PhotoCircle Privacy Policy

Welcome to PhotoCircle, your solution for truly private photo sharing!

With the PhotoCircle App, you can create one or more “Circles” to share photos and video clips you select, and invite others to join those Circles. Media, including photos, videos, comments and similar types of content, that are uploaded to a Circle can only be viewed by Members of that Circle (its Moderator and any other Members invited by the Moderator or other members). Below we share more detail about our privacy practices. We also want to tell you right up front:

Media you add to a Circle will be visible only to others in that Circle, and will not be shared with humans outside of it.
You always control what Contributions you upload or delete
You can control whether you see personalized ads
You can always update or remove personal information we have about you
We will never sell your personal information to a third party

We want you to feel comfortable and confident that PhotoCircle shares your photos and identity only as you choose, and only with people you choose. We may target advertising to you based on what you’ve shared with us directly, for example by identifying ads relevant to a device in your location, but we don’t sell or share your data with advertisers.

Please read on for more specifics about our privacy practices. If you still have questions or concerns, email us anytime at support@photocircleapp.com and we’ll be happy to help.

About this Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, store, share, and maintain information on our systems about your use of our website, which is located at photocircleapp.com (the “Website”), and our native mobile Android and iOS applications (collectively, the “App”). The Website and App are operated by PhotoCircle, Inc. (“PhotoCircle”, “we”, “us, and/or “our” as used in this Policy). Our references to “you” or something of “yours” in this Policy refer to users of the Website and App, including without limitation the owner of the PhotoCircle for Business account (“Enterprise User”) and the employees using that account in their capacity as individuals.

Capitalized terms used but not defined in this Policy with the same meaning as set forth in our Terms of Service, including Users, Circle, Member, Media, Comments, Contributions, SSO and PhotoCircle+. As defined in the Terms:

A “Contributor” is a Member of a Circle who can (i) view, add and delete their own Contributions, and (ii) invite other users to join a Circle of which they are a Member.
A “Moderator” is a User who either created a Circle or was invited to moderate an existing Circle. Users are the initial Moderator of any Circle which they create in addition to being a Contributor to that Circle. Moderators have the ability to invite individual eligible Users to their Circles whether or not those Users already have an account. Moderators can also (i) view, add, and delete Contributions from themselves or other Members of their Circles, (ii) invite and remove others from their Circles, and (iii) create and delete their Circles. Circles can have multiple Moderators, and Moderators may add additional Moderators to Circles they moderate.
A “Limited” role means a Member of a PhotoCircle for Business Circle (an “Enterprise Circle”) who is not an employee of the Business which is owner and core Moderator of the Enterprise Circle. The Limited role is configured by the PhotoCircle for Business Enterprise Customer, who also sets the rights and privileges of that role which may include viewing and contributing.
An “Employee User” means an employee of an Enterprise Circle owner who accesses our App and services through the Enterprise’s account and/or Enterprise Circle.

We aim to operate the most private photo sharing app around. In order to offer a free version, we show advertisements to users of the free App. Below we share more about how advertising works in our App and how you can turn off any personalization. You can also remove advertisements and disable any advertising technology anytime by activating a paid subscription to PhotoCircle+. You can subscribe to PhotoCircle+ through the “Settings” menu of the app.

Enterprise Users and Enterprise Circles do not include advertisements, and the provisions of this Policy regarding advertisement do not apply to Enterprise Users, Enterprise Circles, or Employee Users in Enterprise Circles through their enterprise email account.

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or our information collection and use practices, please contact us at support@photocircleapp.com.

How You Permit Us to Collect Data from You

When you Visit our Website

We do not collect personal information from or about our website visitors. We do not use tracking technologies of any kind on the Website - not Cookies, web beacons, clear gifs, etc. Browse freely!

