Legal

Phototology Terms of Service

Effective Date: April 13, 2026 Last Updated: April 13, 2026

Summary

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Phototology ("the Service," "we," "us," "our"), an AI-powered image analysis platform operated by Foreverized, LLC. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

Key points:

You must be 18+ to use the Service
You must have the right to upload the photos you submit
You may not use the Service for surveillance or tracking individuals
No illegal content, CSAM, or harassment
1 credit = $0.01; credits expire 12 months from date of grant or purchase
AI analysis results are provided "as-is" — we are not liable for accuracy
We may terminate accounts that violate these Terms

Eligibility
Your Account
The Service 3A. AI System Disclosures (EU AI Act)
Credits and Billing
Your Content
Acceptable Use Policy
Prohibited Uses
Content Moderation
Intellectual Property
DMCA Policy
Disclaimer of Warranties
Limitation of Liability
Indemnification
Account Termination
Dispute Resolution
General Provisions
Contact Us

1. Eligibility

To use Phototology, you must:

Be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, whichever is greater)
Have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement
Not be prohibited from using the Service under applicable law
Not have had an account previously terminated for violating these Terms

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. Your Account

Account creation

You may create an account using email and password or through a supported OAuth provider (GitHub, Google). You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials.

Account security

You must:

Use a strong, unique password
Not share your account credentials with others
Notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized access
Not create multiple accounts to circumvent rate limits, abuse free credits, or evade enforcement actions

You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

API keys

If you use the API, your API keys are account credentials. Treat them with the same care as your password. Do not embed API keys in client-side code or public repositories. We are not liable for unauthorized use of compromised API keys.

3. The Service

What Phototology does

Phototology is an AI-powered image analysis platform. You upload photographs, select analysis lenses, and receive structured metadata including date estimation, people detection, geolocation, condition assessment, atmosphere analysis, content moderation, and narrative descriptions. Analysis results can be embedded into image files as EXIF/IPTC/XMP metadata.

How the Service works

The Service is available through three channels:

Web UI (analyze.phototology.com): Interactive upload, lens selection, and results gallery
API (api.phototology.com): Programmatic access via API keys
Event Pipeline: Automated processing of photos from connected cloud storage

Service availability

We aim to provide reliable service but do not guarantee uninterrupted availability. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, provider outages, or circumstances beyond our control. We will make reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of planned maintenance.

3A. AI System Disclosures (EU AI Act)

Phototology is an AI system within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the "EU AI Act"). This section describes the transparency disclosures we make under Article 50 of that Regulation. These disclosures apply to all users; users and depicted persons in the European Union are expressly within scope. Article 50 enforcement begins 2 August 2026.

You are using an AI system

All analysis results on phototology.com, analyze.phototology.com, and api.phototology.com are produced by third-party AI models (Google Gemini, OpenAI GPT-4o, Anthropic Claude, and their successors) operating on photographs you upload. Results are probabilistic, not determinative. This disclosure is made under Article 50(1).

Synthetic and AI-generated content

Narrative descriptions, captions, atmosphere summaries, and any other natural-language outputs generated by our lenses are artificially generated. Under Article 50(2), these outputs must be detectable as AI-generated.

Before 2 August 2026, we will:

Mark AI-generated text in image metadata (EXIF/IPTC/XMP) with machine-readable AiGenerated indicators identifying the source model and lens
Include an ai_generated: true field on every lens response returned via the API
Attach C2PA content credentials to enriched images where the downstream format supports them

We do not modify the visible pixels of your photograph. Metadata marking and optional C2PA manifests are the only modifications we make to the file. Downstream editors that strip metadata may remove these markers; we recommend preserving metadata when re-exporting.

No biometric categorisation, emotion recognition, or deepfakes

The People lens detects the presence, count, and general demographics of people in photographs. It does not extract biometric identifiers, it does not create biometric templates, and it does not identify or recognise individuals. It is not a biometric categorisation system under Article 3 of the EU AI Act.

The Atmosphere lens scores the overall mood and aesthetic of a photograph. It does not infer the emotions or intentions of identifiable natural persons from their biometric data and is not an emotion recognition system under Article 3.

If you use the Service to attempt biometric categorisation, emotion recognition, or identification of individuals, you are acting as a deployer of a separately regulated AI system and assume the Article 50 disclosure obligations yourself. This use is prohibited by §7.

Deepfakes

The Service does not generate or manipulate visible image pixels and does not produce deepfakes within the meaning of Article 3(60) of the EU AI Act. If we introduce any feature that does, we will update this section and apply the Article 50(4) disclosure at the point of generation.

How disclosures are made in-product

When you open a lens that triggers Article 50(1), 50(2), or 50(3), we show an in-product notice before analysis runs. For Tier 2 People or any future emotion analysis of identifiable persons, the notice requires an affirmative acknowledgment that you have a lawful basis to process the depicted persons' data.

API customers (deployer obligations)

If you use the API to offer an AI-powered feature to your own end users, you act as a "deployer" under the EU AI Act and are independently responsible for Article 50 disclosures to those users. We require you to pass through the transparency obligations in this section and to retain AI-generated markers in your downstream processing.

Relationship to other law

These disclosures do not replace and are without prejudice to obligations under the GDPR, national implementing law, or other Union law (Article 50(6)).

4. Credits and Billing

Credit system

The Web UI uses a credit-based billing system:

Term	Definition
1 credit	$0.01 (one US cent)
Lens cost	1 credit per lens per image
Free credits	1,000 credits on account creation (no credit card required)
Credit packs	100 credits ($1), 500 credits ($5), 2,000 credits ($20), 10,000 credits ($100)

Credit terms

Credits expire 12 months from the date of grant or purchase. This applies equally to free signup credits and purchased credit packs. Expiration reminder email sent before credits lapse.
Credits are non-transferable. You may not sell, trade, or transfer credits between accounts.
Credits are non-refundable once consumed. Credits are deducted when analysis begins (pessimistic reserve). If an analysis fails to produce output, the reserved credits are returned to your account.
Free credits are granted once per account. Creating multiple accounts to accumulate free credits is a violation of these Terms.

API and Pipeline billing

API: $0.01 per lens per image (same as Web UI credits), billed via Stripe usage metering
Event Pipeline: $0.01 per lens per image + $0.005 infrastructure fee per image, billed via Stripe usage metering

Refund policy

Web UI: Credits are returned to your balance if a lens fails to produce output (refund-on-failure)
API: No refund on partial success. Responses include a warnings[] field indicating any lens failures.
Pipeline: Failed deliveries are retryable without additional charge via the dead letter queue
Credit pack purchases: Refunds for unused credit packs may be requested within 14 days of purchase. Contact [email protected].

Payment processing

All payment processing is handled by Stripe. We do not store, process, or have access to your payment card information. Stripe's terms of service and privacy policy apply to payment transactions.

5. Your Content

Ownership

You retain ownership of your photos. Uploading photos to Phototology does not transfer ownership or grant us any intellectual property rights beyond what is necessary to provide the Service.

License you grant us

By uploading content, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to:

Process your photos through our AI analysis pipeline (including transmission to our AI providers)
Store your photos and analysis results for the retention periods described in our Privacy Policy
Embed analysis metadata into your image files
Display your photos and results back to you through the Service

This license terminates when you delete your content or your account.

Your representations

By uploading photos, you represent and warrant that:

You have the right to upload and process these photos. You either own the photos, have permission from the owner, or have another legal basis (such as fair use) for submitting them.
You have considered the privacy of people depicted in the photos. If the photos contain identifiable individuals, you represent that you have taken reasonable steps to ensure that processing is appropriate. See our Privacy Policy Section 10 for information about rights of depicted non-users.
The photos do not contain illegal content including but not limited to child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate imagery, or content that violates applicable law.

Analysis results

Analysis results generated by the Service are provided to you under a perpetual, royalty-free license. You may use, modify, and distribute your analysis results for any lawful purpose. We retain no rights to your analysis results after you export or download them.

6. Acceptable Use Policy

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You must:

Comply with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws
Respect the intellectual property rights of others
Not interfere with or disrupt the Service or its infrastructure
Not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service
Not use automated tools (bots, scrapers) to access the Service except through our published API
Comply with our rate limits and usage restrictions

7. Prohibited Uses

The following uses of the Service are strictly prohibited. Violation may result in immediate account termination and, where required by law, reporting to authorities.

Surveillance and tracking

You may NOT use the Service to:

Track, monitor, or surveil any individual without their knowledge and explicit consent
Build a database of individuals by systematically uploading photos of the same person or group across multiple sessions or accounts
Identify or locate individuals for the purpose of stalking, harassment, intimidation, or any form of covert monitoring
Facilitate discrimination against individuals based on physical characteristics, demographics, or other attributes extracted by the analysis

Illegal content

You may NOT upload or process:

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — uploading CSAM will result in immediate account termination, evidence preservation, and reporting to NCMEC CyberTipline and law enforcement. This is non-negotiable and required by federal law.
Non-consensual intimate imagery — intimate images of individuals shared without their consent
Content that violates applicable law in your jurisdiction or ours

Abuse and harassment

You may NOT use the Service to:

Harass, threaten, or intimidate any person
Generate or distribute content intended to deceive or defraud
Impersonate any person or entity
Interfere with investigations by law enforcement

Copyright infringement at scale

You may NOT use the Service to systematically process copyrighted images you do not have rights to for commercial purposes (e.g., scraping and analyzing a competitor's image library).

Service abuse

You may NOT:

Create multiple accounts to circumvent rate limits or accumulate free credits
Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Service
Resell access to the Service without our written permission
Use the Service in a way that consumes disproportionate resources or degrades service quality for other users

8. Content Moderation

Our obligation

We are required by US federal law to monitor for and report child sexual abuse material. All uploaded images pass through automated content moderation screening before analysis.

What happens when content is flagged

The image is blocked from further processing
Evidence is preserved per legal requirements (see Privacy Policy Section 7)
A report is submitted to NCMEC CyberTipline
Your account may be immediately terminated
We may report the incident to law enforcement

No appeal for CSAM

CSAM-related account terminations are not subject to appeal. We are legally obligated to preserve evidence and report. We will not restore accounts terminated for CSAM violations.

Appeals for other moderation actions

If your content is flagged by our automated moderation and you believe the flag is incorrect, you may contact [email protected] with the details. We will review and respond within 30 days.

9. Intellectual Property

Our intellectual property

The Service, including its software, AI models, prompts, user interface, documentation, and branding, is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. These Terms do not grant you any right to use our trademarks, logos, or brand elements.

Open-source components

The Service incorporates open-source software components. These components are licensed under their respective open-source licenses, which are available upon request.

Feedback

If you provide us with feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Service, you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that feedback for any purpose without compensation to you.

10. DMCA Policy

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe content available through our Service infringes your copyright, please send a DMCA takedown notice to our designated agent.

Designated DMCA agent

Foreverized, LLC Phototology Email: [email protected]

Registration: DMCA-1819891 (U.S. Copyright Office, filed March 25, 2026)

Takedown notice requirements

A valid DMCA notice must include:

Identification of the copyrighted work you claim is infringed
Identification of the material you claim is infringing, with enough information for us to locate it
Your contact information (name, address, phone, email)
A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner
A statement under penalty of perjury that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on their behalf
Your physical or electronic signature

Counter-notification

If your content was removed due to a DMCA notice and you believe the removal was in error, you may submit a counter-notification to our DMCA agent with the information required under 17 U.S.C. 512(g).

