Privacy Policy

1. What we collect and why

We collect only what is necessary to run the platform. Here is what that means in practice:

Account information

Email address, username, display name, and password (stored as a salted hash — we never see it in plaintext). We use this to authenticate you and communicate with you about your account.

Photographs you mint

When you mint a card, the image file is stored in Supabase Storage (a cloud service we use). We store the original upload and a compressed thumbnail. The image is associated with your account permanently via the provenance record. We do not analyse, categorise, or run machine learning on your images.

Provenance records

Every card transaction — mint, trade, auction sale, shred — creates a provenance record. These records are permanent and append-only. They contain: the card ID, the event type, the user accounts involved, the timestamp, and the price if applicable. Provenance records are the core product — they cannot be deleted.

Payment information

We use Stripe to process Arctic Dollar purchases and Creator subscriptions. We never see or store your card number, CVV, or bank details. Stripe handles all payment data under their own privacy policy. We store only: the Stripe customer ID, the Stripe payment intent ID, and the transaction amount and type.

Activity data

We log key platform events — mints, bids, trades, pack opens — for the purposes of operating the economy, resolving disputes, and detecting abuse. These logs are retained for 12 months. We use PostHog for product analytics (event counts, funnel analysis). PostHog receives anonymised or pseudonymised data — no raw user IDs are sent in the public analytics payload.

Login sessions

We store a JWT session token in your browser (1-hour expiry, refreshed automatically for up to 30 days). We use this to keep you logged in. We do not use third-party tracking cookies.

Theme and display preferences

Your gallery layout preferences, theme preference, and notification settings are stored in your user record so they persist across devices.

2. What we do not collect

• We do not collect your location beyond what is implicit in your IP address during a session.
• We do not sell your data to third parties.
• We do not serve advertising and have no advertising partners.
• We do not run your images through facial recognition or biometric analysis.
• We do not share your email address with other users — it is private.
• We do not track you across other websites.

3. How we share data

We share data with third parties only to operate the platform:

• Supabase — database, authentication, file storage, and real-time auction channels. Your data lives in their infrastructure. See supabase.com/privacy.
• Stripe — payment processing. Stripe is PCI-DSS Level 1 certified. See stripe.com/privacy.
• Resend — transactional email (outbid notifications, auction results). We send them your email address to deliver these messages.
• PostHog — product analytics. We send event names and pseudonymised identifiers, not personal data.

We will disclose your data to law enforcement or regulators if required to do so by valid legal process. We will notify you of such requests where we are legally permitted to do so.

4. Data retention

Account data: Retained until you delete your account, then deleted within 30 days — except where retention is required by law (e.g. financial records).

Provenance records: Permanent. The ledger cannot be deleted — this is the core guarantee of the platform. When an account is deleted, provenance records referencing that account are anonymised: the username and display name are replaced with a tombstone label, but the event type, timestamp, and card identity remain.

Images: Retained as long as the card exists. Deleted from storage when a card is shredded, creator-voided, or admin-removed via DMCA. The provenance record noting the card's existence remains even after image deletion.

Payment records: Retained for 7 years in compliance with financial record-keeping requirements.

Activity logs: Retained for 12 months, then deleted.

5. Your rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have rights over your personal data including:

• Access: You can export your account data via Settings at any time.
• Correction: You can update your display name, bio, and email via Settings. Username changes are subject to the 90-day cooldown.
• Deletion: You can delete your account via Settings. See Section 4 for what is and is not deleted.
• Portability: Your card history and provenance records are available in JSON format via the data export in Settings.
• Objection to processing: Contact us if you have concerns about how we process your data. We cannot remove provenance records on request — they are the core product guarantee — but we can discuss other processing concerns.

To exercise any of these rights, go to Settings → Account, or email privacy@snowtographer.com.

6. Security

We use industry-standard practices: all data in transit is encrypted via TLS. Passwords are hashed using bcrypt. Supabase Row-Level Security ensures users can only access data they are authorised to access. Financial operations are conducted via Edge Functions using service-role credentials that never touch the client.

No security system is perfect. If you discover a vulnerability in Snowtographer, please disclose it responsibly to security@snowtographer.com before making it public.

7. Children

Snowtographer is strictly an 18+ platform. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 18. Account creation requires an explicit age confirmation at signup. If we discover that an account belongs to a person under 18, we will terminate the account and delete associated personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.

Additionally, the platform prohibits any image content depicting minors. If you believe an image on the platform depicts a person under 18, please report it immediately via the Report button on the relevant card, or contact us at legal@snowtographer.com. We will review and remove such content within 24 hours of a valid report.

8. Changes to this policy

We will notify users of material changes to this policy via the platform's notification system at least 14 days before the changes take effect. The "effective date" at the top of this page reflects when the current version took effect.

9. Contact

Privacy questions: privacy@snowtographer.com

Security disclosures: security@snowtographer.com