Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Switchfeed handles information when you use the Switchfeed app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. It covers the app itself and this website, switchfeed.app.

1. Who we are

Switchfeed is built and operated by Andrea Fomera, trading as “Switchfeed” (“Switchfeed,” “we,” “us”). Switchfeed is a small independent project, not a company with a data team behind it, and the app is designed so that we never need to hold your information in the first place.

For any privacy question, write to support@switchfeed.app.

2. How Switchfeed works

Switchfeed is a third-party client for two social networks. It does not host a social network of its own. When you use the app, your device connects directly to:

Bluesky and the AT Protocol network — your Personal Data Server (PDS), the Bluesky AppView, and any feed generators or labelers you choose to use; and
any Mastodon instance you sign in to — the server that hosts your Mastodon account, which is run by whoever operates that instance.

Switchfeed operates no servers of its own, and no data passes through Switchfeed. There is no Switchfeed account, no Switchfeed database and no Switchfeed backend that your posts, timelines, messages or credentials travel through. We could not read your data even if we wanted to.

Switchfeed is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Bluesky Social PBC or Mastodon gGmbH. Your accounts and everything you publish on those networks are governed by their own terms and privacy policies, and by the policies of the specific instance or Personal Data Server you use. Content you post through Switchfeed is published to those networks and takes on their rules and visibility — on both networks, posts are public by default and can be seen, copied and archived by anyone.

3. What we collect

Nothing. Switchfeed collects no personal data, no usage data, no device identifiers and no diagnostics. We do not create a profile about you, we do not receive your handle or email address, and we have no logs of what you read or post.

Apple’s privacy manifest shipped inside the app declares no collected data types and no tracking, which is why the App Store listing shows “Data Not Collected.”

The rest of this policy describes data that stays on your device, data that goes to the networks you chose to use, and the limited role Apple plays — because Apple’s rules ask us to explain all of that, not because any of it comes to us.

4. Data stored on your device

To work offline and to feel fast, Switchfeed stores the following locally, in the app’s own storage area protected by iOS and macOS:

cached timelines, posts, profiles and media, so feeds load quickly and survive a dropped connection;
drafts of posts you haven’t published yet;
your preferences and theme, including which accounts appear in which timelines;
your People directory — the links you make between a person’s Bluesky handle and their Mastodon handle, along with any private free-text notes you write about them. If you block someone from one of their posts, Switchfeed can save a link to that post in your private note so you remember why. These notes are for you only: they are never sent to the person, to Bluesky, to Mastodon or to us;
your mute and block lists as reported back to the app by each network, and your bookmarks and search history as the networks provide them.

This data never leaves your device except through iCloud sync, if you turn it on (see below).

5. Sign-in and credentials

You sign in to each network directly. On Bluesky, Switchfeed uses an app password or session token issued by your Personal Data Server. On Mastodon, Switchfeed uses OAuth: the app registers itself with the instance you name, the instance shows you its own sign-in page, and it hands back a token.

Those credentials and tokens are stored only in the Apple Keychain on your device. They are used solely to talk to that network on your behalf. Switchfeed never sees them, and they are never transmitted anywhere except to the network that issued them.

Signing out of an account in Settings removes its credentials from the Keychain. You can also revoke access at any time from the network’s own side — delete the app password in your Bluesky settings, or revoke the Switchfeed application in your Mastodon account’s authorized apps list.

6. iCloud sync (optional)

Switchfeed can keep a few things in step across your Apple devices using your own iCloud account through Apple’s key-value storage. When it is on, it syncs:

your preferences and theme;
your People directory, including the private notes described above;
the list of accounts you are signed in to — identifiers only, never credentials.

This data lives in your iCloud, under your Apple Account, governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy. Switchfeed cannot access it — it is not a Switchfeed server and we have no key to it. You can turn iCloud sync off in Settings at any time. Deleting the app’s iCloud data from your Apple Account settings, or signing out of iCloud, removes it.

7. Network connections

When you use Switchfeed, your device makes requests to:

your Bluesky Personal Data Server, the Bluesky AppView, and the feed generators and labelers you have chosen;
the Mastodon instance or instances you signed in to;
the image and video hosts referenced by the posts you are reading — for example the Bluesky CDN, a Mastodon instance’s media host, or the site that hosts a link preview image.

As with any app that loads pictures from the web, those hosts can see your IP address and the usual request information when your device fetches media from them. That is between your device and that host; none of it is routed through or reported to Switchfeed. If a post links to an external site and you open it, you leave the app and that site’s own policies apply.

8. Photos, camera and files

Switchfeed asks for access to your photo library, camera or files only at the moment you attach media to a post, and only for what you pick. The app does not scan or index your library. Media you attach is uploaded directly from your device to the network you are posting to, and becomes subject to that network’s policies. You can change these permissions at any time in your device’s privacy settings.

