Privacy Policy

How This Policy Applies to You

This single Policy covers everyone, but a few sections apply differently depending on how you use Postal Photos:

• Subscribers: Sections 1 and 3 describe the information we collect about you and what we share with the photographer whose club you join.
• Website visitors: Sections 1 and 4 describe the information collected automatically when you browse and how we use cookies.
• Photographers: Sections 1 and 5 also cover the creative materials and tax documents you provide to us, and Section 2 covers our promotional use of your work and name.
• Anyone who sends a return postcard: Section 10 describes how we handle postcard contents.

All other sections apply to everyone equally.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information you provide, information created through your use of the platform, and limited information from our service providers.

• Account and profile information: name, email address, username, login credentials (stored in encrypted or hashed form), and any profile photo or bio you choose to add.
• Mailing and fulfillment information: mailing addresses and delivery records, so we can print and send postcards.
• Photographer materials (photographers only): photographs, notes, descriptions, and submission history that photographers provide for their postcard clubs.
• Return postcard content (senders only): if you send a return postcard through our service, the message, imagery, any return address, and a digital scan of the postcard.
• Communications: emails, text messages, and support requests between you and us.
• Payment and subscription information: transaction and subscription records and payout history. Payments are handled by a third-party payment processor (currently Stripe); we do not store full payment card numbers.
• Tax information (photographers only): tax documents required to pay royalties, such as Form W-9, Form W-8BEN, and 1099 forms. These forms include a Social Security number or other taxpayer identification number. We collect this information only because tax law requires it in order to pay you, we limit access to it, and we retain it only for the period required by law.
• Technical information: IP address, device and browser details, and login activity, collected automatically when you use the platform.

We do not ask for sensitive personal information (such as government-issued IDs, health data, or precise location), and we ask that you not include it unless it is necessary for the service. The only exception is the taxpayer identification information described above, which we collect from photographers alone because tax law requires it in order to pay them. We never ask subscribers, return postcard senders, or website visitors for tax information. If you send a return postcard, please do not include sensitive personal, financial, or confidential information in it.

2. How We Use Information

We use personal information to:

• Operate, secure, and improve the platform
• Run photographers' postcard clubs
• Process payments, royalties, and tax reporting
• Print, mail, and deliver postcards, including return postcards
• Provide customer support and communicate about your account
• Prevent fraud and abuse
• Comply with our legal and tax obligations
• Send marketing messages where you have agreed to receive them (you can opt out at any time)
• Promote Postal Photos and the photographers on it. If you are a photographer, this includes using your submitted materials, name, likeness, and postcard club information in sample postcards and sample packs, promotional mailings, our website and social media, press materials, and outreach to prospective photographers, subscribers, and partners, as set out in our Photographer Terms and Conditions.

Where we send marketing emails or text messages, we do so only with your consent where the law requires it, and you can opt out at any time by replying STOP to a text, using the unsubscribe link in an email, or contacting us.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

3. How We Share Information

We share personal information with service providers and platforms that help us run the platform, and only as needed for them to perform services on our behalf. These include categories such as, but not limited to:

• Payment processing (e.g., Stripe)
• Authentication and database services (e.g., Supabase)
• Website and cloud hosting (e.g., Vercel)
• Email and SMS delivery
• Printing, mailing, and fulfillment
• Address verification (e.g., Smarty)
• Analytics and other operational tools

The specific providers and platforms we use may change over time. As our business evolves, we may add, replace, or migrate to other service providers, platforms, or infrastructure, and may share personal information with them for the same purposes described in this Policy. In each case, we share personal information only as needed to operate the platform and require these providers to protect your information and use it only on our behalf.

We may also share information when required by law or legal process, to enforce our Terms, to protect the rights or safety of Postal Photos or others, or in connection with a sale or transfer of our business (in which case this Privacy Policy will continue to apply).

Sharing With Photographers (Subscribers)

When you subscribe to a photographer's postcard club, we provide that photographer with the subscriber information needed to fulfill and support the subscription, including your name, email address, and mailing address, so the photographer can communicate with and engage their own subscribers. A photographer receives information only about their own subscribers.

