How we handle your information.

We built Shoot For Meaning to help photographers understand their work. That means you trust us with your photos and personal details, and we take that seriously. Here is exactly what we collect, why, who helps us handle it, and what we will never do with it.

What we collect

Account information — your name and email address, used to identify your account and communicate with you. If you sign up with a password, we store it only as a salted bcrypt hash — we never store or see the password itself. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name and email address from your Google account; we never see your Google password.
Photos you upload — stored securely in Google Cloud Storage so we can provide feedback, track your progress, and reflect your photographic voice back to you.
Usage analytics — we use PostHog to understand how photographers use the site. This helps us improve the experience. PostHog may set cookies in your browser for this purpose.
Feedback you send us — if you send us feedback through the Feedback page or an in-app prompt (after a grading, lesson, or quiz), we store your email and your message so we can follow up. When the feedback is about a specific photograph or grading, we also attach a snapshot of that grading — the photo, the scores, the feedback text, and any photographer’s intent or notes you wrote for it — so we can see what you saw when you wrote in.
Abuse-prevention data — when you try Shoot For Meaning without an account, we log the IP address the upload came from so we can enforce usage limits and prevent abuse.

Trying Shoot For Meaning without an account

You can try parts of the service — quick feedback, a voice portrait, the stuck diagnostic — before creating an account. Photos you upload this way are stored so we can show you your results and improve the service, but they are not linked to any account or profile. Photos staged for an anonymous voice portrait or stuck diagnostic expire after 7 days and are removed in periodic cleanup sweeps unless you create an account and claim them, in which case they become part of your account like any other upload.

How we use your data

Generating specific, per-technique feedback on your photographs.
Tracking your mastery progress over time.
Building a picture of your photographic voice as you upload more work.
Improving how Sonder, our analysis engine, reads and grades photographs — your uploads help us make the feedback more precise for every photographer. We do not use your photos to train generative AI.
Reviewing uploads when needed to keep Shoot For Meaning safe and lawful. Our team may manually view uploaded photos for this purpose.
Enforcing usage limits and preventing abuse of the service.
Improving the service based on aggregate usage patterns.

Who helps us run the service

We use a small number of service providers to operate Shoot For Meaning. They process your data on our behalf, only so the service can work — they are not permitted to use it for their own purposes, and none of them may use your photos to train generative AI models:

Google Cloud — hosts the application and stores your uploaded photos.
MongoDB Atlas — hosts our database (your account details, feedback, grades, and progress).
AI model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic) — Sonder’s analysis runs on vision models from these providers, so generating your feedback means transmitting your photograph to them for analysis. We use their business APIs, whose terms commit them not to train their models on the data we send.
PostHog — product analytics, as described above.
Loops — sends our product and account emails, so it holds your name and email address.

Your photos remain yours

You keep full copyright and ownership of every photograph you upload. Uploading does not transfer any rights in your work to us — you are simply giving us permission to analyze it so we can give you feedback and reflect your photographic voice back to you. Your photos are not shown to other photographers on the site, and you can delete them at any time.

What we will never do

We will not sell your personal information or your photographs, and we will never use your photos to train generative AI. Outside of the service providers listed above — who act only on our instructions — and disclosures the law requires of us, your photos, your email, and your usage data stay with us. We do not run third-party advertising, and we do not provide your data to data brokers, social networks, or anyone else.

Photo storage and retention

Your photos are stored in Google Cloud Storage for as long as you have an account. You can delete individual photos at any time, and you can delete your whole account yourself from your profile page. If you delete your account, your uploaded photos and associated feedback are removed from our live systems; copies may persist briefly in routine backups before those cycle out.

Your choices

Delete a photo — remove any uploaded photo and its feedback at any time.
Delete your account — self-service from your profile page; this removes your photos and associated data as described above.
Ask us anything — if you want a copy of your data, want something corrected, or have any other request about your information, contact us through the Feedback page and we will help.

Children

Shoot For Meaning is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

Cookies and analytics

We use PostHog for product analytics. PostHog may place cookies to track sessions and understand how the site is used. We do not use advertising cookies or tracking pixels from third-party ad networks.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your information, we will update this policy and its effective date, and for material changes we will let you know in the app.

Questions?

If you have questions about how your data is handled, reach out through our Feedback page. We are happy to explain anything in more detail.

Effective date: July 2, 2026