Last updated: May 8, 2026

Éphé Studio is a brand of SNEAL LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company ("Éphé," "we," "us," or "our"). We operate the website and store at ephe.art and the related tools at create.ephe.art (together, the "Services"). Our store is powered by Shopify, which enables us to provide the Services to you.

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information when you visit, use, or make a purchase through the Services or otherwise communicate with us. It also explains, in detail, what happens to the photos you upload.

If there is a conflict between our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy controls with respect to the collection, processing, and disclosure of your personal information.

By using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy and understand the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described here.

1. Personal information we collect

When we use the term "personal information," we mean information that identifies or can reasonably be linked to you. It does not include information that has been anonymized or de-identified so that it cannot be linked back to you.

Depending on how you interact with the Services, we may collect or process the following categories of personal information:

• Contact details: name, billing address, shipping address, phone number, email address.
• Financial information: credit card or debit card number, payment card information, financial account information, transaction details, form of payment, payment confirmations.
• Account information: username, password, security questions, preferences, settings, saved proofs in your My Art Gallery.
• Transaction information: items you view, save, add to your cart, purchase, return, exchange, or cancel, and your order history.
• Communications: the content of your messages to us, including customer support inquiries.
• Device information: device type, browser, network connection, IP address, and other unique identifiers.
• Usage information: how and when you interact with the Services, including pages viewed and features used.
• Photos and generated artwork: the photos you upload to create art, the watermarked previews generated from them, and the finished artwork files associated with your account.

We may also draw inferences from the personal information above, such as products you may be interested in.

2. Photos and AI processing

This section explains, in plain terms, what happens to a photo you upload to Éphé.

The exchange. You share a photo with us. We turn it into art. That is the exchange, and it is the only one. Your photo is sent to our AI art engine, transformed into an impressionist piece, and then discarded by every third-party service that touches it.

No training, ever. Your photos are not used to train any AI model. Every AI service we work with has training disabled at the account level. Your photos do not go into a dataset, do not help improve a model, and are not retained by the provider after processing. We have turned off every training toggle and opted out of every program available.

Zero data retention with our AI providers. The AI services we use operate under a zero data retention policy ("ZDR"). In practice, that means your photo exists in the provider's system only for the seconds it takes to process the request. Once the art is created, the image is gone from the provider's system. Not archived, not cached, not retrievable.

If a provider cannot guarantee zero data retention, we do not use them. If a request cannot be routed to a provider that meets our privacy standard, the request fails rather than falling back to one that does not.

Where your images are stored. All of your images (originals, generated artwork, and print-ready files) are stored in our own secure database. We use signed URLs, which means even the links to view your images expire after a short window. We control access, retention, and deletion. No third party holds your photos on our behalf.

What about printing? When you order a physical print, our print partner receives a temporary link to your finished artwork only, never your original photo. That link expires within 24 hours. After that, the print partner has no access to the image at all.

Account deletion. You can request deletion of your account and the associated photos and generated artwork at any time by emailing hello@ephe.art. We will delete your data within 30 days of receiving a verified request, except where we are required to retain certain records for legal, tax, or fraud-prevention purposes.

3. Sub-processors and third-party services

We use the following service providers to operate Éphé. Each is bound by contract to handle your information consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Service	What it receives	Used for AI training?	Retention
AI art engine (via OpenRouter, routing to Google Gemini)	Your uploaded photo, for generation	No. All training toggles off, zero data retention enforced.	Not retained beyond processing
Outpainting and upscaling (Stability AI)	Generated artwork only, never your original photo	No. Training opt-out enabled.	Not retained beyond processing
Content moderation (Amazon Web Services Rekognition, us-east-1)	Your uploaded photo, for safety screening before generation	No. AWS account-level AI services opt-out enabled, zero data retention enforced.	Not retained beyond processing
Database and storage (Supabase)	All images and account data	N/A. This is our own system.	We control retention and deletion
Payments (Shopify Payments and partners)	Payment card and billing information	No	As required for transaction processing and recordkeeping
Print fulfillment (Prodigi)	Temporary link to finished artwork only	No	Link expires within 24 hours
Storefront and analytics (Shopify)	Order, account, and usage information	Per Shopify's policy	Per Shopify's policy
Email and customer support (varies)	Email address and message content	No	As required for customer support

We may add or change service providers from time to time. Any new provider must meet the same privacy standard described in Section 2 before we route any photo to them.

4. Sources of personal information

We may collect personal information from:

• You directly, when you create an account, browse or use the Services, communicate with us, or upload a photo.
• Automatically through the Services, including from your device and through cookies and similar technologies.
• Our service providers, when we engage them to deliver the Services.
• Partners and other third parties, including payment processors and shipping carriers.

5. How we use your personal information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

• Provide and improve the Services. To process payments, fulfill your orders, generate art from your uploaded photos, maintain your account and My Art Gallery, send order notifications, and tailor the Services to you.
• Customer support. To respond to your inquiries, troubleshoot issues, and maintain our relationship with you.
• Marketing and advertising. To send marketing communications by email, text message, or postal mail (only with your consent where required), and to show you online advertisements for our products. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time using the unsubscribe link in our emails or by emailing us.
• Security and fraud prevention. To authenticate your account, secure the Services, detect and prevent fraud or misuse, and protect users.
• Legal compliance and content safety. To comply with applicable law, respond to legal process, enforce our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy, and detect and remove prohibited content (including content depicting child sexual abuse, which we are required by federal law to report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).
• Business operations. To analyze usage, manage records, and run our business.

6. How we disclose personal information

We may disclose your personal information in these circumstances:

• With service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing, hosting, fulfillment, analytics, customer support, and content moderation.
• With Shopify and its partners, which host and support the Services and may use information per the Shopify Consumer Privacy Policy.
• With your direction or consent, such as when you ask us to ship a product to a recipient you designate.
• With our affiliates within our corporate group.
• In a business transaction such as a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• To comply with law, respond to subpoenas or government requests, enforce our Terms or policies, and protect the rights, property, or safety of Éphé, our customers, or others.
• To report illegal content, including reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A.

We do not sell your personal information for monetary consideration. Some sharing of online identifiers with advertising partners may qualify as a "sale" or "share" under California law. You can opt out as described in Section 10.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

The Services use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to operate the site, remember your preferences, analyze how the Services are used, and support advertising. You can control cookies through your browser settings. Some features of the Services may not work properly if you disable cookies.

8. Relationship with Shopify

The Services are hosted by Shopify. Shopify collects and processes personal information about your access to and use of the Services in order to provide and improve the Services for you. Information you submit to the Services will be transmitted to and shared with Shopify and certain third parties to provide the Services. To learn more about how Shopify uses your personal information and any rights you may have, visit the Shopify Consumer Privacy Policy.

9. Children's data and photos depicting minors

The Services are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from anyone under the age of 13. If you are the parent or guardian of a child who has provided us with their personal information, please contact us at hello@ephe.art and we will delete it.

Many Éphé customers upload photos that include their own children or other minors (for example, a parent ordering a portrait of their toddler). When you upload a photo that depicts a minor, you represent that you are the parent, legal guardian, or otherwise authorized to upload that image and to have it processed into artwork. Photos depicting minors are treated under the same retention and security rules as all other photos described in Section 2.

We do not knowingly "sell" or "share" (as those terms are defined under applicable law) personal information of individuals under 16 years of age.

10. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights with respect to your personal information. These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every circumstance.

• Right to access or know. You may request access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to delete. You may request that we delete personal information we hold about you, including your uploaded photos and generated artwork.
• Right to correct. You may request that we correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to portability. You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing for targeted advertising. Where applicable law gives you this right, you can opt out by emailing hello@ephe.art with the subject line "Privacy Request" or by using any opt-out link provided on the Services. We honor the Global Privacy Control ("GPC") signal as an opt-out request for the device and browser sending it. Other than the GPC, we do not currently recognize "Do Not Track" signals.
• Manage marketing communications. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time. We may still send you non-promotional emails about your account or orders.

To exercise any of these rights, email hello@ephe.art with the subject line "Privacy Request" and tell us what you would like us to do. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf, but we may require proof of authorization and may need to verify your identity directly.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights. We will respond within the timeframes required by applicable law.

11. Complaints

If you have a complaint about how we handle your personal information, please contact us first using the information in Section 14. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection or consumer protection authority.

12. Security and retention

No security measures are perfect, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your personal information.

We retain your personal information for as long as needed to provide the Services to you, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Photos and generated artwork remain in your account until you delete them or close your account, at which point they are removed within 30 days, subject to any legal retention requirements.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, including to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will post the revised Privacy Policy on this page and update the "Last updated" date. If the changes are material, we will provide additional notice as required by applicable law.

14. Contact

If you have questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights, email us at hello@ephe.art with the subject line "Privacy Request." We will reply as soon as possible, usually within 1 to 2 business days.

Éphé Studio is a brand of SNEAL LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company.