American Landscape Gallery

CloudsForever
Privacy

Effective October 1, 2026

The CloudsForever app
The short version

CloudsForever doesn't collect anything about you. What it records and remembers stays on your own devices.

  • No account, no sign-in, no advertising and no tracking.
  • No analytics or crash-reporting software of mine inside the app.
  • Your clips are saved on your phone and go nowhere unless you send them.
  • One feature uses the internet: looking up a place in Future Shoot, which asks Apple Maps.
Who and what

What this statement covers

CloudsForever is a time-lapse camera app for iPhone and iPad, made by me, Richard Olsenius, of American Landscape Gallery in Green Valley, Arizona. I am its only developer.

This statement covers the app. It does not cover this website, which is hosted by Squarespace.

What I collect

Nothing leaves with me

The app has no account and no sign-in. It contains no advertising, no tracking, and no analytics or crash-reporting software of mine. I run no server that the app talks to. I cannot see your clips, your location, your settings, or how you use the app.

Permissions

What the app uses on your device

iOS asks your permission for each of these the first time it's needed. You can turn any of them off later in Settings, under Privacy & Security.

Permission
What it's for
Where it goes
Camera
What it's forRecording your time-lapse clips and showing the live view. The app never uses the microphone; clips have no sound.
Where it goesClips are saved in the app's own folder on the camera phone. The live view is sent to your remote, if you use one.
Location
What it's forWorking out sunrise, sunset and golden hour where the camera stands; naming clips by time of day; true north for the compass; and writing where a clip was shot into the clip itself.
Where it goesIt's used and remembered on the phone, so sun times work with no signal. The camera phone shares its position with your remote. It's only read while you're using the app.
Local Network
What it's forLetting the camera phone and your remote find each other and talk.
Where it goesDirectly between your two devices, over Wi-Fi. It doesn't pass through the internet or any server.
Motion & compass
What it's forThe Level card: how far the camera is tilted, whether it's level, and which way it points. iOS doesn't ask permission for this.
Where it goesIt's read on the phone, shown to your remote, and written into the clip and its exposure log.
Your clips

What is written into each clip

Every clip carries a record of how it was made: the date and time, the phone model, the camera settings, how the camera was tilted and which way it pointed, and the GPS position where it was shot. A small exposure log is saved beside each clip.

These stay on your phone with the clip. They go only where you send the file. Keep that in mind before giving an original clip to someone else: it tells them where you were standing. A normal export from an editing program such as DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro leaves the location out.

Two devices

The link between camera and remote

When you use a second iPhone or an iPad as a remote, the two devices talk to each other directly. What crosses that link is the live view, the camera's settings and saved programs, its battery, temperature and storage readings, its position and its level readings.

All of it goes from one of your devices to the other and nowhere else. Nothing is sent to me or to anyone else.

The one exception

Looking up a place in Future Shoot

Future Shoot plans a take for another date and place. When you search for a place by name, type in coordinates, or tap Where I am, the app asks Apple Maps for that place's name and time zone. To do that, the words you typed, or the coordinates, are sent to Apple. This is the only time the app sends anything over the internet.

Apple handles those requests under its own privacy policy. I never see them. If you'd rather not use it, everything else in the app, including today's and tomorrow's sun times, works with no internet connection at all.

Apple

What Apple handles

You buy and download the app through Apple's App Store. Apple handles the payment. I'm told how many copies were sold and in which countries, never who bought one.

If you have chosen in iOS Settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple gives me combined, anonymous figures about crashes and use. Nothing in them identifies you, and you can turn that sharing off in Settings, under Privacy & Security, Analytics & Improvements.

Your choices

Staying in control

You can turn off Location, Camera or Local Network for CloudsForever at any time in Settings. Without Location the app still records; it simply can't show sun times or write a position into your clips.

Deleting a clip in the app's Catalog removes it and its exposure log from the phone. Deleting the app removes everything it has saved, including your clips, programs and saved angles, so copy off anything you want to keep first.

Children

Younger users

The app isn't aimed at children, and because it collects nothing from anyone, it collects nothing from them either.

Getting in touch

If you write to me

If you email me for help, I'll have your email address and whatever you choose to tell me. I use that only to answer you. I don't add it to a mailing list or pass it on.

Questions about this statement: richard@americanlandscapegallery.com

Changes

If this changes

If a future version of the app handles information differently, I'll update this page and its date before that version is released.

Back to CloudsForever
American Landscape Gallery
CloudsForever — © 2026 Richard Olsenius