Privacy policy

Who we are

Softserve is run by [business name] (“we”). You can contact us at [contact email]. Photographers use Softserve to deliver photos to their clients through private gallery links.

Photographers and their clients

If you're a photographer, we look after your account details, and you decide what goes in your galleries.

If you're viewing a gallery, or you appear in one, the photographer who sent you the link is responsible for those photos. We store and deliver them on the photographer's behalf. Questions about the photos themselves are best sent to the photographer, or use “Report a problem” at the bottom of the gallery.

What we store

• Photographer accounts: your email address and password (stored scrambled, so nobody can read it).
• Galleries: the photos photographers upload, their file names, and gallery settings such as layout, expiry date and an optional password (also stored scrambled).
• Downloads: when someone saves photos from a gallery, we record how many, which size, whether it was a phone or computer, and when. We don't record who it was.
• Reports: anything you write in “Report a problem”, and your email address if you choose to give it.

Gallery visitors don't need an account, and we don't ask for their names or email addresses. We use your IP address briefly to stop abuse (limiting how many requests one visitor can make), but we don't store it.

Where it's stored

• Photos: Cloudflare R2, set so that they're stored and processed inside the European Union.
• Accounts, gallery details and download records: Supabase, in London (UK).
• The website itself runs on Cloudflare's network.

These companies only process data to run Softserve for us. We don't sell data or use it for advertising.

How long we keep it

• Photos and galleries stay until the photographer deletes them, or until we're asked to remove them.
• Deleted photos and galleries wait 14 days (so mistakes can be undone), then they're removed for good.
• Download records are removed along with their gallery.
• Photographer accounts are kept until the photographer asks us to close them.

Cookies

We only use cookies that the site needs to work:

• A login cookie for photographers, so you stay logged in.
• A gallery cookie after you enter a gallery's password, so you don't have to type it again (lasts 30 days).

There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

Photos of children

Galleries can include photos of children. Photographers must have permission from a parent or guardian to take and share those photos. Gallery links are private, can't be found by search engines, and can be protected with a password.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR) you can ask us for a copy of the data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Contact us at [contact email]. If you're in a photo and want it removed, contact the photographer or use “Report a problem” in the gallery, and we'll pass it on.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.