What TrapDock does with your data

TrapDock checks copies of your photographs and videos. Local transfers work without an account or internet connection. Connecting Camera Trap Studio is optional and changes what leaves your device.

Updated 19 September 2026. Applies to TrapDock for iPhone and iPad, TrapDock for Mac, and trapdock.com.

The short version

Local copying does not upload your photographs or transfer history to us.
The app has no advertising, tracking, analytics SDK or crash-reporting SDK.
If you pair with Studio, eligible imports can upload automatically, together with information needed to identify the camera, organise the files and operate the service.
Unpairing stops the connection; it does not delete files already uploaded.

What stays on your device

Without a Studio connection, TrapDock copies files between the locations you choose and keeps its transfer records locally:

Photographs and video staged from a card, until you move them onto a drive and free the local copies.
A local ledger of imports, cameras and sessions. TrapDock does not sync this database through iCloud; your device or computer backup settings are separate.
Preferences: your appearance choice, whether uploads may use cellular data, and which drives you have used before.
File details read from your photographs: capture dates, sizes, and a SHA-256 digest per file. Capture dates are what date an import session; digests are what prove a copy is intact.

Local transfers work offline. If you select a network drive or a third-party Files provider, that destination's own service and privacy practices apply.

Optional Camera Trap Studio uploads

TrapDock can offload photographs to Camera Trap Studio, a separate cloud archive. This is entirely optional and off until you turn it on by pairing the app with a Studio account using a pairing code.

On iPhone and iPad, pairing enables automatic upload of new successfully completed imports staged on the device. Older staged imports can be sent from their session screen. Direct card-to-drive imports are not uploaded by the iOS app. On Mac, uploads follow your Studio upload setting and the archive roots you choose to sync.

The connection sends:

eligible photographs and videos, including sound and metadata already embedded in the originals, associated sidecar files, and video preview images when available;
filenames, source paths, capture dates, sizes, checksums and import-session information;
camera names and available identity signals, such as a camera serial number, card marker, archive-folder identifier or volume identifier;
the device name you provide, its platform, the app version and the device/account identifiers needed to authenticate and associate uploads with your Studio library.

Uploads are associated with your Studio organisation and its access permissions. Studio and its hosting/storage providers process this information to operate the service. Uploaded originals may contain precise GPS location metadata. Studio reads and stores available GPS coordinates from supported photographs to keep their metadata with them, even though TrapDock never asks for your phone or computer's location.

Studio retains device connection times, import status and file/storage counts for your library, authentication and quota accounting. Cloudflare hosts the service and storage. Network addresses and request information are processed to deliver and protect connections, and operational logs can include account and media identifiers, checksums and upload or verification errors. These records help keep uploads reliable; they are not advertising or cross-app tracking.

When Studio's image-classification features apply to your library, an original photograph or preview is also processed by its species-identification service, currently hosted on Modal. Studio stores the resulting detections and classifications. The processing code removes its temporary image after each job; operational error logs may still identify the affected media.

You can disconnect in Settings → Unpair this device (Unpair this Mac on Mac). Successful unpairing removes the local pairing credential. It does not revoke the device at the service: also remove it in Studio's device settings if you want to revoke its access there. Files already uploaded remain in Studio; unpairing is not a cloud-deletion request.

Uploads travel over HTTPS. Your pairing credential is held in the system Keychain, not in ordinary app storage.

Permissions the app asks for

Photos, add-only, on iPhone and iPad. Requested when you choose to save photographs to Photos, not to read your existing Photos library.
Files. Used to reach a memory card or an external drive you have plugged in, and to make staged files visible to you in the Files app so you are never locked out of your own photographs.
Notifications on iPhone and iPad, if allowed, for completed Studio uploads or issues needing attention.

There is no location permission, no camera permission, no microphone permission, no contacts permission. The app does not want them.

This website and contact form

trapdock.com is hosted by Cloudflare. Cloudflare processes normal web-request information, such as network address and browser/request details, to deliver and protect the site. The site does not embed advertising or analytics scripts. Fonts and images are served from this site.

Contact links open the Camtraptions contact form on a separate website. Information you choose to submit there is handled under the Camtraptions privacy policy. Do not include pairing codes, passwords or private photographs in a support enquiry unless a secure, appropriate method has been agreed.

Keeping and deleting your data

Local copies and transfer records stay on your hardware until you remove them. TrapDock offers controls for removing local copies and camera data; removing a copy from one location does not remove copies on other drives, in your backups or in Studio. Uninstalling the app must not be treated as deletion of all those copies.

Studio keeps your uploaded library until you delete its content. Moving media to Studio's trash starts a 30-day recovery period. After that, scheduled cleanup removes eligible originals, previews and related media records; retries or a cleanup backlog can delay removal. Previously cached previews may outlast removal from storage: current cache settings allow up to one year, and access at the service still requires a valid account delivery token.

Deleting media or unpairing does not automatically erase device records, camera identity history, import records or account-usage records. Operational logs, exports and backups have separate retention arrangements. For questions or requests about access, correction, export, retention or deletion of information handled by the service, contact us through Camtraptions and mention TrapDock or Camera Trap Studio. You do not need a Studio account to use local copying.

Changes

We will update the date on this page when the policy changes. Review this page when deciding whether to enable optional connected features.

Contact

For help or privacy questions, use the Camtraptions contact form. Please mention TrapDock so your enquiry can be directed appropriately.