Privacy Policy
This policy describes what information the studio collects when you visit paaause.com, inquire about a shoot, or appear in a photograph we take: and ultimately what you can do about it.
The short version
We are a photography studio, not an advertising business. We collect what we need to answer your inquiry, run a shoot, deliver the images, and get paid.
The website uses Google Analytics to count visits and invisible reCAPTCHA to keep bots off the contact form. Both are Google products and both involve sending some technical information to Google.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not run advertising trackers on this site.
Photographs of identifiable people are personal information too. Section 04 explains how we use images of you, and how to ask us to stop.
Who we are
Paaause is a photography studio operated by Paaause Digital, LLC (“Paaause,” “the studio,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), a business organized in the State of Michigan, United States.
For the purposes of the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation, we are the controller of the personal data described in this policy — meaning we decide why and how it is used.
Our mailing address, email, and phone number are in Section 21. That is the address to use for any privacy request.
Definitions
Capitalized words have the meanings below, whether they appear in the singular or the plural.
- Personal Information
- Any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual. We use “Personal Information” and “Personal Data” interchangeably, except where a particular law uses a specific term. Photographs and video in which a person is recognizable are Personal Information.
- Usage Data
- Information collected automatically by the Site or its infrastructure — for example, IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visited, and how long you stayed.
- Cookies
- Small files placed on your device by a website. We use “cookies” loosely here to also cover pixels, web beacons, local storage, and similar technologies.
- Service Provider
- A company or person that processes information on our behalf and under our instructions — our website host, our email platform, our payment processor. They may use your information only to do the job we hired them for.
- Site
- The website at www.paaause.com and any subdomain or client gallery we operate.
- Services
- The Site plus the photography services we provide — consultations, shoots, editing, image delivery, and licensing.
- Subject
- A person who appears in a photograph or video we make, whether or not that person is our client.
- You
- The individual using the Services, or the company or other legal entity on whose behalf that individual is acting.
What we collect
Information you give us
You give us information when you fill in the inquiry form, email or call us, book a session, sign a release or agreement, subscribe to the newsletter, or opt in to text messages. Depending on which of those you do, that can include:
- Name, and the name of your company or firm
- Email address and phone number
- Mailing or billing address
- The address or location of the property or site to be photographed, and access details such as gate codes, lockbox codes, and site contacts
- Project details you choose to send us — timelines, budgets, plans, drawings, shot lists, and the substance of our correspondence
- Contract, release, and invoice records
Information collected automatically
When you visit the Site we collect Usage Data: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, referring page, the pages you view, timestamps, and approximate location derived from your IP address (typically city or region — not a precise position).
Payment information
Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card number is submitted directly to them and we never see or store full card details. We receive only what we need for our records: the amount, the date, the last four digits, and whether the payment cleared.
Photographs, video, and your likeness
This is the section most privacy policies skip and the one that matters most for a photography studio. A photograph in which you are recognizable is information about you, and it is treated as Personal Information under this policy.
What we capture
- Images of people. Clients, their families, employees, trades on an active site, and members of the public who happen to be in frame.
- Images of property. Interiors and exteriors of homes, offices, and construction sites, including belongings and finishes visible in the frame.
- Aerial imagery. Where a project includes drone coverage, flown under FAA Part 107 rules. Aerial frames may incidentally include neighboring property, vehicles, or people.
- Embedded metadata. Image files carry technical metadata — camera, lens, exposure, date, time, and in some cases GPS coordinates. We strip location metadata from files published on the Site or on social media. Files delivered to you may retain it, so check before you publish an image of a private residence.
How we use images
- To do the job. Editing, delivery, and licensing to the party who commissioned the work.
- To show the work. Portfolio, website, social media, printed materials, competition and awards submissions, and press. We do this under the terms of the agreement or release signed for the project.
Where a shoot involves recognizable people, we obtain a release from the subject, or from a parent or guardian if the subject is a minor. For occupied properties and active job sites, we rely on the commissioning party to give notice to occupants and workers before we arrive.
If you want to be removed
If you appear in an image we have published and you would like it taken down, email us at inquiries@paaause.com with enough detail to identify the frame. We will remove it from channels we control, ordinarily within 30 days.
Two honest limits. We cannot recall images already licensed to and published by a client, a publication, or a third party. And where an image is part of a construction record commissioned as documentation, we may need to retain the original file even after removing it from public view, because that archive can be evidence in a warranty or contract matter.
Third-party services we use
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4, provided by Google LLC, to understand how the Site is used — how many people visit, which pages they read, and where they arrived from. Google Analytics sets cookies and receives your IP address, device and browser information, and a record of the pages you view. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store full IP addresses; IP address is used for coarse geolocation and then discarded.
We have not enabled Google Signals, Google Ads linking, or any advertising or remarketing feature in our Analytics property. Analytics data is retained for 2 months for events and 14 months for user data and then deleted automatically by Google.