9. No analytics, ads or tracking

Switchfeed contains:

no analytics or telemetry;
no crash-reporting SDK;
no advertising and no ad identifiers;
no tracking as Apple defines it, and no tracking across apps, websites or companies;
no third-party SDKs that collect data.

We do not sell or share personal information, and we never have. There is nothing to opt out of, because there is no collection to opt out of. This website serves static pages with no analytics scripts, no third-party fonts and no advertising or tracking cookies.

10. Third parties

Because nothing passes through Switchfeed, we have no data-sharing partners and no processors handling your data on our behalf. The only organizations involved in your use of the app are ones you chose yourself, or that Apple requires:

Who	What they see	Their policy governs
Bluesky / your PDS, AppView, feeds and labelers	Your account, posts, follows and requests, as with any Bluesky client	Bluesky Social PBC and your PDS operator
Your Mastodon instance	Your account, posts, follows and requests	The operator of that instance
Media and link-preview hosts	The request for an image or video, including your IP address	Each host
Apple	App Store download and purchase, TestFlight, iCloud, device diagnostics	Apple

We do not pass personal data to any third party ourselves, so there is no onward transfer for us to impose conditions on; where Apple acts in connection with the app, Apple is bound by its own published privacy commitments, which provide protections equivalent to those described here. We would not add a third-party service that collects your data without saying so in this policy first.

11. Apple, purchases and crash reports

Switchfeed is distributed only through Apple’s App Store, Mac App Store and TestFlight. Apple handles the download, any purchases, beta distribution and iCloud, and Apple collects information for those purposes under its own privacy policy — we receive only anonymized, aggregate sales and download reports from App Store Connect, which do not identify you.

If a purchase is made, Apple processes the payment. We never see your payment card, billing address or Apple Account details.

If you have opted in to sharing analytics and improvement data with app developers in your device’s settings (Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements, or System Settings on a Mac), Apple may make anonymized crash logs and performance diagnostics available to us in App Store Connect. These come from Apple, not from any code in the app, they are not linked to your identity, and you can turn that sharing off at any time in the same settings.

12. Retention and deletion

We retain nothing, because we receive nothing. What exists is on your device and in your iCloud, and you control all of it:

Local data: delete the app to remove everything it stored on that device — caches, drafts, preferences and your People directory.
Credentials: sign out of an account in Settings to remove its token from the Keychain, and revoke the app password or OAuth authorization on the network’s own site.
iCloud data: turn off iCloud sync in Settings, and delete the app’s iCloud data through your Apple Account settings.
Caches: the app clears cached timeline content over time; you can also clear it from Settings.
Your posts and account: these live on Bluesky or your Mastodon instance. To delete posts or close an account, use that network — deleting Switchfeed does not delete anything you published.

Consent works the same way: because there is no collection, there is no consent for us to hold. Any permission you gave the app — photos, camera, notifications — can be withdrawn in your device’s settings, and any access you gave to a network can be revoked there.

13. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under laws such as the EU GDPR, the UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA, and similar state and national laws — including the right to know, access, correct, delete, port or restrict the processing of your personal data, and to be free from discrimination for exercising them.

We hold no personal data about you, so there is nothing for us to produce, correct or erase. We do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use it for targeted advertising or profiling. In practice, requests need to go to whoever does hold the data:

Your posts, profile, follows and moderation records — Bluesky Social PBC or your Personal Data Server operator, or the operator of your Mastodon instance.
Purchases, downloads, TestFlight and iCloud — Apple.
Data on your device — already yours; see section 12.

You are still welcome to write to support@switchfeed.app with any privacy request or question. We will answer, confirm what we hold (we expect the answer to stay “nothing”), and help you direct the request to the right place. If you are in the EEA or UK you also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

14. Children

Switchfeed is not directed to children under 13, and the underlying networks set their own minimum ages — 13 or higher for Bluesky, and 16 or higher on many Mastodon instances. We do not knowingly collect data from children, or from anyone else, since we collect no data at all. If you believe a child is using the app in a way that concerns you, contact us and we will help where we can.

15. Security

Credentials are held in the Apple Keychain, which is encrypted by the operating system and protected by your device passcode, Face ID or Touch ID. App data sits in the app’s sandboxed storage and is covered by your device’s encryption. All network connections use HTTPS. Keeping your device locked, updated and in your possession is the most important part of keeping the app’s data safe. No system is perfectly secure, but there is no central store of Switchfeed user data for anyone to breach.

16. Open source components

Switchfeed uses Nuke (MIT license) to load and cache images. Nuke runs entirely on your device and sends no data to its authors or to us. License texts for the open source components we use are shown in the app and are available on request.

17. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update the date at the top of this page and post the new version here. If a future release ever collects data — which is not the plan — we will say so plainly in this policy, update the app’s App Store privacy labels and privacy manifest, and ask for your consent where the law requires it, before that release ships. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.

18. Contact us

Questions, corrections or privacy requests: support@switchfeed.app. We read every message. The data controller for anything covered by this policy is Andrea Fomera, operating as Switchfeed, Colorado, USA.