Privacy Policy

Last updated: [release date of SMBDrop 1.2]

SMBDrop moves photos, videos and files between your iPhone and SMB network shares that you own or control. It is designed so that your data stays yours.

This policy has two parts: the SMBDrop app, which sends anonymous usage counts (which you can turn off) and any feedback message you choose to submit, and this website, which may use Google Analytics to count visits.

The app: data we collect

SMBDrop has no accounts and no ads. It sends two things to the developer: anonymous usage analytics, described below, which you can turn off, and the optional feedback form, which sends only what you type. Your files, photos, server details and passwords are never sent to the developer or to anyone else.

Anonymous usage analytics

From version 1.2, the app sends anonymous usage events so the developer can see which features are used and where transfers go wrong. For example, it records that a send finished with "6 to 20 succeeded, 1 skipped" or that a connection test failed with "timeout". It uses PostHog, hosted on PostHog Cloud EU (data held in Frankfurt, Germany), with PostHog acting as the developer's data processor.

What is sent:

• which feature was used, such as adding a share, testing a connection, sending, importing or turning on Automatic Backup;
• counts and sizes rounded into broad ranges (for example 2 to 5 items, or 100 MB to 1 GB), whether a batch contained videos or Live Photos, and how long it took (also as a range);
• outcome categories only, such as "success", "timeout" or "permission denied", never the error message itself;
• standard app and device details: app version and build, iOS version, device model (such as "iPhone16,1", not the name you gave your phone), screen size, language, time zone, whether you were on Wi-Fi or mobile data, and whether the build came from TestFlight;
• a random install ID, and a session ID, so events from one install can be counted together. The install ID is made by the analytics library the first time analytics runs and is kept in the app's own storage. It is not your Apple Account, your advertising identifier or Apple's per-vendor device ID, and it is never linked to your name or email. Turning analytics off and on again keeps the same ID; deleting the app deletes it, and a new install gets a new one. Like other app data, it can come back if your iPhone is restored from a backup.

What is never sent: server addresses, IP addresses or ports of your servers, share names, folder paths, usernames, passwords, file names, file or photo contents, album names, error messages, the text of any feedback, your advertising identifier, or anything that identifies you personally. The app never links analytics to a name, email address or account. Session replay, screen capture, tap and text capture, and location lookup are all switched off.

Your IP address: like any internet request, the upload reaches PostHog from your IP address, so PostHog's servers do see it when the upload arrives. The app asks PostHog not to store your IP address, and the SMBDrop PostHog project is set to discard client IP addresses, so PostHog drops it instead of saving it with the events. Location lookup from the IP address is switched off.

Not used for advertising: the data is used only to understand and improve SMBDrop. It is not combined with data from other apps or websites, not shared with advertisers or data brokers, and not sold. That is also why there is no App Tracking Transparency prompt.

Turning it off: in the app, go to Settings › Share Anonymous Usage Data. When you turn it off, the app stops sending straight away and deletes any events it has recorded but not yet sent, so they are never uploaded. (An upload already in progress at that exact moment can't be recalled.) The setting covers the Share extension too. Analytics is also off while Sample Content is on.

How long it is kept: PostHog keeps events for the period its plan sets. On the plan SMBDrop uses that is one year, and after that they may be deleted. Because they are not linked to you, the developer can't find or delete one person's events on request, but you can stop them at any time with the setting above.

Notifications and Live Activities

Transfer progress on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, and notifications such as "Transfer finished", are created on your iPhone by the app itself. They are local notifications: no push server is involved and nothing about them is sent to the developer. You can turn transfer notifications off in the app's Settings, or in the iOS Settings app.

Optional feedback form

Settings › Request a Feature lets you send a message to the developer. Nothing is sent unless you type a message and tap Send. When you do, the app sends:

• the message you typed and the type you picked (feature, problem or other);
• the email address you entered, if you chose to give one, so the developer can reply;
• the app version and build number, and your iOS version, to help track down problems.

It is sent over HTTPS to a small relay run by the developer on Cloudflare Workers, which passes it to the email service Resend for delivery to the developer's inbox. It is used only to read and reply to your feedback. No files, photos, server details, passwords or device identifiers are included, and the feedback text is never sent to the analytics service. If the relay can't be reached, the app offers to open your own Mail app instead, where you can see and edit everything before sending.

Where your files go

Files you send or import travel directly between your device and the SMB server you configure, over your own network. No third-party server is involved at any point, and the developer never sees your files or your server details.

Server credentials

The username and password for each SMB share are stored only in your device's iOS Keychain. They are used solely to connect to the server you configured and are never written to preferences, logs or any external service. Deleting a saved share removes its stored password.

Photos access

SMBDrop asks for photo-library access only so you can pick photos and videos to send, and for add-only access when you choose to save an imported image or video to your library. The app reads only what you select and never uploads anything you did not explicitly choose to send to your own server.

Local network access

SMBDrop asks for local-network permission because connecting to an SMB server on your network requires it. It is used only for the connections you initiate.

This website (smbdrop.com)

The website (not the app) may use Google Analytics 4 to count page views and see which pages and guides are useful. When it does, it is configured as follows, to collect as little as possible:

• Analytics cookies disabled. Consent for analytics and advertising storage is set to "denied" by default, so Google Analytics does not set or read cookies on this site. It sends cookieless measurements instead.
• IP addresses are not stored. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses; the site also sets anonymize_ip.
• No Google signals and no ad personalisation. allow_google_signals and allow_ad_personalization_signals are both off, so visits are not linked to Google accounts or used for advertising.

If analytics is on, what Google receives is the page address, the referring page, and general browser, device and approximate location information (country or city level). Google processes this data as described in Google's Privacy Policy. You can block it with any content blocker, or with Google's opt-out browser add-on, and the site works exactly the same.

The site also loads its fonts from Google Fonts, which means your browser requests them from Google's servers. The site is hosted on Cloudflare, which processes standard request logs to deliver it. Nothing you do on this website is connected to the app, and the app never contacts this website.

Changes

If this policy ever changes, the updated version will be published at this address with a new date.

Contact

Questions about privacy or the app? Open an issue on the SMBDrop issue tracker.