Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how CatchAFace ("CatchAFace," "we," "us," or "our"), a HadalCore product, handles information when you use catchaface.comand related services (the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to this Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

CatchAFace is a face-search engine and search interface — not a publisher. You upload a photo; we compare the face in it against publicly available images and return ranked similarity matches that link to third-party pages. We do not create, host, or edit the original webpages shown in results, and we do not operate a public people directory or publish profiles about individuals. We do not control the content of third-party websites that appear in results.

For product principles and responsible-use rules, see our Trust Center and Terms of Service.

1. Scope

This Policy covers information we process:

• on the CatchAFace website and web app;
• when you create an account, run a search, unlock results, buy credits, or use monitoring features;
• when you contact support or submit forms; and
• from devices and networks used to access the Service, as described below.

This Policy does not cover third-party sites linked from search results or other websites you visit after leaving CatchAFace. Their privacy practices are their own.

2. Regional availability

Face search is currently offered only in the United States. It is not available outside the United States (including Canada, the European Economic Area, and the United Kingdom). Within the United States, face search is not offered in Illinois, Texas, Washington, Oregon, or Colorado. You may browse informational pages (such as this Privacy Policy) from other locations, but you may not run face searches if you are located in a restricted region, and you may not search for a person located in a restricted region. If we learn an account or search violates these restrictions, we may suspend access and delete related data.

3. Information we collect

3.1 Information you provide

• Account data. If you sign up or sign in, we collect your email address and authentication details. If you use Google sign-in, we receive basic profile information the provider shares with us (such as email and profile image URL), subject to your Google settings.
• Uploaded photos (probe images). When you run a search or enroll a face for monitoring, you upload an image. We use it only to perform the requested search or monitoring workflow, as described in Section 4.
• Consent and permissions. Before a search, you confirm that you are 18+, that the photo does not depict a minor, and that you have permission to search the person shown (yourself or someone who authorized you).
• Optional notes and annotations. If you add notes or tags on matches in an unlocked report, we store those with your scan.
• Support messages. If you contact us, we collect the content of your message and any contact details you include.
• Payment details. Credit packs are purchased through our payment provider (merchant of record). We do not store full card numbers. We receive payment metadata such as transaction status, pack purchased, and account entitlement updates.

3.2 Information created when you use the Service

• Device identifier. We store a random device identifier in your browser so credits, history, and anonymous sessions can persist between visits.
• Scan and result metadata. We store records of your searches (for example status, timestamps, similarity scores, source URLs after unlock, funding type, and privacy-receipt events such as image purge time). Locked sponsored teasers may include limited preview thumbnails and redacted source hints without revealing full destination links until unlock.
• Account entitlements. Credit balances, unlock history, and related billing state associated with your account.
• Monitoring data. If you enroll a face for monitoring, we retain the enrollment image and related match baseline with your explicit consent so we can rescan for new public appearances on the schedule offered by the Service.
• Technical and security logs. We may process IP address, coarse geographic location derived from IP or edge headers, browser/device information, request timestamps, and diagnostic logs to operate, secure, rate-limit, and troubleshoot the Service, and to investigate abuse.
• Abuse and integrity signals. For free sponsored searches and anti-abuse controls, we may retain irreversible hashed signals related to account, email, device, network prefix, and image similarity so eligibility limits can be enforced. We may also record admin enforcement actions such as account suspensions.

3.3 Information from service providers

We use infrastructure and product vendors to run CatchAFace. Depending on the feature, that can include authentication and database hosting, payment processing, bot/abuse challenges, email delivery, hosting and content delivery, and third-party face/image search providers that return publicly available candidate matches. Those providers process data only as needed to provide their services to us.

4. How we use your information

We use the information above to:

• provide face search, result unlocks, history, and monitoring;
• delete uploaded probe images after an ordinary search completes, and show a Privacy Receipt timeline where available;
• create and manage accounts, credits, and purchases;
• enforce Terms, age/permission requirements, and regional limits;
• detect fraud, spam, chargebacks, scraping, and other misuse; investigate reports; and suspend accounts when needed;
• respond to support requests and improve reliability and safety;
• comply with law, lawful requests, and our own legal obligations; and
• generate aggregated, non-identifying usage metrics to understand product performance.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use your uploaded photo to build a public profile about you, and we do not add your upload to a browsable public people directory.

5. Uploaded photos and face matching

When you submit a search, we process the image to locate a face and generate temporary technical representations used for similarity matching against publicly indexed images. The goal is to find visually similar public photos and link you to their source pages — not to create a government ID system or a consumer credit file.

