Privacy Policy — Helium2 Photo Album Manager

Effective Date: January 1, 2025 | Last Updated: March 2025

Short version: Helium2 runs entirely on your device. It does not connect to the internet, does not collect or transmit any personal data, and does not include any analytics, tracking, or advertising. Your photos stay on your machine.

1. Who We Are

TheHobbyist Software ("we", "us", "our") develops and publishes Helium2, a desktop photo album management application for Windows and macOS. Our contact information is available at the bottom of this policy.

2. Data We Do NOT Collect

Helium2 does not:

Connect to the internet during normal operation
Collect or transmit your name, email address, or any personal information
Upload, access, or transmit your photos to any server
Include third-party analytics or crash reporting services
Display advertisements or include advertising SDKs
Track your usage patterns, session lengths, or feature interactions
Share any data with any third party

3. Data Stored Locally on Your Device

All data created by Helium2 is stored exclusively on your device and under your full control. This includes:

Album metadata — JSON files containing album names, creation dates, and file paths to your linked photos. Stored in the application's user-data folder.
Application configuration — Your theme preferences, thumbnail size, and custom colors. Stored as a JSON file locally.
Thumbnail cache — Compressed JPEG thumbnails generated from your photos for fast browsing. Stored in a local disk cache and automatically cleared after 30 days of inactivity.
Discrepancy logs — Text log files recording file-missing and file-restored events. Stored locally and automatically cleaned up after one month.

None of this data leaves your device.

4. License Key Activation

If you purchase a license, activation may involve a one-time connection to our licensing server to validate your license key. During this connection:

Only the license key and an anonymized hardware fingerprint are transmitted
No personal information, photos, or album data are transmitted
The connection is encrypted using HTTPS

After initial activation, Helium2 operates fully offline.

5. Photo Files

Helium2 accesses photo files on your device solely to display them within the application and to generate thumbnails. It does not copy your photos to any external location, and it does not read any metadata (such as EXIF location data) beyond what is necessary to display images. Photo content is never transmitted anywhere.

6. Purchase & Payment

If you purchase Helium2 through our website, payment processing is handled by a third-party payment processor (such as Stripe or Paddle). We do not store your payment card information. The payment processor's privacy policy governs that transaction.

If purchased through a platform store (e.g., Microsoft Store), the platform operator's privacy policy applies to that transaction.

7. Cookies & Website Analytics

This policy applies to the Helium2 application. Our website (thehobbyistsoftware.com) may use standard web analytics to measure page visits. This data is anonymized and is not linked to your application usage. The website does not require cookies for its core function.

8. Children's Privacy

Helium2 does not knowingly collect any data from children under 13. As the application collects no data at all, it is safe for all ages.

9. Your Rights

Since we do not collect personal data in the application, there is no data for us to provide, correct, or delete. If you wish to remove all Helium2 data from your device, you may uninstall the application and manually delete the application data folder.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy if Helium2 adds new features that change how data is handled. We will update the "Last Updated" date and, if changes are significant, notify users via the application itself. Continued use of Helium2 after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

Developer: TheHobbyist Software
Email: amit@thehobbyist.in
Website: https://thehobbyistsoftware.com