Gaiwan keeps your tea records on your device. It has no account system, no analytics and no tracking of any kind. Two things do leave your device, and both are described below.
Last updated 23 September 2026
Your sessions, tasting notes, cabinet entries, teaware and photographs are stored locally on your iPhone and are not uploaded anywhere. They are included in your device backup if you back your iPhone up, and they are deleted with the app if you remove it. iCloud sync is switched off in this release.
One feature makes a network request: identifying a tea from a photograph. It runs only when you choose photos and tap Identify. Those images are sent to Google's Gemini API, which reads the packaging and returns what it can make out. Google processes the request under its own terms; Gaiwan sends nothing with it that identifies you — no account, no device identifier, no location, nothing else from your cabinet.
If you never use that feature, Gaiwan makes no network requests at all beyond the map tiles Apple Maps loads to draw a map.
Identification beyond the free allowance needs a subscription, which is handled by Apple and by RevenueCat, our payments provider. RevenueCat receives an anonymous identifier generated on your device and the fact that a purchase happened, so the app can tell whether your subscription is active. That identifier is not your name, your email or your Apple Account — it is a random string, and it is not connected to anything else about you.
Apple handles the payment itself. Gaiwan never sees your card details, and no payment information reaches us or our servers.
Location is optional. It is requested only when you tap "Add current location" while starting a session, taken once at that moment, and used to place that session on your map. Gaiwan does not track you in the background and does not follow your movements. Declining the permission leaves every other part of the app working.
Gaiwan asks for the camera when you photograph a tea, its packaging or your teaware, and for your photo library when you attach an existing picture. It reads only the images you pick. Photos are stored with the record you attached them to and stay on the device.
Gaiwan is rated 4+ and collects no personal information from anyone, children included.
If this policy changes, the date above changes with it, and any change that affects what leaves your device will be described in the app's release notes.
Questions about any of this go to akos@tallpoppystudio.com.
Gaiwan is made by tallpoppy, an independent software studio.