Last updated 9 October 2026
The app has no accounts. On iPhone it uses Meta's and TikTok's software to learn whether Wren's adverts lead to downloads and purchases — in the United Kingdom and Europe only if you allow tracking — and your answer changes nothing in the app. Your screenshots and any file you import are read on your phone and are never uploaded. Two things do reach a server Wren runs, and only when you ask: a complimentary access code, if you were given one and enter it; and the link to a reel or post, if you share one for Wren to read. That post is fetched, read and discarded — nothing about it is kept, not the video, not the words, not the place names. The app also counts, anonymously, which steps people reach — opening it, importing places, seeing a purchase sheet, buying — with nothing that identifies you or your phone.
This website is a separate matter: it uses Google Analytics, and only if you accept the notice on your first visit. Declining sets no cookies.
Wren is made by Spencer Fields, a sole trader established in the United Kingdom, at Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers, Poole, BH16 6FA. For anything in this policy, write to Apps [at] spencerfields [dot] com.
In the app there is no account to create, no sign-in and no profile. Almost everything Wren remembers lives on your device and goes away when you delete the app. (The website is different, and is covered further down.)
There are two exceptions. On iPhone, Meta's and TikTok's software report app installs, app openings and App Store purchases to those companies, so that Wren can tell whether its adverts work; this is described in full under Advertising measurement. And on any device, a random identifier for your device is sent if you enter a complimentary code. Wren's App Store privacy label declares both, and this page and that label are meant to say the same thing.
Separately, the app sends anonymous counts of the steps people reach, described under Anonymous usage counts. They carry nothing that identifies you or your phone, and the label declares them too.
Some people are given a code that unlocks the paid features without paying — reviewers at Apple, and friends of the developer. It happens only if you have been given a code and choose to enter it. If you have not, Wren never contacts that server at all.
When a code is entered, two things are sent: the code itself, and a random identifier for your device. The identifier is generated by Wren, is not derived from your hardware, and identifies nothing beyond this installation. Nothing else goes with it — no name, no email address, no location, no screenshot.
The pair is stored so that a code can be used once and not again, which is the whole reason a server is involved: a phone has no way of knowing that a code has already been used on a different phone. The reply is checked and kept on your device, and for almost everyone that is the end of it — the check does not happen again. The exception is the few codes that also grant administrative access to the developer's own console: those are re-confirmed about once a day, sending the same two things and nothing else, so that such a code can be withdrawn.
The server is a Cloudflare Worker in the developer's own account, and Cloudflare acts as a data processor for it. If a code is rejected, the originating IP address is recorded on its own for up to an hour, so that the endpoint cannot be hammered with guesses. It is not stored alongside the code or your device identifier, it is not stored at all when a code succeeds, and it is deleted automatically.
From version 2.1.9, the app tells a server Wren runs when you reach certain steps: opening Wren for the first time, starting an import, reading a post, seeing a purchase sheet, tapping a buy button, the purchase completing or not, and saving a guide. Each message names the step, which kind it was where that matters (which product, for example), whether the phone is an iPhone or an Android phone, the app's version and the language it is showing.
Nothing identifies you or your phone. There is no identifier of any kind, nothing is stored on your phone to recognise it again, and the server keeps only a running total for each step and day — not the individual messages, and not the IP address they came from. The developer uses the totals to see where people stop before buying, which is the only reason they exist. They are not shared with anyone and are not used for advertising.
You choose which images Wren may read, through Apple's own photo picker. Wren has no standing access to your photo library — only to the images you hand it.
Text recognition runs entirely on your device, using Apple's Vision framework. The images themselves are never uploaded, transmitted or stored by Wren. The same is true of a file you import — a spreadsheet or map export is opened through Apple's document picker, read on the device, and never sent anywhere. Once a name has been read from an image, Wren has no further use for it and does not keep a copy.
This is the one part of Wren that sends something you chose to a server Wren runs, and it happens only when you share or paste a link to a reel or a post. Wren cannot read one on the phone: a share sheet hands over a web address and never the video, so the video has to be fetched from somewhere.
What is sent is the link, and proof that you bought the feature. Nothing else — no name, no email address, no location, no screenshot, and no identifier for you. The proof is the receipt the App Store or Google Play issued for the purchase, which the server checks with Apple or Google; a complimentary code works in its place.
If you have not bought it, your first three posts are read free. In place of a receipt, Wren sends Apple's signed record that your Apple Account downloaded Wren, which carries an identifier Apple assigns to that download. The server keeps that identifier only to count the free reads, so that they are three per account rather than three per reinstall.
The server — a Cloudflare Worker in the developer's own account — fetches that post, has a language model read the place names out of its caption or its pictures, sends the names back to your phone, and discards the rest. Nothing about the post is stored: not the address, not the video or images, not the caption, not the names it found. Your phone then looks those names up the same way it looks up a name read off a screenshot.
