Privacy policy: AlbumRescue

Last updated: 5 November 2026

This policy covers AlbumRescue, a Mac app that reads Photos libraries and saves what they hold as folders, published by Kayabyte, the trading name of Caner Kaya, Stasjonsveien 64, 0771 Oslo, Norway (we, us). It adds app-specific detail to the privacy policy for Kayabyte apps for Mac. Where the two differ, this page applies to AlbumRescue.

The short version

AlbumRescue never uploads your photos, videos, albums, captions, keywords, names, locations or the files it creates. We can’t see them, and nobody else can through us. There is no account. The app only talks to the internet to check your licence and to look for updates. Scanning, comparing and saving all work offline.

What AlbumRescue reads, and where

• Photos libraries: on your Mac, on drives you connect, in Time Machine backups, and any library you choose. It looks for libraries in your Pictures, Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders, on Time Machine disks and on mounted volumes.
• Full Disk Access. macOS protects your Photos library and Time Machine backups, so reading them needs Full Disk Access, which you turn on yourself in System Settings and can turn off at any time. AlbumRescue is not sandboxed by macOS, because a sandboxed app cannot get this access. It uses the access only to read libraries and backups. Without it, you can still choose a library on an external drive yourself.
• Library contents it reads: album and folder names and members, captions, keywords, favourites, dates, file names, whether an item is hidden or in Recently Deleted, and People names where the database has them. These are used on your Mac to show lists and write your export.

What AlbumRescue creates

• A private temporary copy of the library’s database. It is read there so the library itself is never opened, and it is removed by the app.
• Your export, in the folder you choose: copies of your files, sidecar files, a CSV report and a read-me. These contain your photos and their details. If that folder syncs to iCloud Drive or another cloud service, that service uploads them. What you do with them afterwards is up to you.
• Preferences and a count of free sample photos used, kept on your Mac in its preferences and Keychain.

What AlbumRescue sends over the internet

Only two things, and neither contains anything from your libraries:

• Licence check. When you enter a licence key, and from time to time while a licence is saved, the app sends the key and an identifier for your Mac to our licence service. The identifier is a one-way hash of your Mac’s hardware identifier. It isn’t your name, email, serial number or Apple Account. It lets us limit a licence to 2 Macs. The free version needs no licence.
• Update check. The app uses the Sparkle update framework to download an update feed from kayabyte.dev and see whether a new version exists. Like any web request, this includes your IP address, and the request tells the server your app version. You can turn automatic update checks off in AlbumRescue’s Settings. We count update checks and update downloads per app version and day, without storing your IP address or any identifier.

Nothing else. Apart from those per-version counts, AlbumRescue has no telemetry, analytics, crash reporting service, advertising or tracking. If we ever add anonymous usage statistics, they will be off until you switch them on, and this page will be updated first.

Purchases

Purchases go through our reseller and Merchant of Record, Paddle.com, which handles payment, tax and your billing details under its own privacy policy. We receive your email address and country so we can send and support your licence. We never see your full card details. We keep order records as Norwegian bookkeeping law requires.

Support

If you email support@kayabyte.dev, we use your message and address only to help you, and delete support conversations 24 months after they end. Please don’t send us your photos or your library. If we need to see a problem, we’ll ask for a description or a screenshot with the private details covered.

Sub-processors

• Cloudflare, Inc.: hosts kayabyte.dev, the update feed and the licence service.
• Paddle.com Market Ltd: checkout, billing and tax.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete the data we hold about you (your order record, licence activations and support emails) by writing to support@kayabyte.dev. We answer within 30 days. You can also complain to Datatilsynet, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, or to the data protection authority where you live.

Contact

Kayabyte, Caner Kaya, Stasjonsveien 64, 0771 Oslo, Norway. support@kayabyte.dev