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND "AS-AVAILABLE." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

Implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement
Accuracy of AI outputs. Analysis results are generated by AI models and are probabilistic in nature. Date estimates, age estimates, location estimates, condition assessments, and all other analysis outputs are approximations, not determinations. You should not rely on AI outputs as the sole basis for decisions with legal, financial, medical, or safety consequences.
Completeness of analysis. The Service may not detect all relevant features of a photograph. Lens outputs vary based on image quality, content, and AI model behavior.
Availability. We do not guarantee that the Service will be available at all times or that it will be free from errors or interruptions.

12. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW:

Our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising from or related to the Service, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise, is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) $100 USD.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to:

Loss of data, profits, revenue, or business opportunities
Damage to reputation or goodwill
Inaccurate AI analysis results
Decisions made in reliance on analysis outputs
Unauthorized access to your account due to your failure to secure credentials
Actions of third-party service providers (AI providers, payment processors, hosting providers)

Exceptions: Nothing in these Terms limits our liability for (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence, (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or (c) any liability that cannot be lawfully excluded or limited.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from:

Your use of the Service in violation of these Terms
Your violation of any third party's rights, including intellectual property or privacy rights
Your uploading of content that you do not have the right to upload
Your use of analysis results in a manner that causes harm to others
Any third-party claims arising from photos you uploaded that depict third parties without appropriate authorization

14. Account Termination

Termination by you

You may delete your account at any time through your account settings. See our Privacy Policy Section 6 for data retention details after account deletion.

Termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your account if:

You violate these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy
You upload CSAM (results in immediate termination — no warning, no appeal)
You use the Service for surveillance or tracking in violation of Section 7
Your account has been inactive for 24 consecutive months
We are required to do so by law or a valid legal process
Continued provision of the Service to you is not commercially viable

Effect of termination

Upon termination:

Standard termination (by you or for inactivity): 30-day soft-delete window during which you can recover your account. After 30 days, all data is permanently deleted within an additional 30 days.
Termination for Acceptable Use violations: 30-day soft-delete window. Unused credits are forfeited.
Termination for CSAM violations: Immediate and permanent. No soft-delete window. Account data preserved as required by law. NCMEC CyberTipline report filed.

Survival

Sections 5 (Your Content — representations and warranties), 7 (Prohibited Uses), 11 (Disclaimer), 12 (Limitation of Liability), 13 (Indemnification), and 15 (Dispute Resolution) survive termination.

15. Dispute Resolution

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Informal resolution first

Before initiating formal proceedings, you agree to contact us at [email protected] and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

Binding arbitration

If informal resolution fails, you and Phototology agree to resolve any dispute through binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, except as noted below.

No class actions. You agree to resolve disputes on an individual basis. You waive any right to participate in a class action, class arbitration, or representative proceeding.
Small claims exception. Either party may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court instead of arbitration.
Injunctive relief exception. Either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property rights.

EU/UK users

If you are a consumer in the European Union or United Kingdom, nothing in this section prevents you from bringing proceedings in the courts of your habitual residence. Mandatory consumer protection laws of your jurisdiction apply regardless of governing law selection. You may also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/odr.

16. General Provisions

Entire agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Phototology regarding the Service.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect. The unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable.

No waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

Assignment

You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations without restriction.

Force majeure

We are not liable for delays or failures in performance resulting from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, government actions, pandemics, power failures, internet disruptions, or third-party service provider outages.

Notices

We may send you notices via email to the address associated with your account or through in-app notifications. You may send us notices at the addresses listed in Section 17.

Updates to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you at least 30 days before the changes take effect via email or in-app notification. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you may delete your account before the effective date.

17. Contact Us

Purpose	Contact
General inquiries	[email protected]
Legal and dispute resolution	[email protected]
DMCA notices	[email protected]
Safety and content moderation	[email protected]
Security vulnerabilities	[email protected]
Billing and refunds	[email protected]
Privacy and data rights	[email protected]

These Terms of Service are informed by the REPORT Act (2024), 18 U.S.C. 2258A, the DMCA (17 U.S.C. 512), and consumer protection requirements under GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015.