Faces are found on your iPhone. To recognise the same person across your library, Photohawk uses cloud face matching, with your agreement.
What stays on your phone
- Your photos and videos.
- The people, the names you give them, your corrections, birthdays and relationships.
- Each face's estimated age range, used only so that people who look like children are never offered as someone to send photos to.
This face data is kept in Photohawk's private storage on your iPhone and is not in your iPhone backups.
What goes to the cloud
To group faces, Photohawk sends small cut-outs of each face it found (never whole photos or videos), encrypted, to a private collection that holds only your faces, in our cloud run by Amazon Web Services in Ireland (EU). There each face becomes a face template, a set of numbers. The cut-outs themselves are deleted as soon as they're matched.
Face data is used only to group, search and share your photos, and to keep children from being offered as people to send photos to. It's never sold, never used for ads, and never matched against anyone else's photos.
Everyone in your photos
Faces of everyone in your photos are grouped, including children and people who don't use Photohawk. Their face data is only for you. Someone who looks like a child is never offered as a person to send photos to.
Photos you share
Photos leave your phone only when you share them or order prints. Shared photos are end-to-end encrypted on your phone: only you and the people you share with can see them. Face data, groups and names are never part of a share.
How long it's kept
Until you tap Delete all face data or delete your account (both delete it at once, on your phone and in the cloud), or after 3 years without using Photohawk. Faces from photos you delete from your phone are deleted from the cloud the next time Photohawk runs. See Delete your face data or your account and the full face data policy.
Questions people ask
Are my photos uploaded to group people?
No. Only small face cut-outs (never whole photos or videos) are sent, and each batch is deleted as soon as it's matched: within minutes, at most a day.
Is my face data compared with other people's?
No. Your faces are kept in a collection that holds only your faces. They're never compared with anyone else's, never sold and never used for ads.
Is face data deleted when my plan ends?
No. Face data is kept while you use Photohawk, also if your plan or free trial ends. It's deleted when you delete it, delete your account, or after 3 years without using Photohawk.
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