One row is written, and it records only that one purchase spent one unit of its monthly allowance. It says nothing about what was read. The allowance exists because each reading costs money to serve, and counting it is the only reason anything is kept at all.
Two other companies are involved in that moment and neither is told who you are. A service called ScrapeCreators fetches the post from the platform it is on, and may hold its own copy of what it fetched for a short time so that the same public post is not fetched twice. Google's Vertex AI runs the model that reads it; Google states that data sent to Vertex AI is not used to train its models. Wren is not affiliated with Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, and only ever asks for a post you have chosen to share.
Wren advertises on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Meta, which runs Instagram and Facebook, and TikTok each need to be told when one of their adverts led to a download or a purchase — without that, they show Wren's adverts only to iPhones too old to run iOS 14.5, or cannot tell which adverts work. So the iPhone app includes Meta's and TikTok's software development kits. The Android app includes neither.
What they send. That Wren was installed and opened, and when; whether it was opened again the day after installing; the product, price and currency of any App Store purchase; technical details of the device, such as its model, iOS version, language and time zone; and identifiers the software creates or reads for this installation. Your IP address reaches both companies as a matter of course, as it reaches any server. TikTok's software may also send TikTok a technical report if Wren crashes, describing where in the code the crash happened. Nothing about what you do inside Wren is sent: no screenshots, no place names, no guides, no imported files.
Apple's tracking question. When Wren first opens, iPhone asks whether you allow Wren to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites. One answer covers both companies. Either way Wren works exactly the same, and you can change your answer at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
If your App Store account is in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, nothing at all is sent to Meta or TikTok unless you allow tracking — neither company's software is even started until then. If you allow it, everything above is sent, together with your device's advertising identifier, which lets each company connect the download to the advert you saw.
Everywhere else, the details above are sent from first launch. If you allow tracking, the advertising identifier goes with them; if you ask Wren not to track, it does not, and each company measures only in aggregate, through Apple's and its own privacy-preserving methods.
Who is responsible. Meta receives its data as a controller in its own right, under the Meta Business Tools Terms, and handles it under Meta's privacy policy. Wren itself never receives or stores any of the data in this section. The developer sees only totals in each company's reporting — how many installs an advert led to — never anything about a particular person. Either company may process the data outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States.
TikTok, in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. For the collection and sending of this data to TikTok, and for measuring and reporting how Wren's adverts performed, Wren and TikTok are joint controllers under Article 26 of the GDPR and the UK GDPR. TikTok here means TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited (Kaleidoscope, 4 Lindsey Street, London EC1A 9HP) and TikTok Technology Limited (The Sorting Office, Ropemaker Place, Dublin 2, D02 HD23, Ireland). Wren uses TikTok's business tools for exactly the purpose described above: to learn whether its adverts lead to downloads and purchases. Wren and TikTok have agreed joint-controller terms, under which Wren is responsible for telling you about this processing — which this section does — and TikTok is responsible for your rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction and portability over the data TikTok holds after that. Anything TikTok then does with the data for its own purposes — building audiences, improving and personalising adverts, safety and fraud prevention — it does as an independent controller. How TikTok handles the data, the legal basis it relies on and how to exercise your rights against it are explained in TikTok's privacy policy.
TikTok, elsewhere. TikTok receives the data under the TikTok Business Products (Data) Terms and handles it under TikTok's privacy policy; in the United States, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is responsible for it.
Only text and identifiers — never an image, and never a file. Everything below goes to Apple, apart from the last four rows.
