Local-first by design. Transparent by default.

1. Scope and developer information

This policy applies to ApexTuner, a device-care, diagnostics and user-controlled optimization utility distributed for Apple platforms and Android. The two platform versions share a common safety-first design but use different operating-system capabilities.

Developer: Luke Garrison
Privacy/support contact: lukegarrison.dev@gmail.com
Support: support.php

ApexTuner does not require an ApexTuner account and the current apps do not operate an ApexTuner cloud account/profile service.

2. Privacy summary

3. Data access and processing map

“Processed locally” means ApexTuner reads or stores information on the device to provide the feature; it does not mean the developer receives it. Network operations and third-party processing are called out separately.

4. iOS and iPadOS privacy details

Device information and local histories

ApexTuner reads public Apple-exposed signals such as free/used storage, battery state, display information, public model identifier, conservative processor classification, logical/active core information, physical memory, thermal state, Low Power Mode and session information. It does not claim access to other apps' private storage, Safari caches, hidden iOS system data or other apps' live RAM usage, and it does not fabricate battery maximum capacity or cycle count.

For on-device trends and recommendations, ApexTuner can keep local scan/maintenance history, locally sampled battery-level history, aggregate storage trend points, redacted network-test history and Care Advisor action history. The Privacy & Security screen provides controls to clear these categories separately.

Photos and videos

Photos permission is requested when you use the Photo & Video Optimizer. Analysis is local. ApexTuner can use accessible Photos metadata, visual fingerprints, Vision feature-print comparisons, image luminance/sharpness signals and streamed SHA-256 hashing of plausible exact-duplicate resources. It does not upload your photos or videos to an ApexTuner server.

By default, content-heavy analysis uses media already available locally. If you explicitly enable Include iCloud-only media, Apple Photos may download offloaded media so ApexTuner can analyze it locally. Deletion requires explicit selection/confirmation and remains subject to Apple's Photos behavior, including Recently Deleted. Premium can create a protected temporary 720p export of a selected video for sharing without modifying the original; ApexTuner removes its managed temporary export when it is discarded or the sharing workflow is left.

Files and documents

ApexTuner accesses an external folder only after you select it through Apple's document picker. It uses security-scoped access and coordinated file operations. A cloud-backed file provider may materialize/download selected content so ApexTuner can inspect it locally.

Duplicate checks use metadata, bounded fingerprints and streaming hashes when needed. Compression creates a separate output. Before an explicitly approved deletion, the Files Cleaner stages a private recovery copy and recovery metadata; it fails closed when safe staging or change validation cannot be completed. Recovery copies are not uploaded by ApexTuner.

Duplicate Contacts

Contacts access is requested only when you use the duplicate-contacts tool. ApexTuner compares authorized contacts locally using names, phone numbers and email addresses. On iOS 18 and later, Limited Contacts access is respected and only contacts shared with ApexTuner are scanned. The reviewed build does not request or merge Contact Notes. Contact data is not logged to analytics or sent to an ApexTuner server.

Nothing is merged automatically. After your review and confirmation, an iOS merge consolidates supported fields into the chosen primary contact and deletes the duplicate contact records through Apple's Contacts framework. ApexTuner keeps an in-memory undo snapshot for the current app session; recreated contacts may receive new system identifiers. If your Contacts account syncs through iCloud, Google or another provider, changes made to the Contacts database may propagate according to that provider's settings.

Network diagnostics, Local Network and history

The Network tool can display current path state and a local IP address, run user-entered DNS/reachability/TCP-port checks, and—after the relevant iOS Local Network permission—perform a bounded 5-second Bonjour discovery of common local service types. Diagnostic hosts and Bonjour results are not saved in ApexTuner's network history or uploaded to an ApexTuner server. DNS and connection tests necessarily expose ordinary network request information, including your source/public IP as applicable, to the DNS resolver and/or destination you choose.

