SPECTROMASTER PRIVACY POLICY
Version 2026-09-04
Publisher: Qemica Lab, an independent software developer based in the
Republic of Korea ("we").
Contact: feedback.qemica@gmail.com · We are a one-person operation and
have not appointed a separate data protection officer. Email is our
contact channel; we publish no postal address.
This policy covers the Spectromaster application for iPhone, iPad and
Mac. It does NOT cover the Qemica desktop workbench (/legal/privacy) or
Chembook (/legal/chembook-privacy), which are separate products with
their own policies.
1. SUMMARY
Spectromaster does not collect, transmit, or share any personal
data. We cannot see your spectra, your samples, or anything you do
in the app.
Reading and interpreting a spectrum happens entirely on your device,
against reference data built into the download. There is no server
doing the science, no account, no sign-in, no analytics, no
advertising network, no tracking, no crash reporting, and no
third-party SDK of any kind. The app contains no logging code at
all.
The free version shows one card promoting our own products. It is
text built into the app: it reads no identifier, it is not chosen
for you, and it cannot report that you saw it or tapped it
(Section 6).
The app has exactly one network feature of its own, and it is
optional and off until you switch it on: syncing your own records
between your own devices through your own private iCloud database
(Section 4). The only other traffic is Apple's — the purchase flow,
and the App Store opening if you tap the card (Section 3).
We have declared "Data Not Collected" on the App Store, and the
privacy manifest shipped inside the app says the same thing.
2. WHAT THE APP STORES ON YOUR DEVICE
Spectromaster saves your work inside the app's own private storage
on your device:
- Solutions (samples) and their labels, comments and notes.
- Measurements: peak tables, multiplets, and the interpretations
produced from them.
- Spectrum photographs you captured or imported, and instrument
files you opened.
- A reference table you imported yourself, if you imported one,
with the name, source and licence you gave it. It stays on the
device you imported it on and is not synced.
- Records of what you have deleted, so a deletion is not undone the
next time your devices sync.
- App preferences, and the date your subscription runs out, so the
app works offline (Section 6).
On iPhone and iPad this data is written with file protection
enabled, so it stays encrypted while the device is locked.
You can delete any of it from within the app, or remove all of it by
deleting the app. Deleting the app does not cancel a purchase (see
Section 6).
3. NETWORK USE
No stage of the science touches the network. Extracting peaks,
measuring, interpreting, ranking candidates and searching the
reference library all run locally against data compiled into the
app. A result is reproducible on a device in aeroplane mode, and the
app contains no general-purpose networking code.
We do not fetch reference data at runtime, and nothing about your
use of the app is reported to us.
The only network activity is:
- iCloud sync, if you switch it on (Section 4).
- The purchase and purchase-restore flow, performed by Apple's own
store services rather than by us (Section 6).
- Opening the App Store, if you tap the link on the promotional
card. That hands the address to Apple's App Store app; this app
makes no request of its own and is told nothing about what
happens next (Section 6).
4. ICLOUD SYNC (OPTIONAL)
Sync is off until you turn it on, and the app is fully usable with
it left off forever. Nothing in the science or the interpretation
depends on it, and it needs no purchase: sync is free.
When it is on, your records — solutions, measurements, spectrum
photographs, and deletion records — are copied between your own
devices through the PRIVATE database of your own iCloud account.
What this means in practice:
- The data goes to your Apple account, not to us. We have no server
and no database, and we have no way to read, request, or recover
any of it.
- Only the private database is used. The container's public database
is never touched, so nothing you record is visible to other users
or to us.
- It syncs between your devices only. There is no sharing feature,
no collaboration, and no other person's device involved.
- Turning sync off stops further copying. Records already in your
iCloud remain there under your control, and can be removed by
deleting the corresponding solutions in the app, or through your
Apple account's iCloud storage settings.
Deleting a solution, a measurement, or a photograph in the app
deletes the matching record and image from your iCloud on the next
sync, and records the deletion so that another device does not put
it back.
Apple processes iCloud data under its own privacy policy, which we
do not control: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
5. CAMERA AND PHOTOGRAPHS
Spectromaster can photograph a printed or on-screen spectrum so it
can be read. The camera is used only when you open it, and images go
straight into the app's own storage.
