In short
- We use the photos you upload only to make, check and remake your order.
- To prepare your print, AI services (currently OpenAI and Anthropic) may read the faces in your photos. Laws such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) treat that face geometry as biometric data, so we ask for your written consent first, and we treat every photo as if it carries biometric data.
- We never sell your photos or anything read from them, never use them for advertising, and never let them be used to train AI.
- We permanently delete them 1 year after your order at the latest, and sooner when the order is never paid, when you never order with them, or when you ask.
What this policy covers
This policy covers the photos you upload to personalize an order on thepandahug.com, the files we make from them (such as print artwork and previews), and any biometric identifiers or biometric information, such as face geometry, that may be read from them. It is our written policy under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (740 ILCS 14/15(a)), and we follow it for every customer, wherever you live. Our Privacy policy covers the rest of the information we hold.
Why we use them
Only to make your order: to design and print your item from your photos, to check that the print is right before it ships, to remake that order if something is wrong with it, and to answer your questions about it. We do not use your photos, or anything read from them, to identify you or anyone else, to build profiles, for marketing or advertising, or for any other purpose.
Biometric data
We do not scan faces or keep face templates ourselves. When our production tools send a photo to an AI service to turn it into your print, or to check the result, that service may read the faces in it, which counts as collecting face geometry. We store nothing read from a face; the finished artwork made for your order is kept only as long as your photos are.
Your consent
Before an item with your photos goes in your bag, we show you our photo consent and ask you to check a box agreeing to it. Checking the box is your written release and your electronic signature. We keep a record of the exact words you agreed to, their version and when you agreed, with your order, and your order confirmation email repeats it.
By agreeing, you also confirm that you own the photos or may use them, and that everyone in them has given you permission to agree for them. For a child, that permission comes from their parent or legal guardian. If you cannot confirm this, please do not upload the photo.
If you would rather not agree, you can still order any of our designs that do not take a photo.
Who receives them
- Our team and our own production tools, to make your order.
- AI services that prepare print artwork (currently OpenAI and Anthropic), through their business services, which do not use what we send them to train their models. Each deletes what we send within 30 days, unless its own safety rules require it to keep something longer, or the law does.
- The companies that host our website and production tools (currently Supabase and Vercel), which store the files for us and may not use them for anything else.
- The print shop that prints our transfers (currently Zizo DTF, through its file upload service), which receives the print files made from your photos, only to print your order.
We never sell, lease or trade your photos or any biometric data, and never otherwise profit from them. We do not share them with anyone else unless the law requires it, for example a valid warrant or subpoena.
How long we keep them
Each item below is permanently deleted at the time shown, or earlier once the purpose it was kept for is complete, and never later than 3 years after your last interaction with us:
- Photos for an order that was paid: 1 year after the order was placed. That covers making it, the time to report a problem and any remake.
- Photos for a checkout that was never paid: 30 days after the checkout was started.
- Photos uploaded but never ordered with: 7 days after they were uploaded.
- Print artwork, previews and other files made from your photos: at the same time as the photos they were made from.
- Face geometry read by an AI service: never stored by us. The AI services delete what we send them as described above.
- The record of your consent: kept with your order record, without the photos, so we can show what you agreed to.
How we delete them
- An automatic job runs every day and permanently deletes the photos that are due. Our production tools delete their copies, and the files made from them, on the same schedule.
- Deleted means removed from our storage, not archived.
- If you ask us to delete your photos sooner, we do it within 30 days. While your order is still being made, delivered or remade, we need its photos to finish it: if you would rather cancel and we have not started making it, we cancel it and refund it in full.
- If a warrant, subpoena or court order requires us to keep a photo, we keep only what it requires, for only as long as it requires.
How we protect them
Your photos are kept in private storage and opened only through signed links that expire, by the people and tools that need them to make your order. They travel only over encrypted connections. We protect them at least as carefully as the other confidential and sensitive information we hold.
If there is a security incident
If we learn that someone may have reached photos or biometric data without permission, we act at once to stop it, find out what was affected and delete what should not be kept, and we tell the people affected and the authorities as the law requires.
If you are in a photo someone else uploaded
If someone uploaded a photo of you, or of your child, without your permission, message us or email privacy@thepandahug.com. We will delete it, and stop it from being used in an order that has not been made yet.
Photos in messages
Photos you attach to a message are seen only by our team, to help you, and are never sent to AI services. They are kept with your conversation, and you can ask us to delete them at any time. If you send us a photo by message to use in an order, the copy we use for the order is covered by the photo consent for that order and follows its schedule.
Consumer health data (Washington and Nevada)
Washington's My Health My Data Act and Nevada's consumer health data law count biometric data, which can include images of a face, as consumer health data. For those laws, this section and the rest of this page are our consumer health data privacy policy:
- What we collect, and why: the photos you upload and anything an AI service reads from them, such as face geometry, only to make the order you asked for.
- Where it comes from: from you, when you upload a photo.
- Who receives it: only the services listed under "Who receives them", which work for us to make your order. We do not sell it, and share it with no one else unless the law requires it.
- Your rights: you can ask us whether we hold your consumer health data, and ask to see it with a list of everyone it was shared with, to have it deleted (including the copies held by the services that work for us) or to withdraw your consent. Send us a message or email privacy@thepandahug.com. We answer within 30 days, and you can appeal a refusal as our Privacy policy describes, then contact your state attorney general.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we use photos or biometric data, we update this page first and ask for your consent again before using any photo in the new way.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request about your photos? Send us a message, email privacy@thepandahug.com or write to KZD LLC, 1749 W Golf Rd, Unit 437, Mount Prospect, IL 60056, USA.