Completed speed tests may be saved as a redacted local history of aggregate measurements (date, Wi-Fi/Cellular/Other interface class, latency, throughput, jitter, quality score, HTTPS/unknown transport and expensive/constrained flags). Public/local IP addresses, user-entered diagnostic hostnames, Bonjour results and provider identifiers are deliberately excluded. History is bounded to the newest 120 records and 180 days and can be cleared or exported by the user.

Optional Cloudflare speed test

The iOS/iPadOS throughput test is optional, explicitly confirmed before each run and transfers approximately 5 MB download + 2 MB upload of synthetic bytes over HTTPS. Low Data Mode disables it. ApexTuner does not attach photos, files, contacts, scan history, account identifiers or advertising identifiers.

Cloudflare receives the public IP address used to connect. Cloudflare currently states that its Speed Test uses the IP to estimate country/city and ASN, truncates the IP, and may share anonymized measurement information such as estimated geolocation and ASN with measurement partners while not sharing the IP itself with those partners.

The iOS privacy manifest therefore conservatively declares coarse location and other diagnostic data associated with this optional feature. See Cloudflare Speed Test and Cloudflare Privacy Policy.

Notifications, scheduler, authentication and widget

Notification permission is used for user-configured local reminders. Background refresh/processing is best-effort and scheduled by iOS; ApexTuner does not perform background Photos deletion or background user-data deletion. The Privacy & Security audit can check whether device-owner authentication is available; it does not receive or store Face ID/Touch ID biometric templates. ApexTuner's WidgetKit extension uses its App Group to read battery/care snapshots prepared locally by the app; a separate Quick Cleaner widget opens the review-first cleaner, and on iOS 18+ the Open Cleaner Control Center control performs the same navigation without silently cleaning data.

5. Android privacy details

Device, battery, memory and performance telemetry

ApexTuner processes Android-exposed storage, RAM/memory pressure, battery, thermal, CPU and other capability-dependent diagnostics locally. Availability varies by Android version, OEM and hardware. Optional Usage Access can supply 24-hour foreground-activity evidence and app/cache/storage/network-usage insights; it is granted in Android Settings and can be revoked there.

Media and storage cleaner

ApexTuner uses MediaStore, Storage Access Framework (SAF), Photo Picker and version-appropriate media permissions rather than unrestricted all-files access. Broad media permissions are requested incrementally for the relevant scan. Photo Picker selections are read-only. Where supported, Android-owned confirmation/trash flows are used before MediaStore deletion. User-selected SAF content and cloud providers remain subject to the provider's own storage/sync behavior.

Duplicate Contacts

When you open the duplicate-contacts tool and grant Contacts access, ApexTuner reads authorized contact names, phone numbers and email addresses locally to find likely duplicates. Nothing is auto-merged and contact data is not uploaded.

After explicit confirmation, the Android implementation links the selected raw contacts using Android Contacts aggregation rules (TYPE_KEEP_TOGETHER) rather than deleting and recreating contact records. The screen keeps a scoped undo operation while you remain in that workflow. Any account/provider synchronization is controlled by Android and the Contacts provider/account you use.

App Manager and app visibility

ApexTuner declares QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES because complete installed-app inventory and APK export are core App Manager functions. It uses Android's package manager for the inventory, including apps without launcher icons, and LauncherApps to enrich optional launch targets. It can locally display package names/labels and Android-exposed version/install/update, last-use, storage or network information; Usage Access is still required for protected historical usage/network/storage signals. Uninstall and system-setting actions use Android-owned confirmation/settings surfaces. User-requested APK export writes a direct .apk for single-APK apps or the complete base/split set as separate .apk files for split-installed apps to a destination you choose; app-private data is never included. QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES does not grant all-files access, and ApexTuner does not declare MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE.

Network diagnostics and bounded history

Network Diagnostics can run user-started ping/reachability, DNS, TCP-port and connection-quality checks against a host/IP and port you enter. Those operations necessarily cause DNS lookups and/or network connections to the resolver or destination you chose, which can observe ordinary connection information such as your source/public IP. The local subnet scanner is bounded to the active IPv4 Wi-Fi/Ethernet subnet and does not run through an active VPN.

