Privacy Policy

Who we are

ShadowSnap and ShadowTag are iOS apps made by Ludwig Chafen, doing business as Splash & Shadow Studio, a trading card vendor in Las Vegas, Nevada ("Splash & Shadow," "we," "us"). You can reach us at hello@splashandshadow.com. When the app or one of our emails says "Splash and Shadow," it means us.

This policy covers both apps and the shop pages ShadowSnap makes. It explains what we collect, why, who else is involved, where it is stored, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.

ShadowSnap accounts (version 2.0 and later)

From version 2.0, ShadowSnap needs an account. New people also need an invite code from us. If you used ShadowSnap on your iPhone before 2.0 and we can match it to one of our codes (the code saved on your iPhone, or our record of the iPhone that used it), you won't be asked for a code again: that code carries over to your account. If we can't match it, the app asks for an invite code.

What you give us when you sign up

• First and last name. You type it, or Apple or Google fills it in. After Sign in with Apple it is optional. We use it to run your account and to know who we're helping when you write to us. It never appears on your shop page.
• Email address. It comes from Apple or Google, or you type it. After Sign in with Apple, your email is optional too. If you use Apple's "Hide My Email," we keep that private address as it is. We use it to reach you about your account and your shop page, and for news and deals only if you tick that box.
• Mobile phone number (required). You type it. We check the format only. We don't send a code to it. We use it to call you about your account or your shop page, for example if something is wrong with your page. We text it only if you tick the texts box.
• Age confirmation. You tick "I'm 13 or older" before you sign in. ShadowSnap is for people 13 and older.
• Your agreement and your choices. The boxes on the "About you" screen, and the switches in Settings later, record that you agreed to the Terms and this policy, and your email and text choices (see "Consent records" below).

What Apple and Google give us

When you sign in with Apple, Apple gives us a private account code that is the same every time you sign in to ShadowSnap. Apple gives us your name only the first time, and only if you choose to share it. Each sign-in includes your email address, or Apple's private relay address if you chose "Hide My Email." We never see your Apple password.

When you sign in with Google, Google gives us a private account code, your name, and your email address. We never see your Google password.

We use the account code to know it's you. We never join two accounts just because they share an email.

What the app adds

• Your phones: for each iPhone signed in to your account, its model, iOS version, ShadowSnap version, whether it is a test copy or an App Store copy, a random install ID made by the app, and the iPhone's app ID from Apple (a code Apple gives each iPhone for one maker's apps; it is not your phone number or serial number). We also keep when each phone was first and last seen, and when it last backed up with the card counts of that backup. You see this list in the app under "Your phones."
• Your access code: the code your iPhone was unlocked with before 2.0, or the invite code you entered.
• Your setup answers: whether you sell cards, whether you keep a personal collection, and your shop name.
• Your App Store country: used to decide whether the email box starts ticked.
• Your move to 2.0: when an iPhone that used an older version signs in, it tells us how many cards, collections, and shows it had, so we can check nothing was lost.
• Sign-in records: a sign-in token for each phone. We store only a scrambled fingerprint of each token, never the token itself.

Your Inventory backup

When you are signed in, ShadowSnap backs up your Inventory records to our server so you can bring them back on an empty iPhone. A backup holds:

• your cards and quantities, the prices you set, and the costs you entered
• your collections and their names, and which cards are in your Vault
• your shows, open and finished, including cash counts, sales, trades, and private notes such as where a show is
• your sticker book: the labels you printed, with their prices and when you printed them, pinned prices, your pricing settings, your cost cipher word, and your label logo
• your card history: what you added, bought, sold, or traded, and when (including older lines kept for your year-end export)

Backups don't include your photos, your scan history, your app settings, or the offline download. Those stay on your iPhone.

Each backup is tied to your account and to the iPhone that made it. Only you, signed in to your account, can bring a backup back onto an iPhone. We don't look at backups except to keep the service running, to fix a problem, or when the law requires it.

