Last updated: 1 October 2026
ChimneyCam lets parents add Santa, an elf or a reindeer to a photo of their home and present it as night-time camera footage. This policy explains what data the app handles, why, who processes it and for how long.
ChimneyCam is operated by Murat Dolu (the "controller"). Contact for any privacy question or request: mur4td00@gmail.com.
| Data | Why | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| The single room photo you choose or take for a scene (resized to at most 1536 px, with location and camera metadata removed on your device before upload) | To create the scene you asked for | Deleted from our servers within about 25 hours (our cleanup runs hourly and removes anything older than 24 hours) |
| The generated photo or video | To deliver your result | Same as above. Copies you keep in the app's gallery or save to Photos stay on your device until you delete them |
| A random, anonymous account ID created on first use (no name, email or phone number) | To keep your credit balance and stop abuse (at most 2 creations at a time and 30 per day) | As long as you use the app; ask us to delete it at any time |
| Your credit balance and creation records (scene, status, time) | To charge and refund credits correctly | Balance: as long as your account exists. Creation records: deleted after 24 hours |
| App Store purchase records (transaction ID, product, date) | To add purchased credits exactly once and prevent fraud | As long as needed for accounting and fraud prevention |
| "Report a problem" submissions (category, your optional note, the related creation ID) | To review and fix bad results | Up to 12 months |
We do not use advertising or analytics SDKs, we do not track you across apps or websites, and we do not sell or share your data for advertising.
No photo leaves your device until you agree to the AI processing consent screen in the app. You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings; after that, no further photos are sent. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already happened.
Legal bases: your consent (sending your photo for AI processing) and performance of our contract with you (providing creations and credits). Fraud prevention and abuse limits rely on our legitimate interests.
Some of these providers process data outside the UK and the European Economic Area. Where required, transfers rely on the providers' standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards.
Before anything is uploaded, the app checks the photo on your device and blocks it if it contains a human face, so photos of people are not sent. Camera skins, timestamps and the free-preview watermark are applied without sharing anything extra. The optional Face ID lock keeps the in-app gallery away from curious children; Face ID data never leaves Apple's secure hardware and is not available to us.
ChimneyCam is made for parents and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children, and the face check above blocks photos with people in them.
Depending on where you live (including under UK and EU data protection law) you can ask to access, correct or delete your data, object to or restrict processing, and receive a copy of it. Email mur4td00@gmail.com with your request. You can also complain to your data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office).
We will update this page and its date if this policy changes. Material changes will also be shown in the app.