Completed Android connection-quality tests are stored locally in Room with the host, port, timestamp and aggregate quality metrics. The repository prunes entries older than 90 days and keeps at most 200 rows. This history is not included in ApexTuner's JSON backup and is not uploaded to an ApexTuner server.

Optional Cloudflare throughput sample

Android also includes an optional, user-triggered bounded throughput test against speed.cloudflare.com. It transfers at most 4 MiB download + 1 MiB upload of synthetic bytes (shown in-app as a 5 MB sample). The upload body is generated test bytes, not a personal file or browsing payload. The app reports whether the active connection is metered but does not represent the sample as free of carrier/data charges.

Cloudflare necessarily receives the connecting public IP and processes it under the Speed Test/Cloudflare privacy practices described above. ApexTuner does not attach photos, documents, contacts, notification history, purchase tokens or advertising identifiers to this throughput request.

Local VPN firewall

Premium includes a selective local per-app firewall implemented with Android VpnService. After ApexTuner's disclosure and Android VPN consent, only packages you select are routed into a local TUN interface and their packets are discarded on-device to block network access. ApexTuner does not forward that traffic to a server, act as a remote VPN/proxy, inspect payload content, store browsing payloads or monetize them. Unselected apps bypass the tunnel; always-on VPN is intentionally unsupported for this design.

Notification History

Notification History is a Premium, disabled-by-default feature with its own prominent in-app opt-in and Android Notification Access requirement. While all gates remain enabled, ApexTuner can record only the source app package, notification title, notification text and posting timestamp returned by Android. Android may withhold or redact sensitive notification content; ApexTuner does not request the special sensitive-notification permission.

Entries are stored in ApexTuner's private Room database only. The default retention window is 7 days; available choices are 1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days, with a hard safety cap of 25,000 rows. You can clear history and mute apps inside ApexTuner; muting affects only ApexTuner history and does not change Android notification channels. Notification content is excluded from ApexTuner backups and is not sent to analytics or third parties.

Screen recording

The Game Session tools can start screen recording only after Android MediaProjection consent. The reviewed implementation records video only—no microphone permission/audio—and saves an H.264 MP4 locally to Movies/ApexTuner. Failed outputs are cleaned up; recordings are not uploaded by ApexTuner.

Advanced access, overlays and system controls

Shizuku/Sui and root are optional advanced capabilities enabled only by explicit user action. ApexTuner uses typed, allow-listed privileged operations rather than an arbitrary terminal and stores verified prior values locally for supported reversible changes. Overlay authorization can power the floating monitor; notification permission can support foreground/status notifications; Do Not Disturb policy access and Modify System Settings are used only by the corresponding user-facing profile/automation features.

The manifest retains a migration-only sync-settings permission so upgrades from an older release can restore global master-sync state previously changed by that older release. New profile planning does not use master sync as an optimization target. Privacy & Security tools can report screen-lock, install-source, security-patch, potential-root and—on supported Android versions—Advanced Protection status. Clipboard clearing is user-triggered rather than a hidden clipboard-history monitor.

Android home-screen widgets and the user-started floating monitor display locally derived storage/battery/device-status summaries. Those surfaces can be visible to anyone who can see your unlocked device or home screen; ApexTuner does not send their telemetry to an ApexTuner server.

6. Purchases and entitlements

Apple App Store

The reviewed iOS/iPadOS build uses StoreKit 2 for one non-consumable Premium Lifetime product. There is no ApexTuner auto-renewable subscription in this build. Price/currency come from the App Store for the user's storefront. Apple processes transaction/account/payment information under Apple's terms and privacy practices.

ApexTuner verifies App Store-signed entitlement state on-device. The reviewed iOS build does not send StoreKit transaction data to an ApexTuner-operated entitlement server.