- Location is never recorded. The app does not use location services
at all, and every photograph it stores is re-encoded with its
metadata removed: no GPS coordinates, no device or lens
information, no capture timestamps from the camera.
- Access to your photo library is ADD-ONLY. The app can save a
capture to your library when you ask it to, and it has no
permission to read your library or to see any other photograph in
it.
- Importing a spectrum image or an instrument file reads only the
file you chose.
On the Mac, the app has no camera or photo-library access at all.
6. PURCHASES AND THE PROMOTIONAL CARD
Spectromaster offers one optional subscription, billed monthly
through Apple. It removes the limit on how many solutions you can
keep at once, lets the app search a reference table you supply
beside the one built in, and removes the promotional card described
below. It renews until you cancel, and you cancel it in your Apple
Account's subscription settings rather than through us.
The subscription is sold under Apple's standard Licensed Application
End User License Agreement. That is the Terms of Use the app links on
its purchase screen, and the one named in our App Store listing:
https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
The Qemica EULA in this site's footer governs the Qemica desktop
workbench and its computation engine. It does not cover Spectromaster
and is not the agreement you are buying under.
Cancelling takes nothing away. Every solution, measurement,
photograph and export you already have stays yours and stays
readable; what stops is starting a further solution and searching
your imported table.
Reading spectra, every analysis and interpretation, exporting your
own records, and the iCloud sync in Section 4 are free and
unlimited, permanently. Nothing about the accuracy of a result
depends on whether you have paid.
Purchases and renewals are processed entirely by Apple. We never see
or store your payment details, your Apple Account identity, or your
purchase history. Whether your subscription is currently active is
checked on device through Apple's own store APIs; there is no receipt
server, and the check involves no service of ours.
So that the app keeps working where there is no signal, the date your
subscription runs out is stored on the device and honoured for a week
beyond that date while the store cannot be reached. That date is the
only thing about your purchase the app keeps, it never leaves the
device, and it is not personal information we can see.
Apple handles that transaction under its own privacy policy, which
we do not control: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
To restore a previous purchase on a new device or after
reinstalling, use Restore Purchase.
THE PROMOTIONAL CARD
The free version shows one card at the foot of the cabinet screen,
alternating between the purchase above and another app we make. The
purchase removes it.
There is no advertising network behind it. The wording is compiled
into the app and ships with the download, so it is the same for
everyone: nothing about it is chosen, targeted, or personalised. No
advertising identifier is read, no impression or tap is counted, and
nothing about the card reaches us or anyone else — we cannot tell
whether it has ever been seen.
Tapping it opens Apple's App Store, under Apple's privacy policy
rather than ours. We are told nothing about whether you opened it,
or what you did once you were there.
7. EXPORTS AND BACKUPS
You can export your records and back up the whole cabinet at any
time, in the free version as well as the paid one, including after a
refund. Your measurements are yours and are never held hostage.
Exports are written where you choose, by you. They contain your
records and nothing else: no device identifiers, no account
information, and no usage data. They are not sent anywhere.
8. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
Spectromaster is a laboratory and study tool for chemistry, not a
product directed at children. Because it collects no personal data
at all, it does not knowingly collect information from children, and
there is nothing for a parent or guardian to request the deletion
of. Data the app has written is on the device, under your control,
and is removed with the app.
9. YOUR RIGHTS
Privacy laws such as the GDPR and the CCPA give you rights of
access, correction, deletion, and portability over personal data a
company holds about you.
We hold none. There is no account, no server, and no database in
which you appear, so there is nothing for us to disclose, correct,
export, or erase. The data described in Section 2 is under your own
control on your own device, and the iCloud copy described in Section
4 is in your own Apple account.
We do not sell or share personal information, because we do not
collect any.
10. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this
URL with a new version date. Material changes will also be noted in
the app's release notes.
Any widening of the single network exception in Section 4 would be a
material change and would be stated here plainly, not slipped in.
11. CONTACT
Questions about privacy: feedback.qemica@gmail.com