Effective date: July 26, 2026 — Version 2026-07-26
This policy covers the Rafter app ("Rafter") and the Rafter pages of our website, bigridgestudios.com. Rafter is published by Big Ridge Studios, the publishing name of an individual software developer based in Tennessee. For anything privacy-related, email mdpauley17@gmail.com.
We built Rafter so we cannot see your data. Rafter has no servers, no accounts, no analytics, no ads, no trackers, and no third-party SDKs. Your reports, photos, dictation, and your clients' information stay on your device and in your own backups — they are never transmitted to us, and we have no way to access them. The only personal information Big Ridge Studios ever receives is what you choose to send us by email.
The rest of this policy is the detail behind that design.
Rafter collects no data from you. Specifically:
Because we do not collect data, we also do not sell it, share it, rent it, or use it for advertising — there is nothing to sell or share. The app shares user data with no third party. The only personal information we ever hold — support-email correspondence — is hosted by our email provider (Google) as ordinary email, as described below. Apart from you (your own device and backups), Apple (described below), that email provider, and the web host that serves our website (also described below), no one else touches anything. Apple operates under Apple's own privacy policy.
Everything you create in Rafter is stored on your device. Everything you create in Rafter — your reports, your templates, your comment library — belongs to you; the Terms of Use spell out that ownership. If you use Apple's standard device backups (iCloud Backup or a computer backup), your Rafter data is included in your own backups, under your own Apple account and your control — not ours. We cannot access, view, recover, or delete any of it. That cuts both ways: it means we cannot read your reports, and it also means we cannot restore them for you if you lose your device and have no backup. Please keep backups (you can turn on iCloud Backup in your device's iCloud settings).
Moving to a new device. Restore your new device from your iCloud or computer backup and your Rafter data comes with it. Rafter data does not otherwise sync between devices — only the trial counter described below does.
If your free trial or subscription ends, nothing happens to your data: it stays on your device, and reports you have already created remain exportable. See the Terms of Use for details.
The one number we keep in iCloud. The only value Rafter stores in the cloud is a numeric counter that tracks how many of your free trial inspections you have used. It is a single number — it contains no personal information, no report content, and nothing about you or your clients. The Rafter app on your device reads and updates this counter, and it syncs through iCloud Key-Value storage under your Apple account (it also lives in your device's secure keychain), so it follows you across your own devices. It never passes through us — we have no server that could see it, and we have no way to reset it for you remotely. If you think the counter is wrong, email us and we will figure it out with you.
Rafter's dictation uses Apple's on-device speech recognition. Your audio is transcribed on your device; Rafter never sends your voice recordings or transcripts anywhere.
Rafter's narrative drafting uses Apple's on-device AI models (available on newer iPhones). Drafting happens entirely on your device; the text you dictate and the drafts the app produces never leave your device via Rafter. Every AI draft also requires your explicit review and approval before it can enter a report or export — nothing is published on your behalf.
Rafter is a tool for professional home inspectors, and when you write reports you will enter information about your clients and the properties you inspect — names, addresses, photos, findings.
That information is yours, not ours. It is stored on your device and in your own backups. It is never transmitted to Big Ridge Studios, and we never receive, store, or process it. When you deliver a report, you are the one sharing it, through channels you choose. Exported reports include a small non-visible metadata stamp recording the Rafter Terms of Use version you accepted and when — it contains no client information and is never transmitted to us.
Because you hold your clients' information, you are responsible for handling it in line with your obligations to your clients and the laws and licensing requirements of your jurisdiction, including any confidentiality, retention, or privacy rules that apply to your inspection business. If one of your clients asks to have their information corrected or deleted, that request must go to you — we do not hold it and cannot act on it.
All paid purchases — Founder Lifetime and Rafter Annual — are processed by Apple through the App Store's In-App Purchase system. (The free trial involves no transaction at all: no payment and no Apple processing — it is tracked only by the on-device and iCloud counter described above.) Apple is the merchant of record: Apple handles your payment details, billing, and refunds under Apple's own terms and privacy policy. We never receive your card number, billing address, or any payment credentials. Through App Store Connect, Apple shows us sales statistics that are aggregated or pseudonymous (for example, how many purchases happened in a country) — never information identifying individual buyers.
Support email is the only channel through which Big Ridge Studios ever receives personal information. If you email mdpauley17@gmail.com, we receive your email address, your message, and anything you attach.
Please note: screenshots or report excerpts you attach may contain your clients' personal information. Redact anything we don't need to see; if you do send it, we treat it as confidential, subject only to the legally-compelled-disclosure exception below.
What we do with support email:
Our support inbox is a standard email account hosted by our email provider (Google); like all email, it is processed by that provider in transit and at rest.
Because Rafter has no accounts and we collect nothing, there is no consent to revoke and no account to delete. Your data-deletion controls are:
To review or correct anything you have sent us (which can only be support correspondence), email mdpauley17@gmail.com.
The Rafter pages of bigridgestudios.com — this page, the Terms of Use, and the Rafter product page — are simple static pages with no analytics, no advertising networks, no tracking pixels, no accounts, and no forms. (Other areas of bigridgestudios.com, such as our game pages, use Google Analytics behind an opt-in cookie banner; that never runs on the Rafter pages.) The only interactive element on the Rafter pages is a mailto link, which opens your own mail app — nothing is transmitted to us unless you choose to send it. This is true whether you visit in a browser or view these pages from inside the app.
The site is served by GitHub Pages behind Cloudflare. Like nearly all web hosting, they record standard server access logs (such as IP address, browser type, and pages requested); we do not combine those logs with any other information, and they are retained under those providers' own policies. The Rafter pages set no cookies of ours; Cloudflare may set strictly technical cookies (such as its bot-management cookie) that we neither read nor use.
Do Not Track: neither the Rafter pages nor the Rafter app track anyone over time or across third-party websites, and no other party collects that kind of information through them. There is therefore no tracking for a Do Not Track signal to switch off, and our behavior is the same whether or not your browser sends one.
Rafter is a professional tool for adults. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children — or, outside of support email, from anyone. Our Terms of Use require users to be at least 18.
If we change this policy, we will post the updated version at this address with a new version identifier and effective date, and keep a short version history below. For material changes, the app will present the updated policy for your review and acceptance, the same way it presents updated Terms; until you accept, the version you last accepted continues to describe our practices toward you. Non-material edits (like clarifications or typo fixes) take effect on posting.
If we ever propose to change any of the core commitments here — no servers, no analytics, no ads, no tracking — we will say so plainly, in the app and at this address, before the change takes effect. It will never happen by quiet edit, and it would never apply retroactively to anything you created before the change.
Version history: 2026-07-26 — aligned with the Terms version; no change to privacy practices. 2026-07-13 — first version.
Big Ridge Studios
Email: mdpauley17@gmail.com
Questions, complaints, deletion requests, or anything else about privacy — email us and a human (the developer) will answer.