Google Play

The reviewed Android build exposes only one recognized Google Play product: Premium Lifetime as a one-time in-app product. It contains no ApexTuner subscription product. Google Play provides the localized price/offer information at runtime and processes transaction/account/payment information under its own terms and privacy practices.

A pending one-time purchase does not grant Premium until Google Play reports it purchased. Completed recognized purchases are acknowledged through Play Billing. The app does not send Google Play purchase tokens to an ApexTuner server. A bounded encrypted local entitlement cache can provide limited offline continuity when Google Play is temporarily unavailable; Google Play remains authoritative when reachable.

7. Third-party and platform processing

ApexTuner does not use advertising SDKs or an ApexTuner analytics backend in the reviewed builds. User-requested features can rely on these platform/service providers:

• Apple / App Store / StoreKit / iCloud-related providers: iOS distribution and billing, Photos behavior, Contacts/account synchronization and document-provider behavior where applicable. See Apple Privacy Policy.
• Google / Android / Google Play: Android distribution and billing, Contacts/account synchronization, Android platform services and supported Play-services components. See Google Privacy Policy.
• Cloudflare: for the optional user-started throughput tests on both iOS/iPadOS and Android. See Cloudflare Speed Test and Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
• User-chosen network destinations/DNS resolvers: if you type a host/IP and run a DNS, reachability, TCP-port or quality test, the relevant resolver and/or destination receives the network traffic required to perform that test.
• User-selected cloud/document providers: if you choose a backup/export destination or file in iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox or another provider, that provider may download, sync or store it according to its own settings and privacy policy.
• Shizuku/Sui: Android-only and optional. When you choose it, ApexTuner communicates locally with the Shizuku service you installed/authorized.

These providers are responsible for their own processing under their terms. ApexTuner limits its integrations to the functionality described here.

8. Local storage, history, exports and backups

iOS / iPadOS

ApexTuner keeps settings and bounded local histories needed for device-care features, including maintenance/scan records, sampled battery history, aggregate storage trends, redacted speed-test history, Care Advisor action history and recovery metadata/copies. The Network history contains aggregate measurements only and intentionally excludes IP addresses, diagnostic hosts and Bonjour results.

The current v2 JSON backup can contain appearance, haptics, reminder frequency, adaptive-reminder preference, maintenance/scan history, battery history, aggregate storage history, redacted network history, Care Advisor action history and photo-review preferences. It does not copy Photos/Files/Contacts content, recovery-bin payloads, Premium entitlement data, IP addresses, diagnostic hostnames or Bonjour results. Reminder enablement itself is not imported as an automatic permission/notification action.

Scheduled backup is best-effort and writes the same privacy-bounded backup format to a folder you explicitly choose; iOS decides when background processing runs. ApexTuner applies the retention count you configure by pruning older ApexTuner-managed scheduled-backup files in that selected folder after successful runs. A cloud-backed destination may sync those exported JSON files under that provider's policy.

The iOS Diagnostic Report is a user-generated privacy-redacted troubleshooting snapshot. It can include device family/processor/core/OS and thermal/battery summaries, aggregate storage and battery-history statistics, redacted network summary/transport, permission-status summaries and recovery/backup status. It explicitly excludes filenames/paths, Photos identifiers, contact records, IP addresses, diagnostic hosts, Bonjour service names, advertising identifiers, Premium entitlement state and Recovery Bin payloads.

Android

ApexTuner uses private Room/DataStore storage for feature state and histories and Android Keystore encryption for security-sensitive local values such as bounded entitlement-cache data. Android automatic cloud backup is disabled and security-sensitive data is excluded from extraction/backup rules.

The current Android JSON backup contains safe ApexTuner preferences plus an informational list of apps Android currently exposes (package name and label). It expressly excludes purchases/entitlements, Keystore secrets, file history, notification history, firewall payload/state, root/Shizuku authorization, active privileged/system-profile ownership and SAF folder grants. Premium scheduled backup writes the same bounded JSON format through WorkManager to a SAF folder you explicitly choose, requires a persisted write grant, and prunes older ApexTuner-managed scheduled backups according to your configured retention count. APK export is separate from the JSON backup: a single-APK app can be exported as one installable .apk, while a split-installed app is exported as its complete base/split set of separate .apk files to the user-selected destination. App-private data is never included.

Android Network Diagnostics separately keeps up to 200 local connection-quality history rows for at most 90 days, including the tested host/port and aggregate metrics. Notification History has its own user-selected retention window and is not part of the JSON backup.

The Android Diagnostic Report is also user-generated and local. Depending on the sections you select, it can export bounded device, battery, memory/storage, network-total, security-posture and retained-history-count summaries in JSON or HTML. It excludes account identifiers, Contacts contents, filenames, notification contents and raw app inventory; the report is written only to the destination you choose.

9. Support-page and contact data

If you contact the developer through support.php, the form asks for your name, email, support subject and message, with optional platform, app-version and device/OS information. The form sends those fields by email to the developer so the request can be answered.

The supplied support form does not intentionally create a support-message database and does not include advertising or analytics scripts. It uses a temporary first-party PHP session cookie for CSRF protection and rate limiting, along with a honeypot/timing check to reduce automated abuse. Session state may temporarily contain the form-security token, rate-limit counters and form values needed for the post/redirect response.

The destination mailbox is hosted by an email provider, so email delivery and mailbox storage necessarily involve that provider. Normal web-server and mail-server infrastructure may also create technical access/delivery logs (for example timestamps, request metadata or IP information) according to the hosting/provider configuration even though the PHP form does not add the visitor's IP to the support email.

Support messages are retained only as reasonably necessary to answer the request, maintain support history, prevent abuse, resolve disputes or comply with applicable legal obligations. You may request deletion of a support conversation by contacting lukegarrison.dev@gmail.com, subject to any retention that is legally required.

10. Permissions, consent and privacy choices

ApexTuner follows the operating system's permission/consent model. Refusing or revoking access disables or limits the related feature without requiring you to give up unrelated functionality. ApexTuner cannot grant protected permissions on your behalf or override operating-system, device-management, parental-control or OEM restrictions; where recovery is permitted, the app explains the limitation and provides the appropriate permission request or Settings route.

• iOS/iPadOS Photos: requested for Photo & Video Optimizer; Limited Library access is respected where available.
• iOS/iPadOS Contacts: requested for Duplicate Contacts; iOS 18 Limited Contacts is respected.
• iOS/iPadOS Local Network: requested only when bounded Bonjour/local-network diagnostics need it. User-entered Internet host tests may not require this local-network permission.
• iOS/iPadOS notifications: notification authorization is used for user-configured local reminders and alerts. If access is denied, ApexTuner can direct you to the appropriate iOS Settings route; system-restricted states remain under iOS/device-management control.
• iOS/iPadOS background execution: lightweight refresh checks and scheduled backups are best-effort tasks scheduled by iOS. They do not grant extra data access and do not run Photos deletion, Contacts changes or Files Cleaner deletion in the background. Scheduled-backup retention can remove older ApexTuner-managed backup exports from the folder you selected according to your configured retention count. The Cloudflare speed test is always user-started, has a separate in-app confirmation and is blocked by Low Data Mode.
• Android media/storage: media permissions are incremental and version-dependent; Photo Picker/SAF provide narrower user-selected access paths. A SAF/document provider can expose selected content as read-only; ApexTuner keeps safe read operations available where possible and disables write-dependent actions such as rename/move when the provider does not advertise the required capability.
• Android Contacts: read/write access is used only by the duplicate-contacts scan/confirmed linking workflow.
• Android Usage Access: optional Settings authorization used for disclosed app/activity/storage/network-usage insights.
• Android notifications: ordinary notification permission can be used for user-visible foreground/status notifications where Android requires it. Notification Access is a separate, broader system authorization used only after ApexTuner's own Notification History opt-in; disabling either Notification History gate stops new collection.
• Android VPN: the selective local firewall requires ApexTuner's disclosure and Android VPN consent.
• Android screen capture: MediaProjection consent is requested by Android each time recording starts.
• Android advanced/system access: Shizuku/root, overlay, DND policy and Modify System Settings are optional and feature-specific.

