Privacy

1. Who we are

PictureMatters ("we", "the service") is a free online image metadata and forensics analysis tool operated at picturematters.in. Contact for all privacy matters: hello@picturematters.in.

2. Information we collect

• Uploaded images (temporary) — images you submit for analysis. They are stored in a server-side temporary directory only for the duration of processing and expire automatically within 15 minutes. The assembled original is deleted immediately after the report is created; a small thumbnail remains until expiry so the report page can display it.
• Report data (temporary) — the analysis results are stored as a JSON report alongside the thumbnail and expire on the same 15-minute cycle. Nothing about your image is retained after expiry: no archives, no backups, no database.
• Rate-limit data (ephemeral) — to prevent abuse, a truncated hash prefix of an uploaded file may be kept for up to 60 seconds to throttle repeated identical submissions. It contains nothing that identifies you or reconstructs the image.
• Server logs — like virtually all web servers, the hosting environment may keep standard access logs (URLs requested, timestamps, IP addresses, user agent) for operational and security purposes. We do not add image content, GPS data or report contents to logs; log retention is determined by our hosting/logging configuration.
• Local browser storage — your recent-scan list and theme preference are stored in your browser's localStorage only. This data never leaves your device and is not transmitted to us. Clearing it (history drawer → Clear, or your browser settings) removes it entirely.
• Usage analytics (Google Analytics 4) — public pages measure aggregate traffic through Google Analytics 4: pages viewed, scrolls and outbound-link clicks, approximate region (city level at most), device/browser type and referrer. Google states that Analytics 4 does not log or store individual IP addresses. Analytics loads with all consent signals denied by default (section 5), so until consent is granted it runs in cookieless mode without analytics cookies. It never receives uploaded images, analysis results or report addresses — those pages carry no measurement code.

3. What we do not collect

• No names, email addresses or account data — there are no accounts.
• No payment information — the service is free.
• No permanent record of uploaded images or generated reports.
• No report addresses, report tokens or analysis results disclosed to analytics or advertising providers.
• No selling or sharing of personal data with data brokers. Ever.

4. Cookies

First-party cookies: the consent choice only. PictureMatters sets just one pair of functional first-party cookies (pm-consent/pm-consent-a) that remember your consent choice for 395 days; your theme choice and scan history use browser localStorage, which is not a cookie and is not transmitted to the server.

Google Analytics cookies (consent-gated). When consent for analytics is granted (see section 5), Google Analytics 4 may set first-party analytics cookies such as _ga and _ga_* to distinguish visits and measure aggregate usage. Until such consent is granted, analytics runs in cookieless mode and no analytics cookies are set.

Third-party advertising cookies. Google AdSense and its certified partners may set cookies — including the Google AdSense cookie — in your browser to serve and measure ads. These cookies allow Google, based on your prior visits to this and other websites, to show ads that may be more relevant to you. Visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland receive non-personalized advertising until a consent choice is offered and granted (see section 5). You can disable advertising personalization at any time; see "Your choices" below and section 10.

5. Analytics & advertising

Analytics — Google Analytics 4

Public pages use Google Analytics 4 (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC) to understand aggregate traffic — which pages are read, where visitors arrive from and what devices are used — so the documentation and tools can be improved.

• What it measures. Standard interaction data: page views, scrolls, outbound-link clicks and similar aggregate events, plus approximate region, device/browser category and referrer.
• What it never receives. Uploaded images, analysis results, GPS/place lookups, or the temporary addresses of private reports — the report page carries no measurement code by design.
• Consent first. The tag loads with Google Consent Mode v2 defaults set to denied for analytics storage. For visitors who have not granted consent, Google processes cookieless pings without setting analytics cookies and without personalized measurement. An on-site consent banner (Accept / Reject) is shown until a choice is made, and the choice is honored on every visit — no analytics cookies are set unless you accept analytics.
• Google's role. Google acts as our processor for this measurement; its use of the data is governed by Google's Privacy & Terms and the Google Analytics Terms of Service.

