Terms of Service

"Service" or "PhotoCull"

The web-based application for organizing and managing photos using AI-powered technologies, available at photocull.com

"User" or "You"

Any person who creates an account and uses the PhotoCull service

"Content"

All photos, images, text, tags and other data that you upload or create through the service

Eligibility to Use

You are eligible to use PhotoCull if you:

• • Are at least 16 years old
• • Have legal capacity to enter into binding contracts
• • Comply with these Terms and applicable law
• • Have a valid Google account for registration

Account Responsibility

You are responsible for the security of your account and all activities under your account. Please notify us immediately of any suspicious activities.

Ownership Rights

You retain all ownership rights to your uploaded content. PhotoCull claims no ownership rights to your photos or other content.

License to PhotoCull

You grant PhotoCull a limited, non-exclusive license to process your content, solely for the purpose of providing the service:

• • Storage and display of your photos (local IndexedDB for free users, cloud storage for paid users)
• • Smart Insights: AI analysis through Azure Computer Vision API (only with your explicit consent)
• • Duplicate detection and quality assessment using local algorithms
• • Providing search and filter functions based on generated metadata
• • Automatic categorization and tagging for organization purposes
• • Data export and backup services

Prohibited Uses and Content Restrictions

You agree NOT to use PhotoCull for uploading, processing, or storing:

• • Inappropriate Content: Nude, pornographic, or sexually explicit images
• • Illegal Content: Any content that violates applicable laws or regulations
• • Harmful Content: Images depicting violence, harm to minors, or illegal activities
• • Impersonation: Creating or manipulating images to impersonate others without consent
• • Privacy Violations: Processing images of individuals without proper rights or consent
• • Copyright Infringement: Using copyrighted material without authorization
• • System Abuse: Attempting to overload, hack, or compromise our service infrastructure
• • Commercial Misuse: Reselling or redistributing our service without authorization

Enforcement: We reserve the right to immediately suspend or terminate accounts that violate these restrictions and to report illegal content to appropriate authorities.

Protecting your privacy is important to us. Detailed information about data processing can be found in our Privacy Policy.

Key Points:

• • Free users: Photos stored locally in browser (IndexedDB), 1GB limit
• • Paid users: Hybrid storage with local cache and EU cloud backup (Supabase Storage)
• • Guest users: Photos stored locally for 24 hours, then automatically deleted
• • Smart Insights AI analysis: Only with your explicit consent, processed via Azure Computer Vision
• • No sharing of your data with third parties except necessary service providers (Stripe, Supabase, Microsoft Azure)
• • Comprehensive data export: JSON metadata or complete ZIP backup
• • Account deletion: 6-step process removing all data from all systems
• • Admin users: May have access to system-wide features for service management

Enhanced Liability Limitations

AI and Smart Insights Accuracy

Smart Insights uses AI-powered analysis to categorize and tag photos. While we strive for accuracy, AI analysis may not always be perfect. We do not guarantee the accuracy of AI-generated tags, categories, or insights.

Data Loss and Backup

Although we take reasonable security measures, we recommend that you create regular backups of your important photos using our export function. We assume no liability for data loss due to technical problems, user errors, or service interruptions.

Service Limitations

Our service has technical limitations including file size limits, supported formats, and processing timeouts. We may also implement usage quotas and rate limiting to ensure fair use of the service.

We shall not be liable for any failure to perform our obligations under these Terms if such failure results from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to: acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, labor disputes, government actions, internet outages, third-party service failures, or other unforeseeable events. During such events, we will make reasonable efforts to restore service as quickly as possible.

Termination by You

You can delete your account at any time through your account settings. We recommend exporting your data before deletion as this process is irreversible.

Account Deletion Process:

1. 1. User authentication verification
2. 2. Stripe subscription cancellation and customer deletion
3. 3. Cloud storage file deletion (paid users)
4. 4. Database record removal
5. 5. Authentication account deletion
6. 6. Local data cleanup and logout

This comprehensive deletion process ensures GDPR compliance and removes all your data from all systems within our control.

Termination by Us

We may suspend or terminate your account for:

• • Violation of these Terms
• • Uploading illegal or harmful content
• • Abuse of the service or disruption of other users
• • Prolonged payment arrears
• • Exceeding usage quotas through automated means

Admin Users

Certain users may be designated as administrators for service management purposes. Admin users have:

• • Unlimited access to all features for testing and support
• • Ability to simulate different subscription plans
• • Access to system-wide monitoring and analytics
• • Responsibility to maintain user privacy and data protection

We may change these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will notify you at least 30 days in advance by email or through the app.

If you do not agree to the changes, you can cancel your account before the changes take effect.

These Terms are governed by German law, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Jurisdiction is, insofar as legally permissible, the location of our company's headquarters.

Should individual provisions of these Terms be invalid, this does not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.

If you have questions about these Terms or the service, you can contact us: