Wax Max — Privacy Policy
Last updated 3 September 2026
Wax Max is a card-collection app, published by Wax Max. This policy explains what
the app does and does not do with your information. The short version: almost
everything stays on your device, and the few things that leave it only do so
when you choose an action that requires it.
What stays on your device
- Camera and scans. The camera is used to read cards you point it
at. Images are processed on the device to identify the card. Scan frames are not
uploaded.
- Your collection. The cards you add, your want list, your notes and
the prices you type are stored in a database on the device.
- Diagnostics. The app keeps a detailed log of what the scanner
did, to help it run correctly and to improve recognition. It is written to a file
on the device and is not sent anywhere — there is no
upload, no timer, and no identifier attached to it. If we need to look at it we
ask you for the phone, or you connect it and hand us the file.
- Recordings. A scan writes video frames to the device so the app
can pick the best picture of each card after you finish. Those recordings stay on
the phone and have never been uploadable.
What leaves your device, and only when you ask
- Your card photographs, once you link your phone to waxmax.us.
Linking (About → Sign-in code, then typing the six characters at
waxmax.us) is what puts your collection online, and your pictures go with it —
the best photograph the scanner took of each card, so the website shows you your own
cards instead of a list of names. An unlinked phone uploads nothing, because there is
no account for a photograph to belong to. The location and camera data that every
phone writes into a picture is stripped before it leaves, and nothing about you is
attached to it. Your pictures are not listed anywhere and are not public: each one
lives at a long, unguessable address that only your collection knows.
- Publishing to the marketplace. If you choose to make a card public,
the app sends a catalog identifier for that card, how many you own, how many you will
part with, and any asking price, condition or note you added, under a trade name
(a "handle") that you pick. The listing shows the card's details and your own photograph
of that card, so buyers can see what they are getting. A note may not include a phone number,
an email address or a link: nobody may contact a buyer or a seller before a purchase. The
handle is not your name and not an account — the
marketplace is designed to work without knowing who you are, and it refuses anything
that looks like an email address or a device identifier.
- Starting a seller's membership. If you type an activation code to start
selling, we record that your account used it, and when.
- A seller's store. A seller may publish a store page on waxmax.us: the name, words and colour they choose, and the cards they have
put up for sale. It follows the same rule: no phone number, email address or link.
- Connecting this phone to the website. If you choose to view your
collection on waxmax.us, the app creates an account for the phone and sends the cards
you have identified: for each one, its catalogue identifier, how many you own, and the
card’s own printed details — title, player, number, year, brand, set, team and
position, where they were read. The website needs those to show you a readable list
without holding a copy of the catalogue. Your card photographs go with them, as set out
above. No precise location, and no name or address unless you add one. You can
disconnect a phone from the website at any time, and it stops sending immediately.
- Keeping sign-ins safe. When your phone asks for a sign-in code, and
when a browser uses it, we note the country your internet address points to — the
country, never a precise place. A code used in a different country from the one it was
asked for is refused, and a signed-in browser that turns up in another country, or makes
far more requests than a person could, is signed out. The country is kept only as long
as the sign-in lasts.
- An optional profile. If you add an email address and a display name
on the website, they are stored against that account so we can reach you about a
renewal or a refund. We cannot verify the address — there is no
confirmation email yet — so it is never used to sign in, and it is never a password.
Signing in is always the code shown on your phone.
- No email for a subscription. The app does not ask for an email
address when you subscribe, or at any other time. Your subscription belongs to your
Apple Account, which carries it to a new phone. An earlier test version asked for one;
if you gave it, you can have it erased with Delete Account in the
app, or by writing to us.
We train our card recognition on your photographs, and we are not quiet about it
Every card photograph that reaches us is used to make Wax Max better at reading
baseball cards. That is what it is for, and there is no second purpose hiding
behind it. Telling a 1989 Topps from a 1991 Topps, reading a name through a glossy finish,
separating a Stadium Club from the base set — that is learned from real photographs
of real cards on real kitchen tables, and yours are some of the best we will ever get.
Every picture you send makes the app quicker and more accurate on the next card you put
under it, and on everybody else's.
This is not a privacy trade and we are not going to dress it up as one. A photograph of
a baseball card is a photograph of a baseball card. There is no face in it, no address,
nothing about your life — and the location and camera data your phone writes into the
file is removed before it is sent. We are not building a picture of you. We are teaching a
program to identify baseball cards, and nothing more.
What we never do with them: we do not sell them, we do not advertise
against them, we do not use them to identify any person, we do not give them to another
company, and we do not use them for anything but reading and identifying trading cards. If
that ever changes, this page changes first and the app says so.
They go when you go. Delete Account in the app
removes your photographs — the records and the files themselves — with
everything else we hold for you.
The app does not connect to eBay or Shopify. Those features sat behind a
tier that was never sold, and the code for both was removed from the app on 30 August 2026.
The app does not list cards on any marketplace and has no seller account of any kind.
Purchases and subscriptions
Purchases are handled by Apple through the App Store, under Apple's own privacy terms.
When you register a subscription, the app sends us the signed purchase receipt Apple issues
for it; we verify it and keep a record of the subscription — its identifier and status —
so that renewals, restores and refunds work. This is the purchase information named in our
App Store privacy label; it is linked to the email you provide and is used only to run the
subscription, never for advertising and never sold.
Apple also sends us server notifications about the status of a subscription — for example
that it renewed, lapsed, or was refunded — identified by the subscription identifier, not by
your name or contact details. We use these to keep our record of your subscription
accurate.
In-room sharing
Sharing your collection with someone in the same room uses a direct device-to-device
connection over Bluetooth and local Wi‑Fi. It does not go through our servers and no
account is involved. Only your chosen handle travels, never your device name, and nothing
is sent until you pick someone or received until you accept it.
What we do not do
- We do not sell your information.
- We do not use third-party advertising or analytics trackers.
- We do not collect your contacts, location, or browsing activity.
Children
Wax Max is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal
information from them.
Your choices and requests
You can stop publishing any card at any time, which removes it from the marketplace on
the next publish. To ask what is held
about a subscription email, to correct it, or to have it deleted, contact us at the
address below.
Changes
If this policy changes in a material way we will update the date above and, where
appropriate, tell you in the app.
Contact
Questions or requests: [email protected].
This page is served from waxmax.us, the same service that runs the
marketplace and the app’s account features.