ComfiSkin vs Clear
Clear, from Haut Technologies, tracks your skin with photos and recommends products, through subscriptions and ads. Its own privacy policy says your face photos aren’t encrypted where they’re stored and can stay online after you delete your account. ComfiSkin never needs your face.
- Not encrypted at rest
- May stay accessible via direct URLs
The short answer
Clear’s privacy policy says your face photos are “not encrypted at rest”, that after you delete your account the image files “remain stored… unless manually deleted by our team”, and that they “may also continue to be accessible via direct URLs”. It sells ten subscription options from $1.99 a week to $129.99 a year, and its App Store listing says “Contains Advertising”.
What that means: photos of your face can outlive your account and sit unencrypted at a web address. ComfiSkin never asks for your face, and everything you give it stays on your phone.
Side by side
| ComfiSkin | Clear | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs photos of your face | Never | Yes, for skin tracking |
| Photos encrypted where stored | No face photos to store | “Not encrypted at rest”, says its privacy policy1 |
| Deleted when you delete your account | Delete anything, any time, on your phone | Images “remain stored… unless manually deleted”1 |
| What it costs | Nothing | From $1.99 a week to $129.99 a year3 |
| Ads | None | “Contains Advertising”3 |
| A big K-beauty catalogue | No | Yes, 30,000+ products |
Your face photos, unencrypted and hard to delete
Section 19 of Clear’s privacy policy is unusually frank. Face photos are stored with a cloud provider and “are not encrypted at rest”. After you delete your account, the image files “remain stored… unless manually deleted by our team” and “may also continue to be accessible via direct URLs”. Your email, name and image links can stay in analytics tools for up to 12 months after deletion.1
Read that again as a user. You press delete, and a photo of your bare face can still sit at a web address, unencrypted, until someone at the company gets round to it. On Google Play, Clear also lists optional collection of race or ethnicity and sexual orientation, the latter for analytics.4
ComfiSkin never asks for a photo of your face. Your skin profile and notes stay on your phone, and deleting them actually deletes them.
What that means for you: “delete account” on Clear may not delete your face. On ComfiSkin, there’s no face to delete.
Ten prices, ads, and a trial with strings
Clear’s App Store listing shows ten in-app purchases, from $1.99 a week to $129.99 a year, and the listing is marked “Contains Advertising”.3 When it launched, Clear promoted its 14-day free trial as “No strings attached.”5 Its terms say the trial converts automatically into a paid subscription.2
Its terms also give Clear a “perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable” licence to use content you post in the app.2 ComfiSkin has no subscription, no ads, no trial and no claim on anything you write.
What that means for you: a free trial that turns into a bill, with ads on top. ComfiSkin is simply free.
What to do if you use Clear
- Delete your photos inside the app first, then ask Clear in writing to delete the stored image files before you close your account.
- Check whether your trial became a subscription. On an iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions.
- Track your routine in ComfiSkin. No face photos, and everything stays on your phone.
Sources
- Clear privacy policy, section 19. getclearapp.com
- Clear terms of service. getclearapp.com
- Clear on the US App Store: in-app purchases and “Contains Advertising”. apps.apple.com
- Clear on Google Play, data safety section. play.google.com
- Y Combinator, Clear company page and launch post. ycombinator.com
More comparisons
Track your skin without your face online
Routines, check-ins and product checks, kept on your phone.
- Free, all of itNo plans, trials or paywalls. Every feature, for everyone.
- No sign-upNo account, no email, no password to lose.
- No ads, no trackingNothing about you is sold, shared or followed around the web.
- Your notes stay on your phoneWith a password-protected backup that only you control.
- Never asks for your faceIt reads the label, not you.
- Answers for your skinYour skin type, concerns, avoid list and routine, every time.