BriefklarPrivacy Policy
1. Controller
Bernard Matthew Sharp
Postal address: see the imprint
Email: hallo@briefklar.ch
2. Processing in the iPhone app
When you scan a letter or import a photo or PDF, the following happens – entirely on your device:
- Text recognition: Apple's Vision framework reads the text and Swiss QR payment slips.
- Explanation: Apple's on-device language model (Apple Intelligence) writes the explanation. Briefklar only uses the model on your device. Where Apple Intelligence isn't available, the app uses its own hand-written explanations.
- Questions and reading aloud: Answers to your questions about a letter are also written by the model on your device. To read aloud, Briefklar uses the speech output built into iOS.
- Storage: Scans and explanations are stored in the app's protected storage on your iPhone and encrypted by iOS Data Protection. They are included in your device backup (iCloud Backup or computer) if you have turned it on.
- Widget: The Briefklar widget shows your next deadlines. It reads them from the app's protected storage on your iPhone.
We (the developers of Briefklar) have no access to your letters, scans, explanations or notes. You can delete single letters or all letters at any time in the app (Settings → Delete all letters). Deleting the app removes your letters and settings.
One small exception: so that the free explanations don't start again after reinstalling, the app keeps a counter of how many you have used in your iPhone's keychain. It contains nothing from your letters and doesn't move to a new iPhone.
3. Permissions in the iPhone app
- Camera: only to scan letters.
- Photos: Briefklar only sees the photos you select. If you save a letter's QR code to your photos, Briefklar can only add that image there.
- Notifications: for deadline reminders, scheduled locally on your iPhone.
- Calendar: only when you choose “Add to Calendar” and save the event in Apple's dialog.
- Face ID: only for the optional app lock. Briefklar receives no biometric data.
4. Purchases in the iPhone app
Subscriptions and purchases are handled by Apple through the App Store; Apple is responsible for this processing, and Apple's privacy policy applies. We receive no payment or contact details. The app verifies purchases with Apple's StoreKit on your device.
5. Android app (in preparation)
The Android app processes your letters on your phone:
- Scanning and text recognition: Google ML Kit reads the text and Swiss QR codes on your phone; its models are included in the app. For scanning, the app uses Google's document scanner, which is part of Google Play services and runs on your phone.
- Explanation: On phones that have it, Gemini Nano writes the explanation on your phone, through Android's AICore. Otherwise, the app uses its own hand-written explanations.
- Storage: Letters, scans and explanations are stored in the app's private storage on your phone. They are excluded from cloud backups; Android's device-to-device transfer to a new phone can include them.
- Free explanations: The app keeps a counter of the free explanations you have used in its settings on your phone.
Diagnostic data from Google ML Kit: ML Kit sends diagnostic data to Google over HTTPS: information about the device and the app, per-installation identifiers that are not intended to identify you, performance metrics, API configuration, the size of inputs and outputs, error codes and, for ML Kit's AI features, the configured languages. It does not send the content of your letters. Source: Google, “Prepare for Google Play's data disclosure requirements” (ML Kit, checked October 2026).
Permissions:
- Camera: only through Google's document scanner.
- Notifications: for deadline reminders. Android 13 and later asks you first.
- Calendar: calendar entries are made in your calendar app's own dialog. The app has no calendar permission.
- App lock: the optional app lock uses the system's fingerprint, face or screen-lock prompt. No biometric data reaches the app.
Purchases: Subscriptions and purchases are handled through Google Play Billing; Google's privacy policy applies. The app asks Google Play which purchases your Google account has. No payment details reach us.
6. Browser extension for Chrome and Edge (in preparation)
- What it reads: only what you choose – a PDF file, the PDF in the current tab after you click, text you select or text you paste. It reads it on your computer.
- Explanation: The extension uses its own hand-written explanations or, where Chrome supports it, Chrome's built-in AI (Gemini Nano), which runs on your computer.
- Nothing is sent: The extension sends nothing to us or to third parties and contains no analytics.
- Storage: The extension only stores the explanation language you chose, in the browser's extension storage (your browser synchronises it if you've turned on browser sync). Text you hand over from the right-click menu is kept in memory for the session only.
- Underlining official terms (optional): The extension reads web pages on your computer only when you ask for it or turn it on for all pages; your browser asks you for that permission.
- Links: Links to briefklar.ch only open this website.
7. No analytics, no tracking
Briefklar contains no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking tools. The one exception is the diagnostic data that Google ML Kit in the Android app sends to Google (see section 5); it contains nothing from your letters. For the iPhone app, at most we see the anonymous, aggregated statistics Apple provides to all developers in App Store Connect (e.g. number of downloads), and crash reports if you have allowed sharing them in iOS Settings. The browser extension contains no analytics.
8. Contact by email
If you email us, we use your email address and message only to answer your request. We delete the correspondence when it is no longer needed, at the latest after 12 months, unless we have to keep it by law. Our email provider is Hostpoint AG (Switzerland).
9. This website
This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no content from third parties (such as web fonts or videos). If you choose a language, your browser remembers it locally; it isn't sent anywhere.
Our hosting provider Netlify, Inc. (USA) stores technically necessary server logs (IP address, time, page requested, browser) to deliver the site securely. It keeps them only as long as needed for that purpose.
10. Disclosure abroad
Our hosting and email providers may process data outside Switzerland; our hosting provider in particular in the USA. We only disclose data to countries without adequate data protection with suitable safeguards, such as the EU standard contractual clauses or the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, under which our hosting provider is certified.
11. Legal basis (EU and EEA)
Where the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, we process emails to answer your request (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR) and server logs based on our legitimate interest in operating the website securely (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
12. Your rights
Under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where applicable, the GDPR, you have the right to access, correct and delete your data, to object to its processing and to receive it in a common format. As we receive no data from the apps or the browser extension, this usually only concerns email correspondence. The diagnostic data from Google ML Kit (section 5) goes to Google, not to us. Contact us at the address above. You can lodge a complaint with the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC); people in the EU and EEA can also contact the data protection authority in their country.
13. Changes
If the apps, the browser extension or this website change in a way that requires updating this policy, we will update it here and change the date above.