Trove Back to home

Trove Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 November 2026

Trove runs on your computer. Your photos, videos, file names, folders, faces, people's names and edits never leave it. There are no accounts, no ads and no cookies, and nothing is ever sold.

A few features do talk to outside services. This page lists every one of them, what they receive, and how to turn them off. Trove is open source, so you can check each of them in its code.

Who is responsible

Trove is made by Gilouloum, an individual developer based in France, who is the data controller for the processing described here.

Contact: trovephotos@gmail.com

1. Anonymous usage statistics ("Help improve Trove")

What is sent. When the app opens and when it closes, Trove sends one small message containing:

  • a random install ID (generated on your computer, not linked to your name or email, and replaced every 13 months)
  • the event type (app opened or session ended) and the session length
  • the number of files, folders, Liked photos and pinned photos in your library
  • how many times each main feature has been used: for example how many guided sorts were started and finished, how many times the Globe, the photo editor or Flick through was opened, how many photos were placed on the map or moved to the Bin, and how many searches were made. These are running totals only: never what was searched, sorted, edited or placed, nor where or when
  • the Trove version and operating system (Windows or macOS)

What is never sent. Photos, videos, thumbnails, file names, folder names, paths, locations, faces, people's names, search queries, or anything else from your library.

Why. To know how many people use Trove and which features they actually use, so I can decide what to fix, what to build next and what to remove. It is used only for these statistics: never for advertising, never combined with other data, never shared or sold.

Legal basis. Your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR, and Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act for the install ID stored on your computer). The ping is off unless you say yes, and you can withdraw your consent at any time.

Where it is stored. In Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore), with Google acting as a processor on my behalf. Google may process data outside the European Union. Those transfers are covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and Google's Standard Contractual Clauses. Like any internet request, the message reveals your IP address to Google when it is sent. Trove does not record it.

How long. Each event is deleted 25 months after it is sent.

Your choice. Trove asks you on first launch whether to share these statistics, and nothing is sent unless you say yes. If what is sent changes, Trove asks you again. You can change your answer at any time in Settings → Help improve Trove. Once it is off, nothing more is sent.

2. Place names for your photos (OpenStreetMap)

When a photo or video has GPS coordinates, Trove looks up its country, region and city using OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service. Only the coordinates are sent, rounded to about 1 km, never the photo itself. Results are saved on your computer, so each area is looked up only once.

This is needed for the location folders to work. The service is run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (privacy policy).

3. The Globe's map imagery (Esri)

When you open the Globe, the satellite imagery, place labels and, if you turn on 3D terrain, elevation data are downloaded from Esri's ArcGIS servers. Esri receives your IP address and the map tiles requested, meaning the area you are looking at, but no photo data (Esri privacy statement).

4. Updates (GitHub)

Trove checks GitHub for new versions and downloads them from there. GitHub receives your IP address and the app version (GitHub privacy statement).

5. This website

This website is hosted on GitHub Pages. It uses no cookies, no analytics, no tracking and no outside fonts or scripts. Like any web host, GitHub receives your IP address and the pages you request when you visit it, and again when you download Trove from GitHub (GitHub privacy statement).

Everything else stays on your computer

Face recognition, AI search, duplicate detection, the photo editor and PhotoMod all run entirely on your machine, using models that ship inside the app. Your library data is stored in your user profile (%APPDATA%\Trove on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/Trove on macOS) and nowhere else.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, correct and delete your data, to object to its processing and to restrict it. Because the statistics carry no name or email, I cannot tell which events are yours on my own. To have yours deleted, send me your install ID: it is the installId field in the filelinker-data.json file in the folder above.

You can also lodge a complaint with the CNIL (cnil.fr) or with the data protection authority of your country.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published here with a new date at the top.