Privacy Policy

Last updated: 9 October 2026 · Deutsche Fassung

PicHaven backs up photos and videos from your Android device to your own PC or Mac – over your local network only.

What data is processed

• Photos and videos from your device's camera folder (DCIM/Camera) and – only if you switch them on in the menu – from further sources (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, screenshots, other picture folders). They are transferred byte-for-byte and encrypted (TLS 1.3) to the PC you paired and stored there. They never leave your local network.
• Device name (e.g. “Pixel 8a”) and a device key that is generated on the device at first launch. The key identifies your device to your PC. The PC stores only a fingerprint of it (SHA-256).
• Fingerprint and name of your PC, so the app can find it again on your Wi-Fi.
• Count of backed-up files for the limit of the free version.

What does not happen

• No cloud, no account, no servers run by us. PicHaven itself never connects to the internet; photos, file names and device data never leave your local network. The only exception in the Play Store version is the purchase handled by Google Play (see “Purchase”).
• No advertising, no analytics, tracking or crash-reporting services of our own.
• No access to location, contacts or other data. The “location in media” permission (ACCESS_MEDIA_LOCATION) is needed solely so that Android hands over the original file including its EXIF data instead of a stripped copy.
• PicHaven never deletes or modifies files on the device. On the PC it only moves or tidies backed-up files when you ask, and no photo is ever lost.

Network connections, so you can check it yourself

Rather than asking you to take the statements above on trust, here is exactly what each part of PicHaven talks to. You can verify this with a firewall or a network monitor.

The Android app

• Your paired PC on your local network, encrypted, port 8737 by default. This is the only connection the app itself opens.
• Multicast DNS on your Wi-Fi (224.0.0.251, port 5353) to find that PC. Multicast never leaves your network.
• Google Play services, for the one-time purchase (Play Store version only, see “Purchase”).
• Nothing else. Links in the app (pichaven.app, the Play Store page) open in your browser; the app itself fetches nothing from them.

The Windows app

• Listens on your local network for your phone (port 8737, announced via mDNS as _easycopy._tcp).
• Updates, depending on where you installed it from. Microsoft Store version: asks the Microsoft Store every few hours for an update of PicHaven and lets the Store install it. Installer from pichaven.app: checks git.hoyer.xyz every few hours for a new version and downloads it from there; every update is signature-checked before it is installed. This is its only outbound connection; it sends no photos, file names or usage data.
• Nothing else.

This website

pichaven.app is a static site without cookies, without accounts and without analytics services of our own; the fonts are hosted on this domain as well and are not loaded from third parties. The site is served by Cloudflare Pages; Cloudflare thereby receives technically necessary access data (e.g. your IP address). Cloudflare's privacy policy applies. Your language choice (German/English) is stored only locally in your browser (localStorage) and never transmitted.

Purchase

The one-time purchase “Unlock unlimited” is handled by Google Play. Google Play tells the app only whether the purchase exists. The app stores no payment data.

For this, the Play Store version contains the Play Billing library provided by Google. It asks Google Play for the price and purchase status and additionally sends technical usage data about the library itself (e.g. package name and version of the app, library version, result of the queries) to a logging service run by Google (Firebase Logging). This transmission is performed by Google, not by PicHaven; it contains no photos, file names or other content from the app, and PicHaven has no control over it. Google Play's privacy policy applies.

To ask for a rating, the Play Store version also uses Google's in-app review (Play Core library). Google decides whether the rating window appears; the rating goes straight to Google Play, and the app never learns whether or how you rated.

The beta version offered on pichaven.app does not contain these libraries and makes no internet connection at all.

Storage and deletion

All of the app's data lives on your device (app data, Android keystore) and on your PC (destination folder, configuration folder of the desktop app). Uninstalling the app or deleting the destination folder removes it. “Disconnect from PC” in the app deletes the pairing data on the device.

Contact

Hartwin Hoyer · hello@pichaven.app · Impressum (legal notice)