Installing the App and Logging In

When you install the App, you’ll be prompted to either: (1) enter your email and set a password (“Standard Sign-on”) or (2) sign on using you Google, Microsoft, or Apple credentials (“SSO”). You’ll be prompted to choose a Display Name either way, and this can be your name or any fake name you choose. You can — but don’t have to — add a profile photo in our Settings menu.

If you use SSO to create and/or log into your account, we redirect you to the login page of the SSO provider (ex: Google) to enter your credentials, and we never see those credentials. For SSO, if the applicable service has a profile photo associated with your login, we receive that photo and set it as your profile photo. If you use Google SSO, we automatically receive back your email as well. For Apple and Facebook SSO, you can choose whether to share your email with us.

Whether you sign on with SSO or Standard Sign-On, you can update your Display Name, profile photo, and password in the App’s “Settings” menu anytime. Access the Settings menu by tapping your profile icon in the top right corner of the App’s home screen. We refer to any information in your profile in this policy as “Profile Information,” but we only have Profile Information you give us (or that your SSO provider gives to us as a part of the ordinary operation of their technology).

When you are invited to become an Enterprise User by your employer (or a company you have another relationship with), your Enterprise User account and activity therein is associated with the Enterprise account. If you use the same email to accept an Enterprise User invitation that you used with an existing PhotoCircle account, information from the existing account will be transferred to the Enterprise Account. If you have any issues with this transfer, please contact support@photocircleapp.com.

When you create a new “Circle” to share photos with select friends, you can choose who to invite to that Circle. Once you invite Members to a Circle as Contributors, they have the ability to invite others. On the Home screen, you can see both the number of Members in the Circle you have joined/created, as well as the number of photos uploaded by all of its Members. Any Member of a Circle can add comments and reactions to a particular photo. As the Moderator of a Circle, you will be able to remove Members by tapping their profile photo icon at the top of the Circle and then selecting “remove.” If you do this, that Member’s Contributions will be automatically removed from the Circle, and that former Member can no longer see anyone’s Contributions in the Circle.

You can invite others to join a Circle, or accept an invitation to join a Circle, by sending (to invite) or tapping (to accept an invite) the unique join link or QR code.

Enterprise Users should reference the Enterprise Terms of Use and their Enterprise for the terms that apply in connection with Enterprise accounts. Data about Enterprise Users is generally accessible to, modifiable by, and removable by the Enterprise administrative account(s). Enterprise administrator accounts can be used to access a dashboard of Enterprise Users, view, organize, and moderate their contributions to Enterprise Circles, and other oversight functions. Enterprise Users cannot add new members to Enterprise accounts or Circles unless those users are first invited and approved by the Enterprise. We do not or include targeted advertising on Enterprise User accounts, but we may send certain notifications to Enterprise Users in connection to the Enterprise account.

As an individual User, anyone you invite to a Circle will need to create an account of their own to use the App. Please be sure to share these links and/or QR Codes only with those you’d like to join your Circle. You should only invite members you trust into your Circle(s), as they will be able to see and export your Contributions to that Circle. Please join only Circles where you trust the Moderator. Note that we reserve the right to remove harmful photos in response to certain serious concerns about harm to our users or third parties, as further described below and in our Terms of Service.

All Members of a Circle will be able to see all of the Contributions in that Circle, upload more Contributions (Media and Comments) to the Circle, and save Media from the Circle. If you added Contributions to the Circle, you can delete it from the App by tapping the “Delete” option when viewing the selected Media or Comment.

Once you confirm that you want to delete, we’ll remove that Media from the Circle and our systems, and it will no longer be visible to other Members. After Media is deleted from a Circle, we will periodically remove any Media on our storage that no longer belongs to a Circle.

Please only share Media when you are comfortable with each Circle Member (and anyone they share the photo with) having irrevocable access to that Media.

