Privacy Policy
Vantage is built privacy-first: your culling runs on your own computer, and your photos only ever leave your device if you choose to back them up or share a gallery. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your rights.
Who we are
Vantage is operated by Vantage Enterprises Ltd ("we", "us"), a company registered in England and Wales (company no. 17334160) and the parent company of Harry Moores Media. For any privacy question or to exercise your rights, contact support@vantagecull.com. We are the data controller for the personal data described below.
What we collect
| Data | Why | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Email address & password (stored only as a salted hash — we never see your password) | To create and secure your account | Our licensing server (UK/EU AWS) |
| Subscription & billing status | To give you the right access and manage your plan | Our server + Stripe |
| Payment card details | To take payment | Handled entirely by Stripe — we never receive or store your card number |
| Photos you upload for cloud backup or client galleries | Only if you choose to back up a shoot or share a gallery | Encrypted cloud storage (Backblaze B2 / AWS) |
| Basic support correspondence | To answer your support tickets | Our server |
Local by default. The core culling, scoring and editing all happen on your own machine. Photos are not sent to us for AI processing. They only reach our storage when you explicitly upload a backup or create a shareable gallery.
What we do not do
- We do not sell or rent your personal data to anyone.
- We do not use your photos to train AI models.
- We do not send marketing email — our messages are transactional only (login codes, support replies).
- We do not run advertising or tracking cookies on our site unless you agree to them — see “Advertising and remarketing” below. If you decline, or ignore the banner, nothing is loaded and nothing is sent.
Cookies & local storage
Our own measurement uses no cookies at all (see “Website measurement”). The only cookies that can be set on this site are Meta advertising cookies, and only if you press “Allow” on the banner. The app and account area store a session token in your browser/app’s local storage purely to keep you signed in — that’s essential to the service functioning and is not used to track you.
Website measurement
So we know which pages are useful and where visitors come from, we count page views and clicks on our own servers. We record the page path, the domain of the site that linked you (never the full URL), a coarse platform label such as “mac” or “windows”, and any campaign tag in the link you followed. We store a random identifier in your browser's local storage so repeat visits count as one visitor — it is not a cookie, it is never shared, and it cannot be linked to your identity.
We do not record your IP address, your full user-agent, or anything you type. This measurement involves no third party and never leaves our own servers. Clearing your browser storage resets the identifier. Client delivery galleries carry no measurement and no advertising cookies at all — if you are viewing a gallery a photographer sent you, nothing on that page reports anything about you to anyone.
Advertising and remarketing
We advertise Vantage on Facebook and Instagram. To find out whether those ads actually bring photographers to us, we can load the Meta pixel — a piece of Meta’s code that sets cookies and tells Meta that a browser visited a page here, along with your IP address and which pages you looked at.
It only loads if you press “Allow” on the cookie banner. Until you do, and permanently if you decline, no Meta code is loaded and nothing about your visit is sent to Meta. There is no penalty for declining — every part of the site works identically either way.
If you allow it and later change your mind, clear this site’s data in your browser and the banner will ask again. Meta acts as an independent controller for the data it receives; their handling of it is covered by Meta’s own privacy policy. We never send Meta your email address, your name, your photographs or anything you have typed.
The Meta pixel is not loaded on client delivery galleries under any circumstances.
Who we share data with (processors)
- Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing.
- Meta (Facebook/Instagram) — advertising measurement, only where you have consented to advertising cookies.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) — hosting our servers and sending transactional email (SES).
- Backblaze B2 / AWS S3 — storage of any shoots or galleries you choose to upload.
- Google Cloud (Europe) — the iPhone app's optional pro-mode scoring server; reduced-size copies are processed in memory and deleted before the answer is returned.
- Firebase (Google) — anonymous sign-in and anonymous usage/crash reports for the iPhone app, which you can switch off in the app.
Each acts as a processor under contract and only handles the data needed to provide their service.
How long we keep it
We keep your account data for as long as your account is open. Uploaded shoots and galleries are kept until you delete them or close your account. If you close your account, we delete your personal data and uploaded content within 30 days, except where we must retain limited billing records to meet legal and tax obligations.
Your rights (UK GDPR)
You have the right to access, correct, delete, export, or restrict the processing of your personal data, and to object to processing. To exercise any of these, email support@vantagecull.com and we'll respond within one month. You can also delete your account and its data from within the app. If you believe we've mishandled your data, you may complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
Security
Connections are encrypted with TLS, passwords are stored only as salted hashes, and accounts can use email two-factor authentication. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data.
Vantage for iPhone
The iPhone app is built around the same principle as the desktop app: your photos stay yours. This section covers what is different on the phone.
What the app reads. Vantage reads your photo library on your phone to sort it. It never reads contacts, location history, messages or anything else.
What leaves your phone. Nothing, for everyday use. Scanning, scoring, blur and duplicate detection all run on your iPhone using Apple's on-device image analysis. The only exception is the optional "Pro modes" for photographers (off by default): those send a reduced-size copy (at most 2048 pixels on the long edge) to our scoring server on Google Cloud in Europe (London / Belgium), which scores it and deletes it before the answer is returned. Copies are never written to permanent storage, never used to train anything, and never seen by a person.
What comes back and stays. Only scores and tags (for example "blurry", "duplicate", "people", "document") come back. They are stored on your phone so a photo never has to be checked twice. Nothing about your photos is stored on our servers.
Deleting and shrinking photos. Vantage never deletes anything on its own. Every deletion is a button you press, and deleted photos go to your phone's Recently Deleted album for 30 days. The optional "Free up space" tools re-save oversized photos and videos in smaller formats; the new copy keeps the original's date, location and favourite flag, and the original goes to Recently Deleted for 30 days so you can get it back. Photo fixes (light, colour, straightening) are saved as edits in Photos and can be reverted there.
Your account. None needed. The app signs in anonymously so that pro-mode requests can be rate-limited. You can optionally add an account (email and password, or Sign in with Apple) so a subscription follows you to a new phone; then we store that email address and nothing else about you. Sign in with Apple lets you hide your email. You can delete the account at any time from Settings › Account in the app, which removes your email from our systems.
Subscriptions. Payment is handled entirely by Apple. We never see your card details.
Notifications and background work. If you turn on the weekly "photo of the week" or monthly clean-up reminder, the app schedules it locally on the phone; no push server is involved. The app may score new photos while your phone is idle; the same rules above apply.
Crash and usage data. The app sends anonymous usage and crash reports through Firebase (Google) so we can see which screens get used, how long scans take, and when the app crashes. This never includes a photo, a file name, a location or your email; the only identifier is a random account id. You can turn it off any time in Settings → Privacy → "Share anonymous usage and crash reports".
Changes
We may update this policy as the product evolves. We'll change the "last updated" date above, and for significant changes we'll notify you in the app or by email.