Photographers are independent parties, not employees or agents of Postal Photos. Once we provide subscriber information to a photographer, that photographer alone is responsible for how they use it. We do not control or monitor how photographers communicate with or use the information of their subscribers, and we are not responsible or liable for a photographer's use of that information. We do require photographers, by agreement, to keep subscriber information confidential, use it only in connection with their own postcard club, comply with applicable privacy and anti-spam laws (including honoring opt-out requests), not sell it or use it for unrelated purposes, and stop using and securely delete it when their agreement with us ends or when we ask them to, except where they must keep it by law; however, we do not guarantee and are not responsible for their conduct.

You can opt out of marketing from a photographer at any time by using any unsubscribe option in the message or by contacting us using the details in Section 13. If you have a concern about how a photographer has used your information, please contact us and we will address it where we reasonably can.

4. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep you logged in, remember your preferences, secure the platform, and understand how it is used. You can control cookies through your browser settings, though some features may not work without them. Where the law requires it, we ask for your consent before using non-essential cookies.

5. Data Retention

We keep personal information for as long as needed to run the platform, meet our financial and tax obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When information is no longer needed, we delete or anonymize it. Some records, such as transaction records and photographers' tax records, are kept for the period required by law. If your account is closed, we may retain certain information where reasonably necessary for legal or operational reasons, such as communications and transaction records. Photographers' tax documents are kept only for the period required by tax law and are then deleted.

Archive of Published Work (Photographers)

We keep a permanent archive of the work we produce and distribute. This means we retain the photographs, notes, and descriptions photographers submit, along with digital and printed copies of the postcards made from them, indefinitely, including after a photographer leaves Postal Photos. We keep this archive as a record of what we have published and for historical and portfolio purposes, as set out in our Photographer Terms and Conditions. This archive is separate from the marketing uses described in Section 2. When a photographer leaves Postal Photos, we stop using their work in new marketing campaigns, but marketing materials we already produced or published may remain in circulation, and past website, press, and social media content may stay in place, as set out in our Photographer Terms and Conditions.

6. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect personal information, including encryption or hashing of credentials and access controls. No system is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a data breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities where the law requires.

7. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal information, to the extent required by applicable law. These may include the right to access the information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy of it, and to opt out of marketing.

California Residents

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, and you have the right not to be treated differently for exercising these rights. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law.

Other U.S. States With Privacy Laws (Such as Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah)

You may have similar rights to access, correct, delete, and obtain a copy of your information, and to appeal a decision on a request where your state provides that right.

EEA, United Kingdom, and Switzerland

You may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal information, to receive a portable copy, to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. We process your personal information under the following legal bases:

• to perform our contract with you (to provide the service and pay royalties);
• for our legitimate interests (to secure and improve the platform and prevent fraud);
• with your consent (for optional marketing and non-essential cookies); and
• to comply with legal obligations.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in Section 13. We may need to verify your identity first, and we will respond within the time required by law.

8. International Data Transfers

We are based in the United States, and we serve users in other countries. Your information may be processed and stored in the United States or in other countries where we or our service providers operate, which may have different data-protection laws than your own. Where we transfer personal information from the EEA, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum where applicable). You can ask us for more information about these safeguards using the contact details below.

9. Automated Decisions

We do not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you through solely automated means.

10. Return Postcards

Our service lets subscribers send return postcards to photographers. All return postcards are received and processed by Postal Photos before delivery. We create a digital scan of each postcard, make it available to the recipient photographer through their dashboard, and forward the physical postcard to them. Digital copies may be stored as part of the service.

We access postcard contents only as needed to digitize and deliver them, to screen for content that our Subscriber and Website Terms and Conditions prohibit, and to enforce those terms or comply with the law. As set out in our Subscriber and Website Terms and Conditions, we may decline to process or forward a postcard we reasonably consider inappropriate, and we are not obligated to return or store such content.

Return postcards are private communications. Under our Photographer Terms and Conditions, photographers are required to treat postcard contents as confidential and not to publicly share them without the sender's permission. Photographers are independent parties, and we do not control their conduct.

If you send a return postcard, you understand that it will be reviewed, scanned, stored, and shared with the recipient photographer as described here. Please do not include sensitive personal, financial, or confidential information.

11. Children's Privacy

The platform is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will update the "Last Updated" date above, and if the changes are material, we will provide additional notice where the law requires. Your continued use of the platform after an update means you acknowledge the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise your rights, contact: