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Privacy

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In short

  • The photos you upload are used only to make your results. The original is deleted from our servers within 24 hours; your results stay in your account until you delete them.
  • We don't use your photos or results to train AI models, and we don't sell your personal information.
  • We don't use photos to recognize or identify anyone.
  • The service is for adults (18 or over) who have the right to use the photos they upload.

Who we are

Restore Old Photos (“we”, “us”) runs this website and decides how your personal information is used. Under data protection law we are the “controller”. For any question about your data, write to info@restoreold.photos.

The photos you upload

  • They are used only to make your results: restoring, colorizing, enhancing or animating the photo you chose, and checking the result. Your browser shrinks each photo and removes its metadata, including any location, before it is sent.
  • The original is deleted from our servers automatically within 24 hours of upload, by a clean-up that runs every hour. Deleting the photo in your account deletes it at once.
  • Your results (the restored, colorized, enhanced or animated versions) stay in your account until you delete them or your account. Every downloaded file says in its metadata that it was made with AI.
  • The options you choose are kept with the run so it can be made as you asked: the tool, how many versions, whether to add colour or remove handwriting, and the kind of damage or photo you picked (for example “water damage” or “wedding photo”).
  • If you add a photo on one of our pages before signing in, your browser keeps it on your own device so it can reach the form after sign-in. It is removed as soon as the form picks it up and ignored after an hour. It never reaches our servers until you start.
  • Before anything is made, an AI model writes a short note of what the photo plainly shows: whether it is black and white, how many people are in it, and what damage it has (scratches, tears, fading and so on). We never record or infer who anyone is, or their race, ethnicity, health or any other sensitive trait.
  • You may upload a photo only if you have the right to use it: it is yours or your family's, or its owner agreed. Any living adult shown in it should have agreed, and you must be the parent or guardian of anyone shown who is still under 18. Before every upload you tick a box to confirm it, and that you are 18 or over.

Faces, likeness checks and biometric laws

To make sure a result still shows the same people, an AI model looks at your original and the result side by side and answers a few questions: are the same people there, has any face been redrawn, has anyone been added or removed. We also compare the two pictures' structure with a simple measurement of light and shade. None of this recognizes or identifies anyone, and we don't create face templates, faceprints or any other biometric identifier. If a law where you live treats any of this as biometric or sensitive information, the box you tick before each upload is your explicit, written consent to the use described here (we record when you ticked it and which wording you agreed to), this page is our written retention and deletion schedule, and we never sell, lease or trade that data. You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the photo, which deletes the original at once.

AI and training

We don't use your photos, the notes about them or your results to train AI models. We send photos to our AI providers only to make and check your results. Their terms allow them to use what we send only to provide their service to us. Some keep a copy for a limited time, usually no more than 30 days, to detect abuse and keep their systems secure, and then delete it.

What we collect, why, and on what legal basis

  • Photos, the notes about them and likeness checks: to make your results and make sure they still show the same people. Legal basis: your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a) and, where the law treats the data as sensitive, Art. 9(2)(a)), and performing our contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b)).
  • Your results: to show them to you, let you download them, and serve any share link you create. Legal basis: our contract with you.
  • Account details (email address and name): to sign you in and contact you about your account. If you start without signing in, there is no address until you choose to leave one, and we use it only to send you your photo and your account link. Legal basis: our contract with you.
  • Purchases (what you bought, when and for how much, and your credit balance): to provide what you paid for and keep the records tax law requires. Legal basis: our contract with you and our legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c)).
  • Abuse and fraud prevention (IP address, and a record of each result made and what it cost): to stop misuse and keep the service running. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe and fair (Art. 6(1)(f)).
  • Advertising measurement, only if you accept cookies (the pages you visit here, when you sign up or pay and how much, Meta's cookie identifiers, a one-way hash of your email address and account id, your IP address and browser type): to learn which of our ads on Facebook and Instagram bring people to the site. Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time under Cookie settings. Never your photos or your results.

We don't make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Who receives your data

We use trusted service providers who process data only on our instructions and under data protection terms:

  • AI providers: Restore, colorize, sharpen or animate your photo, read what it shows (black and white or colour, how many people, what damage) and check each result against it. They receive the photo and nothing that identifies you by name.
  • Hosting, database and storage providers: Run the website and keep your account, your photos (until they are deleted) and your results.
  • Payment processor: Takes payments for packs and plans. It handles your card details; we never see them.
  • Email provider: Sends your sign-in links and messages about your account.
  • Security provider: Receives IP addresses to limit abuse, such as too many requests or sign-in emails.
  • Advertising partner (Meta), only if you accept cookies: Receives the advertising measurement described above, to tell us which of our ads on Facebook and Instagram bring people to the site. Never your photos or your results.
  • Sign-in provider, if you choose one: If you sign in with an account from another company, such as Google, it shares your name and email address with us.

Anyone you send a share link to can see that one result. We may also disclose data when the law requires it, to protect people's rights and safety, or to a buyer of the business, who would remain bound by this policy. We don't sell your personal information, and we share it for advertising only as described above, if you accept cookies.

International transfers

Some of our providers process data outside your country, including in the United States. When data leaves the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we rely on the safeguards the law provides, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us for details.

How long we keep it

  • Original photos: deleted from our servers within 24 hours of upload, or at once when you delete the photo.
  • Results, the notes about the photo and the check records: until you delete the photo or your account.
  • Account details and records of what was made: until you delete your account.
  • Purchase records: for as long as tax and accounting law requires, even after your account is deleted.
  • IP addresses: used for abuse limits that reset daily, and kept in technical logs only for a short time.

Cookies and storage on your device

One cookie the service needs to work is always on: the one that keeps you signed in. Your browser may also hold a photo for up to an hour on its way to the form, as described above.

The only optional ones are advertising cookies from Meta (Facebook and Instagram), which tell us which of our ads bring people here. We ask first, and until you accept, the site doesn't load Meta's code or send it anything. If you accept, Meta sets its own cookies (such as _fbp, for up to 90 days), and we remember your choice for 180 days. Meta receives the data as a joint controller with us for collecting it, and its own privacy policy covers what it does with it. You can change your choice at any time: .

Your rights

You can delete any photo and its results at any time from My photos, and your account and everything in it from Settings. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to:

  • access your data and get a copy of it in a portable format;
  • correct it, delete it, or restrict how we use it;
  • object to our use of it based on legitimate interests;
  • withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting what was done before;
  • complain to a data protection authority: in Italy, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, or the authority where you live.

If you live in a US state with a privacy law (such as California), you have the right to know what we collect, to delete and correct it, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. We don't sell personal information. If you accept advertising cookies, the measurement described above may count as “sharing” for targeted advertising under some of these laws; you can opt out at any time under Cookie settings at the bottom of every page, or by rejecting them in the banner.

To use any of these rights, write to info@restoreold.photos. We may ask you to confirm the request from your account's email address, and we reply within one month (45 days where US state law allows).

Children

The service is for adults (18 or over) and is not directed at children. Family photos often show people who were children when the photo was taken; you may upload a photo of someone who is still under 18 only if you are their parent or guardian. If we learn that an account belongs to a child, we delete it.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit, and access to photos and results is limited to your account and the share links you create. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach affects your data we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service changes. We will change the date at the top, and tell you by email or on the site before any important change takes effect.

Contact

Restore Old Photos. Contact: info@restoreold.photos.