Privacy Policy

1. Our Commitment to Privacy

Kuhela builds software for photographers, not an ad business. Across every product we operate, we do not sell your personal data, we do not run third-party ad trackers, and we do not use your photos, captions, or queries to train public AI models. Each product below runs on a strict data minimization principle: we collect only what a feature needs to work.

2. What We Collect, By Product

Sky Sync, Shortlist Studio, Shutter Sync, and SnapShare each do different jobs, so what they collect differs:

• Sky Sync: your account email, saved shoot locations and coordinates, notification preferences, and, only while the app is open and with your permission, your current device location for map centering. Billing is handled by Stripe; we never see your card number.
• Shortlist Studio: your original RAW and master photo files never leave your Mac. When you explicitly request an AI ranking or critique, a downscaled preview image is sent to our cloud for that one request and deleted immediately after, with a 1-hour automatic backstop. Growth Journal notes stay in a local file on your computer.
• Shutter Sync: metadata from your connected SmugMug catalog (titles, captions, keywords), downscaled and EXIF-stripped copies of images prepared for posting, AI-drafted captions, and aggregate engagement counts from Meta. We do not collect or store the identities of your followers or the people who comment on your posts.
• SnapShare: photos and videos guests upload to a shared album, the display name a guest chooses, comments and likes, and, for the person creating the album, an account email. Guests can contribute without creating a full account.

3. What We Do Not Collect

• We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data or your photos with data brokers or advertisers.
• We do not run third-party ad trackers, cross-site tracking pixels, or behavioral ad scripts on any Service.
• We do not use your content to train or fine-tune public generative AI models. AI processing (Google Gemini and Vertex AI) is used only to generate the specific result you requested, under enterprise terms that exclude your data from model training.
• We do not collect biometric or facial recognition data, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

4. Content Moderation & Safety

SnapShare screens every upload for illegal content, including automated CSAM detection, before it becomes visible in a shared album. Confirmed violations are removed, the uploader's access is disabled, and we report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as required by law.

5. Data Retention & Deletion

Retention follows the product you're using:

• SnapShare albums and their media are automatically and permanently deleted 90 days after the album's collection window closes; you can delete individual photos, or an entire album, at any time before that.
• Shortlist Studio's cloud image previews are deleted immediately after your AI request completes, with a 1-hour maximum backstop; nothing is retained after that.
• Sky Sync clears in-app notifications after 7 days and rolling operational logs after 90 days; your saved locations and account persist until you delete them.
• Shutter Sync's temporary publishing links expire after 48 hours; operational logs are retained for up to 12 months for reliability and billing review.

You can request full account deletion at any time from within the relevant product, or by emailing privacy@kuhela.ai.

6. Third-Party Sub-processors

We share data only with the infrastructure and service providers each product needs to operate:

• Google Cloud & Firebase: hosting, database, authentication, and AI processing, used across all four products.
• Stripe: payment processing and billing for paid subscriptions.
• SmugMug and Meta (Instagram and Facebook): Shutter Sync's catalog sync and publishing.
• HERE Technologies and Google Maps: Sky Sync's location search.
• NCMEC: SnapShare's statutory child-safety reporting.

None of these providers are permitted to use your data for their own advertising or model training.

7. Cookies & Local Storage

We use only essential, functional cookies and local storage: things like keeping you signed in, remembering your last-used view, or supporting Sky Sync's push notifications. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies on any Service.

8. Children's Privacy

Our Services are intended for general audiences and working photographers; Sky Sync specifically is intended for users 16 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. SnapShare additionally maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward child sexual abuse material, enforced through automated detection and mandatory reporting.

9. Your Rights (GDPR / CCPA)

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete the personal data we hold about you, and the right to opt out of any sale or sharing of that data (we don't sell or share it in the first place). To exercise these rights for any Kuhela product, email privacy@kuhela.ai.

10. Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or a specific product's data practices can be sent to:

Kuhela AI
Boulder, CO, USA
Email: privacy@kuhela.ai