Clear (“Clear”, “we”, “us”) makes the Clear skincare app for iPhone and the useclear.skin website. This policy explains what we collect, why, who helps us run the app, and the choices you have. If you have questions, email [email protected].
The short version
- Your face scan photos are saved on your phone. They are sent to our AI provider only to analyze your skin. To show your before and after on the subscription screen, we keep a small copy of your scan photo and its preview on our servers for about 2 days, then delete it.
- We never sell your photos or personal information, never use them for ads, and never use them to identify you.
- We don’t show ads, we don’t track you across other apps or websites, and Clear doesn’t use your location.
- Our app analytics are anonymous and not linked to your account.
- You can delete your account and data from inside the app at any time.
What we collect
Information you give us
- Account details: your name and email when you sign in with Apple or Google. If you use Apple’s “Hide My Email”, we only get a private relay address.
- Your answers: things you tell us during setup, such as gender, age range, skin type, sensitivity, concerns, goals, routine, skin conditions, medications or prescription treatments, and how you heard about Clear. Unless you choose male, we also ask whether you’re pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to get pregnant.
- Face photos: the photos you take for a skin scan.
- Products and routine: products you add, scan, share to Clear or save, your routine and plan, and which steps you complete.
- Ask Clear: your messages, the photos and files you attach, and your ratings of answers. Ask Clear can also save short notes about you (for example “sensitive to fragrance”) to its Memory, and log skin changes you tell it about (for example “my cheeks got red today”).
- Reports and support: product problems you report, and anything you send us when you contact us.
- Product photos you choose to send: if the scanner doesn’t recognize a product, you can choose to send us that photo so we can add the product. We crop it to the product, remove its location and camera details, use it only to identify and add the product, and delete it after 30 days. Nothing is sent unless you tap to send it.
Information collected automatically
- App usage: a few anonymous events, such as opening the app or finishing a scan (see Analytics below).
- Purchase status: whether you have an active subscription or trial. Apple handles payment, so we never see your card details.
- Product scans: when you scan a product, the text read from the label, the barcode and the result, so we can improve the product catalog. The product photo itself is not stored unless you choose to send it (see above).
- Free scan limits: to allow one free scan per iPhone, we use Apple’s DeviceCheck, which holds no personal information. To limit free scans per network, we keep a scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address, never the address itself.
We don’t use a crash-reporting service. If you choose to share crash data with app developers in your iPhone settings, Apple may give us anonymous crash reports.
How we use it
- To analyze your skin and give you a Clarity score, findings and progress over time.
- To build and update your skincare plan and daily routine.
- To check products against your skin and show where they’re available.
- To answer your questions in Ask Clear.
- To send reminders you allow, including one before a free trial ends. Reminders are scheduled on your phone.
- To run, secure and improve the app, prevent abuse, and provide support.
Your face photos
- Scan photos are saved on your phone, encrypted, and left out of iCloud and computer backups.
- To analyze a scan, Clear sends smaller copies of the photos securely through our servers to OpenAI. We don’t save these photos on our servers. We save the results (your score and findings).
- If you ask Ask Clear about your skin, it may look at your latest scan photos the same way.
- On iPhones with Face ID, Clear uses the front camera’s face tracking during a scan. It checks your head position and draws a face outline over your photo. This face data stays on your phone. It is never sent to us or anyone else, and it is never used to recognize who you are.
- Scan photos stay on your phone until you delete your account or the Clear app.
- Before and after on the subscription screen: to show it, Clear uploads a small copy of your front scan photo and its simulated preview to a private storage area on our servers. The subscription screen loads them through private links that stop working after 1 hour. They are deleted after about 2 days and never used for anything else.
Clear’s skin analysis looks at the condition of your skin (for example breakouts, marks, redness or texture). It does not recognize or identify people.
Health and pregnancy answers
Your skin conditions, medications and pregnancy answer are health information. We use them only to personalize your plan, results and Ask Clear answers, and to keep suggestions safe. For example, if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding or trying, your plan leaves out retinoids. Your pregnancy answer is sent to OpenAI only as “avoid retinoids: yes or no”, and it is saved with your plan. If you tell Ask Clear about a pregnancy or a medication, it may save that to its Memory. You can ask it to forget that at any time. We never sell this information, use it for ads, or share it with stores or brands.