Ordinary searches: After matching completes, we purge the uploaded probe image from processing storage. A Privacy Receipt may show upload, processing, and deletion timestamps. Result metadata needed to show your report may remain associated with your account or session separately from the deleted upload.

Monitoring / watchlist: If you explicitly enroll a face for ongoing monitoring, we retain the enrollment image and related baseline data for as long as the monitor remains active (or until you remove it), because rescans cannot run without a retained reference. Consent is collected at enrollment.

What we do not do with your upload: We do not publish your probe photo, sell it, or use it to market to third parties. Search results are private to your account/session and are not posted as public CatchAFace profile pages about the person searched.

6. Search results and third-party content

CatchAFace is a search engine, not a publisher of the underlying content. Matches point to publicly available third-party pages and images that we do not own, host, or control. We do not run a public people database that you can browse by name, and we do not publish CatchAFace profile pages about the people you search. Thumbnail previews may be cached or re-encoded solely to display search results securely. Removing a result from CatchAFace (where available) does not remove the original image from the source website. For educational opt-out steps at other face-search services, see our Opt-Out Guides.

A similarity score is not proof of identity. Many people look alike. Relatives, twins, lookalikes, edited photos, AI-generated images, and coincidental visual neighbors can all produce high scores. A strong percentage means the faces are visually similar under our model — not that the result is definitely the same person. Always open the source page, compare context yourself, and treat every match as an unverified lead until you independently confirm it.

7. Cookies and local storage

We use cookies and similar browser storage to keep you signed in, remember a device identifier, maintain session state, and support security features (such as abuse-prevention challenges). We do not use third-party advertising trackers to sell your browsing profile. You can clear browser storage at any time; doing so may sign you out or reset anonymous device state.

8. How we share information

We may share information with:

• Service providers that host, authenticate, process payments, deliver email, provide search/index capability, or help us secure the Service, under contractual confidentiality and use limits;
• Payment processors to complete purchases and prevent fraud;
• Professional advisors (legal, accounting) when needed;
• Authorities when required by law, court order, or to protect rights, safety, and the integrity of the Service; and
• Successors in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, subject to continued privacy protections.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

9. Retention

• Probe images (ordinary search): deleted after the search completes, as described above.
• Monitoring enrollments: retained while active, then deleted or de-identified when you remove the monitor or close the account, subject to backup/legal hold limits.
• Accounts, credits, scan history, and unlock records: retained while your account is active and for a reasonable period afterward for support, accounting, dispute resolution, and abuse prevention.
• Security, IP, and abuse logs: retained as needed for security, fraud prevention, and legal compliance.
• Support correspondence: retained as needed to resolve your request and maintain service records.

10. Security

We use HTTPS/TLS in transit and industry-standard safeguards for systems that store account and scan data. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at support@catchaface.com.

11. Children

The Service is for adults 18 years or older. You may not upload images that depict minors, and you may not use CatchAFace to search for a minor. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a minor has used the Service or a minor's image was uploaded, contact support@catchaface.com and we will take appropriate action.

12. Your choices and requests

Depending on your situation, you may:

• access or update account email via your account settings;
• clear local browser storage to remove device-local identifiers;
• remove monitoring enrollments you created;
• request deletion of your account and associated personal data (subject to legal retention needs) by contacting support;
• ask questions about a specific search or Privacy Receipt by contacting support from the email on the account; and
• use our educational Opt-Out Guides for third-party face-search services (CatchAFace does not submit those opt-outs for you unless we expressly offer that as a feature).

To make a privacy request, email support@catchaface.com or use our contact form. We may need to verify the request is authorized.

If you are in a jurisdiction with additional privacy rights, we will honor applicable rights to the extent face search is lawfully available to you. Because face search is offered only in permitted U.S. regions, foreign privacy regimes are not a basis for using CatchAFace face search from outside those regions.

13. Not a consumer reporting agency

CatchAFace is not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Results are not consumer reports and may not be used for employment, housing, credit, insurance, or other FCRA-covered decisions. Misuse can result in suspension and may be reported where required.

14. International processing

We and our providers may process information in the United States and other countries where we operate infrastructure. If you use the Service from another country, you understand your information may be transferred to and processed in the United States, which may have different data-protection rules than your home country.

15. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised version with an updated "Last updated" date. Material changes may also be communicated through the Service or by email when appropriate. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised Policy.

16. Contact

CatchAFace / HadalCore
Website: catchaface.com
Privacy & support: support@catchaface.com
Contact form: /contact