Privacy policy

Last updated August 29, 2026

Best Expression does not collect, store on any server, or transmit any personal data. Everything it does happens on your device: iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

The app has no network connections, no servers, no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising, and no accounts. Because it collects nothing, there is no data on our side that could be breached or exposed.

Photo library access

The app asks for access to your photo library for one purpose: finding other shots taken around the same time as the photo you are editing, so you can swap in a better expression. On iPhone and iPad the extension asks in context inside Photos the first time it runs. It reads photos only while you are editing, and it saves edits through Apple Photos as standard non-destructive adjustments. You can grant access to your whole library or, with limited access, only to the photos of the moment you want to fix. You can withdraw access at any time, in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos on your Mac or in Settings > Privacy & Security > Photos on your iPhone or iPad, after which the app cannot read any photos.

Face data

To do its job the app analyzes faces in your photos, entirely on your device. This section explains exactly what that involves.

What is processed. While you edit a photo, the app detects faces and computes, in memory: face bounding boxes, facial landmark points, expression scores (smile and eye openness), image quality scores, and short numeric image signatures used only to match the same person across the few shots of the same moment. It also computes hair and person segmentation masks used for blending. All of this is derived with Apple's Vision framework and open-source models running locally on your device. None of it is used to identify who a person is or to build a profile of anyone, it is never used for authentication, advertising, or marketing, and the app keeps no database of faces.

Consent. Face analysis runs only on a photo you open in the extension yourself and on the nearby shots you allow it to search; nothing is scanned in the background. Granting photo library access when the app asks is the consent for that search, and withdrawing that access stops it.

Storage. This in-memory face data exists only for the duration of the editing session and is discarded when you close the editor. It is never written to a server. When you save an edit, Apple Photos stores the app's edit recipe inside your own photo library as non-destructive adjustment data, the same mechanism every Photos editing extension uses. That recipe contains only: which of your photos a face was taken from, the normalized rectangle of the face within the photo, and your slider settings. It contains no landmark points, no image signatures, no biometric templates, and no face images. Because it lives inside your photo library, it stays wherever your library is: on your device, and in iCloud Photos if you have that turned on, under your own Apple account.

Sharing. Face data is not shared, disclosed, sold, or transferred to anyone: not to us, not to third parties, not to the developers of the open-source models. The app makes no network connections at all, and it never moves face data off your device.

Retention and deletion. In-memory face data is deleted when the editing session ends. The saved edit recipe persists as long as the edit exists. Choosing Revert to Original in Photos deletes it, as does deleting the photo. Uninstalling the app does not remove recipes already stored in your library, because Photos keeps your edits; Revert to Original removes them at any time.

Third-party components

The app bundles open-source face analysis models from the MediaPipe project and the TensorFlow Lite runtime, both under the Apache 2.0 license. They run entirely on your device and send nothing anywhere. License notices are in the app's Acknowledgements screen.

Children

The app has no accounts and collects no data, including from children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with an updated date.

Contact

Questions: [email protected], or see the support page.