AI processing
Clear uses OpenAI’s models to analyze scan photos, write your plan, identify products from photos, and answer Ask Clear messages. To do this, the photos and text needed for that task are sent securely to OpenAI through our servers. This can include your answers, scan results, routine, products and saved memories. We ask OpenAI not to store this data. Under OpenAI’s API terms, it doesn’t use this data to train its models, and it may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse.
When Ask Clear looks something up, OpenAI’s web search runs the search. Links in answers show small site icons, which load from DuckDuckGo’s public icon service.
Before your first scan, Clear asks for your permission to send your scan photos and answers for AI analysis. You can say no.
Analytics
We use PostHog (US servers) to count a few anonymous events: first open, app opened, which setup screen you reached, scan completed, subscription started (which plan, and whether it has a free trial), whether your before and after failed to load on the subscription screen, and home screen viewed. Each install gets a random ID. We don’t send your account ID, name, email, answers or photos, and we don’t record your screen. Analytics only run in the App Store version of Clear.
This website
useclear.skin has no ads or tracking cookies. Like any website, our hosting provider handles basic technical information, such as your IP address, to deliver pages and keep the site secure. Shared product pages load product details and images from Supabase, which also receives that basic technical information.
Who we share it with
We share information only with service providers that help us run Clear, under contracts that limit how they can use it:
- Supabase (US servers): secure database, sign-in, file storage and server functions.
- OpenAI: AI processing, as described above.
- Apple and Google: sign in. Apple also handles payments and the one-free-scan check.
- RevenueCat: your subscription status, linked to a random ID until you sign in, then to your Clear account ID.
- Superwall: shows the subscription screen. It receives your Clear account ID once you’ve signed in, your age range and how you use that screen. To personalize that screen, it also gets your main skin concern, skin type, Clarity scores and the 1-hour links to your before and after.
- PostHog: anonymous analytics, as described above.
When you share a link to Clear (for example a TikTok video or a store page), your phone opens that link to read its preview. For TikTok videos, it uses TikTok’s public preview service.
When you tap a link to a store (such as Ulta, Target, Walmart or Amazon), you leave Clear and that store’s own privacy policy applies. Store links are not affiliate links today. If we add affiliate links later, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you, and it will never change a product’s match. We don’t share your health information or photos with stores.
We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect people’s safety, or as part of a merger or sale of the business (in which case this policy will continue to apply to your information).
How long we keep it
- Account data (answers, scan results, plans, routine, products and reminder settings): until you delete your account.
- Ask Clear chats: until you delete the chat or your account. Memories: until you ask Ask Clear to forget them, or delete your account.
- Skin changes logged by Ask Clear: until you delete your account.
- Free scan results you don’t save to an account: deleted after 7 days.
- Product scan records: deleted after 180 days.
- Product photos you choose to send: deleted after 30 days.
- Scan photos: on your phone, until you delete your account or the Clear app.
- Before and after copies for the subscription screen: about 2 days.
When you delete your account, we delete your account and personal information from our servers, remove your subscription record from RevenueCat, and end Sign in with Apple for Clear. The scan photos on your phone and any product photos you sent us are deleted too. Deleting your account doesn’t cancel your subscription. Cancel it in your Apple account settings. We keep only limited records where the law requires it (for example, purchase records kept by Apple).
Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Scan photos on your phone are encrypted and excluded from device backups. Photos you attach in Ask Clear are encrypted on your phone. On our servers, each person can only read their own data. Access to our systems is limited and protected.
Your choices and rights
- Delete your account: in the app, go to Profile and choose Delete account.
- Delete a chat or a memory: delete a chat in Ask Clear, or ask Ask Clear to forget a memory.
- AI scan analysis: you can decline it before your first scan.
- Access or correct your data: email us and we’ll help.
- Notifications: turn reminders on or off in the app or in iPhone Settings.
- Depending on where you live (for example California, or other US states), you may have additional rights to know, access, correct or delete your information, and to not be discriminated against for using them. Email us to make a request.
Children and teens
Clear is not for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect information from them. If you’re 13 to 17, please use Clear with a parent or guardian’s permission. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, contact us and we’ll delete it.
Not medical advice
Clear gives general skincare guidance. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat or cure any condition.
Changes
If we change this policy, we’ll update the date above and, for important changes, let you know in the app.
Contact
Email [email protected].