Privacy Policy

Summary

FilmBench has no user accounts and no advertising, and no analytics or tracking unless you turn on optional diagnostics. Your negatives, photographs and settings stay on your machine and are never sent to us. Two things do involve limited data: buying a licence, which is handled by our reseller Paddle, and activating a licence, which contacts our licensing provider. Both are described under Purchases and licensing.

Data we collect

For its core job, live view, capture and conversion, FilmBench collects nothing. Unless you opt in to optional diagnostics, there is no telemetry, no crash reporting and no usage analytics, and your images never reach our servers. The only data we or our providers handle is for buying and activating a licence, set out under Purchases and licensing.

Camera and files on your machine

To do its job, FilmBench works with the following on your own device only:

• Your camera. FilmBench connects to a tethered camera over a local USB connection to show a live view and capture frames.
• Your images. Captured photographs are written to the output folder you choose, directly on your machine.
• Your settings. Preferences such as your film and chemistry choices are stored locally on your machine.

This information is used solely to provide the app's features on your device. It is never sent to us or to any third party.

Network

The image pipeline works offline. Live view, capture and conversion need no internet connection, the app talks to its own camera backend over a local connection on your machine, and your images and settings are never sent over the internet. Licensing is the exception: starting a trial, activating a paid licence and occasional licence checks contact our licensing provider, as described under Purchases and licensing. If you enable optional diagnostics, anonymous usage events are also sent to our Matomo.

Diagnostics and usage data

This optional data exists for one reason only: to help us develop FilmBench and debug issues, so we can improve stability and fix bugs. It is anonymous, it is off by default, and it is never used for tracking, profiling or advertising. Your images never leave your machine.

Diagnostics are opt-in. They are enabled only if you turn them on, either at the first-run prompt or via the checkbox in Settings, and you can turn them off again at any time. The legal basis is your consent.

If you opt in, here is exactly what is collected. Every event is attached to a random, resettable install id (16 hex characters) that is generated when you opt in. It is not derived from your hardware and it is not the licence machine fingerprint. Each event also carries the app version, the OS platform (macOS, Windows or Linux) and a coarse OS major version (for example "Windows 11" or "macOS 14"). The events themselves are:

• App launch.
• A camera was connected (with the camera model, for example "Nikon D750").
• A capture was taken.
• A film conversion ran (with the process: C-41, B&W, E-6 or none).
• A trial was started.
• A licence was activated (no key, no email).
• A feature was used (for example crop, focus peaking, grid or eyedropper).
• An error signature, for crash-rate only (no stack traces, no file paths).

What we never collect:

• Images or any pixel data.
• File names, paths or folder names.
• Your licence key, email, name, or any payment or licensing id.
• The licence machine fingerprint.
• Your precise IP (it is anonymised) or location (geolocation is disabled).
• Free text such as notes, custom tags or the photographer name.
• Any persistent hardware identifier.

The data is processed on our own self-hosted Matomo, with IP anonymisation and geolocation disabled. It is retained only as long as needed, and none of it can be linked to your licence.

Purchases and licensing

Buying a licence. Our checkout is handled by Paddle, the Merchant of Record for our sales. When you buy, Paddle collects the information needed to process the order, such as your name, email address, payment details and billing location, and uses it for payment, tax and fraud prevention. Paddle controls that checkout data under its own privacy policy. We receive only limited order information, such as your email and an order reference, to deliver your licence key and provide support.

Activating a licence. To run a trial or unlock a paid licence, the app contacts our licensing provider, Keygen, over the internet. It sends a one-way hashed identifier derived from your device and, for a paid licence, your licence key, so we can enforce how many machines a licence runs on. This is used only for licence enforcement. It is not used for tracking, profiling or advertising, and the underlying identity of your device is never sent.

Third-party tools

FilmBench uses established open-source tools on your device to talk to cameras and process images (such as libgphoto2, ExifTool, ImageMagick and LibRaw). These run locally as part of the app's pipeline and do not transmit your data off your machine. The full list, with license details and source code links, is on the Third-Party Notices page.

Children

FilmBench is a general-audience photography tool and is not directed at children. Because it collects no personal data, it collects no data from children either.

Changes to this policy

If FilmBench ever changes how it handles data, we will update this page and revise the effective date above. If a future version adds anything that collects data, that will be described here before it ships.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email [email protected]. FilmBench is made by GISCollective; see our impressum for company details.