Review draft · Effective date pending
Privacy Policy
This policy describes how FaceByPhoto processes information when you visit the site, sign in, check a portrait or run a reverse image search. It also explains how to manage your photos, reports and account.
Information we process
- Account and session information. Your email address, sign-in verification, account and session identifiers, and a device identifier used in the sign-in flow.
- Portrait and search information. Your upload and its processed versions, face-check measurements where enabled, your selected face, search instructions, the version and time of your declarations, and the search status and report.
- Public search candidates. Image references, titles, and available page links returned by the search provider. These references may concern people who do not use the service.
- Order and credit information. Pack, amount, currency, order reference, payment status, and credit balance and usage. Stripe or NOWPayments collects payment details on its hosted checkout page.
- Technical and preference information. IP address and approximate country or region, request and security information, browser language, and preferences you choose such as theme and display language.
How the information is used
We use the information to verify sign-in, maintain your session and preferences, check eligibility and regional availability, process your photo and requested search, show results, and let you resume or delete a search. We also use relevant records to deliver credits, reconcile payments, maintain security, prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations.
The data needed depends on the feature. Signing in requires an email address. An image is required for image search and a portrait is required for face search, and payment information is collected at checkout when you choose to buy credits.
Face checks and reverse image search
When face checks are enabled for face search, uploading a photo starts an inspection on FaceByPhoto infrastructure before you confirm a search. The check prepares a copy with embedded metadata such as EXIF removed, detects faces, and uses details such as face location, landmarks and image quality to help you select your own face. These measurements serve photo inspection and cropping.
When you confirm and start a search, SerpApi’s Yandex image search integration receives a short-lived link to a prepared crop around the selected face. The crop can include surrounding parts of the image. The link allows the search provider to retrieve the crop while the request is active. Results are visual candidates from public image sources. This workflow retrieves images and checks photos.
Where candidate face comparison is available and you authorize it, our servers compare the selected face to faces in available candidate thumbnails. Face features are used only in memory for that search and discarded. We retain the category and ranking with the report. Similarity does not establish identity.
If you opt in to the AI image check, we send a copy of the full photo without embedded metadata to AI or Not. We keep the result only until the upload expires or you delete it. AI or Not handles the copy it receives under its own policies.
For image search, we remove embedded metadata from a copy of the full image. After you confirm, the search integration can retrieve that copy through a short-lived link. Our service uses this mode to find visually similar images and their public sources without running face checks or comparisons.
Recipients and international processing
The service uses infrastructure and security providers such as Cloudflare, a sign-in email delivery service, SerpApi and the search engine it queries, and Stripe or NOWPayments when you use checkout. Each receives information needed for its role. For example, the search integration retrieves the prepared image and returns candidate references, while Stripe or NOWPayments handles payment details and returns order and payment information.
These services may process information in countries other than your own. Applicable transfer requirements depend on the locations and roles of the parties involved. When you open a source page or candidate image, your browser connects to that external host, whose own policies apply. Information may also be disclosed where required by law or to address a security incident or abuse.
Retention and deletion
Uploads and their processed copies use encrypted private storage. Access to saved reports is limited to the account that ran the search.
- Photos and face-check details. The input access window is up to 30 minutes from the start of the upload. The expiry shown in the service governs access to the original, processed copies and face-check details. Expiry or deletion ends access and queues cleanup of data we control. Physical cleanup may take longer if it has to be retried.
- Reports. Saved reports are ordinarily accessible for up to 30 days, or until you delete the search or account. Search history uses placeholders after the original photo expires. You can follow site cleanup separately from access revocation.
- External processing. A search ending or being cancelled closes the input link to new retrieval. Copies already received by an external provider follow its own retention and deletion arrangements. SerpApi describes a standard search-data retention period of 31 days after completion. Provider arrangements may differ. Deletion in the app concerns data we control. A source website controls the material it hosts.
- Other records. Limited account, order, transaction, security and consent records may be kept as needed to reconcile purchases, investigate misuse, resolve disputes, or meet legal and audit requirements.
Your choices and privacy rights
You can discard a pending upload, cancel a running search, delete a saved search from history, or request account deletion from account settings. Cancelling a search limits further work in the service. Handling of data already received by a provider follows the provider’s own process.
Depending on the law that applies, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or obtain a copy of personal information, restrict or object to some processing, withdraw consent for consent-based processing, or complain to a data protection authority.
Operator and privacy contact
The published policy will identify the operator responsible for processing personal information through FaceByPhoto and provide a contact for privacy requests, including requests from people without an account.
Age limits and policy updates
Photo search is for people aged 18 and over to check their own images. Access may vary by region. Material updates to this policy will be dated and communicated as required by applicable law. The Terms of Service cover eligibility, permitted use and purchases.