Privacy policy

In short

• The app collects no personal data. No account, no ads, no tracking, no analytics.
• Your settings and saved looks stay on your iPhone. The app sends nothing to a server.
• The microphone only measures loudness, on the device. Audio is never recorded, stored or sent.
• Purchases are handled by Apple. We see no payment details and nothing about you.
• This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics.

Controller

Vincent C. Mader, Im Baindtle 18, 89077 Ulm, Germany. Email: vortex@mader.xyz. More details are in the legal notice.

The app

What is stored on your iPhone

Vortex stores, in the app’s protected storage on your device, your settings (for example the look, brush, quality and whether the settings button is visible), the looks you save yourself and whether you own Vortex Pro. None of this is sent to us or to anyone else; we have no server that could receive it. Deleting the app deletes all of it.

Microphone

When you turn on “Microphone” in the settings, iOS asks you for permission to use the microphone. Vortex computes only the current loudness from it, on your iPhone, and lets that drive the flow. Audio is never recorded, never stored and never sent anywhere. With the switch off, Vortex does not access the microphone, and you can withdraw the permission at any time under Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone.

Motion sensors

When you turn on “Tilt” or open the settings by shaking, Vortex reads your iPhone’s motion sensors. These readings are used only on the device, to let the fluid flow or to detect the shake, and are neither stored nor sent.

Videos and images

Videos and images you capture in Vortex are created on your iPhone. Vortex hands them to the iOS share sheet, and they go only where you send or save them yourself.

Purchases

You buy Vortex Pro through Apple’s in-app purchase. Apple is responsible for the payment and your Apple Account, in the EU Apple Distribution International Ltd., Hollyhill Industrial Estate, Hollyhill, Cork, Ireland, and Apple’s privacy policy applies. We receive no payment details, no name and no email address, only aggregated sales figures from Apple. This also applies to purchases through Family Sharing and to purchase requests from children, which Apple forwards to their parents.

To keep Pro unlocked, the app asks Apple through iOS’s purchase interface whether your Apple Account owns Pro, when it starts and when you tap “Restore Purchase”. This request goes straight to Apple, not to us. The legal basis is the performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

No analytics, no ads

Vortex contains no ads, no analytics and no third-party crash reporting tool. The app builds no profile of you and uses no advertising identifier.

Crash reports from Apple

If you allowed sharing analytics with app developers in your iPhone’s settings, Apple provides us with anonymous crash reports. You control this under Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.

Backups by Apple

If you use iCloud Backup or a backup on your computer, iOS includes the app’s data in it. That is a service by Apple, covered by Apple’s privacy policy.

This website

The website runs on a server of Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany, with whom we have a data processing agreement. To send you the pages, the server processes your IP address and the information your browser sends along.

The server logs every request with the IP address, time, request method, requested address, protocol, your browser’s request headers (for example browser and operating system, preferred language and the page you came from), details of the encrypted connection, and the status code, size and duration of the response. This log serves only operation and security, is not analyzed, and is deleted after 14 days at the latest. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a working and secure website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

The website sets no cookies, uses no analytics and loads no fonts or scripts from other servers.

Email

If you write to us, we use your email address and message only to reply, and delete them once the conversation is over, unless the law requires us to keep them. The emails are stored at Hetzner Online GmbH (address above), also under a data processing agreement. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR when it concerns the app, otherwise our legitimate interest in answering requests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15 to 21 GDPR). Since the app sends no data to us, we cannot link any app data to you; what it stores is already with you. You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Baden-Württemberg.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be here with a new date. Should a future version of the app collect data, we will say so clearly beforehand.

Last updated: 11 November 2026