Privacy Policy
MetaClean — Photo Metadata Cleaner, by Store of Apps
Effective 29 August 2026 · Last updated 29 August 2026
The short version. Your photos are read, analyzed and cleaned entirely on your device. No photo, and no metadata value taken from a photo, is ever uploaded or transmitted anywhere. The app shows ads, so it does connect to the internet to load them — but the advertising component never receives your images or anything read out of them.
1. Who we are
MetaClean is developed and published by Store of Apps. In data protection terms, Store of Apps is the controller for the limited data described in this policy.
Contact: admin@storeofapps.com
2. What the app does with your photos
MetaClean reads the metadata inside an image file — EXIF fields, GPS coordinates, camera and lens information, dates, software tags, comments and any embedded thumbnail — shows it to you, and writes a cleaned copy with the fields you selected removed.
All of this happens locally, using the operating system's file and media APIs. Specifically:
- Your photos are never uploaded to us or to anyone else.
- Metadata values read from your photos are never transmitted and are never stored by the app after you leave the screen.
- The original file is never modified. Cleaning always produces a separate copy, saved to
Pictures/MetaClean. - Metadata values are not written to system logs in released builds.
Which photos the app can see
MetaClean has access only to the images you explicitly hand it: those you pick in the Android system photo picker, or those you send to it through the share sheet. It does not request broad storage or media permissions and cannot browse the rest of your gallery.
3. What is stored on your device
| What | Why | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Your settings — theme, language, default cleaning profile, color profile and re-encoding preferences | So the app behaves the way you configured it | App-private storage on your device |
| A local history of cleaned copies: file name, date, and the number of fields removed | So you can find a cleaned photo again | App-private storage on your device |
| Temporary working copies during cleaning | To avoid ever writing to your original file | App cache; deleted when the operation finishes and on every app start |
The history stores pointers and counts only. It never contains metadata values, so the history itself cannot reveal what was removed from a photo. You can erase it at any time from Settings → Clear history, and clear cached files from Settings → Clear cache.
None of this data is sent to us. We operate no server, no account system and no user database for this app.
4. Advertising
MetaClean is free and supported by advertising through Google AdMob. This is the only component in the app that uses the internet.
To serve ads, Google may collect and process information such as your device's advertising identifier, IP address, device model and operating system version, coarse location derived from the IP address, and interactions with the ads shown. This processing is carried out by Google as an independent controller under its own terms.
- Google's privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy
- How Google uses data from apps that use its services: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
What the ad component never receives: your photos, any image data, any metadata value read from a photo, the names of your files, or your cleaning history. Image handling and ad loading are entirely separate paths inside the app.
Your choices about ads
On first launch, and wherever the applicable law requires it, MetaClean shows a consent form provided by Google's User Messaging Platform. No ad request is made before you have answered it. Where a consent choice applies, you can review or change it at any time from Settings → Ad privacy options.
You can also reset or delete your advertising identifier at the system level, in your device's settings under Google → Ads.
5. Permissions the app requests
| Permission | Why it is needed |
|---|---|
INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE | Required by the advertising component to load ads. No other part of the app opens a network connection. |
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE (Android 8 and 9 only) | Saving the cleaned copy to your Pictures folder on older Android versions. On Android 10 and later this is not requested, because scoped storage covers it. |
MetaClean does not request camera, contacts, microphone, precise location or broad media access.
6. Analytics and tracking
The app contains no analytics SDK, no crash reporting service and no tracking pixels. We do not build profiles of users, and we receive no usage statistics from the app itself. Any aggregate figures we see come from Google Play Console and the AdMob dashboard, which report at the level of the app, not the individual.
7. Children
MetaClean is a general-purpose utility and is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the app, contact us and we will address it.
8. Legal bases and your rights
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, our legal basis for serving personalized ads is your consent, gathered through the form described above and withdrawable at any time. Non-personalized ads, where you decline, rely on our legitimate interest in funding a free app.
Because we hold no personal data about you ourselves, a request to access, correct or erase your data will in most cases need to be directed to Google, which processes the advertising data. We will help you identify the right route if you write to us.
If you are a California resident, you may opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA/CPRA. The same Settings → Ad privacy options screen is the way to do that in this app.
9. Data retention
Settings and history stay on your device until you clear them or uninstall the app. Temporary working files are deleted as soon as the operation finishes, and again on every app start. Uninstalling MetaClean removes everything the app stored. Cleaned copies you chose to save in Pictures/MetaClean are your files and remain in your gallery.
Retention of advertising data is governed by Google's policies, linked above.
10. What this app does not promise
MetaClean removes the metadata it can read, in the formats it supports. Some containers and proprietary blocks cannot be parsed, and a photograph can still identify you through its visible content — a face, a street sign, a doorway. Removing metadata is a meaningful step toward privacy. It is not a guarantee of anonymity, and we will not describe it as one.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change how the app handles data, we will update this page and revise the "last updated" date above. Material changes will also be reflected in the app's privacy screen, so that the two never disagree.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy or about the app:
Store of Apps — admin@storeofapps.com