Privacy policy
Effective August 19, 2026. Tiny Photo Books is operated by Runbear, Inc., 128 King St., San Francisco, CA 94107 ("Runbear," "we," "us"). Plain language, legally binding. If anything here ever conflicts with our marketing, this page wins.
1. Scope
This policy covers tinyphotobooks.com, the Tiny Photo Books iOS app, and every email we send you. By using any of them, you agree to it. It does not cover third-party services we link to (like Stripe's checkout), which have their own policies.
2. What we collect
Before launch, only what you give us at signup: your email address, the ad campaign that brought you here (UTM parameters), your country, and the referring page.
Once the service launches, additionally:
- Photos of the people you pick. Face matching runs on your iPhone using the photo groups your phone already maintains. Any photo that does not match the faces you selected is never stored on our servers — if one reaches us in transit, it is discarded immediately.
- Photo metadata (capture date and, if present, location) — used only to order and lay out your book, never to build a location profile.
- Account and shipping details: your name, email, and mailing address.
- Payment details, held by Stripe, our payment processor. We never see or store your card number; we receive only the subscription status and the last four digits.
- Device and usage data: iOS version, app version, upload logs, and crash reports — the minimum needed to keep uploads working.
- Support communications when you email us.
Cookies and analytics. The website uses privacy-preserving, cookieless analytics (page views and referrers, no cross-site tracking, no advertising identifiers). We do not use third-party advertising cookies or sell data to data brokers.
3. How we use your information
- To make and mail your books — the entire point of the service
- To email you previews, renewal reminders, shipping notices, and (until you unsubscribe) launch updates
- To provide support when you contact us
- To keep the service secure, prevent fraud and abuse, and debug failures
- To comply with law, and to enforce these terms
4. Your photos, specifically
We use your photos to lay out and print your books. That is the complete list. Specifically, and bindingly:
- Never used to train AI or machine-learning models — ours or anyone else's
- Never sold, licensed, shared for advertising, or used in our own marketing without your separate, explicit, written permission
- Never viewed by a human except where required to resolve a support issue you raise, and then only the minimum necessary
5. Who we share data with
Only the processors required to run the product, each bound by contract to use the data solely to provide their service to us:
- Stripe — payments and subscription billing
- Our print partner — receives only the final book file and your shipping address for the copies you ordered, prints and ships, and does not retain either
- Email and infrastructure providers — message delivery and encrypted storage
Beyond that, we disclose data only: to comply with a valid legal request (we'll tell you unless legally barred); to protect the rights, safety, or property of you, us, or others; as part of a merger or acquisition (your photos stay bound by this policy's promises, and we'll notify you before any change takes effect); or with your explicit consent. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising — ours or anyone else's.
6. Retention and deletion
- We hold photos only as long as needed to produce your books, plus a short operational buffer.
- If you cancel, every photo we hold is deleted within 30 days. No archive, no "deactivated" limbo.
- Account and billing records are kept as long as your account exists, then as long as tax and accounting law requires.
- You can request deletion of everything — photos, account, email — at any time; we complete it within 30 days.
7. Security
Photos and personal data are encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest, access is limited to what operating the service requires and is logged, and we use industry-standard technical and organizational measures. No system is impenetrable, and we won't pretend ours is — if a breach affects your data, we will notify you promptly and tell you what happened, what was affected, and what we're doing about it.
8. Children
Accounts are for adults (18+). Your kids' photos are processed only at your direction, to make your books — that's the product. Children can't create accounts, we never contact or profile them, and we collect no data from children. If you believe a child has given us data directly, email us and we'll delete it.
9. International transfers
We're a US company and process data in the United States. Where data comes from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or an applicable adequacy decision, and your photos keep every protection in this policy wherever they're processed.
10. Your rights and choices
Everyone, regardless of jurisdiction: ask what we hold about you, export it, correct it, or delete it — email [email protected] and a founder will handle it within 30 days. Every marketing email has a one-click unsubscribe; transactional emails (previews, renewal reminders, shipping) continue while you subscribe because the service doesn't work without them.
EEA and UK residents additionally have their GDPR rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, objection, withdrawal of consent at any time, and complaint to your supervisory authority (in the UK, the ICO). Our legal bases are performance of contract (making your books), legitimate interests (security, support), and consent (marketing emails).
California residents have their CCPA/CPRA rights: to know the categories we collect (listed in section 2), to access, delete, and correct, to opt out of sale or sharing — we do not sell or share personal information — to limit use of sensitive personal information (we use photos only as described in section 4), and to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights. Requests via the email above; we verify by matching your account email.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll email you before the change takes effect — never after — and the effective date at the top will change. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the update. We will never retroactively weaken the photo promises in section 4.
12. Contact
[email protected] — a founder reads every email. Or reach Runbear, Inc. directly: [email protected], 128 King St., San Francisco, CA 94107.