Privacy policy

Who we are

This policy covers Self-Portrait Project, LLC and Selfportraitp, Inc. (together, “SPP,” “we,” “us”) — our website, the Living Archive, our studio, and the mirrors we install and bring to events. It explains what we collect, why, and the choices you control. Questions can go to hello@selfportraitproject.com.

What we collect

We try to collect as little as possible, and only what a specific purpose needs:

• The portrait you make. The image you author at the mirror or in the studio, plus basic details about how and where it was made — such as the event or venue and the date.
• How to reach you. If you want your photos, you give a phone number or email at the mirror so we can send them to you. If you contact us or book a session, we keep what you send.
• Basic site data. Like most websites, our host keeps standard technical logs (for example, IP address and browser type) to keep the site running and secure. We don’t use these to build advertising profiles.

The only facial recognition we run is the opt-in search you start yourself to find your own photos. If you opt in, we keep your faceprint — held securely, used only to find you and no one else, never to identify, monitor, or track other people, and deletable at any time (see “Finding your photos” below). We don’t knowingly collect more sensitive information than the situation calls for.

How we use what we collect

We use your information to deliver your photos, to operate and improve the archive and our services, to respond to you, and to meet legal obligations. We use the portrait itself only in the ways you’ve agreed to — see “Your consent and your control” below.

Cookies and analytics

Our website does not use advertising cookies or cross-site tracking. To understand how the site is used, we rely on privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics that count visits and page views without cookies, without a persistent identifier, and without collecting personal information about you. Some features you choose to use — such as booking a session through our scheduling partner, Cal.com — may set functional cookies needed to provide that feature when you open it.

Your consent and your control

The project runs on consent, and here consent is specific and reversible:

• Private by default. Making a portrait public — visible in the Living Archive — is a separate, opt-in choice. If you don’t opt in, your portrait isn’t published.
• AI is a separate yes. Allowing your portrait to be used in any AI-assisted work is its own opt-in, distinct from making it public.
• You can change your mind. You can make a portrait private again, withdraw AI permission, or ask us to remove your portrait — and the data used to deliver it — at any time.

For exactly what we will and won’t do with AI, and what we never allow outside companies to do, see our AI policy.

Finding your photos, and facial recognition

We deliver your photos using the phone number or email you enter at the mirror. If we can’t reach you that way — or you’d rather — you can start an opt-in facial search to find your own photos across every activation you’ve attended, so you can gather all your portraits in one place and decide what happens to them: keep them private, add them to the public archive, or delete them from our backend. Here is exactly how it works: you take a live selfie, we turn it into a numeric faceprint, match it against your past activations, and show you only your own high-confidence matches. If you opt in, we keep your faceprint so you can return and gather new portraits of yourself as they’re added — held with reasonable security under New York’s SHIELD Act, used only to find you, and never run unless you start it. It only ever finds you and no one else; it is never used to identify, monitor, or track other people, never sold, and never shared. We don’t run this feature for people captured in Illinois. You can delete your faceprint — which erases the template and the search data — and ask us to remove your portraits at any time. We may disclose information only where required by valid legal process — never for surveillance. Spot My Photos remains our photo-delivery and print partner.

When we share — and when we don’t

We do not sell your portrait or your personal information, and we don’t license your image to other companies. We share information only in a few limited ways:

• Service providers who help us run the project — delivery partners such as Spot My Photos and Majestic Photobooths, and our hosting and email tools — and only as needed to do that work.
• Legal reasons, if we’re required to by law, or to protect the safety and rights of the people involved.
• A change to the business, such as a merger or sale — in which case your choices and this policy travel with your information.

How long we keep it, and removal

We keep portraits and the information tied to them for as long as the archive needs them, and no longer than the law allows for records we’re required to retain. You can request removal of your portrait at any time; when you do, we take it out of public view and delete associated delivery data, keeping only what we’re legally required to.

Children

The project isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information without a parent or guardian’s involvement. Where a portrait involves a minor, we look for the appropriate consent. If you believe we have a child’s information in error, contact us and we’ll address it.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or limit the use of your personal information — including rights under California law. To exercise any of them, or to ask how your information is handled, write to us and we’ll help.

Security

We use reasonable safeguards to protect your information, and we design the system so the most sensitive choice — whether your portrait is seen at all — stays in your hands. No system is perfectly secure, but consent is the backbone of ours.

Changes, and how to reach us

If we update this policy, we’ll change the date below and, for meaningful changes, do our best to tell you. To ask us anything about your privacy or your portrait, write to hello@selfportraitproject.com.