Consent records

When you tick or untick a box, or flip a switch for email or texts, we save a record that can't be changed later. It holds which box it was, whether it was ticked, whether it started ticked, the exact wording you saw (an ID and a fingerprint of the text), the time, the ShadowSnap version, the screen, which of your phones, your App Store country, and scrambled fingerprints of your internet address and of the email or phone number involved. The fingerprints are made with a secret key that is never stored with the records or in the same backup copy as them. With that key we can check a fingerprint against an email or number we are given (for example, to prove an opt-out); the fingerprint can't be turned back into the email or number. While your account is open we also keep the email or phone number itself with the record. We keep these records so we can prove what you agreed to.

Your shop page (public)

If you sell cards, ShadowSnap makes you a public shop page. It is on automatically for sellers and has no off switch while your account is open. During testing it lives at console.splashandshadow.com/shadowsnap/collections/your-shop-name. Later it will move to splashandshadow.com/shadowsnap/collections/your-shop-name.

Anyone with the link or your booth QR code can see:

• your shop name
• the shows you'll be at: name and dates only
• the cards in your collections and in your open or upcoming shows: name, set and number, printing, condition or grade, language, quantity, and sticker price (the price on your printed sticker, else your pinned price, else your pricing rule)
• the names of those collections and shows
• when the page was last updated
• your Vault, only if you switch it on, titled "My collection (not for sale)" and without prices

Your shop page never shows: your costs, what you paid, your sales, your profit, your cash counts, your cost cipher, slab certificate numbers, your name, your email, your phone number, the location notes on your shows, or cards in Unsorted.

Collectors: if you don't sell, you have no page unless you turn one on. A collector's page shows only the cards in your Vault (your personal collection), with no prices, and no shows or other collections. You can turn it off again.

We ask search engines not to list shop pages, so people mostly find them through your link or QR code. Search engines can still choose to ignore that request.

Shop pages have no ads, no cookies, and no tracking code. Card pictures are off today. If we switch them on, a visitor's browser will load each picture straight from TCGplayer's image server, so TCGplayer will see that visitor's internet address. Our server sees each visitor's internet address too, and uses it to block floods of requests.

Every shop page has a "Report this page" link to hello@splashandshadow.com. We can hide any page that breaks our Terms.

Card photos and scans (all versions)

When you scan a card, ShadowSnap sends our scanning server (scan.splashandshadow.com) the photo, a few extra frames from just before and after your tap, and any words your iPhone read off the card, so we can identify it and send back its market value and how quickly it sells. On Wi-Fi, while you hold the camera steady over a card, the app may send one early frame to get the answer ready, even if you don't tap. When you pick a photo from your library to find cards in it, that photo, and any outlines you draw on it, go to our server too.

• Scans, scan photos, photos you pick, scan results, the words your iPhone read off cards, and your correction taps are kept on our server for good. We use them to run ShadowSnap and to make card recognition more accurate over time. We don't use them for advertising.
• A photo sometimes shows what's around the cards, like your hand or your table. We keep the whole photo, but we use it only to find and identify cards, never to identify people or places.
• Every scan, and every other request the app sends to our scanning server (for example prices, card information, and reports), carries your access code, your iPhone's app ID from Apple, and the internet address of your connection. Your access code and app ID are how we know who is scanning, can help when something goes wrong, and can turn away a code that was switched off. From the internet address we work out a rough location (about city level), which we use to understand where ShadowSnap is used. We keep that rough location with your usage reports, and we keep a list of recent internet addresses and their rough locations (up to 10,000 addresses) so we don't have to look them up again. The erase step below covers scan records only.
• After each scan, the app also sends a small timing note: how long each step took, how big the photo was, how many tries it needed, whether you were on Wi-Fi or cellular, and how the scan ended. It has no photo. Like every request, it carries your access code and your iPhone's app ID. It is part of scanning, so the "Help improve ShadowSnap" switch doesn't turn it off. We keep these notes for a few months.
• Because your account lists your phones and your access code, your scans can be connected to your account.
• We are adding a step that erases the internet address and the iPhone's app ID from each scan record 30 days after the scan. It is not running yet, so for now they are kept with the scan. When it starts, it will also cover older scans on our server. Copies in our backups can keep them until those copies are updated or removed.
• If your connection drops after you take a photo, the photo waits on your iPhone and is sent when service returns. On cellular or in Low Data Mode, the extra frames of cards you keep wait for Wi-Fi, for up to 14 days. Nothing is sent while you have no connection at all.
• In offline mode, ShadowSnap names cards on your iPhone. Today, once ShadowSnap leaves offline mode and has a connection, it sends the photos of those cards to our server so it can check them. In a coming 2.0 update, cards named offline will wait on your iPhone until you tap "Check online."

Other things ShadowSnap sends us

• Account requests: signing in, backups, and your shop page go to our account server (console.splashandshadow.com). These requests carry your sign-in token and the app's install ID. Our server also sees the internet address of your connection.
• Prices and card information: market values, price history, how quickly cards sell, and grading information come from our server, including the daily price refresh for your Inventory. These requests carry your access code and your iPhone's app ID, like scans do.
• Insights: working out your Inventory's Insights sends us its cards, so we also see its size and value.
• Card searches: when you type a card name to add it, the words go to our server to find the card. We don't save them, apart from our standard server logs.
• Card pictures: many card pictures in ShadowSnap load straight from TCGplayer's picture server or from PriceCharting's (Google Cloud stores those for PriceCharting), not from us. When a picture loads, that company sees your iPhone's internet address and which picture it asked for, like any website would. We send them nothing else about you.

Product reporting (optional)

The "Help improve ShadowSnap" switch (Settings > Product Analytics) sends extra usage reports: features used, card and set activity, import sources, your full Inventory list, and reports of crashes, freezes, slow starts, heavy battery or storage use, and failed downloads. It is on unless you turn it off. Reports never include photos, contact details, or collection names. Turning it off stops these reports right away. Scans, their timing notes, and other requests still carry your access code, your iPhone's app ID and your internet address, as described above.

We built all of this ourselves. ShadowSnap has no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking code.

What stays on your iPhone

• Your scan history, stacks, and offers as the app shows them. (Our server keeps its own record of your scans, as described above.)
• Your whole Inventory, too. The backup is a copy; the cards on your iPhone stay there. Signing out or deleting your account doesn't remove them.
• The safety copy ShadowSnap makes of your cards before moving them into 2.0.
• Your sign-in token, in the iPhone Keychain. It stays on that iPhone and doesn't move to other devices through iCloud Keychain or a backup.
• Spreadsheet (CSV) files you import or export. The files are read and made on your iPhone and go only where you send them. When you import, the app sends the cards in the file (names, sets, numbers, printings and card IDs, not the file itself) to our server to match and price them.
• The export made for AI assistants. It is made on your iPhone with only the cards you pick. Once you give it to ChatGPT, Claude, or any other assistant, that service's own privacy policy applies.
• Print jobs. A label goes from your iPhone straight to your printer over Bluetooth, and we never see a print job. When you're signed in, your sticker book (which labels you printed, their prices, and when) is part of your backup (see "Your Inventory backup").
• The coin flip. It connects your iPhone directly to the other person's iPhone nearby, using Apple's own nearby-device feature. It carries the call, the stake, and the result between those two phones only. We never see that a flip happened.
• ShadowSnap uses the camera only while you're scanning, and your photo library only when you pick a photo. It never asks for your contacts or your precise location.

Email and text messages

On the "About you" screen there are two boxes:

• Email: "Email me news and deals from Splash and Shadow (splashandshadow.com, hello@splashandshadow.com). Unsubscribe anytime." It starts ticked if your App Store country is the United States, and unticked everywhere else.
• Texts: "Text me deals and news from Splash and Shadow." It always starts unticked. The full wording you agree to is shown next to the box and repeated in our Terms.

Neither box is needed to use ShadowSnap.

We don't send any marketing email or texts yet. If we start, we'll send them only to people who said yes, and only from us. Before the first marketing text, we'll send one text asking you to confirm.

You can change your mind any time: use the "Deals by email" and "Deals by text" switches in Settings > Account, reply STOP to a text, use the unsubscribe link in an email, or email hello@splashandshadow.com. Each change is saved as a new consent record.

We never sell or share your mobile number, your email, or your text and email choices with other companies for their marketing. When we start sending texts or marketing email, the only other company we give your number or email to will be the service that sends them for us, and we'll name it in this policy first.

We may still email you about your account or your shop page, or call you if something is wrong with it. These aren't marketing.

How we use information

• To sign you in, run your account, and keep it secure
• To identify cards, price them, and show you market information
• To back up your Inventory and bring it back on another iPhone
• To run your shop page
• To reach you about your account or your shop page, and to answer you when you write to us
• To send news and deals, only if you said yes
• To fix problems, prevent abuse, and turn away access codes that were switched off
• To understand how ShadowSnap is used and make it better
• To keep records of what you agreed to, and when the law requires it

Who else is involved

We don't sell your personal information or share it for advertising. The companies that run services for us (OVHcloud and Cloudflare) handle data only to provide their service to us, and they must protect it at least as well as this policy does. Apple, Google, TCGplayer, and PriceCharting follow their own privacy policies for what they see when they sign you in, deliver the app and its download, or send you a picture.

• OVHcloud runs our servers in Canada and stores our cloud backup copies in the United States (see "Where your information is stored").
• Apple runs Sign in with Apple, the App Store, and TestFlight, and delivers ShadowSnap's offline download. If you test through TestFlight, Apple passes us the feedback, screenshots, and crash reports you send there.
• Google runs Sign in with Google.
• Google stores the ShadowWave beta list. If you sign up for the beta on our home page, the name, company, email and phone type you type in go to a Google Sheet we keep, so we can invite you. We use it for nothing else. Email hello@splashandshadow.com to be removed.
• Cloudflare hosts splashandshadow.com, runs our domain names, and passes email sent to hello@splashandshadow.com on to our mailbox.
• TCGplayer and PriceCharting serve many of the card pictures you see in ShadowSnap, straight to your iPhone (Google Cloud stores PriceCharting's pictures for them). See "Other things ShadowSnap sends us." Pictures on shop pages are off today. If we switch them on, a visitor's browser will load them from TCGplayer the same way.
• Market data companies. Our server gets card prices from outside price sources. Our server sends them nothing about you.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect people's safety or our rights, or as part of a sale or merger of our business. If that happens, this policy keeps covering your information.

Where your information is stored

• Our main server is run by OVHcloud in its Beauharnois data center in Quebec, Canada. Accounts, Inventory backups, shop pages, scans, scan photos, and photos you pick are stored there.
• Backup copies of our server's database (which include account details and Inventory backups), and copies of scan photos and of photos you pick (with their scan details), are stored by OVHcloud in the United States.
• A daily backup copy is also kept on a drive we control in Las Vegas, Nevada. It holds a copy of our server's database, scans, scan photos, and photos you pick. If the drive isn't plugged in that day, the database copy waits on a computer we control in Las Vegas until it is.
• Your information crosses the border between the United States and Canada. What the app sends goes to our server in Canada, and copies come back to the United States for backup. While it is in each country, that country's laws apply to it, and its courts and authorities may be able to get it.

How we protect it

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS) between the app and our servers. Only we can see account details, through a password-protected console. Your sign-in token is stored on our side only as a scrambled fingerprint. Our cloud backup copies go to private storage that our server can add to but has no permission to delete. No method is perfect, so we can't promise that information will never be lost or exposed.

How long we keep it

• Your account details (name, email, mobile phone, Apple or Google account code, phones list): while your account is open. Erased 30 days after you ask to delete it.
• Your Inventory backups: while your account is open. During testing we keep every backup copy you make. Erased 30 days after you ask to delete your account.
• Your shop page: live while your account is open. It closes as soon as you ask to delete your account. Its contents are erased 30 days later.
• Consent records: kept for good, even after you delete your account. After deletion, the email and phone number are kept only as scrambled fingerprints (see "Consent records").
• A sign-up you start but don't finish: everything from that sign-in (your Apple or Google account code and email, any name, the app's install ID, the iPhone's app ID, your access code, and card counts) is erased from our account system within about a day after the two-hour sign-up window ends, and only a daily count of unfinished sign-ups stays there. Copies in our backups can keep it until those copies are removed (see "Backup copies" below).
• A note that your account existed and was deleted (when it was made and erased, when you confirmed your age, whether you sell or keep a personal collection, and the invite or access code you joined with), your shop page's web address (retired, so no one else can take it), and our action log (what happened and when, with account and phone IDs, shop page addresses and card counts; no names, emails or phone numbers): kept for good.
• Scans, scan photos, photos you pick, and scan results: kept for good. See "Card photos and scans" for the internet address and app ID.
• Timing notes sent with scans: a few months.
• Crash, freeze, slow start, battery, storage, and failed download reports: 90 days.
• Usage reports: kept for good, to run and improve ShadowSnap.
• Server logs: our servers keep standard technical logs for security and troubleshooting, for a limited time.
• Backup copies: our server keeps its own recent copies of account data for up to 14 days. Our backup drive keeps the 14 newest daily copies of our database. A copy waiting on our computer for the drive stays there until it is moved to the drive. Our cloud backup copies are not trimmed on a schedule yet, so older copies can stay there until we remove them. We are moving to one schedule for these copies: daily copies kept for 30 days, then one copy per month kept for a year. Copies of scans and scan photos are kept for good, like the originals.

Deleting your account

In ShadowSnap, go to Settings > Account > Delete account. Before you confirm, the app offers to save a copy of your cards as a spreadsheet (CSV).

Right away: every iPhone on your account is signed out, and your shop page closes.

For 30 days: your account waits, in case you change your mind. Sign in again before the date the app shows you and tap "Keep my account."

After 30 days we erase your name, email, mobile phone, Apple or Google account code, phones list, backups, and shop page from our account system. Your shop page's web address is retired and never given to anyone else.

What we keep: a note that the account existed and was deleted, your consent records (with the email and phone kept only as scrambled fingerprints), the invite or access code you joined with, your shop page's old web address, our action log, and usage and crash reports (crash reports for 90 days). Your scans and scan photos stay too. They carry your access code and your iPhone's app ID (and, until the erase step described above is running, the internet address), not your name or contact details.

Backup copies: our server's own recent copies made before the erase are removed within a few days. Older backup copies, on our backup drive and in our cloud backup storage, can still hold your details until those copies are removed (see "How long we keep it"). We use backup copies only to recover from a failure, and once a week to check that the newest one still opens (that test copy is deleted right after). If we ever restore one, we erase deleted accounts again before anything else.

Your iPhone keeps its cards. Deleting your account doesn't remove anything from your iPhone. To remove the cards too, delete the app. If you install ShadowSnap again on the same iPhone, it asks you to sign in again before it uses your account.

If you can't open ShadowSnap (for example, if your access was switched off), email hello@splashandshadow.com from the email on your account and ask us to delete it. Parents, see "Children" below.