You can revoke OS permissions in Settings. Where ApexTuner stores local history created while a permission was enabled, revoking the permission stops future access but does not automatically delete that already stored local history; use the relevant in-app delete/clear action or clear/uninstall the app as described below.

11. Data retention and deletion

iOS / iPadOS

• Privacy & Security → Local data controls can separately clear ApexTuner cache, maintenance history/Dashboard care summary, sampled battery history, aggregate storage/network/Care Advisor history, Recovery Bin contents and scheduled-backup configuration.
• Network tools can clear the redacted network-test history; the Files Cleaner can restore or permanently remove staged recovery copies.
• Compressed/exported files and manually created JSON backups remain in the destination you selected until you delete them there. Scheduled-backup files are subject to the retention count you configured, which can prune older ApexTuner-managed backups; clearing scheduled-backup configuration does not itself delete the remaining exported backup files.
• Deleting ApexTuner removes private app-container data that remains on the device. Photos moved to Apple's Recently Deleted and changes already made to synced Contacts remain governed by Apple/the configured account provider.

Android

• Notification History has clear-history controls and automatic retention; disabling it stops new collection but existing local entries remain until cleared/expired/removed with app data.
• Android Settings → Apps → ApexTuner → Storage → Clear storage removes ApexTuner's private local data, including preferences, private histories and encrypted local entitlement-cache state. Uninstalling ApexTuner also removes private app data.
• User-created recordings, manually created JSON backups, compressed/exported files and exported APK/base-split APK files saved in shared/user-selected locations are separate files and must be deleted from those locations if no longer wanted. Android scheduled-backup files are subject to the configured retention count, which can prune older ApexTuner-managed backups; clearing app data or uninstalling ApexTuner does not by itself remove the remaining external/user-selected files.
• Items moved to Android/MediaStore system Trash remain controlled by the relevant Android/gallery trash workflow.
• The Premium Lifetime purchase remains associated with the purchasing Google account/store history and can be restored; clearing app data does not erase the store transaction.
• Contacts changes already committed to Android's Contacts provider may sync to the configured account provider and are not undone merely by clearing ApexTuner data.

Remote data requests

Because the reviewed apps do not create an ApexTuner cloud account or upload scan/telemetry, contact, notification-history or media/file content to an ApexTuner backend, the developer generally has no remote copy of that local app data to retrieve or delete. For support-email data, contact the developer as described below.

12. Security practices

ApexTuner is designed to minimize unnecessary data movement and privileges. Safeguards in the reviewed builds include local processing, explicit review/confirmation before destructive operations, bounded/streamed file handling, secure app sandboxes, complete iOS file protection for protected outputs/recovery data, Android Keystore protection for security-sensitive local state, Android cleartext networking disabled, bounded history/retention rules, and HTTPS for both platform throughput endpoints.

No software or storage provider can guarantee absolute security. Keep the operating system updated, protect Apple/Google accounts, maintain independent backups of important information, review Contacts/media/file changes before confirming them, and do not grant root/Shizuku or other advanced access you do not understand or need.

13. Changes to this policy

This policy is intended to match the current ApexTuner iOS/iPadOS 1.0.13 (build 138) and Android 1.1.9 (versionCode 109) source packages reviewed on the date above. ApexTuner may be updated over time. If data practices or third-party integrations materially change, this page should be updated before or together with the relevant store release and the App Store privacy / Google Play Data safety disclosures should remain consistent with the shipping app.

14. Privacy questions and contact

For privacy questions, support-data deletion requests or questions about a permission/feature:

Luke Garrison
lukegarrison.dev@gmail.com