Why I Built Lochy Image Scanner

2026-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

A little side project of mine that I’m genuinely happy with is Lochy Image Scanner — my lightweight iPhone app for scanning documents, turning photos into PDFs, and cleaning pages up properly without all the nonsense that so many apps seem to come with these days.

You can get it here: Lochy Image Scanner on the App Store</a>

Why I made it</h2>
I created Lochy Image Scanner for a very simple reason: I needed a good, straightforward document scanning app again.
For a long time, Microsoft Lens was one of those apps that just sat there on my phone and quietly did its job. Then it disappeared from the App Store, and that left a bit of a gap. There are still plenty of scanning apps around, of course, but far too many of them feel bloated, overcomplicated, or built around pushing people into subscriptions for basic features that really should just work.
That annoyed me enough that I decided to build my own.
I didn’t want to make “yet another app” with dark patterns, constant upsells, ad banners everywhere, or some weird account system for scanning a receipt. I wanted something small, fast, and pleasant to use. Something that launches quickly, does the job well, and gets out of the way.
So that’s exactly what I built.
What it is</h2>
Lochy Image Scanner is an iOS app that lets you:

Take photos of documents and turn them into PDF files.</li>
Import existing photos of documents from your library.</li>
Edit documents page by page.</li>
Apply filters to improve readability.</li>
Use a more advanced photo editor when you want finer control.</li> </ul>
In other words, it covers the things most people actually need from a scanner app, without trying to become some giant enterprise document platform.
For me, that was a big part of the appeal. I wanted it to feel focused.
A lot of modern apps try to do everything at once and end up feeling heavy, slow, and weirdly stressful to use. Lochy Image Scanner is meant to be the opposite of that. Open it, scan, tweak, export, done.
No subscription, no ads, no tracking</h2>
This bit matters to me quite a lot.
Lochy Image Scanner is available for a small one-off fee. That’s it. No subscription. No “7-day free trial” trap. No unlocking basic features later. No ads. No tracking.
I know that subscriptions make sense for some kinds of apps, especially where there are ongoing cloud costs or constantly changing online services behind the scenes. But not every app needs to become a monthly bill.
For this kind of utility app, I much prefer the older, simpler model: you buy it once, and it works.
I also really dislike the amount of tracking that has become normal in apps that honestly have no reason to know that much about their users. A scanner app does not need to behave like an ad-tech company. I wanted Lochy to feel respectful in that sense too.
You open it to scan documents, not to be profiled.
Built the way I like software to feel</h2>
I built the app using the latest Apple libraries and SwiftUI, which is a huge part of why it feels so lightweight and modern.
I genuinely enjoy building in SwiftUI. When it clicks, it allows you to create interfaces that feel clean, responsive, and very natural on Apple devices. It also makes it easier for me to keep the app modern and maintainable rather than dragging around piles of legacy UI code just for the sake of it.
The goal from the start was not just to make the app functional, but to make it feel good.
That means:

Fast launch times.</li>
Smooth navigation.</li>
A simple interface.</li>
Minimal friction between opening the app and finishing the task.</li> </ul>
I’m a big believer that utility apps should feel almost invisible. If you have to think too much while using them, something has gone wrong. The best tools are often the ones that quietly stay out of your way.
Why lightweight matters</h2>
I think lightweight software is underrated.
There’s a lot of talk in tech about features, integrations, AI this and AI that, but sometimes what people really want is an app that does one thing well and does it quickly. That’s especially true on mobile.
If I need to scan a document, I don’t want to wait while an app loads a dozen analytics frameworks, checks in with five services, or throws pop-ups at me before I can even use the camera. I want to point the phone, capture the page, tidy it up, export it as a PDF, and move on with my day.
That’s the kind of experience I wanted Lochy Image Scanner to have.
Small. Fast. Clean. Useful.
There’s something really satisfying about software that respects your time.
Editing documents properly</h2>
One thing I didn’t want to compromise on was editing.
A lot of scanner apps let you capture pages, but then give you very little control afterwards. If one page is a bit wonky, too dark, slightly cropped badly, or just looks off compared to the others, the whole document feels messy.
So in Lochy Image Scanner, I wanted page-level editing to be part of the core experience, not an afterthought.
That means you can go through a document page by page and improve it properly. If one page needs a filter and another needs a bit more attention, you can handle that without fighting the app. And if you want more control, there’s an advanced photo editor there too.
That flexibility matters because real-life document scanning is rarely perfect. Lighting changes. Angles are awkward. Some pages are clean and some are creased. Receipts are a pain. Paper isn’t always flat. You need an app that helps fix those little imperfections rather than locking you into whatever came out of the camera the first time.
Why PDF creation still matters</h2>
PDFs might not be glamorous, but they are still incredibly useful.
People still need to send forms, invoices, signed paperwork, ID documents, receipts, notes, contracts, and all sorts of other things in a format that is easy to share and looks consistent. A good scanning app makes that whole process much less painful.
That’s another reason I wanted Lochy Image Scanner to be straightforward about turning images into proper PDF documents. For something so common, it’s surprisingly easy to end up with a clunky workflow in other apps.
I wanted mine to be simple enough that anyone could just pick it up and use it without a learning curve.
A small app on purpose</h2>
I actually like making software that knows what it is.
Lochy Image Scanner is not trying to become a giant platform. It is not trying to trap people in an ecosystem. It is not trying to extract maximum revenue from a basic utility.
It is a small, focused app made to solve a common problem well.
There’s a lot of freedom in building like that. You can make decisions around clarity and usefulness instead of constantly asking how to make the product more addictive, more “engaging”, or more monetisable.
That approach probably won’t appeal to every startup pitch deck on earth, but I think it leads to better software.
And honestly, I just enjoy using apps that feel like they were made by somebody who cared about the experience.
Who it’s for</h2>
I made Lochy Image Scanner for people like me, really:

People who want a quick scanner app on their iPhone.</li>
People who do not want subscriptions for basic utilities.</li>
People who hate ads in productivity apps.</li>
People who care about privacy.</li>
People who just want to scan documents, improve them a bit, and export them as PDFs without drama.</li> </ul>
It’s also handy for small business owners, freelancers, students, parents, anyone dealing with paperwork, and honestly anyone who occasionally needs to turn a physical page into something clean and shareable.
Which is most of us, sooner or later.
Building it was fun</h2>
This app was also just a fun thing to build.
I like working on products that are clear in purpose. There’s something refreshing about sitting down and asking, “What would make this genuinely good?” instead of “How can this be stretched into something bigger than it needs to be?”
Working with the latest iOS tools and SwiftUI, shaping the interface, keeping the app lean, making sure the document flow felt natural — all of that was the enjoyable part for me.
It’s one of those projects where the idea started from a genuine gap in my own day-to-day use, and those are often the best ones. You notice something missing, you get slightly irritated about it, and then instead of just complaining, you go and build the thing you wish existed.
Final thoughts</h2>
So that’s the story behind Lochy Image Scanner.
I wanted a proper document scanning app again after Microsoft Lens disappeared from the App Store. I wanted it to be fast, lightweight, modern, and respectful. I wanted no subscriptions, no ads, no tracking, and no unnecessary nonsense. Just a solid iPhone app that lets you scan documents, import images, edit pages, apply filters, use an advanced editor, and export neat PDF files.
And that’s exactly what I made.
If that sounds like your kind of app, you can download it here:
Get Lochy Image Scanner on the App Store</a>

Data Protection by Design, Not an Afterthought

2026-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Data protection should never be an afterthought tacked on at the end of a project. It needs to be part of the design from day one, especially if your app, web app, or website handles any kind of sensitive data about real people.

Data protection by design, not as a patch</h2>
When you bolt security and privacy on at the end, you’re not really protecting data – you’re just trying to paper over cracks. True data protection by design means:

You know what data you collect and why.</li>
You minimise data from the start (only collect what you truly need).</li>
You plan how it is stored, who can see it, and when it is deleted.</li> </ul>
In every project I work on – whether it’s an app, a web app, or a website – I design the system with data protection and legal compliance as core requirements, not optional extras. That way, businesses can deal with their customers and their data with confidence, instead of hoping nothing ever goes wrong.
Retention, access, and control</h2>
Good data protection isn’t just “we keep it safe”. It also means having clear answers to basic questions:

How long is data stored? Every system should have an explicit data retention policy. Customer data should not live forever “just in case”. Some records must be kept for legal or tax reasons for a set number of years, others should be deleted as soon as they’re no longer needed.</li>
Who can see what? Role‑based access is essential. Staff should only see the data they genuinely need for their role – nothing more. Admins, customer service, finance, and external contractors should all have clearly separated permissions.</li>
Can users see and delete their data? Under GDPR and similar laws, users usually have the right to access their data, correct it, and sometimes request deletion. Your system should be designed so this isn’t a manual nightmare but a predictable, auditable process.</li> </ul>
This is not just good practice; it protects the business. If you can show that you know exactly what you store, why, for how long, and who has access to it, you’re in a much stronger position if something goes wrong.
Legal compliance is not optional</h2>
If you operate in the UK or EU, GDPR is non‑negotiable. But many businesses now have customers across multiple regions, which means you might also need to consider:

UK GDPR and Data Protection Act.</li>
EU GDPR.</li>
Other regional privacy laws (for example, if you have customers in different countries outside Europe).</li> </ul>
From the design stage, I always consider:

What laws apply based on where the business operates and where its customers are.</li>
What the lawful basis is for processing each type of data (consent, contract, legal obligation, etc.).</li>
Who the data controller is and whether a Data Protection Officer (DPO) is required.</li> </ul>
If a business needs a DPO, that person must be clearly identified, and their role and responsibilities should be supported by the systems we build – not undermined by them.
Practical tips to bake privacy and security into the design</h2>
Here are some practical, design‑stage considerations that make a real difference:

Data minimisation. Do you really need date of birth, address, phone number, and national insurance number – or are you collecting it out of habit? Less data means less to protect.</li>
Segmentation and separation. Store the most sensitive data separately, with extra protections, not in the same database table as everything else.</li>
Access control by design. Build roles and permissions into the architecture from the start rather than adding them later when it’s already messy.</li>
Logging and audit trails. Keep track of who accessed what and when – this is crucial for both security investigations and compliance.</li>
Encryption in transit and at rest. Use HTTPS everywhere and appropriate encryption for sensitive fields in the database.</li>
Backups with brains. Backups need to be encrypted, regularly rotated, and subject to retention rules as well – not forgotten archives that quietly become a massive liability.</li>
Data deletion workflows. Make sure “delete” really means delete according to policy (or properly anonymise the data) and that it’s consistent across all systems and backups.</li> </ul>
Reducing damage even if something goes wrong</h2>
No system is perfect. Even the biggest companies in the world get attacked and sometimes breached. The goal is not just to prevent every possible attack (which is unrealistic), but to limit the damage if something does happen.
That’s where good design and hygiene matter:

Retention limits exposure. If you only keep data for as long as necessary, there is less for an attacker to steal. If you’ve been storing everything for 20 years “just because”, a single breach can expose your entire business history.</li>
Proper file permissions (chmod) and separation. Sensitive files and directories should have strict permissions and not be readable by processes that don’t need them. Even if the public‑facing site is compromised, well‑designed permission management can prevent an attacker from reaching internal data stores.</li>
Separate environments. Don’t mix development, staging, and production data casually. Live customer data should not be floating around on test servers or developer laptops.</li> </ul>
You absolutely do not want to be the business that gets hacked once and suddenly all customer data from the past 20 years is out there in the wild – including people who haven’t dealt with you in over a decade.
Even the big players get it wrong</h2>
It’s easy to think, “We’re too small for anyone to care.” But attackers often target smaller businesses precisely because they expect weaker protections.
Even giants like Apple have had security gaps exposed over time – for example, issues where systems didn’t properly limit repeated attempts (like multiple password or code guesses) because a simple check was overlooked. That wasn’t about bad technology overall, but about a small, missed detail in one part of the design.
If a company with huge security teams can miss something like that, it shows how careful smaller businesses need to be. The difference is that you can’t afford the reputational and financial hit in the same way they can.
Food for thought for your next project</h2>
If you’re planning a new website, app, or internal system that touches customer data, ask yourself – at the design stage:

What exactly are we collecting, and why?</li>
How long do we need to keep each type of data?</li>
Who in the organisation needs to see what?</li>
How can users see, correct, and (where appropriate) delete their data?</li>
What happens if this system is compromised tomorrow – what would an attacker actually get?</li> </ul>
If you can’t answer those questions confidently today, now is the right time to fix that – not after an incident.
Every project I build is designed from the ground up with data protection and compliance in mind, so that businesses can focus on serving their customers instead of worrying about what might happen if something leaks. If you’d like to review how your current systems handle data – or want to build something new the right way from the start – get in touch</a> – I’m happy to help.

Artur Kraft — Ecommerce Specialist & Web Specialist in Glasgow - Privacy

Why I Built Lochy Image Scanner

What it is</h2> Lochy Image Scanner is an iOS app that lets you:</p>

Who it’s for</h2> I made Lochy Image Scanner for people like me, really:</p>

Data Protection by Design, Not an Afterthought

Data protection by design, not as a patch</h2> When you bolt security and privacy on at the end, you’re not really protecting data – you’re just trying to paper over cracks. True data protection by design</strong> means:</p>