Your analytics choices. You can install Google's official opt-out browser add-on, decline consent when prompted, or block googletagmanager.com and google-analytics.com in your browser or blocker — the analysis tool works fully without it.

Advertising — Google AdSense

This site is supported by advertisements served through Google AdSense (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC). Advertising keeps the analysis tool and all guides free.

• Third-party vendors and cookies. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this and other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.
• What the cookies do. Advertising cookies support the delivery of ads, frequency capping (so you are not shown the same ad repeatedly), fraud prevention, and aggregated measurement of ad performance. They do not give us or advertisers access to the contents of your uploaded images, which are processed separately and never shared (see sections 2 and 7).
• Consent model. Advertising consent signals are denied by default in the EEA, UK and Switzerland — visitors there receive non-personalized advertising unless they grant ad consent via the on-site consent banner. Elsewhere, advertising runs with personalization enabled and ad cookies may be set; anyone can switch this off at any time via the choices below.
• Partner policies. Google's use of advertising data is subject to Google's Privacy & Terms and the AdSense program's partner guidelines.

Your choices. You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings, and opt out of third-party vendor cookies for personalized advertising at aboutads.info. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings; the site's analysis tool works without advertising cookies.

6. Third-party services

• OpenStreetMap Nominatim — for images with GPS data, the server may query this free geocoding service to display an approximate place name. The query contains only the coordinates, not the image or any identifier of you. Queries are rounded and cached to keep request volume minimal, per Nominatim's usage policy. Place data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
• Google Analytics 4 — aggregate traffic measurement on public pages (script served from googletagmanager.com, measurement sent to google-analytics.com), consent-gated as described in section 5.
• Google AdSense — advertising vendor on public pages; its cookies, our consent model and your opt-out choices are described in section 5.

Self-hosted resources. Typography (fonts), the HEIC/AVIF conversion library and all other scripts and styles are served from our own domain. Your browser is not asked to load site resources from any third-party origin.

7. Uploaded images: processing & storage policy

• Uploads travel in encrypted transit (HTTPS) and are processed on the server solely to generate your report.
• Storage is access-restricted (randomized names, owner-only permissions, no direct web access, PHP execution disabled).
• Report URLs are unlisted, unpredictable, noindexed, and expire with the report.
• We do not view, use, publish or share your images. There is no human review pipeline.

8. Data retention summary

9. Security

The technical measures protecting uploads — token randomization, permissions, directory protection, output escaping — are documented in detail on the Security page.

10. Your rights & choices

• Access & deletion — since we retain no personal data and your uploads self-delete within minutes, there is ordinarily nothing to request. If you believe data about you exists beyond that (e.g., in logs), email us and we will address it.
• Browser data — clear your scan history from the history drawer, or via your browser's site-data settings.
• Analytics choices — decline analytics in the consent banner (or with Google's opt-out browser add-on, or by blocking googletagmanager.com / google-analytics.com in your browser). Analytics is consent-gated: declining consent keeps it cookieless. Deleting the site's pm-consent cookies in your browser reopens the banner so you can change your mind.
• Advertising choices — opt out of Google's personalized ads via Google Ads Settings and industry opt-outs at aboutads.info. Visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland receive non-personalized advertising unless they grant ad consent via the consent banner. Deleting cookies in your browser resets these choices.
• Minimize exposure — remove sensitive metadata before sharing files anywhere; see our guide to removing EXIF.
• If a privacy authority's rules apply to your use of the site and you have questions, contact us at the address above.

11. Children

The service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. There is no registration pathway that would allow it. We do not serve personalized advertising to users known to be under the age of digital consent in their jurisdiction, consistent with Google's advertising policies and applicable laws such as COPPA and GDPR.

12. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new "last updated" date. Significant changes will be highlighted on the homepage for a reasonable period.