Light Catchers
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Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 9, 2026

Light Catchers is a photography challenge platform for teachers and students. This policy explains what we collect, what we do with it, and what control you have over it. We have tried to write it in plain language rather than legalese.

Who this applies to

This policy covers everyone who uses Light Catchers — teachers who create groups and students who join them.

United States only. Light Catchers is offered solely to users located in the United States. We do not design for, and make no claim of compliance with, the GDPR, the UK GDPR, or other non-US data protection regimes. If you are located outside the United States, please do not create an account or submit any information to this service.

What we collect

  • Account information — your email address, and the name and display name you choose. If you sign in with Google, we receive basic profile information from that sign-in.
  • Profile information — anything you choose to add, such as an avatar image or a short bio.
  • Photos you submit, along with the captions you write.
  • Camera metadata (EXIF) embedded in your photos — camera and lens model, exposure settings, and the date the photo was taken. This is part of what makes the platform useful for learning photography, and it is shown alongside your submissions.
  • Activity on the platform — the groups you belong to, the votes you cast, the comments you write, and the badges and streaks you earn.

Location data is removed

Photos often carry GPS coordinates recording exactly where they were taken. We strip GPS and location data from every uploaded photo before it is stored. The other camera settings described above are kept and displayed; location is not.

How we use your information

We use what we collect to operate the platform: to show your submissions to your group, to run challenges and voting, to award badges and build leaderboards, to send you service email such as verification and notifications, and to keep the service secure.

We do not use your photos or your information to train machine learning models, and we do not use them for advertising.

What we share

We do not sell your personal information. Not now, and not ever. We also do not share it with third parties for their own marketing.

Your information is visible in these situations, and no others:

  • Within your group. Your submissions, captions, comments, votes, and display name are visible to the teacher and the other students in the groups you belong to.
  • Publicly, if you choose. If you mark a photo as public, it can appear in the public gallery and on the front page, along with your display name and caption. This is entirely your choice, and it is off by default. If you would rather nothing of yours be public, do not mark photos public.
  • Service providers. We rely on infrastructure providers to host the service and deliver email. They process data only to provide those services to us.
  • When legally required. If we are compelled by valid legal process, or need to act to protect someone's safety or our rights.

Your controls

  • Download your data. From your preferences page you can export everything tied to your account — your photos and their camera details, submissions, votes, comments, and badges — as a single download.
  • Delete your account. Also from your preferences page. This permanently removes your account and its associated content, including your photo files. It cannot be undone.
  • Correct your information. You can update your name, display name, avatar, and photo captions at any time.

Deletion is best effort. We will make reasonable efforts to remove your data promptly and completely. However, content may persist for a period in encrypted backups, server logs, or caches, and we cannot recall copies that other people have already downloaded, screenshotted, or otherwise saved — particularly for photos you chose to make public. We provide the tools; we cannot guarantee erasure everywhere.

Students and younger users

Light Catchers is built for classroom use. Accounts are intended for users aged 13 and over. If a school or teacher wishes to use the platform with students under 13, it is that school's or teacher's responsibility to obtain the parental consent required by law and by their own district policies before those students create accounts. A parent or guardian may contact us to review or delete their child's information.

Retention

We keep your information for as long as your account is active, and no longer than we need it. Specifically:

  • Dormant classes are deleted. If a group goes a year with no submissions, no new challenges, and no sign-in from its teacher, we email the teacher a warning and delete the group and its submissions four months later unless it's used again. Download anything you want to keep before then.
  • Unused invitations expire after 14 days and are erased a month after that, so we aren't holding email addresses nobody used.
  • If a teacher deletes a group, the challenges and submissions belonging to that group are deleted along with it.

Parents and guardians

If your child uses Light Catchers, you can ask us to show you what we hold about them, delete it, or stop collecting anything further. Use the parent request form, or email us directly at support@lightcatchers.app.

We will verify who you are before acting. We can't take a form's word for it that the sender is a child's parent — otherwise anyone could delete anyone's account — so expect us to contact you, and possibly the school, to confirm first.

Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections, hashed passwords, and email verification. That said, no online service is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee that your information will never be accessed by unauthorized parties. Please use a strong, unique password and be thoughtful about what you upload.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the date at the top. Continuing to use Light Catchers after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or requests concerning your information, can be sent to support@lightcatchers.app.

See also our Terms of Service.

© 2026 Light Catchers. Weekly photography challenges for students.

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