Sift · Legal
Privacy Policy for Sift
Sift is a photo and storage manager that works completely offline. It runs entirely on your device, collects no data, and is published by AVORA SIA.
The short version
Sift is an offline app. It does not collect, transmit, or share any of your data — and it cannot.
Sift does not have Android's internet permission. Without it, Android itself refuses the app a network connection. This is not a promise we ask you to trust but a rule the operating system enforces. Sift cannot send your photos, files, or any information anywhere. Everything Sift shows you is computed on your phone and stays there.
We do not operate servers that receive your data. We have no account system. We do not use analytics, advertising, crash-reporting, or any tracking of any kind.
You can check this yourself. On Sift's Google Play listing, open App permissions: "Full network access" is not there. On your phone, the same list is under Settings → Apps → Sift → Permissions.
Everything happens on your device
- Scanning and organising. Sift reads your photos, videos and audio on your phone to find duplicates, blurry shots and large files, and reads Android's own storage and usage figures to measure app caches and unused apps. Nothing is uploaded to be analysed.
- Reading text and recognising content. Sift reads the words in your images and recognises objects and faces so you can search and redact them. It does this with Google ML Kit models that are built into the app, not downloaded, and run entirely on the phone. Faces are detected, not identified: Sift does not know whose face it is and cannot tell two people apart.
- Naming places. Photo locations are matched against a place-name list built into the app. No lookup service is contacted.
Sift works the same in airplane mode as it does online, because it never uses the connection.
What Sift accesses on your device, and why
Sift asks only for what a given feature needs. Each of these stays on the device.
| Access | Why |
|---|---|
Photos, videos and audio (READ_MEDIA_IMAGES, READ_MEDIA_VIDEO, READ_MEDIA_AUDIO, READ_MEDIA_VISUAL_USER_SELECTED, READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) |
To show your media so you can review, organise, redact and delete it. |
Photo location data (ACCESS_MEDIA_LOCATION) |
Photos can contain the GPS coordinates of where they were taken. Sift reads them only to group photos by place. The coordinates are matched against a place-name list built into the app — no lookup service is contacted — and Sift stores only the resulting place name. The coordinates themselves are never saved. |
App usage access (PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS) |
For the Junk and Battery screens. Sift reads, from Android: how much cache each app holds, how much space each app takes, when each app was last opened, and how long apps ran in the background over the last day. It uses these figures to show you which caches to clear, which apps you might uninstall, and which apps kept your phone busy. It does not read anything inside other apps, and it does not save these figures. You switch this access on yourself in Android Settings, and Sift asks for it only when you open Junk or Battery. |
Uninstall requests (REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES) |
To hand you Android's own uninstall dialog when you choose to remove an app. Android performs the uninstall; Sift cannot do it silently. |
Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS) |
To show progress for scans that run in the background. |
Background work (FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC, WAKE_LOCK, RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED) |
So a long scan can finish without you holding the app open, and can resume where it left off. |
Billing (com.android.vending.BILLING) |
For the optional paid upgrade. See Purchases below. |
Not requested: internet access (INTERNET),
network state (ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE), all files access
(MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE), location services, contacts,
microphone, camera, phone, calendar, or your accounts. Sift cannot open
your documents, downloads or other apps' files.
What Sift stores, and where
Sift keeps an index on your device — a local database of things like file names, sizes, dates, text found in images, and the place names described above — so that scans are fast and can resume instead of restarting. This index never leaves your phone, and no copy of it exists anywhere else.
To remove everything Sift has stored: uninstall the app, or clear its data in Android Settings → Apps → Sift → Storage. That deletes the index completely.
What Sift does not do
- It does not connect to the internet.
- It does not collect or transmit personal information.
- It does not upload your photos, videos, or files.
- It has no advertising, analytics, crash-reporting, or tracking of any kind.
- It does not require an account, a sign-in, or an email address.
- It does not sell or share data with anyone, because it does not receive any.
Purchases
Sift offers an optional paid upgrade. Payments are handled entirely by Google Play Billing — we never see or store your payment details, and no payment information passes through Sift. Google processes that transaction under Google's Privacy Policy. Sift receives only the fact that a purchase exists, and stores that on your device.
The Google Play Store app, not Sift, is what talks to Google over the network. That is why Sift can offer an upgrade while having no internet permission of its own.
Third-party software inside the app
Sift includes Google ML Kit (text recognition, image labelling and face detection), the Google Play Billing library, and Coil, which draws the thumbnails you see in the app.
- The ML Kit models ship inside the app and run entirely on the device. They are not a service Sift calls.
- Coil is included without its network support and with its disk cache switched off, so it reads your photos to display them and never writes a copy of one.
- Google's ML Kit and Billing libraries include a component designed to send usage reports to Google. In Sift it can never do so: the app has no internet permission, so Android gives it no connection to send on.
None of these libraries can send anything from Sift, for the same reason as everything else on this page: the app is offline.
When you share a file
If you use Sift's share button, Android's own share sheet hands the file to the app you pick. What happens next is governed by that app's privacy policy, not this one. Sift is not part of that transfer beyond handing the file over at your request.
Deleting files
Deletions you make in Sift are performed on your device. Depending on your Android version and settings, deleted media may go to your system trash and remain recoverable for a period set by Android, not by Sift.
Children
Sift is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone, including children.
Your rights
Data-protection laws such as the GDPR and CCPA give you rights to access, correct, export or delete personal data a company holds about you. We hold none — Sift is offline, so no data about you ever reaches us. Everything Sift processes remains on your device under your control, and uninstalling the app removes it.
If you believe otherwise, write to us at the address below; and if you are in the EU or UK you may also complain to your national data-protection authority. In Latvia, where AVORA SIA is registered, that is Datu valsts inspekcija (dvi.gov.lv).
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this address with a new effective date.
Contact
Questions about this policy or the app:
Before submitting Sift to Google Play, replace "to be added" above with AVORA SIA's registered address. A published policy that names a company but gives no address is a common review flag, and Latvian company details are expected to be disclosed. Do not guess it.