You can opt out of Google Analytics on every site you visit by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or by declining analytics cookies in our banner. Google’s handling of the data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.
Google reCAPTCHA (invisible)
Our forms are protected by invisible reCAPTCHA, provided by Google, which distinguishes real people from automated abuse without asking you to solve a puzzle. To do that, reCAPTCHA collects hardware and software information — device and application data, your IP address, browser and operating system, and behavioral signals such as mouse movement, touch events, and time spent on the page — and sends it to Google for analysis.
This runs automatically when you load a page with a protected form. We rely on it to keep the inquiry form usable, and it is the only realistic alternative to taking the form down.
Your use of reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Everyone else who touches your information
| Service | What it does | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| NameCheap.com | Website hosting and security | Server logs, including IP address |
| Paaause.com | Delivers contact form submissions | Everything you type into the form |
| Paaause.com | Newsletter and studio updates | Name, email, engagement records |
| Paaause.com | Client image galleries and delivery | Name, email, delivered images |
| HDPhotolab | Booking consultations and shoots | Name, email, appointment details |
| Stripe | Invoicing and payments | Billing details, payment records |
| Verizon | Sends and receives text messages | Phone number, message contents |
| Google (Workspace) | Email, files, and calendar | Correspondence and project files |
Each of these is bound by contract to use your information only to provide their service to us.
How we use your information
- To respond to you. Answering an inquiry, quoting a project, scheduling a call.
- To perform the work. Planning and running shoots, coordinating site access, editing, delivering galleries, and licensing images.
- To administer the business. Contracts, releases, invoicing, accounting, insurance, and tax records.
- To communicate with you about a booking, a delivery, or a change to our terms.
- To send the newsletter and studio updates, where you have asked for them or the law otherwise allows.
- To show our work in the portfolio and to prospective clients, within the terms of the applicable agreement or release.
- To keep the Site working and secure — diagnostics, uptime, and blocking automated abuse.
- To understand what people read, so we can improve the Site.
- To meet legal obligations and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Our legal bases (EEA and UK)
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we process your Personal Information only where one of these applies:
| Legal basis | When we rely on it |
|---|---|
| Contract | Quoting, scheduling, shooting, delivering images, invoicing — everything needed to do the work you asked for. |
| Legitimate interests | Keeping the Site secure and bot-free (reCAPTCHA), responding to a business inquiry, showing our work in the portfolio, and defending legal claims. We balance these against your rights and stop if yours win. |
| Consent | Analytics cookies, marketing email, text messages, and any use of your likeness beyond what the contract covers. You may withdraw consent at any time. |
| Legal obligation | Tax, accounting, and records we are required to keep. |
We do not make decisions about you by automated means alone, and we do not profile you.
Newsletter and studio updates
We send an occasional email newsletter with recent work, notes from the studio, and availability. To do that we keep your name, email address, the date and source of your subscription, and a record of which emails you opened or clicked.
Open and click tracking. Our emails contain a small invisible image and tracked links that tell us whether a message was opened and which links were followed. We use this only to see whether the newsletter is worth sending. Turning off image loading in your email client will prevent most open tracking.
How you get on the list. Only by asking — through the signup form on the Site or by telling us directly. We do not buy lists, and we do not add past clients to the newsletter without their agreement.
How you get off it. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link in the footer, and it works immediately. You can also email us and we will remove you. If you are in the EEA or the UK, we send marketing only with your consent; elsewhere we may send it until you opt out. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop transactional messages about a booking or delivery.
Text messages
You can choose to receive text messages from us. When you opt in we collect and store your phone number, the date and method of your consent, and message delivery and read information.
No mobile information will be shared with or sold to third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Phone numbers and consent records collected for texting are not shared with anyone for any purpose, other than the Service Provider that technically has to handle them to deliver the messages.
Consent to receive text messages is not a condition of any purchase or of using our Services. If you opt in, you may receive messages about:
- Customer care and support
- Booking confirmations, schedule changes, and reminders
- Day-of coordination — arrival times, site access, weather calls
- Gallery delivery notifications
- Security alerts and authentication codes, if we ever use them
- Promotional offers and studio news, where you have separately agreed to receive them
Reply STOP to opt out. Reply HELP for support. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
How long we keep it
We keep Personal Information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy. The periods below are maximums — we delete or anonymize sooner where we can.
| What | How long | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Inquiries that did not become projects | Up to 24 months | You often come back, and we would rather not ask you to repeat yourself |
| Client correspondence and project records | 7 years after the project closes | Tax, accounting, and the limitation period for contract claims |
| Contracts, releases, and invoices | 7 years | Legal and tax obligations |
| Original image files | 10 years | Re-delivery, re-licensing, and the documentation archive |
| Published portfolio images | Until removed or a release is withdrawn | Showing the work |
| Newsletter subscription | Until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record kept indefinitely | The suppression record is how we make sure we never email you again |
| SMS consent records | 4 years after opt-out | Required to demonstrate consent under telephone consumer protection rules |
| Google Analytics data | 2 months for events and 14 months for user data | Set in GA4 and enforced by Google |
| Server access logs | Up to 3 years | Security monitoring and troubleshooting |
We may keep information longer where the law requires it, where it is needed to establish or defend a legal claim, or where you ask us to.
