Privacy Policy

Last updated: 25 October 2026

PhotoCommunity is a community for people who love photography. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use PhotoCommunity, why, where it is kept and the choices you have. What you agree to when you use PhotoCommunity, including that you keep the rights to what you share, is in our Terms of Use.

What we collect

When you sign in with Google or Apple

You join and sign in to PhotoCommunity with your Google or Apple account. With your consent, the one you use shares with us:

With Apple you can choose Hide My Email: we then get a private relay address from Apple that forwards to you, and never see your real one.

If your Google and Apple accounts share the same verified email address, they sign in to the same PhotoCommunity account. Your name and picture on PhotoCommunity are the ones from the account you signed in with most recently. For Apple, we also keep a token Apple gives us, used only to end PhotoCommunity's access to your Apple account when you delete your account.

We never see your Google or Apple password. We don't ask for access to your Gmail, contacts, Drive or other Google data, or your iCloud or other Apple data, and we never post anything on your behalf.

Account activity

We record when your account was created and when you last signed in.

Photo walks

When you organise a photo walk, its title, plan, time and meeting point (name and pin on the map) are shown to members, and your followers are told about it. When you join one, other members can see that you're going. Walks go with your account; members you blocked (or who blocked you) don't see your walks. Meeting other people is up to you: walks are organised by members, not by PhotoCommunity.

Insights

When a signed-in member opens one of your photos, we add one to that photo's view count for the day. We don't record who viewed it, and your own views don't count. Only you can see your insights; daily counts go when the photo is deleted.

Feedback on photos

If you ask for feedback on a photo, the ratings and comments other members give are visible only to you (each giver also sees their own). Others only see how many members gave feedback. You can remove any of it.

Search and tags

Other members can find you by your name in search, and find your photos by their titles, descriptions and tags. Explore suggests members with photos to follow. Only what members could already see is ever shown.

Members you follow or block

We keep a list of the members you follow, so their photos and posts appear in your Following tabs. Members can see how many followers you have and how many members you follow, but not who they are. We also keep the list of members you block, which only you can see; blocked members aren't told.

Activity

To show you notifications (likes, comments, new followers, news from members you follow and photo challenges), we record what happened, who did it and when you read it, and which kinds you switched off. Notifications are deleted after 90 days.

Admins

A few PhotoCommunity admins look after the community. To do that they can see members' names, email addresses, join and last sign-in dates and how much they've shared, and they can suspend accounts that break the Terms of Use. We record when an account was suspended and why.

Technical logs

To keep PhotoCommunity running and secure, our servers write technical logs: for example, the page or API address requested, error details, and sign-in events with your PhotoCommunity user ID. Logs don't contain your password or sign-in tokens.

Photos you share

A PhotoCommunity admin looks at each photo you upload before it appears in the gallery; until it's approved only you and the admins can see it, and if it isn't approved, the admin's reason is shown only to you. Approved photos, with their titles, descriptions, likes and comments, are visible to other signed-in PhotoCommunity members, unless you choose to feature a photo on the home page (see below). We read the camera settings stored in your photo (camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and the date it was taken), show them on the photo page and let members search the gallery by them.

If you enter a photo in a photo challenge, other members can see it in that challenge with its votes and place, and a win is shown on your member page.

If you tick Show on the PhotoCommunity home page for a photo, that photo, its title and your name appear in the slideshow on our public home page, where anyone can see them without signing in. It's off by default and you can turn it off at any time by editing the photo.

We never store your original file. We save a resized copy with all hidden metadata removed, so the location where a photo was taken is never kept or shared. The image files are served from a public address: anyone who is given the direct link to an image can view it, even without signing in.

Your public portfolio

If you switch on My portfolio, anyone with its address (/p/your-name) can see it, without signing in: your name and profile picture, the photos you choose for it with their titles and descriptions, and the bio, website, Instagram name and contact email you fill in. Search engines and link previews may pick it up. It's off until you switch it on, you can turn it off at any time, and photos hidden by moderation or waiting for approval never appear on it.

Before and after

If you add an unedited version of a photo, it's shown wherever the photo is, with a slider to compare. It's processed like any upload (location and camera data removed) and deleted with the photo.

Golden hour

Sunrise, sunset and golden-hour times for photo walks and photo places are worked out on our server or your device from the place's position. Nothing is sent to anyone else.

