Your photos are always private
Your photos and photo books remain fully, 100% private till you explicitly decide to share them
Last updated: October 1, 2026
ZapTale accesses Google user data only when you choose to import photos from Google Photos, and uses it only to make your photobook. See Google user data for exactly what we access, how we use it, and how to remove our access.
Data Sharing
We use AI to spot blurry, duplicate, and near-duplicate photos, and to recognize and caption well-known landmarks. Only smaller copies are sent to AI services, never your originals. Photos you import from another service such as Google Photos are read-only, and we see only the ones you pick. Your photobooks are shared when you share them, and not before.
Payments
Paid plans are handled by Stripe. When you subscribe, you enter your card on Stripe’s own checkout page, so your card number never reaches ZapTale. We keep only what we need to run your plan: your Stripe customer reference, which plan you chose, whether it is active, and when it renews or ends. Stripe’s handling of your payment details is covered by the Stripe Privacy Policy.
Data Protection
Until you save a book, its photos stay on your own device; a phone upload or a Google Photos download passes through us only long enough to reach your browser. Once you save, your photos are kept in private storage that is not open to the public. We check that a book is yours every time it is opened or changed, so no one else can reach your photos.
Data Deletion and Retention
Deleting a photobook deletes the photos in it, for good. Everything that book held - its pages, its captions, and every copy we made of its photos - goes with it. A photo you used in two books is kept as two separate copies, so deleting one book never touches the other. Publishing a book clears out the photos you left out of it, and an import you never save is cleared as soon as you finish or start over.
Google user data
When you choose to import photos from Google Photos, ZapTale accesses the following Google user data:
- Photos you select in the Google Photos Picker: the image itself, its file name, file type, the date it was taken, and its width and height.
- Videos you select: only their file name and type, so we can tell you they were skipped. We never download them.
- Your Google account email address.
ZapTale does not access any other Google user data. We cannot see the rest of your Google Photos library, your albums, your name or profile photo, your contacts, or any other Google service. We never add, change, or delete anything in your Google account, and we ask for your permission again every time you import.
Google permissions requested: photospicker.mediaitems.readonly (the photos and videos you select) and userinfo.email (your email address).
How we use Google user data
ZapTale uses the Google user data it accesses only to provide the photobook service you asked for:
- Your photos are used to create your photobook: checking for blurry and duplicate photos, choosing the strongest ones, recognizing landmarks to suggest a title and cover, framing each photo on its page, and writing captions. When you save a book, copies are kept so you can view, edit, and share it.
- File names are used to describe each photo in your book and to help our AI review tell similar photos apart. File types are used to import only supported photos.
- The date each photo was taken is used to put your book in order and to help write captions that fit the moment.
- Width and height are used to lay out pages and to skip photos too small to look good in a book.
- Your email address is used to show you, as the book’s owner, who made the book, and to identify feedback you send us.
Camera and location details stored inside a photo may be read in your browser, but they are never saved or sent anywhere.
We will not sell your Google user data. We will not use it for advertising, to train AI, and we will not use it for any purpose other than making and showing your photobooks.
How we share Google user data
We will not sell your Google user data to anyone. We share it only with the service providers that help us run ZapTale, and only so they can do that work for us:
- OpenAI: smaller copies of your photos, with their file names, dates, and sizes, to review them for duplicates and quality.
- Google Cloud Vision: smaller copies of your photos, to recognize landmarks and find the best crop. Face detection finds where faces are; it does not identify anyone.
- Google Gemini: smaller copies of your photos and the dates they were taken, to write captions.
- Amazon Web Services and Supabase: store the photos, file names, dates, and email address of books you save, in private storage.
- Vercel: hosts ZapTale; your photos pass through it on their way to your browser and to the services above.
People you share a book with see the photos in that book, never your email address. We share Google user data with no one else unless the law requires it.
How we store and delete Google user data
Google’s access token lives in your browser only while you pick photos, and passes through our server only to download the photos you chose. We never store it, and ZapTale keeps no ongoing access to your Google account. An import you never save stays in your browser and is cleared when you save or start over. A saved book keeps copies of its photos, their file names and dates, and your email address with the book; deleting the book deletes all of them. To have all of your data deleted, email admin@zaptale.com. You can remove ZapTale’s access at any time from your Google Account connections.
Limited Use
ZapTale’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.