When a period expires we delete or anonymize the data. Residual copies may persist in encrypted backups for a limited period on our normal backup cycle; those are not restored except for disaster recovery or legal compliance.
Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your information: the Site is served over HTTPS, accounts on our business systems use strong unique credentials with multi-factor authentication where available, client galleries can be password protected, and access to project files is limited to the people working on the project.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your Personal Information, we will notify you and any regulator as required by law.
International transfers
We are based in the United States, and our Service Providers process information there. If you are outside the United States, using our Services means your information is transferred to a country whose data protection laws may differ from your own.
Where we transfer Personal Information out of the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards — the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or the recipient’s certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions. You can request a copy of the safeguards we use by writing to us.
Your privacy rights
Anyone, anywhere. Whatever the law where you live, you can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or ask us to stop sending you marketing. We will do our best to honor the request.
If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland
You have the right to access your data; to have inaccurate data corrected; to have data erased; to restrict processing; to data portability; to object to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing; and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing already carried out.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would appreciate the chance to address it first.
If you live in a US state with a privacy law
Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and a growing number of other states have rights to know what is collected, to access and correct it, to delete it, to obtain a portable copy, and to opt out of the sale of personal data, targeted advertising, and certain profiling. We do not sell personal data or use it for targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of — but the analytics opt-outs in Section 17 are available to everyone regardless.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
How to make a request
Email inquiries@paaause.com with “Privacy request” in the subject line, or write to the address in Section 21. Tell us what you want and enough detail for us to find your records.
We will verify your identity before acting — usually by confirming details we already hold. An authorized agent may act for you with written permission.
Timing and appeals. We respond within 45 days, and may extend once by another 45 days where the request is complex, telling you why. Requests are free unless they are excessive or repetitive. If we decline a request, we will explain why, and you may appeal by replying to our decision with “Appeal” in the subject line; we will respond to an appeal within 60 days.
California notice
This section applies to California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA. Here are the categories of personal information we have collected in the last twelve months.
| CCPA category | Examples we collect | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | Name, email, phone, mailing address, IP address | You; automatically from the Site |
| Customer records (Cal. Civ. Code §1798.80) | Contact and billing details, contract records | You |
| Commercial information | Services purchased or inquired about, project history | You; our records |
| Internet or network activity | Pages viewed, referrer, session data | Automatically via analytics |
| Geolocation data | Approximate city or region from IP; property addresses you give us | Automatically; you |
| Audio, electronic, visual information | Photographs and video in which you are recognizable | Created by us during a shoot |
| Professional information | Your role, firm, and business contact details | You |
We collect these for the business purposes in Section 07, disclose them to the recipients in Section 09, and keep them for the periods in Section 12.
We do not collect sensitive personal information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you, and we do not use or disclose it beyond what is permitted without an opt-out.
We have not sold or shared personal information in the preceding twelve months. California residents have the right to know, delete, correct, and to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. Requests go through Section 15.
Your choices
- Cookies. Use our consent banner, or set your browser to refuse cookies. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may break parts of the Site.
- Analytics. Decline analytics in the banner, or install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
- Marketing email. Unsubscribe link in any newsletter, or email us.
- Text messages. Reply STOP.
- Portfolio images. See Section 04.
Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track. We honor the Global Privacy Control signal where your browser or extension sends one, and treat it as a request to opt out of any sale or sharing of your personal information. There is still no common standard for “Do Not Track” browser headers, so we do not respond to them differently — but since we do not track you across other websites, the practical effect is the same.
Children and minors
The Site is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information online from anyone under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has given us information through the Site, contact us and we will remove it promptly.
Minors in photographs. This is different, and it comes up in our work. Where a shoot includes a person under 18, we require a release signed by a parent or legal guardian before we use the image beyond delivering it to the commissioning party. A parent or guardian may withdraw that permission at any time by writing to us, and we will remove the image from channels we control, subject to the limits in Section 04.
Links to other sites
The Site links to places we do not operate — client websites, social platforms, publications. Clicking a link takes you somewhere governed by someone else’s privacy policy, and we have no control over and take no responsibility for what happens there. It is worth reading the policy of any site you visit.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when our practices change. The new version is posted on this page with a revised “Last updated” date, and takes effect when posted.
If a change materially affects how we use information we already hold about you, we will give more direct notice — a prominent notice on the Site, and an email to newsletter subscribers and active clients where we have your address. It is worth checking this page occasionally.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request about your information:
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Still have a question about your information?
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