app’s own privacy policy applies to what happens to it next.
Deleting your data
- Everything on the device: delete Atlas. iOS removes the whole container, including the cache, your notes and your bookmarks.
- Earned stamps in iCloud: open Settings inside Atlas and choose “Forget earned stamps”. This clears the record from the device and from iCloud.
- Photo access: revoke it at any time in the iOS Settings app, under Privacy and Security, then Photos.
There is no account to close and no request to send us, because we hold nothing.
Children
Atlas is suitable for all ages and collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with an updated date. Material changes to what Atlas does with your information will also be described in the app’s release notes.
Contact
Questions about privacy can go to [email protected].
Atlas is published by Glassrope Limited, New Zealand. The terms of use cover the rest of the arrangement.