Privacy Policy

Last updated November 12, 2026

Rarestone is an iPhone app made by Sidequest Labs ("we", "us"). It identifies rocks, minerals and crystals from your camera. This policy explains what the app collects, why, and the choices you have.

Who can use Rarestone

Rarestone is only for people 18 and older. Before you start, the app asks for your birth month and year. If you're under 18, the app won't open, and your phone remembers that answer. If you're 18 or older, we keep only your birth year and the date you answered, with your account, as a record that you confirmed your age; we never keep the month. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 is using Rarestone, email us and we will delete their data.

Your account

When you first open Rarestone, the app creates a guest account for you: a random ID with no name or email, so your finds and settings can be saved. You can sign in with Apple or Google at any time from Settings; your guest finds then move to that account. If you sign in, we receive an account ID and, depending on what you allow, your email address (Apple may give us a private relay address instead). We don't receive your password. We use this only to run your account, keep your finds with it, and contact you about your account if needed.

Identifying a rock

While the camera is open, the live finder sends a photo of what the camera sees to our server every few seconds (the whole view plus zoomed-in sections of it), and close-up crops of the rocks it marks; when you pick a rock up, photos of the rock in your hand are sent too. Our server asks Google's Gemini AI model to find and identify the rocks in them. If location is on, the name of the nearest town is sent with it to help with local geology. The result, including an estimated value range, comes back to your phone. Estimates are generated by AI and aren't an appraisal. We use Google's paid Gemini API: under Google's terms, Google doesn't use these photos to train its models, but it may keep them for a limited time to detect abuse. We keep a record of each identification (the rock's name, the AI's answer and, if location is on, the town-level area) with your account. The photo itself is only kept if you save the find to My Finds (we store the close-up as its picture, with faces blurred) or if "Share my rock photos" is on. Close-ups of saved finds are used for training only if sharing is on. Finds you save appear in My Finds.

"Share my rock photos" (optional, you opt in)

If you turn this on, we keep photos from your scans to train and improve Rarestone's own identification. This includes the photos the live finder looks at as you walk (about one every few seconds), so Rarestone can learn to spot rocks from farther away, and for each rock you pick up, a few frames from the seconds before, the close-up crop, and frames of the rock in your hand. Before anything leaves your phone:

• faces are blurred on your device, and photos where people fill much of the frame are discarded;
• each image is re-saved without its original metadata (EXIF), including GPS coordinates;
• no audio is ever recorded.

These photos upload only on Wi-Fi. Turning the setting off deletes photos still waiting on your phone, and all shared photos are deleted when you delete your data.

Free while you share. We don't sell subscriptions right now. Instead, while "Share my rock photos" is on, Rarestone gives full answers with no daily limit (beyond a high daily cap that prevents abuse). If you leave it off, you still get 3 full answers a day, and safety warnings, "not a rock" and "too blurry" answers are always shown. Location is not part of this: you can turn location off and stay free. You can turn sharing off at any time.

Location (optional, you opt in)

If location is on, we store the approximate area of a find: the nearest town and a position rounded to about 10 km. We never store your precise location.

Map

When you open the map, the app uses your location on your phone to show where you are. To suggest public rockhounding spots nearby, it sends our server only an approximate position (rounded to about 25 km), which our server passes to Google's Gemini model with Google Search. The map also shows how many finds Rarestone users have logged in each area and which rocks were found. Areas are about 10 km across, only appear once at least two different people have logged finds there, and never show names, accounts or exact spots. Your own finds are counted only if location is on.

Subscriptions and payments

Rarestone doesn't sell subscriptions right now. If we offer them again, they'll be bought through Apple's App Store with your Apple ID. Apple processes the payment; we never see your card or billing details. RevenueCat, our subscription service, receives the App Store purchase record (which plan, dates, trial and renewal status) linked to your Rarestone account ID, so the app knows to unlock your results. You manage or cancel a subscription in your iPhone's Settings under your Apple ID.

Field Crew (paid contributor program)

If you join our paid contributor program at contribute.rarestone.app, we collect your email address (from Google sign-in), your Venmo username, where you say you filmed each session, and the videos and app logs you upload. We use them to review and pay sessions and to train Rarestone's models, as described in the contributor terms on that site. Uploaded files are stored with Cloudflare. We don't publish your footage or show it in marketing without asking you first. Email us to have your contributor data deleted; footage from sessions we've already paid for stays licensed to us.

How the app is used

The app records simple usage events linked to your account ID, such as finishing onboarding or scanning a rock, with the time and a few details about the event. We use these only to understand and improve Rarestone. They're never used for advertising or shared with ad networks.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, reminders (for example, to recap a hunt) are scheduled on your phone. We don't send your notification settings to our server.

Who we share data with

We use a small number of service providers to run Rarestone. They process data only on our behalf:

• Supabase hosts our database, file storage and server functions;
• Google (Gemini API) finds and identifies rocks in the photos the app sends and suggests nearby spots on the map;
• Apple and Google handle sign-in if you create an account;
• Apple processes subscription payments, and RevenueCat manages subscription status, if subscriptions are offered;
• Cloudflare stores videos uploaded to the Field Crew program, and Venmo handles contributor payments;
• Vercel hosts this website.

We don't sell or share your personal information for advertising, we don't show ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites. We may disclose information if the law requires it.

How long we keep data

We keep your finds, settings and any photos you shared until you delete them. Daily usage counts used to prevent abuse are kept only as long as needed for that purpose. When you use "Delete account and all my data" in Settings, we delete your account, your saved finds and every photo you shared.

Your choices and rights

• Turn "Share my rock photos" or location on or off in Settings at any time.
• Delete your data from Settings.
• Email support@rarestone.app to ask what data we hold about you, get a copy, or have it corrected or deleted. Depending on your state, you may have these rights by law; we honor them for everyone and respond within 45 days.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit, and every record and file is protected so that only your own account can read it. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information.

Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date above, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.

Contact

Sidequest Labs · support@rarestone.app