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Halve Privacy Policy

  • Last updated: 29 July 2026
  • Applies to: Halve for iPhone, iPad and Mac
  • Provider: avv.systems
  • Contact:

The short version #

Halve collects nothing. It has no account, no analytics, no advertising and no third-party SDKs. Your videos and everything about them stay on your device — they are never uploaded to us, because there is no “us” to upload them to: Halve has no server.

The only network connection Halve itself relies on is Apple’s, for purchases and for downloading your own videos out of iCloud when you ask it to compress them.

What Halve does with your videos #

Halve reads your Photos library to find videos worth compressing, re-encodes the ones you choose, and puts the smaller copies back. All of it runs on your device, using Apple’s own media frameworks.

  • Reading. With your permission, Halve reads video files and their technical details: size, duration, dimensions, frame rate, codec, creation and modification dates, whether the item is a favourite, and whether it has location data attached. It does not read the location itself, and it never opens your photos.
  • Encoding. Compression happens locally, on the device’s video hardware. No frame of your video is sent anywhere.
  • Writing. The compressed copy is added to your Photos library with your original’s date, location, favourite status and album membership preserved.
  • Deleting. Halve never deletes an original without the system’s own confirmation prompt, and only after the replacement exists and has been verified. Deleted originals go to Recently Deleted, where iOS and macOS keep them for 30 days. Halve cannot bypass or accelerate that.

If your videos are stored in iCloud rather than on the device, compressing one requires downloading it first. That transfer is between your device and your own iCloud account, over Apple’s infrastructure. Halve never sees it.

What is stored on your device #

All of the following is local, is not transmitted anywhere, and is deleted when you delete the app.

  • A scan index. For each video: its Photos identifier, size, duration, dimensions, frame rate, codec, dates, favourite flag and a yes/no for whether location data is present. This is what lets Halve show estimates without rescanning constantly.
  • Your settings. Whether you have completed onboarding, whether “Resize large videos to 1080p” is on, and whether you have seen the disclosure screen.
  • Free-tier usage. A count of compressions used in the current calendar month, so the free allowance can reset. It is a number, not a history — no record of which videos.
  • A pending-savings note. Total bytes waiting in Recently Deleted, with dates, so the app can tell you when the space will actually be freed. Entries older than the purge window are removed automatically.
  • Temporary working files. During compression and quality previews, Halve writes copies into the system temporary directory. Preview files are deleted when the preview closes, and any left behind by a crash are cleared the next time the app launches. Compression working files are deleted as each video finishes.

Purchases #

Halve Pro is sold through Apple’s In-App Purchase system. Apple processes the payment and tells Halve only whether an active entitlement exists. Halve never sees your payment details, your Apple Account, or your name.

Purchase and subscription data is handled under Apple’s Privacy Policy, not this one. Subscriptions are managed in your Apple Account settings, and refunds are requested from Apple directly.

Support email #

Halve’s error screens offer to open a pre-filled support email. Nothing is sent unless you send it. The pre-filled text contains only:

  • the app version, your device model and OS version, and
  • the technical specifications of the video that failed — dimensions, frame rate, codec, duration and file size.

It never includes filenames, locations, album names, thumbnails, or any part of the video itself. You can read and edit the whole message before sending, and delete anything you would rather not share.

If you email us, we keep the correspondence only as long as needed to answer you.

What Halve does not do #

  • No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting or usage measurement of any kind.
  • No advertising, ad identifiers, or tracking across apps or websites. Halve does not use the App Tracking Transparency permission because it has nothing to ask for.
  • No accounts, sign-in, or cloud sync operated by us.
  • No third-party SDKs.
  • No selling or sharing of personal information — there is none to sell.

This matches the app’s PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy manifest, which declares no tracking and no collected data types, and the “Data Not Collected” label on the App Store.

Permissions Halve asks for #

  • Photo Library access — required. Without it Halve cannot see the videos it exists to compress. Limited access works too: Halve will only ever see the items you select.
  • Photo Library add access — required, so the compressed copy can be written back.

You can change or withdraw either at any time in Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Photos (iOS) or System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Photos (macOS). Withdrawing access stops Halve from working, but does not affect videos it has already compressed.

Children #

Halve is rated 4+ and is safe for all ages, but it is a storage utility with no content of its own. It collects no data from anyone, children included.

Your rights #

Because Halve holds no personal data on any server, there is nothing for us to look up, export, correct or erase on request. Everything Halve stores is on your device and under your control: deleting the app removes all of it.

Rights under the GDPR, the CCPA and similar laws apply to data a company holds about you. In Halve’s case that set is empty. If you have a question about this, write to .

Changes to this policy #

If Halve ever gains a feature that changes any of the above, this policy will be updated before that feature ships, and the “Last updated” date will change. Material changes will be called out in the app’s release notes.

Contact #