Showing Quality Advertisements for Free Users

When you use the free version of the App, we use unique advertising identifiers to determine which ads to display. This includes identifiers assigned by Apple on iOS and Google on Android, respectively, to aggregate information about a device across applications. This also includes a hashed form of your email address, your IP Address, and information about your browser or operating system, which may be shared with our identity/service providers, such as LiveRamp, Inc. LiveRamp returns an online identification code that we may store in a first-party cookie for our use in online, in-app, and cross-channel advertising and it may be shared with advertising companies to enable interest-based and targeted advertising.

This aggregate information is, in turn, used to entice advertisers to bid to occupy ad space on apps like PhotoCircle when they want to offer a product or service that might suit a user. In no case do we share or reveal your personal information.

You can control this process on both Apple and Google platforms, as well as with LiveRamp, though the process differs. To opt-out of this use with LiveRamp, please click here.

If you are using the iOS App and do not have an ad-free subscription, as of the date of this Policy, we use Apple’s IDFA. If you use iOS version 14 or later, you may be prompted to Allow tracking across apps and can tap “Ask App not to track” to opt-out of tracking. If you allow tracking, we will show personalized ads. If you use an earlier version of iOS, you can disable tracking by going to your phone’s “Settings” menu. If you do not allow tracking, we will not use IDFA to advertise to you. You will still see ads, but they will not be personalized.

If you are using Android, we use Google’s Advertising ID (GAID). As of the Date of this Policy, you can opt out of personalized ads by heading to Settings on your Android device. Once you do so, Google Play Services will stop pushing personalized ad recommendations to your device, but apps on your phone will still be able to see the advertising ID. You will still see ads as a free user, but they will not be personalized.

We refer to the GAID, IDFA, LiveRamp’s online identification code collectively as “Ad Identifiers” in this Policy.

How We Use Your Information

We use your Profile Information for display in the App. We use your password to help you log into the app on one or more devices if you use Standard Sign-On; for SSO, we never collect, use, or store a password. We use your email to identify and administer your account access and permit account recovery.

As a free user, if you allow it, we use Ad Identifiers to offer advertising space to ad publishers within the App. We do not use Ad identifiers for PhotoCircle+ users or display ads to PhotoCircle+ Users.

We use the Contributions you upload to populate Circles, display Contributions to other members of the Circle, allow members to comment on and react to Contributions, and allow members to download Media. When any member adds a Contributions to a Circle, we also store that Contribution on our servers.

On an anonymized basis, we use third party analytics to analyze user actions within the App. This information helps us understand how to maintain and improve the App, fix bugs, and to conduct standard maintenance based on which parts of the app are used, rather than your individual behavior - and the data used in this process does not and cannot identify you personally. The session and usage data generated by our analytics is not associated with your identity.

We do not share your personal information with third parties except as expressly described here:

For free users, the applicable Ad Identifiers are shared with advertising networks to allow ad publishers to submit bids to fill our ad spaces. The App shares these identifiers directly and solely for the purpose of finding a personalized ad directly for your device, and does not store the Ad identifiers or delivered advertisements on our systems.

We may also share information about you in the following ways:

With your express consent.
Your displayed name and profile photo, as well as Media you uploaded to a Circle, with those you invite (or they invite) into that Circle.
With any parent or subsidiaries of ours, or other companies or entities which control, are controlled by or under common control with us. This may include sharing with a potential successor-in-interest in a business transaction. For such transactions, we will generally require the potential successor-in-interest to execute a confidentiality agreement before sharing any information with them. We will require such parties to honor this Privacy Policy, as updated from time to time, with respect to such shared information. If material changes to our privacy practices will occur as a result of a business transition, we will make a reasonable attempt to notify you via email of the changes before they occur.
With third-party vendors who provide the infrastructure that allows the App to operate - such as cloud servers, hosting, and notifications. We select vendors based on privacy, security, and confidentiality standards, and only share personally-identifiable information with vendors who provide contractual assurances that it will stay private and secure.
Without identifying you, we may generate reports and/or analyses of the aggregate usage of our Services, and use this for our business operations. We do not consider this personal information in this Policy. However, the aggregate reports are derived from information about user accounts and their activities within the App.
As we deem necessary, in our sole discretion to:
- Comply with applicable law
- Comply with a valid governmental and/or law enforcement request
- Comply with a court or other governmental body’s order
- Protect the privacy, security, safety, or likeness rights of any user or a third party subject of a photo uploaded to a Circle.
- Evaluate and comply with legitimate copyright takedown requests
- Identify and remove illegal, hateful, and/or abusive images and/or comments from our systems
- To otherwise enforce our rights and/or to protect the safety and security of our Website, App or other users.

