Privacy Policy

Local by default: Gold Story requires no Studio AM account and contains no advertising, analytics, tracking, telemetry, or Studio AM journal server. Your field journal is stored on the iPhone. It leaves the app only when you explicitly share an export, send a field report, open an external destination, or enable private iCloud backup.

1. Information Studio AM collects

1.1 Personal information

Studio AM collects no personal information through Gold Story. There is no Studio AM account, email login, remote journal profile, or advertising identifier.

1.2 Your local field journal

Gold Story stores finds, trips, saved spots, waypoints, photos, weights, methods, notes, dates, weather, breadcrumb trails, research-log entries, field reports, lesson progress, and settings in the app's local storage. Studio AM cannot retrieve this local record.

1.3 Location

Location permission is optional. If granted, Gold Story can attach a coordinate to a record you save, collect an optional trip breadcrumb trail while that feature is active, and calculate a bearing to a saved point. A missing or imprecise fix does not block saving without a location. Gold Story does not send your live location to Studio AM.

1.4 Analytics, advertising, and diagnostics

Gold Story contains no third-party analytics, advertising, tracking, telemetry, or crash-reporting SDK. Studio AM does not receive journal, location, lesson, map, or feature-usage events.

2. Maps, historic sites, and claim-record downloads

Bundled maps and records need no network request. When you refresh the public catalog or download an optional region or BLM claim-record pack, Gold Story fetches static files over HTTPS from Studio AM's public GitHub release catalog. The request carries ordinary network metadata needed to deliver a file, such as an IP address and user agent, but it does not contain your journal, saved spots, photos, or location.

Historic USGS locations and dated BLM records are reference material, not personal data submitted by users. Claim markers are approximate PLSS section or quarter-section references rather than surveyed boundaries.

3. On-device AI

On supported iOS 26 devices with Apple Intelligence ready, Gold Story can use Apple's on-device foundation model for structured find notes, trip recaps, grounded journal answers, and optional research-lead summaries. The prompt and result are processed on the device; Studio AM operates no AI server and receives neither. These features are hidden on unsupported devices, and the core journal and research tools do not require a generative model.

4. Private iCloud backup

Private iCloud backup is optional and off by default. After enabling it, you must choose “Back up now.” Gold Story packages the complete journal, including locations and photos, into an archive and can keep up to the latest three backups in your private iCloud database. Each archive is limited to 500 MB and counts against your own iCloud storage. Apple handles the service; Studio AM cannot read, list, or delete those backups. Restore is offered only into an empty local journal so an existing journal is not overwritten.

5. Purchases and earlier products

Gold Story currently offers a one-time Pro purchase and monthly and annual auto-renewable subscriptions through Apple StoreKit. The one-time purchase has no trial or renewal. All three give the same complete app. Eligible new subscribers may receive a 3-day trial on a subscription; Apple determines eligibility and displays the current local billed amount and terms before confirmation. The earlier Claims Pass is no longer sold, but Gold Story can read a verified legacy purchase so the access it covered can be restored. Studio AM does not receive your payment-card details.

6. Export, sharing, and external destinations

Gold Story prepares exports locally. A full export can contain the journal as JSON, CSV tables, GPX and KML when locations are included, and available photos. You choose the destination through Apple's system share sheet. When you turn locations off, Gold Story removes coordinates from exported data and attempts to remove GPS metadata from photos. A photo that cannot be stripped safely is omitted with a visible warning. Preparing a new export clears older files in Gold Story's managed temporary export directory.

If you choose the field-report share action, Gold Story prepares JSON for all saved field reports. It may contain claim serials or names, notes, dates, and coordinates. You choose whether to send it to Studio AM support or another destination through the system share interface. Opening a BLM or USGS record, contacting support, viewing terms or privacy pages, or managing a subscription likewise opens the destination only after you choose it. If an on-device journal question is declined, Gold Story can offer to open that exact question as a DuckDuckGo search in your default browser; the query is sent externally only after you tap that option. Those destinations have their own privacy practices.

7. Siri shortcut and widget

The optional “Log a Find” App Shortcut receives the note you dictate or type. When fresh work is authorized, it may use a location fix only if location permission was already granted; it does not request location permission while running headlessly. Its spoken result does not repeat the note or place name. The widget reads a small local App Group snapshot containing only the season year, find counts, last-find date, and update date, but never coordinates, notes, weights, photos, or spot and trip names.

8. Notifications

If you enable reminders or claim-change alerts, iOS schedules them on the device. Studio AM runs no push-notification server and does not receive your notification settings. Paid notifications are canceled or not scheduled beyond verified access.

9. Access and deletion

Existing records remain readable, searchable, editable, individually deletable, and exportable without active access. Removing an individual record deletes it from the local journal. Uninstalling Gold Story removes its local app data; it does not cancel an Apple subscription or automatically remove private iCloud backups you chose to create.

10. Children's privacy

Gold Story is not directed at children under 13 and collects no personal information from children or adults.

11. Changes to this policy

If Gold Story's data practices change, this page will be updated and its effective date revised before the change ships.

12. Contact

Questions about privacy: support@studioam.art. You can also visit Gold Story or the support page.