Collections

Collections you make, and which photos you save to them, are private unless you make a collection public, in which case other members can see it on your member page. Saving someone's photo doesn't tell them.

Blog posts and comments

Blog posts you publish, and comments you write on posts, are visible to other signed-in members. Drafts are visible only to you. When you submit a new post, a PhotoCommunity admin reads it before it's published; until then only you and the admins can see it, and if it isn't approved, the admin's reason is shown only to you. Photos in your posts come from your own gallery.

Places you've been

On My places you can pin places you've visited, each with a name, an optional date and optional notes. You add them yourself: we never take them from your photos. Your places are private: only you can see them, and they don't appear on your profile, your blog or anywhere else on PhotoCommunity, with one exception you choose: if you say where one of your photos was taken, that place's name and pin are shown with the photo and on the Spots map to members who can see the photo. Its notes and date stay private, and so do your other places. Remove the place from the photo (or delete the photo or the place) to take it off the map.

The map is drawn by OpenStreetMap, so your browser loads map images from their servers, which see your IP address and the area you're viewing. When you search for a place, or click the map and we suggest a name, what you typed or the point you clicked is sent to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service. Nothing about your account is sent. See the OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy.

In the PhotoCommunity app for iPhone and iPad, the map is Apple Maps instead, and place searches and suggested names use Apple's location services, under Apple's privacy policy. In the Android app they are provided by Google Maps and Android's location services, under Google's privacy policy. The apps only use the camera or your photo library when you choose to share a photo, and only the photo you pick is uploaded.

Light forecasts. When you open one of your places, or switch on light-forecast alerts for it, PhotoCommunity asks Open-Meteo for the cloud and rain forecast there. Only the place's position, rounded to about 1 km, is sent: never its name, your notes or anything about your account. We keep the forecast for an hour, and remember only which days we sent you an alert (for a week), so you don't get the same one twice.

Directions to a photo walk. If you choose Directions on a walk's page, the website opens Google Maps, and the app your phone's own maps app, with the walk's meeting point as the destination. That service works out the route from your device's location, under its own privacy policy. PhotoCommunity only passes the meeting point, and never sees or stores where you are.

Camera clubs

If you start or join a club, we store the club's details (name, city, description and, if you choose one, an area taken from one of your places and rounded to about 1 km), who its members are and their roles, and which of your photos you shared to it. The club's page, its members and the photos shared to it can be seen by any signed-in member who can see the club; photos stay as visible as they already are. Club walks, meeting point included, are shown only to the club's members. Leaving a club takes your photos out of its feed. In the app, Near me in the club directory uses your phone's approximate location only when you tap it, rounded to about 1 km before it's sent, to list clubs nearby; it isn't stored.

Email notifications

If you switch on email notifications in your account settings (or the app), we store the email address you choose, how often you want emails (as soon as a post is published, daily or weekly) and when we last emailed you. If it isn't the verified address you signed in with, we first send it a confirmation link and email nothing else until you click it. We use it only to tell you about new blog posts on PhotoCommunity and, if you switch on the weekly summary, to send you once a week the number of views, likes, comments, feedback and new followers your photos got, and photo walks coming up from people you follow and your clubs. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can switch notifications off or change the address at any time. The emails are delivered by our email service provider, which processes the address and the email only to send it.

How we use it

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.

Cookies

PhotoCommunity only uses cookies that are necessary for the site to work:

If you allow preferences, we also remember your light, dark or automatic theme in your browser's storage (pw-theme). If you don't, it lasts until you close the browser. Change this any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page.

We don't use analytics or advertising cookies.

Where your data is stored

Your account information, photos and our logs are stored by Supabase in the London (eu-west-2) region. Sign-in is provided by Google, under Google's privacy policy, and by Apple, under Apple's privacy policy.

How long we keep it

Your choices and rights

You can delete your account, with all your photos, places, notification settings, likes and comments, at any time from Account settings on your member page. It takes effect immediately, and if you used Sign in with Apple we also end PhotoCommunity's access to your Apple account. You can also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it. You can also withdraw PhotoCommunity's access at any time from your Google account settings or your Apple Account (Sign in with Apple). If you live in the UK or EU, you can also complain to your data protection authority.

Children

PhotoCommunity is not intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions or requests about your data: [email protected].