Privacy Policy
The Crosstela app has no advertising, tracking, analytics SDK or automatic crash-reporting service. Your library is stored on your device and may sync through your private iCloud database. We receive information only when you choose to contact us, including through “Send it to us”, as explained below. This website counts visits with Google Analytics: see Website analytics.
In short
- In the app: no ads. No tracking. No analytics. No automatic crash reports. No account.
- Your library lives on your device. It can sync through your own private iCloud. We cannot see it.
- Photo to chart, scanning threads and “view on wall” run on your device. We never receive those pictures.
- If you choose “Send it to us” and send the message, we receive that message and your file. Section 4 says exactly what, and what we do with it.
- On this website, Google Analytics counts visits. In the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland it runs only after you tap Accept on the cookie banner. Section 11 says what is measured and how to switch it off.
What Crosstela does not have
Crosstela has no advertising and no tracking. It has no analytics SDK and no automatic crash-reporting service. It has no account and no sign-in. It has no purchases or subscriptions, so no payment company is involved.
The app has no server of its own. It sends nothing to us by itself. The app’s privacy manifest declares no tracking.
Your library and iCloud
Everything you make or keep in Crosstela lives in the app’s own storage on your iPhone, iPad or Mac:
- Your charts — the patterns and reference images you import, and the data needed to open and work on them.
- Your progress — your marks, parked threads, goals and notes.
- Your materials — your stash, your shopping list and your fabrics.
- Your settings — language, appearance, units and similar preferences.
None of this is visible to us.
If iCloud is turned on for Crosstela in your device settings, the app syncs your library between your own devices through Apple’s CloudKit, in the private database of your own iCloud account. In plain words:
- the data goes from your device to Apple’s iCloud servers under your Apple Account, and back to your other devices;
- it never passes through a server of ours, and we have no access to it;
- Apple’s privacy policy and iCloud terms govern that storage;
- you can switch it off at any time in Settings ▸ [your name] ▸ iCloud ▸ Apps Using iCloud.
“Send it to us”
When Crosstela cannot open a file, it offers “Send it to us”. This prepares an e-mail to support@crosstela.com with your file attached. Nothing is sent until you press Send in your mail app. If your device has no mail account, or the file is too large for Mail, the app opens the share sheet instead and you choose the e-mail or sharing service. The same button appears when you import a photo or scan of a printed chart, which Crosstela cannot read yet.
What we receive
If you send the message, we receive:
- your e-mail address, and any sender name your mail app adds;
- your message;
- the attached original file and its file name;
- the details shown in the message: the file format, the import problem, the app version and build, the reader version, the device model and the operating-system version.
What we do with it
- We use the file only to find out why it did not open, to try to send you back a file that opens, and to teach the reader to open files like it.
- When that work is finished, we delete the file and our working copies.
- We never publish it or sell it. We never use it for advertising or to train AI models.
- We keep the e-mail correspondence only as long as we need it to deal with your request.
Who handles the mail
Our support mailbox is hosted by Google Workspace. The e-mail or sharing service you choose also handles the message on its way. Copies in your own Sent folder, or in any other service you chose, stay under your control.
You can ask us to stop using and delete your support information at any time. Write to support@crosstela.com.
What is processed on your device
These features work on your device. The pictures are never sent to us:
- Photo to chart — turning a photograph into a new chart.
- Scan threads — reading colour numbers from a photo of your skeins, labels or boxes.
- View on wall — showing your piece on your wall through the camera.
Crosstela asks for camera access only when you use one of them. Other pictures you take or choose in the app are handled the same way. If you choose Save Image in the share sheet, it asks to add a picture to Photos. It adds only what you chose and never reads your photos. Reference images kept with your library can be part of your private iCloud sync, or of a backup you export.
Reminders
“Add to Reminders” on the shopping list asks for access to Reminders the first time you use it. iOS offers that access only as full access. Crosstela uses it only to create its own shopping list and to add your shopping items to that list. It does not read the reminders in your other lists. Reminders are stored and synced by Apple, under your Apple Account.
Signed exports
A .crosstela file you export carries a public signing key. It lets a reader check that the file has not been changed since it was signed. The matching private key stays with you. It may sync between your devices through iCloud Keychain. We never receive it.
