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Pfotos Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 2, 2026

Pfotos ("Pfotos," "we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information and memories entrusted to us. This Privacy Policy explains how Pfotos collects, uses, stores, and protects information when you use the Pfotos application and related services.

Our Core Commitment: Privacy is not a feature at Pfotos — it is the foundation. Your photos, family records, and personal history belong to you. Pfotos serves as a steward of that information, not an owner. We will never sell your data to commercial entities. We will never use your private content for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond operating the service for you. And we will always be transparent with you about any government or legal demand for your data, to the fullest extent the law allows.

1. Who We Are

Pfotos is a private photo organization and family-history application built on the belief that your family's memories and history are yours — not ours.

Privacy Officer:
Privacy Officer
7595 Currell Blvd Unit 25731
Woodbury, MN 55125
United States
privacy@pfotos.app

2. Information We Collect

Pfotos collects the minimum information necessary to operate the service.

2.1 Account Information

Name
Email address
Authentication identifiers
Account settings and preferences

2.2 User-Uploaded Content

Photos and images you upload
Photo metadata (such as capture date, device type, or GPS location if embedded)
Stories, notes, and captions you voluntarily add
Organizational data (PFarm, PFamily, PSilo, PHarvest relationships)

2.3 Person & Name Data

Pfotos includes a Master Name Index and a Public Commons, which may contain names of individuals, relationship context, and non-sensitive biographical references contributed by users. Pfotos does not claim ownership of such information. Private vault data — your personal persons, photos, and family records — remains accessible only to you and those you explicitly invite.

2.4 Biometric & Face Detection Data

Pfotos may use face detection technology to assist you with tagging and organizing photos. The following applies to all biometric and face-derived data:

Face detection is used solely within Pfotos to support photo tagging features
Biometric or facial recognition data is never sold, shared with third parties for commercial purposes, or used outside of Pfotos
Face data is not used for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond in-app photo organization
The public search headshot is voluntarily submitted by you and may be visible to other users in the Pfotos public commons search
You may request deletion of any stored biometric data at any time by contacting privacy@pfotos.app
Users in Illinois (BIPA), Texas, Washington, and other states with biometric privacy laws have the right to access, correct, and request deletion of biometric data held by Pfotos

2.5 Technical & Usage Data

IP address
Browser and device type
Log data related to app performance and errors
Session and security data
General geographic location (at the city or region level) used only for contextual ad relevance — see Section 6

3. How We Use Information

Provide and operate Pfotos
Secure accounts and prevent unauthorized access
Enable organization, tagging, and collaboration
Detect and remove illegal or harmful content (automated scanning)
Provide customer support
Improve performance and reliability
Display contextual, geography-based advertising (see Section 6)
Comply with legal obligations

Pfotos does not sell personal data. Ever.

4. Private Vault — Our Stewardship Commitment

Your private PFarm content — including photos, person records, family data, and stories — is accessible only to you and the members you invite. Pfotos staff do not browse, view, or access your private vault content in the ordinary course of operating the service.

Limited administrative access exists solely for the following purposes:

Responding to a valid legal order, subpoena, or court-issued warrant
Investigating a reported content violation (such as CSAM) as required by law
Performing critical technical support at your explicit request

Any such access is logged and documented. We will notify you whenever your data has been accessed by Pfotos staff, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so by a court order, gag order, or applicable law. Where permitted, we will notify you as promptly as possible.

4.1 Government & Law Enforcement Demands

Our position: Unauthorized government surveillance of your family memories is as unacceptable to us as commercial exploitation of your data. We treat both with the same zero-tolerance standard.

Pfotos views government or law enforcement access to your private data as a serious matter requiring the same level of transparency and resistance as any commercial misuse. Specifically:

We will not voluntarily provide your private data to any government agency, law enforcement body, or intelligence service without a valid, legally-enforceable court order, subpoena, or warrant issued under applicable law
We will always challenge overbroad, vague, or legally deficient demands before complying
We will notify you of any government demand for your data as promptly as the law permits. If a gag order or national security letter prohibits immediate notification, we will notify you as soon as the prohibition is lifted
We will publish a Warrant Canary as part of our annual transparency report. If Pfotos has never received a secret court order compelling disclosure without user notification, the report will say so explicitly. Absence of that statement in a future report should be interpreted accordingly
We will never build backdoors into Pfotos at the request of any government or agency
We will never participate in mass surveillance programs or provide bulk access to user data
Any government access that does occur will be logged, documented, and counted in our transparency report to the extent permitted by law

We recognize that government demands and commercial data exploitation are two faces of the same threat to your family's privacy. We oppose both with equal conviction.

5. Transparency Report

Pfotos is committed to publishing an annual transparency report at pfotos.app. This report will disclose:

The number of legal requests received from government or law enforcement
The number of accounts for which data was disclosed
To the extent permitted by law, the nature and jurisdiction of those requests
A Warrant Canary statement (see Section 4.1)
Whether Pfotos has ever been compelled to install a backdoor or participate in a surveillance program

If we have received zero requests in a period, we will say so clearly.

6. Advertising

Pfotos may display contextual advertisements within the app. Our advertising approach is built on the same privacy principles as the rest of the service:

Ads are selected based on general geographic location only (city or region level)
We do not use tracking cookies, device identifiers, behavioral profiles, or browsing history for ad targeting
We do not share your personal data, IP address, or any user identifier with advertisers
We do not sell your data to any third party for advertising purposes
Ad content does not have access to your photos, family data, or private vault content

Our goal is to support the service with advertising that respects you. If we ever change our advertising model in a material way, we will notify you in advance and update this policy.

7. Legal Holds & Account Actions

If Pfotos receives a valid legal order, subpoena, or law enforcement request relating to your account, we may place a temporary hold on certain account actions — such as deletion of data subject to the order — to preserve data integrity and comply with our legal obligations. We will notify you of any such hold as promptly as permitted by law. Where a legal order prohibits notification, we will notify you as soon as the prohibition is lifted.

8. Data Sharing & Disclosure

Pfotos does not share your private photos or stories publicly. We may share data only with service providers needed to operate Pfotos (including Google Cloud Vision API for content moderation and Microsoft PhotoDNA for CSAM detection), to comply with law, with your explicit consent, or between members of a PFarm according to the permissions you control.

9. Content Moderation & Safety

Pfotos uses automated tools including Google Vision API Safe Search and Microsoft PhotoDNA to scan uploaded photos for illegal or harmful content. These services process image data solely for safety purposes and are bound by their own privacy policies. Pfotos does not use these scans for advertising or profiling.

10. Data Storage & Security

Pfotos uses industry-standard security measures such as encrypted storage and role-based access controls. No system can be guaranteed 100% secure.

11. U.S. State Privacy Rights

Depending on your state, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, and opt out of certain processing. Users in Illinois (BIPA), Texas, and Washington have specific rights regarding biometric data. Pfotos honors applicable U.S. privacy laws. Contact privacy@pfotos.app to exercise your rights.

12. GDPR Rights (EU/EEA Users)

You may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object, and request portability of your data. Contact privacy@pfotos.app.

13. Data Retention

Pfotos retains data as long as needed to operate the service, comply with law, and maintain security. You may request account deletion at any time.

14. Children's Privacy

Pfotos is not directed toward children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. Material changes will be communicated in-app or via email in advance of taking effect.

16. Contact

Privacy requests: privacy@pfotos.app
Abuse reports: abuse@pfotos.app