Do Not Track

Our Website does not recognize Do Not Track signals. Nonetheless, we do not track Website visitors on any identifiable basis whatsoever.

California Privacy Rights

Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to contact us to prevent disclosure of personal information to third parties for such third parties’ direct marketing purposes; however, PhotoCircle does not share your information with third parties for direct marketing purposes.

We still offer all of our users certain options to exercise control over their information, regardless of their residency:

Right to Know: You have the right to request that we disclose to you the personal information about you we collect, use, or disclose, and information about our data handling practices with respect to your information;
Right to Request Deletion: You have the right to request that we delete your Personal Information that we have collected from you; and
Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please email us at support@photocircleapp.com and we’ll be happy to assist you.

How We Secure Your Information

Like most applications today, we use cloud server infrastructure to run our App and Website. We license server spaces that encrypt data sent to the App and displayed by the App, both while “at rest” in our database and “in transit” between the App and those databases. Only we can access the database(s) we created to operate the App, and we do so only through accounts approved and provisioned for senior security engineers on our team. The service provider who supplies the database infrastructure does not have access to the data we store there.

When we generate QR codes or links to add members to a Circle, we share these only with the user and device that requested them. You choose who to share it with from there.

Note that SSO information is controlled and accessed by the relevant SSO provider, such as Google or Facebook. Please refer to the privacy policies of these platforms for more information about how they operate their SSO.

While we take reasonable precautions against possible security breaches of the Website, PhotoCircle and our customer databases and records, no website or Internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will never occur. We urge you to use caution when choosing what information to share with us, just in case.

PhotoCircle is not for use by minors

PhotoCircle is not intended for, and should not be used by, children younger than 13. We do not intentionally collect any information from or about persons under 13. In the event that we learn that we have inadvertently gathered Personal Information from children under the age of 13, we will use our best efforts to erase such information from our records. Our terms of service prohibit Users from uploading content containing personal or likeness information about a minor unless they are that minor’s legal guardian and can legally consent in that capacity to the use of all App functionality with respect to that content.

If you believe we have inadvertently collected information about a minor 13 years or younger, or if you find someone is using the app to upload photos of a child for whom they are not a guardian and do not have the appropriate legal guardian’s consent, please contact us at support@photocircleapp.com with a description of the potential issue.

How to access, update, and/or delete information we have about you

You can confirm what items of personal information we have about you, update this information, or delete that information (including by deleting your entire account), by emailing us at support@photocircleapp.com.

You can also delete your account from within the profile settings of the App.

If you email us, we will comply with your requests to update or remove your personal information within a reasonable time period unless we are prohibited by law from doing so. This may take up to 30 - 60 days depending on the nature of the request and the operations of our business.

If you delete your account, we will remove you from the Circles you created and the Circles you have joined. All your Contributions to Circles will be deleted. If you are the Moderator of any Circle, and (1) if the Circle has another Moderator, they will be promoted to manage the Circle’s continuing use, or (2) if the Circle has no other Moderators but has other Members, another Contributor will be promoted to manage the Circle, or (3) if the Circle has no other Members, the Circle will be orphaned and removed during routine system maintenance. Please reach support@photocircleapp.com with any questions about this.

Contact Us

Questions or concerns? Reach us anytime at support@photocircleapp.com

Last Updated: May 1, 2023