| What | Goes to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The name of a place, and the city you confirmed | Apple Maps | To find the place. This is Apple's ordinary Maps search, made from your device in the same way the Maps app makes it. |
| The city or region you confirm | Apple Maps | To turn a name like "London" into a location, so the search looks in the right place. |
| The places you choose to publish | Apple Maps | Wren opens a link that creates the guide. The places travel inside that link. |
| A shared guide link you paste in | Apple Maps | Only if you paste one. Apple's share sheet produces a short link that carries nothing readable, so Wren asks Apple where it points in order to read the places in it. The link is sent and the answer read; nothing else is sent with it, and Wren keeps no record of it. |
| The identifier of a place already in that guide | Apple Maps | Only if you paste a guide link. Apple's link carries identifiers and no names, so Wren asks Apple for each place's name and address in order to show you a list rather than a row of blanks. |
| Purchase requests | Apple | Handled entirely by the App Store. Wren never sees your payment details, name or address. |
| A complimentary code, and a random device identifier | Wren's code server | Only if you were given a code and enter it — and, for a code that also grants administrative access, about once a day thereafter. See above. If you never enter one, this never happens. |
| Which steps you reach (for example, that a purchase sheet was shown), with the kind of phone, the app version and its language | Wren's server | Anonymous running totals, so that Wren can see where people stop before buying. Nothing identifies you or your phone. See Anonymous usage counts above. |
| App installs, openings and App Store purchases; device details; an installation identifier; and, only if you allow tracking, your advertising identifier | Meta (iPhone only) | So that Wren can tell whether its adverts lead to downloads. In the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, only if you allow tracking. See Advertising measurement above. |
| App installs, openings, next-day return and App Store purchases; device details; a device identifier; crash reports; and, only if you allow tracking, your advertising identifier | TikTok (iPhone only) | The same, for Wren's adverts on TikTok. In the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, only if you allow tracking. See Advertising measurement above. |
Apple's handling of the rows that go to Apple is governed by Apple's privacy policy, Meta's handling of its row by Meta's and TikTok's by TikTok's, not this one. Apart from Meta and TikTok on iPhone, the app sends nothing to anybody else — no other third-party service, advertiser or analytics provider. (This website does use Google Analytics, with your consent; see below.)
Wren does not connect to Instagram, TikTok or any other service. It has no access to your accounts on them and does not read, scrape or download anything from them. It only reads screenshots you have taken and chosen to share with it.
These are ordinary app storage on your phone, covered by your device's own encryption. Deleting Wren deletes them.
Wren is not directed at children. If you know of a child under 13 using Wren on iPhone, tell us at the address above.
Under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR you have rights of access, correction, erasure, restriction, objection and portability over personal data held about you.
Wren itself holds nothing about you unless you have entered a complimentary code. If you have, the one record is the code you used and the random device identifier that came with it, kept so the code cannot be used again. Write to the address above and it will be deleted, or sent to you, within one month. Deleting it releases the code for someone else.
On iPhone, the data described under Advertising measurement is held by Meta and TikTok, not by Wren, and Wren has no way to look it up or delete it for a particular person. Use Meta's and TikTok's own tools for access and deletion; to stop it going forward, turn off tracking for Wren in Settings and reset your advertising identifier. If you are in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, Wren is a joint controller with TikTok for the collection and measurement described there: you can exercise your rights against either of us, and if you write to Wren about it, Wren will pass your request to TikTok, which handles it.
If you are in the United Kingdom, you may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
This site uses Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages people read, and Microsoft Clarity to see which parts of a page are read and where people get stuck. They are the only third parties on the site, there is no advertising, and nothing here is used to build a profile of you or to follow you elsewhere.
Nothing loads until you agree. Analytics cookies are not strictly necessary, so under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations they need your consent first. A notice appears on your first visit with Accept and Decline. Until you choose, Google Consent Mode holds every storage type at "denied" and neither the Google nor the Microsoft script is loaded at all — so declining sets no cookies and sends both of them nothing. Your choice is kept in your browser's local storage so the notice appears once.
To change your mind, clear this site's data in your browser and the notice will appear again.
If you accept, Google receives the ordinary analytics signals — the pages you view, roughly where you are, and what sort of device and browser you use — and sets cookies to tell one visit from the next. Google acts as a data processor for that, and its handling is governed by Google's privacy policy. Advertising and personalisation signals stay denied whatever you choose.
Microsoft Clarity goes further than counting. If you accept, it records how a page is scrolled and clicked during your visit and replays those interactions, and it sets its own cookies to tell one visit from the next. Anything typed into a form field or chosen from a drop-down is masked before it leaves your browser: Clarity masks these in every mode it offers and provides no way to switch that off. On the setting in use here, numbers and email addresses appearing anywhere on the page are masked as well. Microsoft acts as a data processor for this, and its handling is governed by the Microsoft privacy statement. Because a recording of a visit is not aggregate information, it is not something that may be run without asking, which is why the choice is offered rather than assumed.
Separately, the hosting provider keeps ordinary server access logs, which is normal for any website and is not something Wren reads or uses.
The link wren.spencerfields.com/get/, used in Wren's adverts and profiles, sends you straight on to the App Store or Google Play. It keeps only daily counts for each link: how many times it was used from an iPhone, from an Android phone or from anything else; which app it was opened in, such as TikTok or Instagram, which name themselves to the pages they open; the language your phone is set to; and the country it was used from. The country is looked up from your IP address on Wren's own server, using GeoLite2 data created by MaxMind, available from www.maxmind.com, and the address is then discarded. Each of these is a separate count, so they cannot be put back together into one visit, and no IP address, device identifier, cookie or anything else about you is recorded.
None of this applies to the app. The app's only measurement is the advertising measurement on iPhone described above. This section is about this website only.
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes will be noted on this page rather than made quietly.