Sift — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 September 2026

Sift is a screenshot search app for iPhone. This policy explains what it does with your information. It is short because Sift collects nothing.

The short version

Sift does not collect, transmit, sell or share any personal data. It has no servers, no accounts, no analytics and no advertising. Everything it reads stays on your iPhone.

What Sift reads

With your permission, Sift reads the screenshots in your photo library. On your device, it:

• recognises the text in each screenshot;
• extracts details such as prices, dates, phone numbers and reference codes;
• builds a private search index so you can find screenshots again.

All of this happens on your iPhone using Apple's on-device frameworks. Your screenshots and the text within them are never uploaded.

What Sift stores, and where

Sift stores its search index and your own decisions — what you have saved, handled or cleared — in its private app container on your iPhone. Your decisions are included in your iCloud or Finder device backup, so that reinstalling Sift does not lose your work. The search index itself is excluded from backups because it can be rebuilt from your screenshots.

Nobody but you can read this data. It is not accessible to us, because there is no “us” on the other end of a connection: Sift makes no network requests.

Sift never deletes your photos

Sift can suggest screenshots that look finished with. Confirming a suggestion removes the record from Sift's own index only. Your photos remain untouched in the Photos app.

Permissions Sift asks for

• Photos. Required. Sift reads your screenshots so it can index and search them. You may grant access to your whole library or to selected photos only; Sift tells you plainly when it can only see a subset.
• Calendar (add only). Optional. If you tap a date Sift found, it offers to create an event, and prefills Apple's own event editor so you see exactly what will be saved. Sift requests write-only access and cannot read your existing events.

Sift does not request access to your contacts. When you save a phone number or email address, the system's own contact card handles it.

Spotlight and reminders

Sift adds your screenshots to your iPhone's own Spotlight index, so you can find them from the home screen without opening the app. That index belongs to your device and stays on it; nothing is uploaded. Clearing a screenshot from Sift removes it from Spotlight too, and turning Sift off in Settings → Siri & Search stops it entirely.

If you turn reminders on, Sift schedules a notification the day before a date it found in one of your screenshots. It is created and delivered entirely on your device — no server is involved, and Sift never sends anything else.

Data collection

Sift collects no data. There is no analytics SDK, no crash reporting service, no advertising identifier and no tracking of any kind. Because Sift makes no network requests, no information about you or your device leaves your iPhone.

Sift does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children under 13, because it does not collect information at all.

Third parties

Sift contains no third-party software libraries, no advertising networks and no analytics providers. No data is shared with anyone, because none is gathered.

Your control

You can review Sift's access at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security on your iPhone, and revoke it there. Deleting Sift removes its index and all of its stored data from your device.

Changes to this policy

If Sift's behaviour ever changes in a way that affects this policy, this page will be updated and the date at the top revised. Any change that involved collecting data would be announced in the app before it took effect.

Contact

Questions about this policy: info@renobytes.com