Photomath

Is Photomath safe?

For children, Photomath is one of the lower-risk homework apps. Nobody else can reach a student through it: there is no chat, no feed and no content from other users, and neither app store lists ads. The catch is the paperwork behind it. Google Play says Photomath shares app activity and device and user IDs with other companies for marketing and gives no way to request deletion, and the privacy policy is an October 2023 document that Google has not replaced with its own. We score it 67/100, ahead of the AI homework app Gauth (57) and close to Google Classroom (69).

Who owns Photomath now

Photomath started in Croatia, and its Android package name (com.microblink.photomath) still points to its origins at Microblink. Google agreed to buy it in 2022, and the European Commission cleared the deal without conditions on 28 March 2023 after looking at homework-help apps, search and Google's app store. Today the App Store lists Google LLC as the seller, and the privacy policy names Photomath LLC, registered at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, as the data controller.

The policy itself took effect on 31 October 2023 and has not been replaced. It still talks about "Photomath affiliates and partners" rather than Google's privacy controls, and its California section says Photomath does not sell personal information. Expect Google to fold the app into its own policy at some point. Until then, the 2023 text is what applies.

What Photomath collects

The two app stores tell different stories.

• Apple's label is unusually light for a Google app. It lists purchases, location, user content, identifiers, usage data, diagnostics and other data, all as "not linked to you", and nothing as used to track you.
• Google Play's label says app interactions, device IDs and user IDs are shared with other companies for analytics and for advertising or marketing. Photos are collected and shared only to make the app work.
• The privacy policy adds that Photomath may collect real-time location (for example to set the language), that analytics firms track how people move around the app, and that ad networks such as Facebook and Google collect data about visits to the website and the apps.

The most sensitive material is the homework itself. The policy says camera images can be sent to Photomath's servers, used to index problems and improve the service, and used to improve "machine vision technologies from Photomath affiliates and partners". It also promises that images are never shared with any advertising agency or business partner. A photo of a worksheet can include a name, a school or a teacher's note, so crop before you scan.

Children, age limits and homework rules

Photomath is rated 4+ on the App Store and Everyone on Google Play, and the developer has committed to Google Play's Families Policy. Anyone can scan a problem without signing in. Accounts are a different matter: the policy says Photomath asks for age at registration and never knowingly collects personal data from children under 13, or the higher age set in some countries. That is a cleaner arrangement than apps whose store rating and minimum age contradict each other.

Because all content comes from Photomath's own solver, there is little that could upset a child. The question schools care about is academic integrity. Photomath gives step-by-step working, which helps a student check where they went wrong, and also makes it easy to copy a whole homework sheet. Check the school's rules before relying on it for anything graded.

Deleting your data

This is Photomath's weakest area. Google Play's data safety section states that the developer "doesn't provide a way for you to request that your data be deleted". The privacy policy disagrees: it promises to delete all personal information on request and gives [email protected] as the contact. It keeps data "as long as it is necessary" and gives no fixed period.

How to use Photomath more safely

1. Use it without an account if you only need to check answers; signing in is optional.
2. Crop the camera frame to the single problem so names and school details stay out of the photo.
3. On iPhone, refuse location access; the app works without it.
4. To delete an account, email [email protected] from the address you signed up with and ask for deletion of all data, including scanned images.
5. Cancel a Photomath Plus subscription in the App Store or Google Play; deleting the app does not stop billing.

How we scored it

Regulatory record (88) and scams and harmful content (86) are the strongest factors: no regulator has acted against the app, and it has no chat, user content or in-app ads. Transparency and control (55) is the weakest, because Google Play lists no deletion route and the policy has not been updated since 2023. Privacy (60) sits in the middle, between Apple's clean label and Google Play's statement that IDs and app activity are shared for marketing.