Apple’s required-reason APIs
Apple asks every app to declare a few system interfaces that could be misused for fingerprinting, with the approved reason for each. Crosstela declares three and uses each only as stated:
| API | Declared reason | What Crosstela does with it |
|---|---|---|
| User defaults | CA92.1 | Stores the app’s own settings, such as appearance and grid style. Read and written only by Crosstela, only on the device. |
| File timestamps | C617.1 | Reads the dates of temporary picture files inside the app’s own container, to clear the oldest. No date is shown or sent anywhere. |
| System boot time | 35F9.1 | Measures the time between two events inside the app, such as how long a touch rested. Only differences are used, and nothing leaves the device. |
Third parties and open-source code
Crosstela contains no third-party SDK that collects data: no analytics, advertising, crash reporting, attribution or payment library.
It does use open-source code. To open charts packed in RAR archives, Crosstela uses libarchive’s RAR 5 reader under its BSD licence. The licence notice is included in the app. The reader runs on your device and sends nothing anywhere.
The outside services involved are these:
- Apple — the App Store, which delivers the app; iCloud, if you sync; Reminders, if you use “Add to Reminders”.
- Google Workspace — hosts our support mailbox.
- Google Analytics 4 — on this website only (section 11). Never in the app.
- The mail or sharing service you choose — carries a “Send it to us” message.
- Cloudflare — hosts this website.
This website
crosstela.com is a static site. Its fonts, images and scripts come from this domain; the one outside service it loads is Google Analytics (section 11). The stitching examples run in your browser and do not upload or save your marks.
Your choices of language, style and animation, and your analytics choice, are kept in your own browser (local storage). When analytics is on, Google Analytics also receives the site’s language and style with each event (section 11); nothing else of these choices leaves your browser.
The site is hosted on Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes the connection data needed to deliver a page (your IP address, the page requested, the time) and may keep short-lived logs for security and reliability, under Cloudflare’s privacy policy. We do not read those logs to identify visitors.
If you e-mail us in any other way, we have your e-mail address and what you wrote. We use them to reply and keep them only as long as the conversation needs.
Website analytics
The website, never the app, uses Google Analytics 4 to count visits. Visitors in the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland (by the country their connection comes from) see a cookie banner first: until they tap Accept, nothing is loaded from Google and no analytics cookie is set. If the country cannot be told, the banner is shown. Elsewhere analytics starts without the banner; anyone can switch it off at any time with Change analytics choice at the end of this page. The app does not use Google Analytics.
What it measures
- the pages viewed;
- clicks on the App Store buttons, and where on the page they were;
- which demo tiles on the home page are used;
- the language and style you choose;
- clicks on our social links and on the support e-mail link;
- Handbook search: only how many results a search found (none, one to three, or four or more), never the words you typed. The search itself runs in your browser.
Google Analytics also records the usual technical details of a visit: your browser, device type and screen size, your language, the page that sent you here, and an approximate location worked out from your IP address.
What is switched off
- Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses; it uses them only to estimate a rough location.
- No advertising features, no Google signals and no ad personalisation. We use none of them, and nothing is shared for advertising.
- We do not try to identify anyone or to link a visit to a person.
Cookies
Google Analytics sets cookies whose names start with _ga. They last up to 6 months. Your choice itself is kept in your browser for 6 months, then the banner asks again.
Where the data goes
The measurements go to Google, which may process them on servers outside your country, under Google’s privacy policy. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland our legal basis is your consent; elsewhere it is our interest in knowing how the site is used. Either way you can switch it off at any time.
Change your choice
Choosing “Decline” switches analytics off and deletes the _ga cookies this site set. Choosing “Accept” switches it on.
Children
Crosstela is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly receive information from children under 13. If a child has sent us something, write to us and we will delete it.
Your choices and deleting data
- Charts: delete a chart in the app. It stays in Deleted for 30 days, then is removed.
- The app: deleting the app removes your library from that device.
- iCloud: turn off iCloud for Crosstela and choose to delete the data from iCloud, or manage it under Settings ▸ [your name] ▸ iCloud ▸ Manage Account Storage.
- Support messages: ask us at support@crosstela.com to delete what you sent us.
- Website analytics: change your choice at any time, as described in section 11.
Deleting the app does not remove messages you already sent us, files you already exported or shared, or backups you made. Those copies are yours to delete, except what we hold as described in section 4.
Changes
If Crosstela starts to collect or send data in a new way, we will change this policy before that version ships and change the date above. We will not describe less than the app does.
Contact
Questions about privacy: support@crosstela.com.