Privacy Policy
We don't collect, sell, or share anything about you. The apps we ship do their work on your device. Network requests they make — fetching AlphaFold predictions from EMBL-EBI, syncing your library through Apple iCloud — happen at your direction and don't tell us anything. We don't have an analytics SDK. We don't have ad networks. We don't have a "user account" because there's nothing to log into.
1. Who we are
Fold Commons is a non-profit organisation (legal incorporation pending; fiscal sponsorship via NumFOCUS or the Open Molecular Software Foundation in progress). Contact: hello@foldcommons.org.
2. What this policy covers
- The website —
foldcommons.org, hosted on Cloudflare (Workers + static assets). - The web tools — the free, in-browser tools (the viewer, Compare, Pockets, Junior explorer, and the rest). They run entirely in your browser and fetch structures directly from public databases.
- FoldLens Junior — see the dedicated section below and the Junior privacy page.
- The native apps — FoldLens for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and (later) visionOS, plus future portfolio apps under the same non-profit umbrella.
This policy is updated when a new product ships or a practice changes; the date of last review is at the top.
3. Data we collect from you
Nothing.
Specifically:
- We do not require you to create an account.
- We do not assign you a user ID.
- We do not use third-party analytics SDKs (no Mixpanel, Amplitude, Firebase Analytics, no anything).
- We do not embed advertising networks.
- We do not track your usage of the app.
- We do not access your contacts, photos, location, microphone, camera, calendar, or any other Apple-platform privacy-protected resource without an explicit, contextual permission prompt — and even then only for the specific use disclosed in the prompt.
4. Data on your device
Your library of saved structures, saved views, snapshots, and onboarding-tier preference is stored on your device, in:
- Apple SwiftData for structured metadata.
- iCloud Documents for mmCIF files and snapshots (in the app's iCloud container).
- NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore for small preferences.
If you have iCloud signed in and you opt in to iCloud sync, your data syncs across your Apple devices via Apple's iCloud infrastructure. We do not have access to that data. Apple does — refer to Apple's iCloud privacy policy for their handling.
5. Network requests the app makes
When you use FoldLens (and similar portfolio apps), the app may make HTTPS network requests to:
| Endpoint | When | What's sent | What we receive |
|---|---|---|---|
alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/files/... | When you fetch a structure | UniProt ID you requested | The mmCIF file |
alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/api/... | When you search or load metadata | UniProt ID or search query | Metadata JSON |
| Apple iCloud servers | When you opt in to sync | Your saved-library data | Sync state |
We do not interpose between you and EMBL-EBI's AlphaFold Database. AFDB's privacy policy applies to those requests; we don't see them. Apple iCloud's privacy policy applies to sync requests.
No requests go to any server operated by Fold Commons. We don't run a backend. There is nothing to log.
5b. The website and web tools
The website and the free web tools are static pages hosted on Cloudflare (Workers + static assets). The web tools run entirely in your browser and fetch structures directly from public databases (the AlphaFold Database at EMBL-EBI, UniProt, the RCSB PDB) — never through a Fold Commons proxy. Those requests carry only the identifier you asked for and are subject to those databases' own policies.
Analytics: We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views and page-load speed in aggregate. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, does not fingerprint you, and does not follow you across sites. It never runs on Junior, on any tool for ages 9–14, on the learning pathway, or in a viewer embedded on another site. Cloudflare’s dashboard shows us the previous six months of these totals. We see totals (how many views a page had, where visits came from, how fast pages load), never a person. Our host may also keep transient, aggregated edge request metrics, as any web host does. We do not use cookies, we do not set identifiers, and we do not run cross-site tracking or advertising.
Pages that are never measured. Junior, every web tool for ages 9–14, the learning pathway, the Into the Fold stories, and the viewer when it is embedded on another site send their pages with a security policy that blocks the analytics script, so nothing about a visit to them is counted.
Our sibling project, Spark & Anvil. Fold Commons is built by the same non-profit team as Spark & Anvil (sparkanvil.org), our sibling project. Our friends page and the learning pathway link out to Spark & Anvil's free, no-tracking science apps; those links open sparkanvil.org, which has its own privacy policy. We share no data between the two sites — there is nothing to share, because neither site tracks you or holds an account.
6. Apple Intelligence and FoundationModels
When you tap a residue for an explanation, the app uses Apple's on-device FoundationModels framework (Apple Intelligence). The prompt and the model's response stay on your device. Nothing about that interaction is transmitted to Fold Commons. Apple's Apple Intelligence privacy practices apply.
7. Crash reports and diagnostics
If you have Share with App Developers enabled in iOS / iPadOS / macOS Settings → Privacy → Analytics & Improvements, Apple may send anonymized crash data and aggregated metrics to us through Apple's Analytics framework. We receive only what Apple chooses to send — never identifying information.
If you turn Share with App Developers off, we receive nothing. We do not currently use any third-party crash reporting (no Sentry, no Bugsnag, no Crashlytics).
8. Children's privacy and FoldLens Junior
We do not knowingly collect data from children. FoldLens Junior and its web explorer are written for middle-school readers (ages 9–14) and are COPPA-safe by design: no account, no name, no email, no login, no third-party analytics SDK, and — on the kid surface — no outbound links. Nothing a student does is collected or sent anywhere; it lives only in that browser. This matches the Junior privacy page.
The general (non-Junior) apps operate in the App Store Reference category. If you believe a child has nonetheless sent us information, email us and we'll respond.
9. Donations and community participation
If you donate to the non-profit through Open Source Collective, GitHub Sponsors, or a similar platform, those platforms collect and store your information under their own privacy policies. Fold Commons receives only the information necessary to recognize your contribution (typically: amount, optional name, optional message).
If community channels open (for example, a public code forge or a social account), those platforms' privacy policies will apply when you use them; we will link them here and on the About page once they exist.
10. Your rights
Because we don't collect anything about you, there's nothing for you to access, correct, or delete on our side. Your in-app data is yours — delete the app or use the in-app "Bulk export" + "Reset library" actions to clear it.
If you contact us by email and we keep that thread for support purposes, you can ask us to delete that thread at any time by replying with a delete request.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the portfolio adds new tools or apps or as privacy practices evolve. Material changes are dated at the top of this page and noted in the changelog at least 7 days before they take effect. We never reduce the privacy commitments above without a new, clearly-disclosed version.
12. Contact
hello@foldcommons.org. For privacy-specific questions: legal@foldcommons.org.