Business Card Reader

Your cards. Your choices.

Privacy policy for Business Card Reader 4.0 for iPhone, provided by SHAPE GmbH.

Cards and recognition

Business card recognition runs on your iPhone using Apple Vision and SwiftOCRKit. Card images, recognized text, names, companies, phone numbers, email addresses, websites, addresses, notes, tags and favorites are stored in the app on your device. Version 4.0 does not upload this collection to a SHAPE server and does not operate a cloud account or background sync service. Event names, dates, and card-to-event assignments are also stored locally. Deleting an event folder keeps its cards in All cards. Device backups may include app data according to your Apple and device settings.

Camera, photos and Contacts

Camera access lets you photograph cards. Photo import uses Apple's system picker so you choose the images to share with the app. Contacts access lets you save a reviewed contact to your default phone address book, including the card picture as the contact photo. A photo update changes only a contact previously saved or explicitly imported by this app. Your Contacts accounts may sync saved contacts and pictures to iCloud or other services under those providers' policies. You can disable automatic phone saving in the app and manage permissions in iPhone Settings.

You can import selected phone contacts through Apple's contact picker or import a vCard file you choose. Imported data stays on the device unless you choose to export or save it to Contacts. The app does not enumerate your entire address book for advertising.

Exports and LinkedIn

Exports are initiated by you. The system Files and sharing interfaces send the selected data to the location or service you choose, including Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, AirDrop, Mail and other installed providers. Direct Salesforce export sends the selected contact fields to your configured Salesforce organization. Salesforce login uses its authorization page; access tokens are stored in the iPhone Keychain. You can disconnect in the app and revoke access in Salesforce. LinkedIn search sends the contact's name and company as search keywords when you tap Find on LinkedIn. These services handle received information under their own policies.

Optional rewarded advertising

You can choose to watch a Google AdMob rewarded video to unlock 10 additional scans. Google Mobile Ads and User Messaging Platform may process IP address (which can indicate approximate location), device identifiers and device/network information, ad interactions, product interactions, crash, performance and other diagnostic data for ad delivery, measurement, consent management, security and fraud prevention. Your business card content is not supplied to the advertising SDK.

The app requests non-personalized ads, disables Google's publisher first-party ID and publisher privacy personalization features, and does not request permission to access Apple's advertising identifier. Non-personalized does not mean that no data is processed. Google's consent service may check your region and privacy choices when the app opens, before you choose an ad. The Mobile Ads SDK starts in the rewarded-ad flow after Google's consent system permits ad requests. Active Pro subscribers are not shown ads.

Where required, Google's consent form offers consent, refusal and settings choices before an ad request. Ad privacy choices are available in the app's Settings when required by Google's consent system, including applicable US opt-out choices. You can use the free allowance or subscribe without watching an ad. Google explains its processing, retention, international transfers and available controls in its privacy policy and information for partner apps.

Optional usage analytics

Usage analytics is off by default. You can choose to share it during onboarding or in the app’s Settings. If enabled, Google Analytics for Firebase receives basic app interactions (such as opening the scanner, saving a card, creating an event folder, confirming an export, or viewing the Pro offer), numeric card counts, device and app information, approximate region, and a random app-instance identifier. No account login is required.

Card photographs, scanned text, names, companies, contact details, notes, search terms, event names and dates, and card or event identifiers are not sent to Analytics. We do not set a user identifier. The Analytics integration excludes advertising-ID support, disables vendor-ID collection and automatic screen reporting, and denies advertising storage, advertising user-data and ad-personalization consent. Manually reported screen names come from a fixed list and contain no user content.

You can turn usage analytics off in Settings at any time. This stops future collection and clears Analytics data stored on that device, including resetting the app-instance identifier. It does not erase data already processed by Google. Google’s privacy policy and information for partner apps explain its processing, retention, international transfers and controls. The app remains usable if you decline analytics.

Subscriptions and preferences

Apple handles subscription purchases and payment details. The app checks verified StoreKit entitlement status to provide Pro benefits. SHAPE does not receive your payment card details through the app. The local scan allowance and earned rewards are stored in Keychain. Contact identifiers used to prevent repeated phone saves and preferences such as sounds, haptics and onboarding status are stored locally. Sounds respect Silent Mode; animations follow Reduce Motion.

Keeping and deleting data

Saved cards remain until you delete them in the app or remove the app's data. Deleting a card also removes its app-owned image; it does not remove copies already saved to phone Contacts or exported to another service. Remove those copies using the destination's controls. Temporary export files are removed when the export flow closes. Keychain records and device backups may survive app removal under Apple's platform behavior and your settings.

Version 4.0 uses a new local storage format. It does not directly read the earlier app's database or restore BCR Cloud data. Earlier files are left untouched. Contacts already saved in the phone or a vCard backup can be imported. We do not claim that an automatic migration from the earlier database has been verified.

Your questions and rights

Contact SHAPE GmbH at privacy@shape.ag for privacy questions or requests about personal data SHAPE holds. Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or receive your data, object to processing, withdraw consent or complain to a data protection authority. We cannot remotely retrieve or erase a collection stored only on your iPhone. Use the app's export and deletion controls for that collection, and the relevant provider's controls for exported copies. If you contact us for support, we receive the information you send; please share only what is needed for your request.