Your choices and rights

• See your information: your Inventory is in the app, and Settings > Account shows your account details. To ask what account details we hold about you, email us from the email on your account.
• Copy your cards: export your Inventory as a spreadsheet (CSV) any time.
• Correct it: change your name, email, and phone in Settings > Account.
• Delete it: see "Deleting your account."
• Stop marketing: see "Email and text messages."
• Stop product reporting: turn off "Help improve ShadowSnap" in Settings > Product Analytics.
• Your shop page: collectors can turn their page off. A seller's page stays on while the account is open; to take it down, delete your account or write to us.
• Apple diagnostics: turn off sharing with app developers in iPhone Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.
• Sign in with Apple: you can stop using your Apple ID with ShadowSnap in your Apple Account settings on your iPhone. That only stops Apple sign-in for ShadowSnap. It does not delete your ShadowSnap account, your backups or your shop page, and an iPhone that is already signed in stays signed in. To delete your account, use Delete account in the app (see "Deleting your account").

We don't track you across other apps and websites, and we don't let any other company collect information about what you do over time and across other apps or websites through ShadowSnap, ShadowTag, or our shop pages. (Apple, Google, TCGplayer, and PriceCharting see your internet address when they sign you in or send a picture, as described above.) Because there is no tracking, our apps and shop pages work the same whether or not your browser sends a "Do Not Track" signal.

Nevada residents: we don't sell covered information as Nevada law defines it. You can still send us a request not to sell it at hello@splashandshadow.com.

California residents: we don't sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

To make any request, email hello@splashandshadow.com. We may ask you to confirm it's you, for example by writing from the email on your account. We won't treat you differently for making a request.

Children

ShadowSnap is for people 13 and older. The app asks you to confirm your age before you sign in, so we get no name, email, or phone number until you do. If you tap "I'm under 13," the app stops there and no account is made. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 made an account, we'll erase it right away, without the 30-day wait, and remove the internet address and iPhone app ID from that child's scans. Parents who think their child under 13 made an account can email hello@splashandshadow.com, and we'll do the same.

ShadowTag is a business tool for adults and isn't meant for children under 13.

ShadowTag: everything stays on your device

Everything you put into ShadowTag is processed on your iPhone or iPad and is never sent to us:

• Files, spreadsheets, and lists you upload
• Product names, prices, and anything else on your tags
• Print layouts, templates, and settings
• Print history

We can't view, retrieve, or recover this content. When you delete a file in the app, or delete the app, that data is gone from your device and we hold no copy. When you print, your device sends the print job straight to your printer over your own connection (AirPrint, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth). ShadowTag needs no code or account.

Affiliate links

ShadowSnap and ShadowTag link to the label printers they can drive and to the refill tape each one uses. Those links go to Amazon. Some ShadowSnap links to sold listings go to eBay.

We're part of Amazon's affiliate program, and our eBay links may also carry an affiliate tag. If you buy something after following one of these links, we may earn a small commission. You pay the same price either way.

We only link to hardware our apps actually support, and nobody pays us to recommend a particular printer. We don't receive any information about what you buy, or whether you bought anything. Amazon and eBay report commissions to us without any customer details. Following one of these links opens the store in your browser, where that store's own privacy notice applies. The same goes for ShadowSnap's COMPS button, which opens eBay or TCGplayer.

Diagnostics from Apple

If you chose to share analytics with app developers, Apple may give us crash logs and basic technical details such as your device model, iOS version, and app version, plus overall statistics such as total downloads and crash counts. None of it includes your name or the contents of your files, tags, or print jobs. Apple's privacy policy covers this. You can turn it off in iPhone Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.

ShadowSnap versions before 2.0

Versions before 2.0 have no accounts. Everything in "Card photos and scans," "Other things ShadowSnap sends us" (except account requests), and "What stays on your iPhone" applies to them too. Older versions unlock with an access code, and every request they send carries that code and the iPhone's app ID.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters, we'll tell you in the app, and where needed we'll ask you to agree again before you keep using your account. We keep a copy of each version.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your privacy: hello@splashandshadow.com

Ludwig Chafen, doing business as Splash & Shadow Studio · Las Vegas, Nevada · hello@splashandshadow.com · splashandshadow.com